Yahoo Lifestyle Severance Review: Apple TV+’s Corporate Thriller Clocks Back In With a Deeper, Twistier Season 2
If you feel like you’ve had your memory surgically wiped since you last saw Severance, it’s understandable. It’s been nearly three years since the Apple TV+ sci-fi series first burst onto the scene with one of the most thrillingly original concepts in years. The long wait between seasons has only heightened our expectations for Season 2 to almost unreasonable levels, but I’m happy to report that it meets all of those expectations — and exceeds them, even.
Every bit as trippy as Season 1 and even more emotionally resonant, Severance’s sophomore run (premiering Friday, Jan. 17; I’ve seen all 10 episodes) dives even deeper into the show’s central mysteries, answering more than a few of our burning questions while piling new questions on top of the old ones. It’s an exhilarating, triumphant season packed with stellar performances; I know it’s early, but I’m already penciling it in at the top of this year’s best TV shows.
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As Season 2 opens, Mark (Adam Scott) and his severed friends are dealing with the fallout from the “overtime contingency” switch that ended Season 1, where they got a glimpse at their lives outside the Lumon office. The line between their Innie and Outie selves continues to blur as they’re led on an outdoor corporate retreat, while Mark keeps digging for the truth about his late wife Gemma (Dichen Lachman). We meet new faces at Lumon and watch as new fractures emerge within the core group of co-workers. Without spoiling too much, I can tease that Mark and his Innie love interest Helly (Britt Lower) do get closer… and then farther apart.
Season 2 fits right in with the fascinatingly weird tone established in Season 1, with bursts of absurdist humor and dark corporate satire. (Series creator Dan Erickson returns, along with executive producer and director Ben Stiller.) It’s a rich text they’ve created here, one dense with meaning that rewards close viewing; this is not a show to watch while scrolling on your phone. They throw in a few head-fakes and red herrings, too, but thankfully, we do get some solid answers about Lumon along the way. We’re not just being strung along for countless seasons with no answers at all like, oh, a dozen other sci-fi series I could mention.
Although Severance is a heady, complex series full of abstract ideas about identity and purpose, it’s also grounded in a tangible humanity, thanks to the cast’s excellent performances. There are almost too many standout turns to highlight here, with Lower, John Turturro (as Irving) and Tramell Tillman (as the sternly verbose Mr. Milchick) all getting a chance to shine in Season 2. New cast additions Sarah Bock, Merritt Wever and Gwendoline Christie also make memorable debuts, expanding the show’s storytelling canvas in new and heartbreaking ways I can’t reveal here. Patricia Arquette, I should note, is mostly sidelined this season as former Lumon supervisor Harmony Cobel, but she does roar back with a vengeance by the end.
If I have to nitpick, Season 2’s story does lose a tiny bit of momentum late in the season with a pair of standalone episodes that fill in backstory but divert from the plot’s main thrust. They are beautiful in their own right, though, and Season 2 races to the finish with its final two episodes, including a sensational finale that nearly matches the Season 1 finale in terms of jaw-dropping twists. (And if you’ve watched Season 1, you know that’s saying something.) It may have taken the Severance team three long years to get back to work, but Apple had better be ready to hand them a big, fat bonus: The spectacular Season 2 was absolutely worth the wait.
THE TVLINE BOTTOM LINE: Severance soars to new heights with its long-anticipated Season 2, exceeding our expectations by digging deeper and hitting harder than before.
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