Why Mark in 'Severance' Drives a 1997 Volvo

https://www.thedrive.com/news/why-mark-in-severance-drives-a-1997-volvo-and-more-answers-from-the-shows-car-coordinators

by tosh • 1 year ago

14 10 1 year ago

thedrive.com

e-clinton• 1 year ago

Patricia Arquette’s car was most disorienting to me. This woman was a high level manager/exec at a very successful company, surely she can afford more than a rabbit.

currymj• 1 year ago

it's not clear where Severance takes place exactly. But it is wintery and has universities and decrepit fishing towns. So if it's supposed to be New England, i think this makes sense. There are a lot of very successful people in New England who drive old VWs and Subarus.

unshavedyak• 1 year ago

My wife and I comment on it regularly. Neither of us have noticed a remotely modern car. They even show full parking lots at some point(s) iirc.

It’s as striking of a design choice as it is perplexing hah.

adynaton2• 1 year ago

If I remember correctly, some documents that appear in season 1 have addresses that say "Kier, PA"

matthewdgreen2• 1 year ago

The office building is a Bell Labs building in Holmdel. The aesthetic of the town feels a bit like upstate New York. But the town of Salt Neck (200m away) was filmed in Newfoundland. So they are going for permanently cold and remote but with familiar elements.

But the cars are not normal for any of those places in the modern era where people own smartphones (as the characters do.) In fact, my parents used to own Ms. Cobel’d exact VW Rabbit in 1983 (in silver) and it was not a great car for snow. They replaced it with multiple successive 4WD Subarus as soon as that was an option. The RWD Volvos are better and kind of timeless New England cars, but I’d imagine those year/models have passed into rust by now except for a few that were exquisitely pampered and kept away from road salt.

adynaton2• 1 year ago

Don't know if you're caught up with the new season, so, spoilers, she's not a high level exec.

AppleAtCha• 1 year ago

I figured it was because he couldn't find a better car such as a 1986 volvo

Clamchop• 1 year ago

There's not really an answer in the article besides not wanting to clearly identify a point in time, and wanting the cars to match in some sense the personalities of the characters that drive them.

The show's aesthetic takes a high dose of "cassette tape futurism", juxtaposing advanced tech with the primitive. Also featured are anachronistic computer terminals, VHS tapes, and music records. The car choices play well with that.

N.B.: Particularly primitive is Lumon's surveillance of severed employees. This hardly makes sense when the chips can be activated remotely, but heavy surveillance would kill the exploratory velocity of the story so that was a good choice, in my opinion.

jfengel• 1 year ago

I very much enjoy Severance, but this illustrates why I'm not a huge fan of mystery stories in general. I spend my time playing "Clue, red herring, or mistake?" Severance clearly invites you to look very, very closely, but there are things that will eventually have to be overlooked. I hope that the show resolves itself before those become aggravating.

I've avoided recommending Severance to a friend, who would enjoy its performances and aesthetic but would be very annoyed at the characters making obvious mistakes.

Why Mark in 'Severance' Drives a 1997 Volvo

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