Throughout an interview final yr with Esquire, Dan Erickson was requested what “Severance” can inform audiences about employee solidarity. “I completely love that individuals have grabbed onto that component of the story and are seeing that struggle mirrored on the present,” Erickson stated. “I am on no account a labor skilled, however I feel it is plain that we’re at a tipping level. How a lot can firms ask of individuals? What can staff do to seek out company?”
The WGA has been extraordinarily clear about what they’re asking of the AMPTP, and a majority of their proposals come right down to eliminating present loopholes that enable the exploitation of writers. That is precisely the type of factor Erickson was fascinated about when creating his hit sequence. “I like that we’re dwelling in a time of rethinking the construction of labor. Throughout the movie and tv trade, I’ve seen firsthand why unions are so mandatory as a result of there have been occasions the place I felt extraordinarily uncomfortable with what we have been asking folks to do — the sheer quantity of hours that individuals have been put by way of,” he stated.
Erickson’s pilot script for “Severance” first gained notoriety on The Blood Checklist again in 2016, and he advised Esquire that he was “studying as I went about this factor that is been effervescent for fairly a while,” whereas engaged on the set of the sequence. “As hours get longer, as sure trade norms fade, what should staff do to reassert their energy and dignity? I feel that is one thing that a whole lot of industries are reckoning with proper now.”
I feel it is protected to say the reckoning is presently in progress.