Severance’s Seth Milchick was originally envisioned as a minor character, but Tramell Tillman’s performance changed everything
Severance’s Seth Milchick was originally envisioned as a minor character, but Tramell Tillman’s performance changed everything
Seth Milchick is one of Severance's "most important characters" according to the showrunner, but originally he was a bit part until Tramell Tillman showed up
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We can tell. Severance completely jumped the shark in the last episode.
Oh what, Lumon has 4 employees dedicated to macro data refinement, the most important project in the company's history, but they have
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160 employees dedicated to marching band, who come in to the severed floor every day to practice their marching band routine with Mr Millchek, so that they're ready to perform all the marching band routines that Lumon needs all the time?
You could really tell the last episode was almost entirely cheap fan service filler. I honestly avoided severance and then finally watched it because everyone raved, and it actually convinced me that it knew what it was doing, right up until that last episode when it showed that it was just another directionless mystery box train, laying down tracks in front of it as it goes.
I don't entirely disagree but at the same time, some projects just don't scale well. There is a clear implication too, IMO, that the interaction of Mark and Gemma in specific, is particularly key by the end of the project.
The Mark Gemma thing raises even more questions. If Mark and Gemma's relationship is key to whatever this is working, then why aren't the other MDR employees loved ones involved?
And conversely if loved ones aren't key to the project, then why can't it scale to more MDR employees?
At first with the marching band scene I was thinking, oh maybe they brought in all the MDR employees from across the country to celebrate this momentous occasion. Then they said the marching band had a dedicated department that was apparently 4x the size of MDR, Christopher Walken's department, and the goat department combined.
:/
I take it as the other MDR employees and their work being valid but foundational or middle work, while Cold Harbor was a specific capstone.
You do want to minimize your kidnappings if you want to stay under the radar. A radar that one might assume is extra aggressive since this is not a normal company by any stretch.
Let's be frank, Lumen is a corporate cult. I mean they have a department dedicated to raising sheep for literal sacrifice in a religious ceremony to guide souls to the company founder.
That angle alone, with the mural and all, it would be so easy to argue that they saw this final step as vital but too "holy" an act to sully with redundancies. It would practically be an admission of a lack of faith.
Let's be frank, Lumen is a corporate cult. I mean they have a department dedicated to raising sheep for literal sacrifice in a religious ceremony to guide souls to the company founder.
Really feels like that department could've used a few dozen of those marching band employees.
The show isn’t over, so we don’t really know the full extent of how MDR works. All we have to go on is the information at hand. Gemma was in an accident, which may have primed her brain to be a perfect receiver for whatever treatment/torture they’ve been doing.
Their work is mysterious and important.
Nowhere is it stated that C&M come into work every day, they might only come in for special occasions, or they could have other jobs in-between. Also, did you count 160 people, or are you guessing? It looked like way fewer to me, though still a rather large number.
I honestly don't get the "mystery box" criticism. The biggest mysteries have already been explained.
Nowhere is it stated that C&M come into work every day, they might only come in for special occasions, or they could have other jobs in-between.
They're putting temps through brain surgery?
Also, did you count 160 people, or are you guessing? It looked like way fewer to me, though still a rather large number.
I was being dramatic to express my point
I honestly don't get the "mystery box" criticism. The biggest mysteries have already been explained.
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So then what is the purpose of MDRs work? To create a better severed employee / birth mother? That was the answer to why severed employees exist? To create more severed employees? It's not a satisfying ending if the premise of the show is 'you thought severing was flawless, but guess what it fails sometime, but guess what, we use severed employees to make it fail less'.
I thought the purpose of MDR was
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to perfect the severing so that anybody (who can afford it, I'd guess) can have their "innie" go through all the negative/bad experience stuff and you don't have to suffer through it.
Imagine how much a company could make selling you the ability to dissociate and compartmentalize all the things you don't like or that you have a negative response to.
Don't like the dentist, send your innie. Don't like flying, have your innie to the flying bit, then for you it's like you stepped on and then right back off the plane. The possibilities are endless.
I mean yeah, I thought all the rooms Gemma was in, plus the pregnancy gave all of that away. The company would be one of the richest in the world.
But then there was never any mystery. The secret reveal is the core premise of the show.
The show is telling a story. Revealing the purpose of MDR propels the story. I don't know what the plan is for the next season but I, personally, am interested to see the ethical debate about innies being "people". Maybe that will be a plot point in the future.
But there's no debate out of that universe. They are people. It's contrived as hell. I don't care if some of Severance's dystopian citizens think it's Fine, Actually, that's not thought provoking. Lumon is uncontroversially evil.
There's interesting parallels to neocolonialism to be made and the way it trivializes human rights abuses through invisibilisation, but up to now the show hasn't been interested in delving into that. Most they've done is a surface-level critique of corporate capitalism, mildly interesting exploration of cultish behavior, and lots of unexplained mystery of its own sake with unrewarding payoffs.
