News of the end of ‘Severance’ would be ideal | TV commentary
It’s the best premise for a TV show in years.
In the Apple TV+ series “Severance,” some people have chosen, for various reasons, to undergo a surgical procedure that creates a “severed” version of themself for their hours at work at Luman Industries.
A person, after taking an elevator down to Luman’s “severed floor,” retains no memories of their personal life. That person is known as an “innie.”
Likewise, an “outie” has no idea as to what they are doing at Luman, which, as you may expect from a huge corporation, is taking advantage of the innies to one horrible degree or another.
A terrific premise isn’t enough, of course. Fortunately, “Severance” — which recently launched its second season — boasts incredible performances, production design, direction and storytelling.
It is the best TV show in years.
I was concerned after reading the review of the second season by excellent Chicago Tribune critic Nina Metz, who is frustrated with the format of the show and its examination of the work-life balance and feels it falls short of having enough story to tell to justify its nine- and 10-episode respective seasons.
“Creator Dan Erickson slows the pacing way down and employs stall tactics that masquerade as world-building,” Metz writes. “‘Severance’ doubles down on this in Season Two, repeating the same beats and themes over and over again, such as the difficulty of imagining a different life for yourself.”
Mystical forces conspired to prevent me from writing my own review of the season, as I’d hoped to do, after what proved to be a wholly rewarding rewatch of the first nine chapters. However, after the debut of the season’s first episode on Jan. 17, I dug into the remaining five installments Apple made available to preview and am thrilled to disagree, quite respectfully, with Metz’s assessment.
I see Erickson and collaborators including Executive Producer Ben Stiller, who has directed several a captivating “Severed” episode, pushing the story further ahead than I’d expected.
Erickson has continued to build out this mind-bending world, yes, but he and the other writers have done so while delivering topnotch storytelling. And, look, we had reason to worry that it would more or less be the status quo at the end of the first new episode — stop reading now if you’ve yet to watch “Hello, Ms. Cobel” — when microdata-refining innies Mark S. (Adam Scott), Hellie R. (Britt Lower), Dylan G. (Zach Cherry) and Irving B. (John Turturro) decide to resume their “mysterious and important” work at Luman following an event they’re told has come to be known by the world as the “Microdat Uprising.”
Without delving into the details you’ll want to discover for yourself, know that the changes go beyond the fascinating Mr. Milchick (a captivating Tramell Tillman) replacing ousted Luman devotee Harmony Cobel (a ridiculously fun Patricia Arquette) as the supervisor of the severed floor. The whole cast is great, but the work of Lower (“Man Seeking Woman”) in this first half-plus of Season Two is exceptional.
The dystopian, often horrifying “Severance” remains whip-smart and surprisingly humorous in spots.
None of this is to say I don’t have my worries about “Severance.”
Not since the series “Lost,” which ran for six seasons on ABC from 2004 through 2010, have I enjoyed examining the clues offered by a show hinting at where its overall narrative is leading. And yet there is the inevitable concern with any “mystery box” show such as “Severance” that the writers are, for lack of a better phrase, making it all up as they go and hoping the story ends up in a satisfying place.
“Lost” increasingly caused this concern. You’d think, “How can they possibly make sense of all the weird and wild things they’ve shown us?” As with its final season, the finale of “Lost” was, at best, OK. The “Lost” folks eventually released an epilogue that answered many lingering questions, but that’s not exactly exquisite storytelling.
And yet I’m too far down the rabbit hole with “Severance” to stop now, delighting in videos made by YouTube channels such as Nautilus Files and ScreenCrush that repeat theories that are out there and serve up their own. (Do not watch ScreenCrush’s next-level breakdown of the second-season premiere if you do not wish to be exposed to what seems to be a highly plausible and well-researched guess as to what Luman’s ultimate aim is.)
“Severance” seemingly takes place in a reality slightly different from ours, with the series set in the town of Kier — named for Luman founder Kier Egan, whose legend is celebrated for the benefit of the severed employees — in a state with the postal abbreviation PE. It’s possible this alternate reality might have a meaningfully different history, which may be greatly informing the narrative.
I’m relieved to see Stiller tell The New York Times he knows the ending of “Severance.” And I’m comforted by Erickson — who amazingly had next to no television experience before dreaming up and showrunning this gem — saying the kinds of things I want to hear in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
“I’m very conscious of not wanting to string people along or make them feel like there are no answers to be had because that’s not fun,” he tells the publication. “But, at the same time, you can over-explain something and take the wonder out of it. I think that the key to that is that every answer opens a new door, and there are new wonders to explore.”
As strange as it may sound, what I truly want to hear is that “Severance” IS ending.
I certainly want it to be reviewed for a third and, at least, a fourth season. But while nothing would make me happier than, say, 10 incredibly strong seasons of the show, that seems wholly unrealistic.
Apple and the show deciding on how much more of “Severance” would give me some level of confidence that the show will end in a fitting way — something as fun to talk about as what’s come before it.
Apple not long ago renewed the strong science-fiction show “Silo,” an adaptation of a trilogy of novels by Hugh Howey that just concluded its second season, for a final two seasons with the promise of wrapping up the story.
Do something similar with “Severance” — start working to take it away from us.
If this show is allowed to drag on until it’s no longer the most engrossing experience that TV has to offer, I may have to look into a procedure that will make me forget it ever existed.
Second-season episodes of “Severance,” rated TV-MA, debut on Fridays through March 21 on Apple TV+. Also check out “The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott,” an excellent companion to the show that debuts along with new episodes.