Apple TV+’s Severance Is the Perfect Holiday Binge

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Most people enjoy rewatching familiar, feel-good shows like The Office, Friends, or It’s a Wonderful Life during the holidays while they wrap presents. But Apple TV+’s Severance is a surprisingly great choice too. Created by Dan Erickson and directed by Ben Stiller, this sci-fi thriller isn’t specifically about the holidays, but its atmosphere and visuals create a distinctly wintery feel.

Instead of cozy winter entertainment, Severance offers a chilling and thought-provoking experience, making it ideal for sci-fi fans seeking something more unsettling. It’s particularly well-suited for a winter binge-watch because it reflects the strange, in-between feeling of the holiday season. For those caught in the lull between Christmas and New Year’s, Severance isn’t just a suspenseful show—it perfectly captures the mood.

Severance’s World Is Built Like a Winter Landscape

Okay, so the very first thing that struck me when I started watching Severance was the weather – or rather, how it felt. Even though almost everything happens inside the Lumon office, there’s this really oppressive, cold vibe. It’s totally intentional, though! The creators wanted you to feel how isolated the characters are. I read that the production designer, Jeremy Hindle, specifically decided it should always look like winter outside Lumon, and honestly, it works. It just adds to that unsettling feeling.

The show opens with Mark Scout, played by Adam Scott, walking across a huge, desolate parking lot filled with dirty snow. The grey sky hints that the sun hasn’t been out for a long time, creating a consistently wintery atmosphere that feels like time has stopped for the characters.

The show’s unique visual style has a noticeable effect on viewers, making it hard to distinguish what’s real and what’s part of the story. This sense of coldness isn’t limited to the outdoor scenes; the office setting feels even more stark and unwelcoming.

The office environment, known as the ‘Innie’ world, is intentionally designed to resemble the inside of a refrigerator. With its bright white walls and harsh overhead lighting, the space feels sterile and shadowless. This creates a disorienting atmosphere where it’s impossible to tell what time of day it is – a truly timeless and unsettling void.

The show’s director of photography, Jessica Lee Gagné, created a specific visual style to feel like a long, indoor winter day. Severance takes the familiar feeling of those dark winter evenings when people commute home from work and transforms it into a creepy, unsettling atmosphere. The office set itself is brilliantly designed to feel deliberately uncomfortable.

The room is huge and empty, with just four small desks clustered together in the middle, all surrounded by a vast expanse of awful green carpet. It doesn’t feel like an office; it feels more like a strange experiment. This unsettling feeling is especially strong around the holidays.

Severance brilliantly captures the feeling of loneliness by creating a world that feels both physically and emotionally cold. The show depicts a place where genuine warmth is rare, making even small moments of connection between characters feel especially meaningful.

Severance Captures the Real Feeling of the “Holiday Blues”

The show’s visuals create a bleak atmosphere, but it really focuses on a specific sadness that many people experience during the holidays – often called the “Holiday Blues.” This is the difficult feeling when the pressure to be cheerful conflicts with feelings of loss, loneliness, or simply being worn out. While the holidays are meant to be happy, they can actually be a painful reminder of what’s missing for some. Severance acknowledges this sadness and uses it as the basis for its science fiction story.

Mark Scout doesn’t take the job because he enjoys data entry; he takes it to cope with the loss of his wife. He sees the procedure of surgically removing certain memories as a kindness – a way to find eight hours of peace each day. This is especially helpful for him during the winter.

I think we’ve all had moments – maybe sitting alone at dinner, or really missing someone during the holidays – where we’ve wished we could just turn off our feelings, even for a little while. It makes you wonder, if that were possible, would we actually do it? And honestly, it’s a bit scary to think about what we might lose of ourselves if we could just… shut down the pain.

The show brilliantly captures Mark’s internal battle during his morning commute. A repeated scene shows him sitting in his car in the cold, setting a timer, and allowing himself to cry until it rings. He then composes himself and goes to work, appearing outwardly cheerful but emotionally detached. It’s a surprisingly common experience, and the show portrays it with striking accuracy.

The story beautifully portrays the facade people often present during the holidays – the cheerful face we show to family, even when we’re struggling internally. The difference between Mark’s two sides is deeply moving. His ‘Outie’ – the version of himself at home – lives a lonely life in a messy house, turning to alcohol to cope with the quiet. He’s trapped in a recurring pattern of holiday-related depression.

Mark’s work persona, his “Innie,” is innocent and enthusiastic about small things because he’s shielded from life’s difficulties. This contrast beautifully reflects the emotional struggle many people face at the end of the year – feeling torn between who we really are (exhausted, sad, or stressed) and who we feel we should be during the holidays (cheerful, thankful, and celebratory). The show Severance doesn’t criticize Mark for wanting to avoid his emotions; it simply portrays the heartbreaking consequences of emotional detachment.

Severance Is a Slow Burn Yet a Rewarding Bingeworthy Show

Unlike most holiday TV shows that are easy to passively watch, Severance truly captivates viewers who are willing to invest their full attention. It’s a thriller that unfolds gradually, building suspense through quiet moments, a chilling atmosphere, and a growing sense of unease with each episode, rather than relying on constant action.

Subscribe for deeper Severance and winter TV dissections

Subscribe for deeper Severance and winter TV dissections

What makes Severance so compelling is how genuinely realistic it feels, despite its fantastical premise. It’s set in a very recognizable, modern office environment – the kind many of us know all too well – and the technology has a strange mix of old and new. Think clunky, outdated monitors and trackballs combined with data that’s completely baffling.

The show builds its horror by hinting at science fiction rather than showing it outright, making the scares feel personal and close to home. It implies that the unsettling future isn’t something to wait for – it’s already happening. The central mystery is cleverly designed; every answer leads to two more questions. Viewers are left wondering about things like the meaning of the ‘scary numbers’ being analyzed, the strange presence of baby goats at the office, and the enigmatic ‘Board’ that communicates only through a distorted speaker.

The “Innies” are like children in adult forms, so the company keeps them under control by offering strange and appealing benefits. It’s funny, but also disturbing, to see them thrilled by things like a “Melon Bar” or the odd “Music Dance Experience”—a five-minute office-wide disco—because it highlights how easily they’re manipulated.

It was agonizing for fans to watch this show week by week, or even over its three-year run, but watching it all at once is a completely different experience. The slow, mesmerizing pace draws you into the world of the workplace. The tension steadily increases until the finale, which many consider to be one of the most gripping hours of television ever.

If you’re looking for a winter show that’s the opposite of typical holiday cheer, Severance is a great choice. It maintains a wintery atmosphere while offering a uniquely dark and thought-provoking experience, and its somber visuals resonate more powerfully than any feel-good holiday special.

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2025-12-24 00:08