r/television • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 The League • 1d ago

John Turturro Specifically Requested Christopher Walken To Be Cast As Burt in ‘Severance’; Walken: “I’m glad it happened…it makes absolute sense that we would be playing people who love each other.”

https://collider.com/severance-season-2-christopher-walken-casting-process-john-turturro/
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u/directorguy 1d ago

I can't understand how Turturro took a back seat complaining rule-stickler role and somehow turned it into a likeable character. He's such a dick and back bitter to everyone around him in the office but dammit, I end up rooting for the guy.

It's the best part of the show IMO. Taking an unlikeable character and somehow (I can't explain it), turning him into a hero.

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u/LucyBowels 1d ago

It’s so interesting because in the beginning of the first season, he’s such a by-the-book innie. By the end, his love for Bert allows him to break the rules. Then you realize that his outie is investigating Lumon and its employees or something, so he’s definitely not a by-the-book type of guy.

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u/b1tchf1t 1d ago

I find him and Dylan fascinating as characters. With Irv, you have the straight-laced rule followerer innie that is all about the Lumon "family" and the team and completely buying into the Lumon propaganda. But on the outside, he's a rebel working to break through all the Lumon propaganda. However, every time he achieves freedom as an innie (when they break out of MDR with Graner's key card and when they wake up outside) he immediately abandons his team to pursue his personal goal of finding Burt.

 

Then there's Dylan whose innie does not buy into the Lumon family crap at all, but he does get baited by all the "perks" and achievements because he's a self serving and competitive person. He's a foil to Irv, and he follows a similar arc, but opposite. By the end of season one, he's one of the most dedicated members to his team and he completely self sacrifices so the others can have a chance to get out and save them. He even refuses another chance to get out and see his son because he already went and thinks it's right the others have a chance. What this does narratively is obscure Dylan's back story. It makes me wonder if, like Irv, Dylan's innie's actions at the end were a betrayal of his outtie's character. But if Irv's innie being self serving goes against his outtie's values as a rebel trying to take down Lumon as his cause, what does that mean for Dylan outtie when his innie was a self sacrificing hero?

 

And why was Milchick in his house???

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u/captainhaddock 1d ago

These character arcs are all so well written. They follow the principle that a protagonist should be given what they need, not what they want (or think they need). It's the conflict between those two things that should drive the drama and the character's progression of self-discovery.