Apple TV+ has found success with 2022’s Severance, which follows Mark (Adam Scott), who is an employee that works for a company called Lumon, which requires its employees to undergo a brain surgery that removes memories of work from their personal life. Directed by Ben Stiller and Aoife McArdle, Severance is a dystopian series about office horrors and, as such, doesn’t seem too far removed from the corporate world of today.
The season finale of Severance aired in early April, and the series’ second season was recently announced to be moving forward. Fans are eager to watch the follow-up season, which will surely take the story to new and exciting places, though, according to Thrillist, no release date is currently set. In the meantime, here are six shows like Severance to watch next.
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6 Black Mirror
Netflix
The most obvious dystopian show that springs to mind that is similar to Severance is Charlie Brooker’s Netflix series Black Mirror. The series presents a new dystopian situation which usually revolves around technology of some sort being advanced to the point that it becomes sinister. Black Mirror seeks to explore the consequences of data privacy, social media, surveillance, and consumerism. Episodes like “Nosedive” and “White Christmas” tap into the same kind of technology that is explored in Severance.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
5 Made For Love
Warner Bros. Discovery / Interactive Entertainment
Made For Love premiered on HBO Max, but didn’t receive as much success as it should have. The series centers around a woman named Hazel who escapes her marriage to a tech wizard only to discover that a tracking device has been planted in her brain. The main character is played by Christin Milioti, and her talent is clear throughout. Made For Love features actors like Ray Romano and Billy Magnussen and is based on a novel of the same name written by Alissa Nutting. The story is very similar to Severance, and viewers would certainly enjoy it just as much. Season 2 of Made For Love will be available to stream wekly starting April 28, 2022.
4 Westworld
HBO
HBO premiered the hugely successful dystopian sci-fi series Westworld in 2016. Created by Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan, the series blended the science fiction genre with the western, creating a dystopian world called Westworld, a theme park which has been created by the rich, and for the rich, to live out their fantasies in. The series stars Evan Rachel Wood, Jeffery Wright, Anthony Hopkins, Ben Barnes, and Thandiwe Newton, and, above all, makes similar assertions to Severance about the dangerous power of technology.
3 Maniac
Maniac is a Netflix series that features performances from Emma Stone, Sally Field, Justin Theroux, and Jonah Hill. It’s set in a futuristic New York City, where two strangers go on psychedelic trips as part of a pharmaceutical trial that spans different times and genres. The show is much shorter than other on the list with only 10 30-minute episodes, however, makes interesting commentary on the pharmaceutical world.
2 Homecoming
1 Mr. Robot
USA Network
Mr. Robot is a modern TV thriller that stars Rami Malek as Elliot Alderson, who is being targeted and controlled by a higher power in the hacking world. Elliott is brought to work for someone known as Mr Robot (Christian Slater) and has to take down the corporate group known as Conglomerate by messing with their data. Elliot’s mental struggles mirror Mark’s in Severance, drawing on similar themes of humans’ contentious relationships with technology.
