Later this January, probably the most intriguing science fiction exhibits of the twenty first century will lastly return. Practically three years after its debut, Severance’s second season guarantees to resolve at the very least a few of the many mysteries posed by this sequence a couple of sinister firm with the aptitude to surgically break up its staff’ consciousnesses between work and residential life (innies and outies, respectively) and the lives of these “severed” employees.
Created by first-time showrunner Dan Erickson, Severance may by no means have come into existence if it hadn’t landed on the desk of Ben Stiller, who produced the sequence and directed six of the 9 episodes within the first season. However whereas the emergence of Stiller as a TV director was a shock to many — since when does Derek Zoolander make status tv? — it wasn’t his first try. Just some years earlier, he’d directed one other critically acclaimed sequence: Escape at Dannemora.
That present, which premiered in 2018 on Showtime, is streaming now for the primary time on Netflix. Not solely is it the proper factor to look at in case you’ve already accomplished your Severance season 1 rewatch, however it might additionally supply a touch at how Stiller and his cohorts plan to unfurl a few of Severance’s many mysteries as we head into season 2.
Escape at Dannemora is a dramatized retelling of a real-life jail break from the utmost safety Clinton Correctional Facility in 2015. The present includes a sprawling solid however focuses on three characters: Richard Matt (Benicio del Toro), a captivating prisoner who paints photos for the jail guards in return for favors; David Sweat (Paul Dano), one other inmate who groups up with Richard to flee; and Joyce “Tilly” Mitchell (Patricia Arquette), a jail worker who turns into romantically concerned with each Richard and David. (For the file, the actual jail worker denied ever sleeping with both man and referred to as Stiller “a son-of-a-bitch liar” in an interview with The New York Submit.)
Picture: Showtime
After a gap scene set post-prison break the place Tilly is introduced in by the police for questioning, the sequence jumps again in time and painstakingly reveals how the 2 males managed to interrupt out of a jail sometimes called New York’s Little Siberia (the winters are fairly chilly in Dannemora). With out spoiling an excessive amount of, what makes Escape at Dannemora so attention-grabbing is the meticulous means its story unfolds. Over the course of a number of weeks, we watch Richard and David fastidiously plot their escape whereas manipulating Tilly into serving to them, solely to make some extremely weird choices as soon as they’re lastly free.
Because the director of all seven episodes (the finale is 99 minutes, however Netflix breaks it into two separate elements), Stiller fastidiously builds the world of his jail and the encompassing city by devoting time to the individuals in it, typically specializing in essentially the most mundane elements of their lives. By means of the eyes of everybody from long-serving prisoners and new inmates to the jail guards and their households, we’re plunged into this actuality simply in time to look at Richard and David escape from it.
Whereas Stiller as soon as advised IndieWire he by no means observed the similarities between Escape at Dannemora and Severance, they aren’t precisely delicate. Each Dannemora and the primary season of Severance are, on some stage, jail break tales. The innie/outie divide in Severance additionally seems like an echo of the variations between life in jail, with its distinctive guidelines and customs, and the forbidden world past its partitions. Watching Dannemora, you possibly can see how Stiller honed his abilities in bringing unfamiliar areas to life, whether or not that’s a most safety jail or a top-secret underground workplace. He takes these enclosed settings and miraculously makes them really feel like house by exact, muscular digicam work and a deal with the characters required to make the very best out of a scenario they have been compelled into.
However maybe the obvious comparability is the best way each exhibits deal with their greatest twists. Severance was at all times a sequence constructed on thriller. That’s baked into Erickson’s script from web page one, and Stiller (together with season 1’s different director, Aoife McArdle) fills each body with a way of foreboding. From the too-clean workplaces the place the innies work to the perpetually darkish and cloudy surrounding city, all the pieces in Severance appears just a bit off. Escape at Dannemora doesn’t have as many twists to play with, however it delivers at the very least one crushing reveal.
Photograph: Apple TV Plus
In Dannemora’s penultimate episode, we lastly study what Richard and David did to land in jail within the first place. Stiller shoots these scenes in brutal, bloody element, ensuring we care about every sufferer earlier than revealing the horrible and brutal crimes dedicated by Richard and David. After witnessing these horrific actions, it instantly turns into much more tough to root for his or her escape. (One thing related occurs on the finish of Severance’s first season, when the innies quickly break away from their company jail and expertise their outies’ lives, resulting in a number of mind-blowing reveals that redefine nearly all the pieces that occurred as much as that time.)
In a way, that dramatic episode of Dannemora tells us all the pieces we have to find out about Severance (or, at the very least, nearly all the pieces — the goats are nonetheless a thriller). As a result of in a present the place everybody seems like a clean slate, the most important twist isn’t whether or not they’ll finally escape from their innie existence or why they’re being severed within the first place; it’s the likelihood that the true nature of those characters will tarnish the variations of them we’ve come to know and love. As a storyteller, Stiller is clearly within the multifaceted nature of individuals, and the way little we may very well find out about one another. When Severance season 2 drops later this January, we’ll know a bit of bit extra — whether or not we prefer it or not.
Escape at Dannemora is streaming on Netflix. Severance season 2 premieres Jan. 17.
