Warning! This article contains SPOILERS for Severance season 2.Now thatSeveranceseason 2 is over and the wait for season 3 has begun, fans of Adam Scott’s intense sci-fi mystery show may need a new series or movie to watch to bide the time, and these nine options are all tremendous in their own rights. Thecliffhanger ending ofSeveranceseason 2likely has fans on edge and wanting more of the show.Severanceseason 3 has been confirmed, but it’s still a long ways off, and many of the show’s biggest mysteries seem to be at least a year away from being answered.
Luckily, there are plenty of movies and shows that can help make the time betweenSeveranceseasons 2 and 3 pass quicker.Severanceis also such a varied show - it touches on everything from mystery to sci-fi dystopias and tragic love stories - that it has a lot of parallels. These nine movies and shows all offer something that fans ofSeverancewill enjoy, and while they can’t solve all thequestionsSeveranceseason 3 needs to answer, they can scratch the itch of the acclaimed series' absence.
Severanceis a deeply disturbing show on an existential level, but for anyone who wants a more outright unsettling series to binge,Fromis a perfect option.Fromis a horror/mystery show that centers around a town that traps and terrorizes everyone who enters. Without getting into spoilers,Severancefans will find quite a bit to like aboutFrom, including its hellish town that feels like a prison in the same way Lumon’s severed floor does to its interesting cast of characters that are as easy to root for as the innies.
10 Biggest Mysteries & Unanswered Questions From Season 4 Must Solve
Some of From’s biggest mysteries were solved in season 3, but there are still major unanswered questions that remain heading into season 4.
The main reason to watchFromafterSeverance, however, is the mystery of it all.Severance’s various mysteries, likeGemma taking the crib apartor countless others, are reflected inFrom’s confusing details, like the Man in Yellow. Viewers will have no shortage of questions that are enthralling to see answered and confusing twists that no one could predict. It may be a bit scarier thanSeverance, butFromis just as delightful to unravel.
Severancehas captured viewers' attention and spawned countless fan theories since it debuted in 2022, which is very reminiscent to the cultural impactLosthad in 2004.Lostfollows a group of plane crash survivors who are stranded on a supernatural and deeply mysterious island.It’s not a bleak corporate setting, butLost’s island is just as confusing and deeply intriguing as Lumon is inSeverance. Anyone who can’t stand waiting forSeveranceto unravel all of its conspiracies and hidden agendas can get some instant satisfaction out ofLost, which had its controversial finale years ago.
While it is much more of an action movie thanSeverance, Tom Cruise’sMinority Reportcan more than scratch the itch of fans looking for another sci-fi mystery thriller.Minority Reportfollows John, a member of the “Precrime” division of the Washington D.C. police who targets people who are going to commit murder with the help of psychics who can predict the future. John is then singled out as a future killer, and he goes on the run in the cyberpunk dystopia.The plots differ significantly, but the dystopian world ofMinority Reportis quite similar to that ofSeverance.
Lumon, the mysterious, possibly tech-based, evil company is one of the best parts ofSeverance, andDevshas one of the best counterparts to it. InDevs, Lily begins investigating the shady company Amaya, who is somehow involved in the realm of quantum computing, after the death of her boyfriend, Sergei.Devsblurs the line between science fiction and mystery in a similarly compelling way toSeverance, and its mystery is just as engaging. Unfortunately,Devsonly ran for one season, so unlikeSeverance, there probably won’t be any answers in store.
Long beforeSeverancecoined the idea of innies and outies, HBO’sWestworldalready tackled the idea of a workforce comprised of sci-fi slaves who rise up against their oppressors. InWestworld, a group of androids known as hosts go from entertaining guests at a Western-themed resort to taking over the entire human race.The earlier seasons ofWestworldtouch on a lot of the same oppressive workplace drama that madeSeverancethe sensation it is, but it added a new layer of dehumanization on top.
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Westworldmay be a bit more high-concept sci-fi thanSeverance, as it does deal with artificial intelligence, but it asks all the same biting questions.Viewers who watch eitherWestworldorSeverancewill walk away wondering what it means to be human, and what amount of abuse and pain crosses the threshold of being intolerable. Plus, with four seasons,Westworldshould more than help bridge the gap betweenSeveranceseasons 2 and 3.
