Work is a nightmare for Adam Scott in Severance trailer

The full trailer for the new Apple TV+ series Severance is here. The show, directed by Ben Stiller and starring Adam Scott, is a workplace thriller about a company that thinks it’s solved the problem of work life balance—but something sinister lies beneath.

In the trailer, Scott’s character, Mark Scout, explains what “severance” is; the process does something to employees’ brains so that their work memories stay at work, and their personal life memories stay outside work. No one sits at their desk worrying about how they have to clean leaves out of the gutter, and no one lies awake at night worrying about a big report they have due the next day.

In the trailer, Mark is rocked when his coworker and friend is terminated from his job at Lumon Industries. The higher-ups say they can’t spill details on what went down thanks to non-disclosures, and Mark receives a promotion in the wake of his friend’s departure. When the man tracks him down outside work with warnings about what Lumon is really up to, Mark, thanks to severance, doesn’t remember him at all.

Severance will be nine episodes and it also stars Patricia Arquette, John Turturro, Christopher Walken, Britt Lower, Zach Cherry, Dichen Lachman, Jen Tullock, Tramell Tillman, and Michael Chernus.

The series is written and created by Dan Erickson. Mark Friedman (The Forgotten), Chris Black (Star Trek: Enterprise), John Cameron, and Andrew Colville serve as executive producers alongside Erickson. Stiller and Jackie Cohn also executive producer, and Arquette and Scott serve as producers.

Stiller most recently directed Escape at Dannemora, which also starred Arquette. That series received seven Emmy nominations.

This is Scott’s first starring role in a show since his short-lived Fox sitcom Ghosted, which aired in 2017 and 2018. He also appeared in both seasons of Big Little Lies.

Severance will release two episodes on February 18, with weekly drops after that.