Matt Walsh reviews the show "Severance." - - - Today’s Sponsor: ExpressVPN - Go to https://expressvpn.com/walshYT and find out how you can get 4 months of ExpressVPN free!
Chapter 1: Why does Matt Walsh listen to audience feedback?
You know, despite what you may think, we do actually listen to audience feedback around here. And one thing many of you have been saying is that you'd like to see me do more film and television reviews. And specifically, you'd like to know not just what I hate, but what I like. Even though it's kind of more fun to talk about what you hate.
But the plan for today is to talk about something that I like. This will be a short video to recommend what is, in my view, the best show on TV right now. In fact, it's not much of a contest. I don't think any other show currently on air even really comes close. And that show is called Severance. And if you haven't seen the show, I'll make sure not to spoil anything.
You definitely want to go into the show knowing as little as possible about it. I'll just give you the basics of the plot. So Severance, produced and largely directed by Ben Stiller, there are other directors as well, is a show following a small group of employees at a company called Lumen.
In this fictional world, some sort of technology has been developed that allows a person's consciousness to essentially be cut in half, to be severed. So when they're at work... working on some very vague and mysterious project down in the basement of Lumen.
They don't remember anything about their lives outside of work, and when they're not at work, they don't remember anything about their lives at work. So the work version of themselves essentially never leaves work. The non-working version essentially never goes to work. And that's kind of the setup. I'm not going to say anything else about the plot.
There are three things that I like about this show. Three things that I think it does really well that many other shows don't do well or don't do at all. So, number one. This is a big one. It's an original story. In a world of franchise films and sequels and remakes, it is possible to still tell original stories. Severance is obviously inspired by things that came before it.
It's clear that the guy who wrote this show is a big fan of office space, for example. Severance has a similar view of workplace culture, the kind of mindless, busy work that defines many office jobs. The humor kind of comes from a similar place in many cases. I'd say it's just as funny as Office Space, much, much darker, more thrilling, but still very funny as well.
And this is how it should work. Storytellers should be inspired by other storytellers to come up with new stories that are influenced by, but not directly plagiarizing, what came before. You don't need to attempt a TV remake of Office Space. Just take whatever you love about it, and inject it into a brand new story. What a concept. And that's what Severance does.
It's the same thing I say about all these directors now who say, well, I grew up watching Star Wars. I love Star Wars. And so, of course, I'm so excited to be making a Star Wars movie or a Star Wars show in the Star Wars universe.
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Chapter 2: What makes 'Severance' the best show on TV according to Matt Walsh?
You are not really the sum total of your experiences, but rather you are the sum total of how you remember your experiences. And that seems to be what the show is driving at. And maybe they're right about it, maybe they're wrong, but it's an interesting thing to think about. And any show that actually gives you interesting things to think about is a win in my book. Let me ask you a question.
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Three, finally, Severance is great for a reason that's going to seem very, very simple, and it is, but it is also rare. And that is that in this show, stuff actually happens. And this is maybe the most radical thing about it. The plot moves forward every episode. Things happen. There are stakes. There are consequences. Each moment in the show leads to another moment.
There's a famous video that's worth watching if you haven't seen it of Matt Parker and Trey Stone, the South Park guys, explaining that in a bad, poorly told story, each scene is linked together by the words, and then. You would say, well, this happens, and then this happens, and then this happens, and then this happens, and then this happens. The end.
but in a good, well-told story, in a good movie or a good show, each scene is linked together by the words therefore or but. This happens, therefore this happens, but then this happens, therefore this happens. And that's just another way of saying that a film or show should be propulsive. You know, one thing should lead to another. The train should be hurtling every moment towards a destination.
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