There are quite a few baffling moments inSeverancethat later proved to be strokes of genius, and no movie captures that uncanny ability to find profundity in the ridiculous likeSorry to Bother You. InSorry to Bother You, LaKeith Stanfield plays Cash, a Black man who takes on a white voice to succeed at his job as a telemarketer, only to discover that the company he works for is involved in weapons contracts, slave labor, and truly bonkers genetic experimentation.Sorry to Bother Youhas all the anti-corporate messaging ofSeverance, and it has the same thrilling sci-fi mysteries to unravel.
Sorry to Bother You has all the anti-corporate messaging of Severance, and it has the same thrilling sci-fi mysteries to unravel.
One of the best parts of bothSeveranceandSorry to Bother Youis their morally questionable protagonists.Mark Scout spends much ofSeverancebeing a jerk and caring only about himself, while Cash’s journey throughSorry to Bother Youis similarly self-serving. Both Mark and Cash experience a huge amount of character development, however, and they both end up tearing at the fabric of their dystopian corporations.
A large part of life as an innie inSeverance, particularly in the first season, was characterized by constant and omnipresent surveillance. The very idea of such an authoritarian power system was basically created by George Orwell’s timeless novel “1984,” and there’s no better film adaptation than 1984’sNineteen Eighty-Four.Like inSeverance,Nineteen Eighty-Fourfollows Winston Smith, a man who lives under the constant surveillance of “Big Brother,” a boogeyman created to compel the people of Oceania to obey the powers that be even in the inner workings of their minds.
Nineteen Eighty-Fouris possibly even more bleak and dystopian thanSeveranceis, but the similarities run deeper than that.A major part ofNineteen Eighty-Fouris the romantic relationship between Winston and Julia, just asSeveranceis largely about the different Marks and their relationships to Helly R. and Gemma. Winston even faces a similarly devastating choice at the end ofNineteen Eighty-Fourthat Mark S. does at the end ofSeveranceseason 2, though the former is (hopefully) more depressing than the latter.
In the sub-genre of stories about people questioning the very foundation of their reality, as the innies do inSeverance, no movie has ever been able to top Jim Carrey’sThe Truman Show.InThe Truman Show, Carrey plays Truman Burbank, a man who has had every second of his life televised to a worldwide audience. The film follows Truman as he slowly whittles away the confines of his fake life to emerge in the real world, free from his TV producer overlord, Christof (Ed Helms).The Truman Showis an utter masterpiece, and it was no doubt one of many inspirations forSeverance.
What Happens To Jim Carrey’s Truman After The Truman Show
Though The Truman Show’s ending is perfect, some viewers may wonder what Jim Carrey’s Truman does after entering the real world for the first time.
The Truman ShowandSeverancehave countless similarities, but it’s their differences that makes the former such a good option to watch.The Truman Showis infinitely more hopeful thanSeverance, which may help make the wait forSeveranceseason 3 more bearable. Truman’s happy and triumphant ending can act as a bandage to help heal the wound of Mark’s less than decisive finale inSeveranceseason 2.
I only recently found out about Netflix’sManiac, starring Emma Stone and Jonah Hill, and I was immediately blown away by how similar it is toSeverance. At the surface level, both shows feature a retro-futuristic corporate dystopia, both follow a depressed male lead and an enigmatic female lead, and they both have the same dry, deadpan sense of humor.Those similarities alone are almost uncanny, but the actual meat and potatoes ofManiacandSeveranceare astonishingly alike. I won’t get into too many spoilers, however, becauseManiacalso has a mystery that’s just as gripping asSeverance’s.
Netflix Already Released A Thrilling Psychological Drama To Watch While Waiting For Severance Season 2
Apple TV+ renewed Severance for season 2 in 2022, but a release date is still unknown. So, in the meantime, fans can watch a similar show on Netflix.
For example, Hill’s Owen Milgrim is almost a blueprint for Scott’s Mark Scout, the only difference being he has schizophrenia instead of alcoholism.Maniacalso features the exact same mind-bending traipse into a sinister corporation thatSeverancedoes, though it swaps the severance procedure for a “wonder” drug that takes its recipients on otherworldly trips through their own minds. Really, the only problem withManiacis that it’s only one season long, but that one season is a truly wild ride from start to finish. If anything is a near-perfect replacement forSeverance, it’sManiac.
