SEVERANCE S2 Review: Madly Ambitious Mind Games

Adam Scott returns to a world where the work/life balance is always in question. Now streaming on Apple TV+.

Managing Editor; Dallas, Texas, US (@peteramartin)
SEVERANCE S2 Review: Madly Ambitious Mind Games

Have you ever returned to work after a long break and wondered: what am I doing here?

Severance
All nine episodes of Season 1 are now streaming ad-free on Apple TV+. They are also available to watch free with ads on The Roku Channel through January 19. The first of ten episodes of Season 2 premieres Friday, January 17, only on Apple TV+. Subsequent episodes will debut every Friday. I've seen all 19 episodes.

Creator Dan Erickson tackles the biggest question facing his show head on.

Mark S. (Adam Scott) returns to work at Lumon Industries, completely disoriented. He finds his way back to Macrodata Refinement, a large office he formerly shared with three coworkers who had become good friends -- Helly (Britt Lower), Dylan (Zach Cherry), and Irving (John Turturro) -- only to find that they are gone, replaced by three new office mates.

Enter Mark's old boss/nemesis, Mr. Milchick (Tramell Tillman), bearing ... balloons?

To re-set the stage: Lumon Industries developed a surgical procedure whereby volunteers could separate their work-brain from their home-brain, and lead two completely separate lives. The work-brain bodies, called "innies," had no memory or knowledge of what their other half had done or were doing. Meanwhile, the home-brain people, called "outies," could live comfortably off the earnings of their work-brain selves.

Three years ago, when the series debuted some two years into a worldwide pandemic, the concept resonated strongly. Certainly, we all felt great alienation as we all dealt with isolation and felt more keenly the separation between our work-lives and our personal lives, even as the most fortunate of us were able to begin (or continue) working from home.

Three years between installments in a feature film series feel quite natural, since such films tend to focus on extensive action sequences built around simple concepts, and characters who don't necessarily change very much from sequel to sequel.

Three years between seasons in a narrative television series, by contrast, feels like an eternity, especially for an elaborately-plotted series such as Severance, and even more so since the show teeters precariously between characters who are themselves split into two different personalities.

Creator, writer, and executive producer Dan Erickson, working with fellow executive producer and director of multiple episodes Ben Stiller, leans hard into the reality that many people tuning into the Season 2 premiere will have forgotten what happened in Season 1. Or have not caught up with all nine episodes of Season 1 before diving in.

And that's OK, because everyone will be in the same boat, trying to figure out what is happening. I say that because the Apple TV+ publicity team asked critics provided with advance screeners to watch all 10 episodes before writing any reviews. Having watched all 19 episodes, and then watching Season 2, Episode 1 again, I am struck by the work done by all the actors, led by Adam Scott in the lead role, to recapture their characters, especially the "innies," as they face a new world that perhaps isn't as brave as it pretends to be.

New faces that I especially appreciated this season are Mr. Milchick, who is far more than the bureaucratic paper-pusher type of manager that I remembered from Season 1, thanks to the ability of Tramell Tillman to expertly portray a shifting tide of emotions; and the mysterious Miss Huang, marvelously played by Sarah Bock, who looks to be an early adolescent who has somehow begun to work on the floor with a glare that could kill at a thousand yards, accompanied by an icy smile.

Once again, Severance dives into dramatic themes that resonate, only for different reasons. Far beyond the eye-catching production design, which appears to be a futuristic version of modernistic design, and expert photography, Season 2 explores more intimately the depths of the human soul and how we connect to each other, with greater success than the sometimes sketchy outlines presented in Season 1.

Severance

Writer(s)
  • Dan Erickson
Cast
  • Adam Scott
  • Zach Cherry
  • Britt Lower
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Adam ScottBen StillerBritt LowerDan EricksonJohn TurturroZach CherryDramaMysterySci-Fi

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