Severance season 2 debuts on Apple TV+ on Friday, January 17, with new episodes airing by March 21.
The dystopian thriller containers of Silo and Severance have burnished AppleTV+’s popularity for scintillating science fiction, however after unbelievable debuts, their follow-ups are on reverse trajectories. While Silo thrives by widening its world and deepening its characters in season 2, Severance falters by holding too tightly to its secrets and techniques, leaning too closely on vibes, and getting its 10-episode second season off to an agonizingly gradual begin.
Creator and govt producer Dan Erickson wastes two episodes resetting the established order on the fictional Lumon Industries, the enigmatic company the place some staff elect to surgically break up their consciences into a piece self and a house self. (“Innies” and “Outies” within the parlance of the present.) After “severed” staff Mark (Adam Scott) and Helly (Britt Lower) managed to make use of their temporary time occupying the our bodies of their Outies to challenge warnings about what was actually happening at Lumon, an enormous deal is made about giving Mark a brand new workforce on the job the place he kinds numbers on a pc right into a sequence of containers. (It appears weird and pointless however in accordance with Lumon brass, it’s constructing to one of many biggest moments within the historical past of the planet.) But these coworkers – performed by the likes of Bob Balaban and Alia Shawkat – are there so briefly it appears like they had been solid merely for a trailer gag.
The time spent on supervisor Harmony Cobel (Patricia Arquette) feels much more pointless, primarily exhibiting her driving round and making instances for a way vital she is. The eerie visuals of the too-white, largely empty workplace and the awful, snowy barrenness of the surface world – which the Innies speculate may be someplace in Wyoming – are a part of the appeal, however this season is leaning too onerous on the course of Ben Stiller and Sam Donovan. There are simply too many close-ups of individuals wanting contemplative and never sufficient of the darkish humor that made season 1 such an efficient satire of workplace tradition and office sitcoms.
There are nonetheless so many mysteries about Lumon’s targets and the lives of the characters outdoors of the workplace that it feels just like the writers are being needlessly stingy with their reveals. When they do come, it’s straightforward to really feel a refreshed love for the present. It embraces its surrealist streak when Mark and Helly crawl by a goat tunnel (a scene recalling one in all Severance’s main tonal and visible touchstones, Being John Malkovich) and faucets into its emotional core with Irving (John Turturro) reminiscing with one other outdated timer about his retired love curiosity, Burt (Christopher Walken).
Turturro is a spotlight of every little thing he’s in and he continues to shine in season 2, the place he grapples with the identical emotions of loss as Mark, who grew to become severed after the (supposed) dying of his spouse. Irving considers quitting, successfully killing his Innie self to keep away from the ache of shedding Burt, however his grief is shortly put apart in favor of relentlessly diving into new mysteries inside Lumon whereas sweetly if awkwardly reconnecting with Burt and his husband, Fields (John Noble), on the surface. While one of many plots Irving is targeted on is pretty apparent, it truly makes his doggedness much more spectacular given how a lot his coworkers are hesitant to query issues that don’t align with what they need the reality to be.
Dylan (Zach Cherry) was largely relegated to foul-mouthed comedian aid in season 1, however he’s a considerably extra realized character this season. The most perk-obsessed member of the Macrodata Refinement division receives a brand new profit that places him at odds with Mark, Helly, and Irving and entangles his two selves in a battle much like the short-lived Paul Rudd sci-fi comedy Living with Yourself. Mark’s causes for taking a job that requires mind surgical procedure are tragic, however the fact about Dylan and why his success at Lumon means a lot to him are even bleaker – merchandise of an financial system that runs on mundane cruelty and crushed desires.
Attempts to construct out the character of Lumon supervisor Seth Milchick (Tramell Tillman) fare much less properly. Tillman continues to flawlessly marry geniality and menace whereas Milchick navigates the troublesome activity of holding the rebel severed staff on monitor. Like Cobel’s plot, Milchick’s brutal efficiency assessment and an unsettling reward within the type of a ebook depicting Lumon founder Kier Eagan (Marc Geller) as a Black man (regardless of each different company product stamped with Kier’s white, bearded likeness) are clearly meant to be a commentary on how the cult-like firm treats staff at each stage. But the supervisors are so thinly drawn and unlikable that it’s onerous to really feel any sympathy for his or her plight.
It’s not all unhealthy information: I haven’t seen the final 4 episodes of the season, however Severance is clearly resulting in some massive reveals concerning the nature of its titularprocess and the work Lumon is conducting, and the flashing visuals the place the Innie and Outie worlds fuse are deeply disturbing, enhanced by some dramatic sound design that flows properly into Theodore Shapiro’s eerie instrumental rating. Erickson can be digging into deep questions concerning the nature of self and the way love can exist outdoors of reminiscence. Helly reckons with what a monster her Outie is, whereas Innie Mark is torn between his emotions for Helly and his obligation to seek out his Outie’s lacking spouse, Gemma – proven to be fellow Lumon staffer Ms. Casey (Dichen Lachman) on the finish of final season. This is acquainted territory for Lachman, who explored these themes 15 years in the past on Dollhouse. While Severance has taken a really totally different method to the concept of reminiscence wiping, it typically looks like it’s heading to the identical endpoint.
It’s potential season 2 will decide up the tempo and ship extra of the large twists and emotional depth that made its predecessor among the best reveals of 2022. But it’s onerous to not really feel annoyed whereas Silo excels on the identical task, following each bombshell with extra questions and elegantly including new layers to its heroes and villains whereas leaving a lot about them implied. Severance feels prefer it wants a efficiency enchancment plan in an effort to hold its viewers pleased. Whatever mysteries it has in retailer received’t matter if we’ve tuned out earlier than they’re solved.
