A large part of Breakup first season took place inside the Lumon Industries building, more specifically on the “separate” underground floor where the main characters work. It’s a stark and strangely empty space, where departments are separated, so much so that the office culture encourages them to fear each other. But perhaps just as off-putting is Breakupthe outside world of the series, which promises to be explored further in the series. second season.
You would think that audiences would instantly identify more with this outside world. The Lumon we see is populated primarily by people who have chosen to undergo a procedure that creates a completely separate identity for them, one that never leaves the office. It also contains a peculiar old technology used to perform “mysterious and important” computational tasks that no one can actually explain; a room populated by kids for unknown reasons; strange rituals designed to boost morale in what is otherwise an absolutely soul-sucking place; and a veritable idol worship of Lumon founder Kier Eagan and his descendants.
However, there isn’t much comfort to be found once the “innies” turn into “outties” and go home at the end of the day. Aside from having to deal with the inconveniences that made them think taking a severance package was a solid career move – for Adam Scott’s Mark, it’s a mental rest after remembering his wife who died in a car accident. car a few years ago – they live in Kier, a community as depressing as it is dystopian. And coldalthough we haven’t spent enough time there to know if there are any seasons other than the freezing, muddy, bleak winter.
Even if there are mild summer months in Kier, that wouldn’t dispel the sterile feeling that permeates the town, nor would it lessen the mystery of the fact that Kier really doesn’t seem to be… anywhere. During the first season, we were told that Kier and the neighboring town of Ganz, home to Ganz University, where Mark taught history before Lumon, are located in the state of “PE”, which is obviously not a real place. Vehicle license plates read “Remedium Hominibus,” which certainly translates to “A Cure for Mankind.” seems be a reference to Kier Eagan’s pharmaceutical dynasty.
But Breakup has a foot in our world, such as the mention of certain geographic locations (Alexa, who briefly dated Mark, is from Montana) and cultural elements (Petey and his daughter perform on Metallica; Irving’s outfit paints the same picture dark with the explosion of Motorhead) suggest. And despite the vintage technology in the office, which goes well with Lumon’s love of carefully designed artificial environments, the exteriors are obviously 21st century: they have cell phones and use the Internet.
Yet there’s a sense that Kier is a place that’s, well, separate from what we might find familiar. It is openly a company town. The restaurants are named after members of the Eagan family (“Pip’s Diner”, probably named after Lumon’s former CEO), and Mark’s existential dread manifests itself during nights spent in his Lumon-subsidized housing – a house of generic townhouses on a street full of identical generic townhouses, with as many vacant homes as Lumon has vacant offices.
Later in the first season, we see Mark’s co-worker Irving have a similar apartment, although in a different neighborhood (at least he has a dog; Mark only has a pair of sad goldfish). We also learn in the first season that Mark’s neighbor (Patricia Arquette) is actually his boss at Lumon, which of course his daughter is completely unaware of; she is not separated, but she takes on a different identity to better spy on his activities. Mark may not be aware of this until the end of the first season, but it adds a sinister layer to what is already a lonely, joyless existence.
Not everyone in Kier works at Lumon. In the first season, we meet Mark’s sister Devon (Jen Tullock) and her husband Ricken (Michael Chernus), who are about to become parents for the first time and whose social life mainly revolves around Ricken (a self-help author) and his pretentious friends. . Through these characters, and later, as we follow Outtie Mark’s confused efforts to learn more about the inner workings of Lumon, we learn that there is actually a resistance movement against the separation. We also witness non-Lumon employees having differing views on severance packages – the kind of conversation that makes an awkward dinner even more awkward.
To counter this, we also learn that Lumon has powerful allies in the government, including a state senator whose glamorous wife is undergoing the procedure so she can give birth without remembering it, which leads to some strange encounters with Devon both inside and outside the country. facility where they both give birth.
How Breakup‘s geographic world might expand over the course of season two remains to be seen – a preview of what’s to come suggests we’ll be spending more time abroad, and we also just finished the premiere’s finale season, in which the intricacies of Mark and his colleagues Irving and Helly R. briefly delved into their lives on the outside. The season two premiere, which takes place entirely inside Lumon with Innie Mark, reminds us what a huge moment it was, not just because of the realizations they all came to about themselves, but because innies are not. Never otherwise exposed to the outside world.
As season two begins, one of Mark’s new colleagues excitedly asks him, “What’s the sky like?” » ; she also asks what condition they are in and what the wind is like. His lack of answers or even excitement at having seen what is essentially a total fantasyland is a disappointment. But maybe if she saw Kier for herself, she would understand.
New episodes of Breakup arrive Friday on Apple TV+.
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