Severance Was Inspired by This Outstanding Black Mirror Episode With 9.1 on IMDb
At first glance, the connection between these two works is not so clear, but upon closer examination, the influence of Black Mirror on Severance becomes apparent.
Many years ago, Dan Erickson, a graduate of NYU School of the Arts, moved from New York to Los Angeles, hoping that his diploma would open all doors for him.
But the aspiring screenwriter got a job in the office of a door manufacturing and repair factory. Bored in a windowless basement, he dreamed of cutting those eight hours of work out of his life every morning.
One thought, like a spark, started the creative process – it is no secret that Severance was inspired by Erickson's own experiences. But it could not do without the influence of the greatest sci-fi projects of our time.
Dan Erickson Was Inspired by the Black Mirror Episode White Christmas
In an interview with The New York Times, Dan Erickson admitted that the Black Mirror special White Christmas had a huge influence on him and his vision for his own project. The showrunner shared:
“I remember feeling so cold and afraid after seeing that, this devastating idea of having to experience this endless solitude. It’s this nightmare of running out a door and then you’re just running back in, and you realize you’re truly stuck in this liminal space with this kind of nightmare logic.”
And when you think about it, the connection between Severance and White Christmas is really clear.
What Is White Christmas About?
Two men, Joe and Matt, work at a station in the middle of a wild, snowy landscape. One Christmas morning, they decide to discuss how they got there in the first place.
Matt was a dating coach who also made a career out of training digital clones of people. Joe also has a story to tell. When his wife got pregnant, she left him and blocked him through the Z-Eyes system.
From then on, instead of his ex and his daughter, he saw only white, blurry figures. His obsessive desire to be a part of the child's life and understand what happened leads to tragic consequences.
White Christmas Influence on Severance Is Obvious
The following text contains spoilers for the Black Mirror episode White Christmas!
The parallels with Severance are most evident in the story of Joe, who creates a personal copy of his clients to place in the smart home system. The copy must heat the floor to a comfortable temperature, monitor the schedule of meetings, and fulfill all the needs of the "owner," for who knows us better than ourselves?
White Christmas, like Severance, asks a difficult moral and ethical question: If you could copy yourself and do whatever you wanted with yourself, how far would you go? Would you force an exact copy of yourself to do all the work, condemning it to a painful existence?
