Throughout an interview final 12 months with Esquire, Dan Erickson was requested what “Severance” can inform audiences about employee solidarity. “I completely love that folks have grabbed onto that ingredient of the story and are seeing that struggle mirrored on the present,” Erickson stated. “I am on no account a labor knowledgeable, however I believe it is simple 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 all the way down to eliminating present loopholes that enable the exploitation of writers. That is precisely the form of factor Erickson was serious about when creating his hit sequence. “I really 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 obligatory as a result of there have been occasions the place I felt extraordinarily uncomfortable with what we had been asking folks to do — the sheer quantity of hours that folks had been put via,” he stated.
Erickson’s pilot script for “Severance” first gained notoriety on The Blood Record again in 2016, and he instructed 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 believe that is one thing that loads of industries are reckoning with proper now.”
I believe it is protected to say the reckoning is at present in progress.