Severance Season 2 Is the Best Show on TV

Expectations can destroy a good TV show. For most new series, the first season is all about grabbing attention, introducing a group of characters people actually want to spend time with, and telling a good story. If that debut season succeeds? Well, the weight of success settles in. Things slow down. The temptation to run it all back and simply repeat what worked before. True Detective, anyone?

That said, you can understand why Severance fans worried that season 2 would return after a three-year break, only to just serve audiences more in-office shenanigans and lob mystery after mystery with few answers. If this is the first review of Severance season 2 you’ve read, let me be the first to tell you: Not only is that not the case, but the Apple TV+ series makes a strong case for itself as the best show on TV. Hell, I would’ve waited another three years if I knew that season 2 was this damn good.

Before we discuss the new episodes, let’s rewind. After a successful first season, it was clear that Severance’s work-life balance separation technology was as thematically rich as George Orwell’s thoughtcrimes, Isaac Asimov’s rules of robotics, Philip K. Dick’s A.I. replicants, and the Wachowskis’s simulated realities. Not to mention, the season 1 finale saw the best TV twist since The Good Place cast found out they were living in the Bad Place. Judging by the few episodes released to the press ahead of Severance’s return on January 17, it makes sense why the Apple TV+ workplace drama took so long to make it back onto our screens. Quality! At this point in the streaming wars, it’s a lost art. Severance understands that.

Jon Pack//AppleSeverance season 2 doesn’t waste any time.

When season 2 opens, we’re told that it’s only been five months since the incident in the season 1 finale. Mark S. (Scott) chooses to believe this—although you can’t exactly trust Lumon—and he finds himself situated with an all-new team. Bob Balaban heads, this is your moment. The newcomers are short-lived, however, as Mark quickly works to uncover what happened to his original team and how to get them back in the office. If you recall from the finale, Helly R. (Britt Lower) found out that she is the daughter of Lumon CEO Jame Eagan. Irving (John Turturro) lost his Innie’s romance with Burt (Christopher Walken), and Dylan (Zach Cherry) learned that his Outie has a wife waiting for him at home. It’s not exactly easy coming back to work once you’re hit with news like this. But for the Outies, it’s as if nothing happened at all.

Though I will tell you that—much like many employers in the post-pandemic workplace—season 2 whips out new corporate-speak and unsettling offerings to foster better mental health at the office. It’s painfully poignant—more so than season 1, even. Season 2, in a way that I will also not reveal, also has very Severance-y thoughts about what it means to mourn the loss of a coworker after layoffs. As Lumon grinds further and further upon the will of its workforce, the series finds more opportunity to build upon its characters and not just out. Meaning: as life experience stacks on top of Innies who are technically only weeks old, season 2 sees the likes of Mark, Dylan, and Helly actually start to build an inner life.

Before I tell you exactly how Adam Scott elevates Mark into an all-time TV character in season 2, I much touch on how cool it is that Ben Stiller is a director and executive producer on Severance, working alongside creator Dan Erickson. We really don’t appreciate this as much as we should. Commend a comedian for being funny all day—Stiller’s contemporaries, Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson, and Adam Sandler are all hilarious actors—but directors? At this level of ingenuity? I’m looking at Meet the Fockers’ Gaylord Focker as if he’s Terry Gilliam directing Brazil.

As for Adam Scott? Mark S. will go down as the former Parks & Recreation actor’s defining role. Even in a show as packed with amazing performances as Severance, Scott’s sense of dread and confusion captures the anxiety—and more often than not, fear—of the modern-day corporate drone. He’s also granted an amazing foil in deputy manager Mr. Milchick (Tramell Tillman), who deftly plays with and subverts the character’s season 1 persona over the course of the new episodes.

AppleMr. Mlichick (Tramell Tillman) remains one of Severance’s greatest performers.

Meanwhile, Helly R. (Britt Lower) is forced to reckon with the fact that her Outie is one of the Egans perpetrating her Innie’s hellish existence. Not many actors other than Scott are given the opportunity to showcase both sides of the coin, but season 2 offers a lot for Lower to chew on inside and outside of the office. Irving (John Turturro) and Burt’s (Christopher Walken) fleeting romance is given one of the most deliciously uncomfortable scenes in the series yet. Plus, Dylan’s (Zach Cherry) season 2 arc—he seeks to learn more about his Outie—is especially strong.

For those who are still wondering about the big reveals, some questions are answered—and some are not. The delightfully scary new employee Miss Huang (Sarah Block) and a manic Harmony Cobel (Patricia Arquette) will likely open even more mysteries. But I can promise that season 2 is so entertaining and forthcoming about its intent to one day deliver answers that whatever theory you’ve conjured up is likely true. (Or just as good.)

Severance isn’t True Detective or Yellowjackets. Erickson and Stiller aren’t obsessed with slowly unraveling the mystery while patting themselves on the back for making it nearly impossible to figure out. Even with all of its similarly twisting hallways and occasionally frustrating ambiguity, Severance holds on to the core idea of any good sci-fi story: any attempt to remove our humanity only strengthens our desire to preserve it.