Can a TV show, even a high-concept sci-fi drama, take you too far out on a limb?
That’s the question producers Ben Stiller and Dan Erickson face in Season 2 of Apple’s “Severance” (streaming Fridays, ★★★ out of four), about a world where people can literally sever their work and personal minds. Returning after nearly three years for a second go-round, just how crazy can the show get? How many mysteries can the writers introduce without resolving any of the old ones? How does the fictional super corporation Lumon Industries possibly make any money?
The season pushes the boundaries of what degree of trippy tomfoolery we can accept. In the stark white walls of Lumon, are the possibilities really limitless? At a certain point, does “Severance” just get too weird to be good?
Catch up on Season 1 with our recap:What you need to know for new season of “Severance”
So far it’s not clear; the six episodes made available for review (of the 10-episode season) seesaw between brilliance and buffoonery as they follow the lives of people at the mega-conglomerate. But some scenes will make you scratch your head so hard you’ll do amateur brain surgery. The new season doesn’t quite live up to the, ahem, luminosity of Season 1, but it could coalesce into a fantastic finale that leaves us breathless for more. Or it could belly flop harder than a Music Dance Experience.
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“Severance” picks up the very moment Season 1 finished. In that superb and heart-racing finale, “innie” office workers Mark S. (Adam Scott), Helly R. (Britt Lower) and Irving B. (John Turturro) found a way to “wake up” in the world outside the office building, with the help of co-worker Dylan G. (Zach Cherry). Mark learned his outie’s seemingly dead wife was alive and well and working at Lumon; Helly discovered her outie was the daughter of the company leader; and Irving went in search of his office crush, Burt (Christopher Walken). And disgraced Lumon manager Harmony Cobel (Patricia Arquette) may have just saved the day for the company.
In a frustrating-in-a-good way premiere, we see what happens next from the perspective of innie Mark, a mind-bending psychedelic rush of changing camera angles, sensory overload and bright blue and white lights. Episode 2 picks up the story from the point of view of the outies, and it’s off to the races with conspiracy theories, famous guest stars and inexplicable developments. There are delights, including a beefed-up role for Tramell Tillman as Seth Milchick, an ambitious middle manager that Tillman plays with barely contained delirium and rage. But then there are puzzlements: more unexplained goats, a freezing-cold field trip and a preteen office worker.
Barely any questions are answered and yet more are asked, which can be a frustrating-in-a-bad way experience. The fourth episode, which takes place in an unusual setting, might turn off some fans who are through with self-congratulatory sci-fi antics and just want the plot to deliver a solution to its puzzle box. After the explosive opener and an equally exciting Episode 2, the pace slows down and momentum is lost, only to pick up again by Episode 6. Maybe it’s trying to deliberately mimic the ups and downs of the office grind, but probably not.
The problem with such a conceptual series is that the writers can get lost in the mythology and leave the characters and less exciting plot beats behind. But we show up for all the futuristic corporate malfeasance because we care about both Marks. And when the show leans into its characters and finds ways to push them into its singular situations, then it grabs you with force. Yet even with convoluted stories, I feel compelled to watch “Severance” to its end. You probably will too. Its cast is that good, and the writing is, most of the time, that gripping.
The series hasn’t severed itself from its viewers. Yet.