When a good mystery is revealed, you're supposed to go "of course! They basically told us that, I just didn't pay close enough attention!". But Severance's mystery reveals (almost) always come off as cheap thrills drawn out for too long with zero foreshadowing. Ah so Ms Casey is his wife... Okay? And redhead is the CEO's daughter... Sure? And Cold Harbor is just an iterative improvement on Severance? That's actually more boring than what was being foreshadowed.
I've said it before but without going too far into spoilers, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 does an infinitely job on themes of loss and pain and escapism and mystery than Severance ever did or could. I finished it before the show and the similar themes and love of a good mystery really made Severance's plot look like a crude children's drawing in comparison.
It doesn't matter to me whether there was ever a mystery because that wasn't the interesting part. "What are they working on?" doesn't need to have an amazing answer; it could just be accounting for all I care. What matters is who the characters are, what they have done and will do and why. And more importantly, the way it highlights issues with corporations by drawing interesting parallels within the story. Maybe people in real life will be inclined to question their own conditions and be inspired to protest for better lives.
Lumon is an analog for any medical giant. Considering the top 30 medical companies in real life all gross over 10 billion a year, it's not inconceivable they'd have the money to pay musicians, who could also be used for marketing, entertainment, internal videos, hold music, etc...
Why is the goat department 6 people and MDR 4 then?
The reality is the marching band department makes absolutely zero sense. That scene was clearly just written in because the fans smiled and clapped when they saw Millchek dance at the end of season 1 and some crappy writer though 'how can we make an even better dancing scene than season 1, that's what the fans want!'
You're completely ignoring the subtext of Milchick, a Black man who evidently gets disadvantaged at work due to his skin color, using his power as the floor manager to choose a marching band as the method of celebration for their achievement. It directly ties into his season-long arc.
It's fine not to know that such a subtext exists, I also didn't know when I first saw the scene - but maybe try reading up instead of just assuming that there's no sense to what you're seeing?
You're completely ignoring the subtext of Milchick, a Black man who evidently gets disadvantaged at work due to his skin color, using his power as the floor manager to choose a marching band as the method of celebration for their achievement. It directly ties into his season-long arc.
Just because it makes sense with one character's arc, doesn't meant it makes sense in the broader context of the show.
There are lots of ways a writer could have written the conclusion to that character arc for Milchick that didn't require suddenly establishing not just a full department, but the biggest department we've seen at the company by far, consisting entirely of marching band players that are apparently very practiced.
I mean it is a piece of entertainment, not a documentary or scientific experience (both of which are also subject to performing towards people's preferences anyway).
You'd prefer that the Sci fi about having a switch that can turn you into multiple people based on a religious cult in a universe which is both simultaneously more advanced but uses older aesthetics than ours be more realistic to how normal offices work?
You'd prefer that the Sci fi about having a switch that can turn you into multiple people based on a religious cult in a universe which is both simultaneously more advanced but uses older aesthetics than ours be more realistic to how normal offices work?
Yes, that is literally the core concept of the show.
The severing technology and Lumon itself are the two things about the world that drive it's difference from ours. Nothing they've established in their world building would explain why the C&M department would be that large, when literally every other department is extremely minimal, and C&M has played no role in any previous celebrations.
They have a giant underground museum that is used to reward employees with waffles and sex, and an indoor field to raise goats for ritual sacrifice, the marching band is probably cheaper and easier to organize than either, let alone both.
Everything about Lumon staffing has been minimal though. The staff in every department feel too small for the size of the space they're in.
Just like from a managerial and reporting standpoint, how many direct managers does the marching band department have? How many elevators do they take to get to their department every day?
And why are they all equally as primed to revolt as MDR? They could easily have just sat in front of the vending machine and blocked it, why did they let Milchick knock it over unless they wanted an excuse to physically harm him?
They’re putting temps through brain surgery?
If they're doing other jobs on the severed floor in-between C&M performances, they're not temps.
I was being dramatic to express my point
Ah, given that you stated it was 4x the size of all the other departments we've seen combined, I assumed you were serious.
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So then what is the purpose of MDRs work?
We know that MDR is creating new personalities for the Severance chips of other people, and we know that there's a huge milestone with either putting many different personalities onto a single chip, or with a personality confronting the deepest trauma of a person. That's absolutely no mystery box. You may not like the answer to be so simple (as you've stated elsewhere), but that doesn't mean it's a mystery box.
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It’s not a satisfying ending if the premise of the show is ‘you thought severing was flawless, but guess what it fails sometime, but guess what, we use severed employees to make it fail less’.
The show has shown us multiple times that severing isn't flawless, e.g. with Irvings black goop (and also iMark being affected by the sadness oMark feels due to Gemmas death). This isn't some new revelation, it has been a part of the story since very early on.
