Severance, Apple TV

Every now and then a show comes along that is so intricate and layered that it can be enjoyable, perplexing and maddening all at once.

Dan Erickson's Severance is one such show. Not since the first season of Westworld have I watched something that is so brilliantly original, but also occasionally far too clever for its own good. There is so much happening here both from a thematic point of view and in terms of its actual events that it can be a challenge to keep pace.

Directed by Ben Stiller and Aoife McArdie, the show tells a Kafka-esque tale about the workers of a mysterious tech organisation, Lumon, whose memories have been surgically divided (or severed) between their work and personal lives. The workers are blissfully unaware of this until protagonist Mark (Adam Scott) becomes intrigued by an old colleague's doomed attempts to extract himself from his working life.

From there, the plot becomes a daring attempt by Mark and the rest of his colleagues (John Turturro, Zach Cherry and the excellent Britt Lower) to escape their seemingly self-imposed imprisonment. To do so, they need to get past the devilish Harmony Cobel (Patricia Arquette) and Milchick (Trammell Tillman), who take the phrase jobsworth to the extreme.

It is a daring show that has much to say about our endless quest for greater work-life balance, and our apparent willingness to sacrifice so much of our personal lives to the tech companies that increasingly shape the world in which we live. Rarely does a show deal with such entrenched philosophical quandaries and remain engaging throughout, but Erickson just about manages to pull the balancing act off.

Severance is certainly one of the most visually arresting shows that you'll see on TV this year, with Stiller, McArdie and cinematographers Jessica Lee Gagné and Matt Mitchell creating a stunningly claustrophobic aesthetic that perfectly encapsulates the circumstances of its characters.

This is mysterious, challenging television that defiantly goes against the grain of many other modern 'blockbuster' series. And, while it doesn't always satisfy, it always keeps you guessing and that ought to be celebrated.