'Severance' creator says the idea came from their own 'meaningless' jobs

121621 Teaser Trailer Workplace Thriller Severance Big Image
121621 Teaser Trailer Workplace Thriller Severance Big Image (Image credit: Apple TV+)

What you need to know

  • Apple TV+ showrunner Dan Erickson says they got the idea for the show from their own jobs.
  • Erickson says they got the idea after working "mind-numbing" jobs.
  • The first two episodes of Severance will be available to stream from Friday.

The person behind the creation of Apple TV+ show Severance says that they got the idea for it after working "meaningless" and "mind-numbing" jobs.

The new show, whose first two episodes will be available to stream on Apple TV+ from Friday, stars Adam Scott among others. And its creator was speaking with Variety when the subject of inspiration came up.

"I worked a string of office jobs when I first got to L.A., and one in particular was in this weird little windowless office," Erickson told Variety. "And I would be doing these sort of weird, seemingly meaningless, repetitive tasks all day long and it was just mind-numbing. And I caught myself one day walking in thinking, 'Man, I wish I could just totally not experience the next eight hours. I wish I could disassociate and just have it be 5 and suddenly I'm going home.'

Erickson went on to say that the feeling of wanting to make time disappear was a strange one considering how short a time we have on this planet. And that's when the idea for Severance came together.

"And it occurred to me that that's kind of a messed up thing to catch yourself wishing for, considering we have limited, precious time on this Earth, and here I was wishing I could give some of it back," he continued. "It really was born of my own corporate misery."

The full Variety interview is worth a read for more insight into how the show ticks along, but the best thing to do is just watch it from Friday.

If you want to enjoy Severance in style, be sure to check out our list of the best Apple TV deals on the market today.

Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.