Yeah, George Saunders seems like a nice guy from the interview I heard on the radio. But I'd bet if you asked him he'd say that Amis is a big influence: especially the execution of comic set-pieces. I personally enjoy their similarly clever "verbizing" of nouns and (literally) ironic names of places. people, and products.

BTW, what did Amis do? I'm just a rando who likes to read so I probably miss 99% of the lit world gossip. I am old enough to vaguely remember Larkin being posthumously cancelled which seemed like a tragedy since his poems were so great.

I've always thought of him as America's Martin Amis.

You should listen to the audiobook of Lincoln in the Bardo. As much as I was looking forward to it I was underwhelmed until I listened too it on a long drive.

Yes, and it can probably be watched with some kind of VPN skulduggery, but I think most people just want to turn on the TV and watch a good show.

What's frustrating is that US networks/services seem to instantly pick up every increasingly-ridiculous police procedural variant produced in the UK while more interesting stuff seems to have longer waits or, like The Lazarus Project, wind up in limbo while the providers figure out what to do with them.

Same show. Just the US release. Hopefully, given the critical and user reviews, another network/service will pick it up.

I'm assuming you've watched the classics: The Leftovers, Station 11, et. al.

Have you watched Maniac on Netflix? That;s the closest analogue I can think of if it's the quirky, likable characters stuck in a messed up world aspect of Severance you liked. If you liked the highconceptness/semi-thriller thing, you might want to try Counterpart (Starz?).

Oh...also Homecoming on Prime is a must watch... at least Season 1 is.