How the Characters of ‘Severance’ Simultaneously Become Their Own Captors and Prisoners

Filmmaker Andrew Muir of The Art of Storytelling takes a deep-dive into the widely popular Apple TV+ show Severance, noting how the characters through their own choice, have simultaneously become both captor and prisoner of themselves.

Severance” is by no means the first story to play with the ideas of split personalities…It’s also not the first show to use a character’s amnesia as a device for nonlinear storytelling. I would say the key difference with Severance is that the characters have chosen of their own free will, to be severed. That’s more important than it might seem. Agency is the heart of character and the paradox of having one character with two contradictory motivations is part of why “Severance” is so groundbreaking.