Given what Lumon has done with Gemma, isn't it plausible that the marching band is an amalgamation of severed staffers from all the other unknown number of departments?
I feel you're completely missing the artistry of the cinematography in pursuit of some realistic/based "grounded" plot. It's a show. It's going to jump some sharks. Crowds enjoy jumping over sharks. I'm sure they had a great idea of the destination they wanted to arrive at, but they're taking the scenic route (because it's a show) instead of the direct path and I honestly wouldn't love it the same had they not.
I feel like you're making excuses for bad writing because you like the show.
I too enjoy it, I've just been burned by this pattern before. It's easy to write mysterybox openings, and it's easy to prolong them by continuing to throw twists out every time theres been a lull, it's hard to conclude them in a satisfying and sensible way.
It's an interesting premise and the first season was a fun watch. But once you start getting deeper into the mystery box, important threads get hollow.
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Lots of threads are just dead ending at "it's a quirky cult". When the evil shadowy organization aren't taking rational steps toward a concrete goal you can't make any reasonable deductions.
For example, the entire elaborate goat department serves no purpose beyond sacrifice? Sounds like the real purpose was the writers wanting some unsettling discovery and didn't know how to fit it in.
And disbelief gets more stretched when you think about the daily operation of the departments.
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MDR is a critical department but you can't afford more than 1 security officer on the floor? You have all these security cameras but nobody watching them? The security chief is murdered and you just don't replace him and continue with your normal operations? You don't even have night guards to watch the severance control panels?
You demonstrably have the tech to hire any number of goons and sever them. Maybe instead of faulty security doors just have like 2 guys guarding important hallways.
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MDR is a critical department but you can’t afford more than 1 security officer on the floor? You have all these security cameras but nobody watching them?
I feel this is explained well by the hubris of Lumon - they literally think that innies aren't people, so why go further than necessary to keep them in line? And this seemingly worked as intended, until two pieces of contraband - Graeners security card and the "idolatrous text" of The You You Are - were brought onto the floor.
You demonstrably have the tech to hire any number of goons and sever them. Maybe instead of faulty security doors just have like 2 guys guarding important hallways.
What faulty security doors? They had the keycard of the head of security, which nobody expected the innies to get. The doors themselves worked just as expected.
The rest though are valid criticisms!
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Faulty is the wrong word, but in the sense that they didn't really work to keep them locked in. There was no backup plan, nobody noticed when they just walked out.
Speaking of Graeners security card: they know he's dead and that his card is gone but they don't revoke the card access or change the locks??? I'm pretty sure Mark tested it as well, do they not have access logs or did nobody noticed that a dead guy was opening doors?
It's true that the show implicitly leans into the hubris angle, but for me that just makes them feel like bumbling idiots instead of a dangerous cult. It was clear MDR was starting to act up and ask questions but they never appropriately elevated their response or security. Milchik got fucking bit and they mostly just shrugged it off...
Not that bumbling corporate incompetence isn't also entertaining, it just feels at odds with the dark, meticulous tones they try to set with management/the board.
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Faulty is the wrong word, but in the sense that they didn’t really work to keep them locked in. There was no backup plan, nobody noticed when they just walked out.
Fair, though this is part of the same hubris angle.
Speaking of Graeners security card: they know he’s dead and that his card is gone but they don’t revoke the card access or change the locks??? I’m pretty sure Mark tested it as well, do they not have access logs or did nobody noticed that a dead guy was opening doors?
They specifically said in the show that Graeners card doesn't leave logs. Lumon had no reason to suspect that an outie would have the card and smuggle it in - it's normal that these kinds of credentials updates take a couple of days in bigger companies (especially when the employee died, and Lumon probably didn't immediately have access to his body to check if he still has the card).
It’s true that the show implicitly leans into the hubris angle, but for me that just makes them feel like bumbling idiots instead of a dangerous cult. It was clear MDR was starting to act up and ask questions but they never appropriately elevated their response or security. Milchik got fucking bit and they mostly just shrugged it off…
Milchick had to shrug it off because he didn't want his superiors to find out about the OTC that started it all. They did install the security doors when MDR started acting up, and they had no reason to assume they'd have workarounds for the doors.
Not that bumbling corporate incompetence isn’t also entertaining, it just feels at odds with the dark, meticulous tones they try to set with management/the board.
I think this is something they'll go further into during the next season - the chains the innies saw around them were always more theoretical than practical. Lumon adds more security measures as necessary, but they are inherently reactive (e.g. with the code detectors & the Lexington letter). The innies can break these chains by banding together and overwhelming Lumon, which is what they're doing at the end of season 2.
By the way, regarding the bumbling idiot angle - they literally fired the person that invented the Severance chip and who found a flaw in the system they developed (reintegration), partially because they want to keep the mythos alive that the CEO developed the revolutionary procedure. That feels very realistic in todays' age.