TV Review - Apple's Severance, Season 2

There's more to work than life.

Severance is a 2022-present science fiction psychological thriller mystery series created by Dan Erickson, directed by Ben Stiller and Aofie McArdle, produced by Red Hour Productions and Endeavor Content, and distributed by Apple Inc. It stars Adam Scott and Britt Lower.

"Devour feculence." - Seth Milchick

Plot

After discovering that thought-to-be-late wife is hidden in the depths of Lumon, Mark Scout must find a way to undermine the severance procedure and save her. Meanwhile, Mark's innie is determined to continue his rebellion against the establishment with his friends.

The Sweet

Man. It has been three long years waiting for this sophomore season of Severance. The cliffhanger at the end of season one was absolutely incredible and had be eagerly awaiting the next chapter in this story. Little did I know how long I would be waiting. But, despite the frustration of the long break between seasons, I was very excited to see what was next for Severance.

I'll start by saying that this season still has the immaculate production of the first season. It is so impressive that this is what television is nowadays. This show has the genuine feel of a movie, with it's awesome production design and gorgeous cinematography. Episode seven, Chikhai Bardo, is one of the coolest and most creative episodes of TV I have ever seen. Ben Stiller and his team have just crafted a technical masterpiece with this series, and I am absolutely here for it.

This season also does a great job of exploring the dynamics between innie and outie. With season one, it was difficult to explore that, because we didn't know any of our character's outies besides Mark. This season, we spend lots of time with all of our outies, and they are all interesting for different reasons. Mark is probably still the standout, because we see him struggling to trust anyone who says his wife is alive. He doesn't want to have hope, but as we get through the season, he starts to become more hopeful and even desperate to get Gemma back. Helly (or Helena) is the one I was most curious to see, because her outie is an antagonist. I loved what they did with her, and I think it really sets up some interesting threads for season three. And Dylan's outie was also given a lot to do. The writers did a fantastic job of exploring how love and family work with innies and outies, and Dylan was the primary character they used to explore that. Irv was probably the only one who didn't have that interesting of an outie story. I'll get to that in the negatives.

The show is also really clever in the way that these characters are written and portrayed. Although all of the innies and outies are very different, you see where they are similar. You especially see where their similarities create conflicts between them. This is why I think that the questions about innies and outies are the strongest aspect of the season. Severance wants to ask some deep, philosophical questions that do not have easy answers, and I think it does an excellent job of accomplishing that.

The show is also unafraid to get very, very weird. This was definitely the case in season one, but I love that Apple is letting the creative team get so strange with such a big show. Severance has blown up this season. It seems to be Apple's flagship series, and for it being that, it does not seem like it appeals to the biggest possible audience...and I love that. I love that we are allowed to get such a crazy, strange show as one of the most popular series running today.

Finally, the performances deserve a shoutout. There are some that I am not crazy about, but the best ones are really good. If Tramell Tillman does not win an Emmy, I'm going to riot. He is the MVP of this show. He was the best actor in season one, and he is just as good, if not better, in this season. He is so good at switching moods abruptly as well as communicating subtle emotions in his face. Adam Scott and Britt Lower are the other top-tier performances here. Scott has a scene in the finale in which his innie and outie talk to themselves, and it is just truly sensational acting by him. He is really able to nail the two personalities and struggles of his innie and outie. Finally, Britt Lower takes a step forward in her acting skill as Helly. Because we know her true identity as an Eagan now, we do not trust her in the slightest, and Lower does a great job of making sure you don't trust her but also making you feel bad that you don't trust her. It's such an interesting dynamic that Lower just does a fantastic job of portraying. I cannot wait to see what she does in future seasons.

The Sour

Unfortunately, I found this season to be incredibly frustrating and slightly disappointing.

The goal of Severance's second season was clearly to tell this story about Mark attempting to get Gemma out of Lumon. And, while that is an interesting, great story, the creators left so many loose threads and dangling questions that I just don't feel satisfied. There were so many mysteries presented in the first season, and the second season chooses not to answer any of them, and, in doing so, actually creates more.

This would probably frustrate me normally, but it frustrates me on an even greater level because of some of the subplots they decided to follow. As interesting as I found Mark's character to be, he spends basically the entire middle part of this season getting re-integrated. There is no conflict. There's no problems with his re-integration. It just takes, like, four or five episodes, and it feels like his character and our time is being wasted.

The boiling point of all of this frustration was episode eight, Sweet Vitriol. Even the best shows have missteps, and this was Severance's first major miss. After a great bottle episode that showed the tragedy of Mark and Gemma's relationship while also bringing up a ton of questions regarding Gemma's purpose within Lumon, we got this terrible entry that is The Lost Sister of Severance (if you don't know, that's a Stranger Things reference). Sweet Vitriol is an episode that focuses entirely on Harmony Cobel...and absolutely nothing happens. It is just this weird, slow, confusing episode that barely services Cobel's character and reveals one vital piece of information in a horrible, strange way that is not given the proper weight. They could've spent this episode furthering the plot or giving us some other answers, but instead, we got this piece of garbage.

I also really was not a fan of what they did with Irv's character here. This criticism could change depending on what happens in season three, but I felt like Irv's entire storyline just distracted from the main plot and conflict. It's so unimportant that he does not appear in the finale. They just left his storyline dangling for us to see in the next season, and I find that incredibly frustrating. Why did we spend so much time with him if nothing was going to be wrapped up by the end of the season? And how on Earth did Irv's storyline create more questions than answers?

The thing that worries me is that these mysteries are going to have to stick in our head for a while longer before the next season is released, and that is a problem. Hopefully there won't be a writer's strike that causes the next season to be released three years from now, because that could make a lot of viewers lose interest.

Final Thoughts and Score

Severance gives us a technically impressive, highly interesting second season that really disappointed me on a story front.

I am still going Savory here. Age range is 14+.

SWEET N' SOUR SCALE

Sweet (Great) Savory (Good) Sour (Bad) Moldy (Terrible)

"Severance"

Fun Factor: 8/10

Acting: 8.5/10

Story: 6/10

Characters: 9/10 Quality: 8/10

Created by Dan Erickson

Rated TV-MA for strong bloody violence, language, disturbing themes and images, thematic elements

Premiered on January 17, 2025

Episode runtime: 50 minutes

Adam Scott as Mark Scout

Britt Lower as Helly Riggs / Helena Eagan

Zach Cherry as Dylan George

John Turturro as Irving Bailiff

Tramell Tillman as Seth Milchick

Patricia Arquette as Harmony Cobel

Jen Tullock as Devon Scout-Hale

Dichen Lachman as Gemma Scout / Ms. Casey

Michael Chernus as Ricken Hale

Christopher Walken as Burt Goodman

Sarah Bock as Eustice Huang

Sydney Cole Alexander as Natalie Kalen

Michael Siberry as Jame Eagan

Darri Ólafsson as Mr. Drummond

Merritt Weaver as Gretchen George

Karen Aldridge as Asal Reghabi

Robby Benson as Dr. Mauer

Gwendoline Christie as Lorne

Sandra Bernhard as Cecily

Claudia Robinson as Felicia

Jane Alexander as Celestine Cobel

John Noble as Fields

James LeGros as Hampton

Marc Geller as Kier Eagan