Beloved TV series with 98% on Rotten Tomatoes slammed for promoting AI on its podcast
It's been nearly three years since we first entered the elevator and headed down to the Severed Floor of Lumon Industries - stepping inside the retrofuturistic office of the Macrodata Refinement Division.
Giving us on a cliffhanger worthy of Game of Thrones, fans were on tenterhooks to see what happened to Mark S. (Adam Scott) and the rest of his team next.
A lot has changed in the world since Severance first aired, but even back when season 1 debuted, the hit Apple series found itself embroiled in an artificial intelligence argument where artist Oliver Latta had to confirm that no generative AI was used in creating its titles.
Companion podcasts have become the norm for TV shows old and new, with the likes of Talking Sopranos, The Always Sunny Podcast, and Office Ladies proving popular among the fans.
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The much-anticipated return of Severance has also birthed The Severance Podcast, where Scott and executive producer Ben Stiller discuss all things Lumon during a watchalong.
Having binged through the nine episodes of season 1 at the start of January, the pair are now dissecting season 2's new episodes on a weekly basis.
There's a bit of controversy surrounding The Severance Podcast, with a growing number of listeners honing in on an invasive ad for workplace productivity software from the Australia-based Atlassian. Scott promotes Confluence, saying: "A space where AI streamlines the things that normally eat up their time, letting teams generate, organize and deliver work faster.
“In fact, with Confluence, teams can see a 5.2 percent average boost in productivity in one year."
Others on Reddit and X have spotted that Confluence is a sponsor, and it seems it's all gone a bit meta. The basic premise of Severance is that people can 'sever' their work selves from their 'Outie' selves, meaning a whole version of your physical form exists solely to work without you having any conscious of it. Severance deals with the contentious issues of severance, and at a time when AI is threatening to take our jobs, it all feels very real.
Discussing the Confluence ad, one critic complained: "I am listening to the Severance podcast and it has a bunch of really annoying ads for Confluence and it’s a bit weird to me that Confluence wants to sell itself as being a real world equivalent to the technological slavery depicted in the show."
Someone else chuckled: "I'm now at the point where I think the show creators are just constantly taking the p*ss at these kind of companies."
Others thought it was all part of the podcast, with another saying: "When this ad popped today it took me nearly until the end of the ad to realize it was not part of the podcast and not another company in the show. Incredible ad and name."
A fourth concluded: "The Severance podcast getting (Atlassian) confluence as a sponsor is actually the funniest option possible because it also gives me the existential dread I feel from watching the show."
With many pointing out Severance is one of the most popular shows around (Jeff Bezos is also a big fan), they question why the podcast would ever need a sponsor. Whether Scott and Stiller are in on the joke or they're genuinely promoting Confluence with all seriousness, we can't help but enjoy the irony.
Still, with Severance season 2 boasting an impressive 98% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes, we don't think Tim Cook will be losing any sleep over this one.