‘Severance’ Review: Ben Stiller Crafts A Fascinating, Eerie Meditation On Work Culture

Actor/filmmaker Ben Stiller is no stranger to examining the rigors of the American workplace. Ever since he shined a light on everyone’s favorite cable guy in, well, “The Cable Guy,” Stiller has spent some time dwelling on the relationship we have with our work and those who work with and for us. Jim Carrey‘s slapdash, stalky cable installation man is less an ugly caricature of a hapless blue-collar weirdo and more a dark dive into the delicate void of friendship, professionalism, and obsession that comes when we connect with people who we didn’t choose. Stiller spent time analyzing Gen X in part through a wannabe videographer in “Reality Bites,” he skewered the profession of being a fashion model with the “Zoolander” films, he satirized the film industry with “Tropic Thunder” and he gave empathy to the white-collar nobody who tried to redefine his life with his adaptation of “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.”

No Stiller film is quite alike, but he does seem to thread loosely through his work different perspectives of industries and their workers. Whether it’s a zoned-out male model, a vain character actor, a dorky cable man or a negative assets manager whose daydreams lead to real-life changes, Stiller has a lot of curiosity with people who define their life with their careers, and what the ramifications are of disappearing into your work or trying to escape from it.

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His 2018 television series “Escape at Dannemora” doesn’t quite follow this trend, but you could argue it at least gives a glimpse into the thankless life of the prison worker who was willing to throw her career away and aid two convicted murderers in their escape from jail. Stiller’s latest directorial project comes from creator Dan Erickson in Apple TV+’s “Severance,” which happens to be the purest distillation of this running theme in Stiller’s work.

Here, the very nature of the work/life balance takes unique shape, merging the goofy corporate malaise of “The Office” and “Office Space” with a darker undercurrent, one that studies the delicate dance we manage as employees in grander systems and what we’re willing to sacrifice to build a life outside of work walls. While “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” focuses on the freedom of breaking free from the doldrums of the cubicle in a more free-spirited way, “Severance” finds that search in a more clinical method. It’s one that focuses on escaping from zeroes in on the sadness of what happens when those doldrums become part of your world, when even something as dramatic as a permanent separation between work and life (hint, hint) can’t save you from the looming influence of your unsatisfying career.

It’s a magnetic universe Erickson, Stiller (who directs six of the nine episodes of Season 1), and “Brave New World” director Aoife McArdle craft, one that pulls in the icy, mysterious pacing of Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman. It’s got twisty sci-fi worldbuilding that reminds you of a more procedural read on “Inception” and “The Matrix,” too, with maybe a spike of “The Truman Show” for good measure. To boot, it’s got an electric cast spearheaded by “Parks and Recreation” star Adam Scott and “Boyhood” Oscar winner Patricia Arquette (who teamed up with Stiller on “Escape at Dannemora”). The breakout might be actor Tramell Tillman, a big-grin middle-manager who helps set up the show’s uneasy tone between pleasantness and foreboding whenever he’s on screen. It’s also career-best work for Scott, who carries so much of the show’s themes through his dry-yet-engrossing performance.

It’s not a show you want to know a lot about before you go in, as if to peel off its layers slowly, carefully and with surprise. If it feels like there are a lot of movie comparisons to television, it’s not to discount the medium. “Severance” is as cinematic as anything we’ve gotten recently on streaming, but it unfolds with a television’s mind at heart.

It’s ideal to dive into “Severance” without knowing anything about the plot; it’s rare to get this fresh of an experience in today’s content-saturated, IP-friendly environment. Apple TV+ already has one page-turner on its hands with “Servant,” but “Severance” does a really great job of building the mystery without sacrificing plausibility, something “Servant” suffered a bit with in its first season before correcting it with the second. It unwraps itself carefully, but with enough zest and melancholy to keep you engaged and feeling for its story and for its characters. 20 years ago, this is probably a movie, but in the age of the “death of the mid-budget adult drama,” “Severance” is a reassuring reminder that the spirit of those delicate, intellectual, original stories can survive. If Hell was a Staples breakroom, it’s exactly what “Severance” would try to get you out of. It’s a must-watch. [A-]

“Severance” debuts on Apple TV+ on February 18.