The idea of modern life as a dystopia hiding in plain sight has been beloved by science fiction going back to JG Ballard, if not further. It was in that tradition that producer/director Ben Stiller followed in 2022 with the first season of Severance (Apple TV +) – about a workplace where the staff literally had their personality sucked out at the start of every day.
The concept struck a chord with viewers – many in the process of being dragged back to their desks after Covid. But Severance was more than a gimmicky proposition receiving the prestige TV treatment by Stiller (taking time out from his comedy career). It spun the memory-wipe premise into an engaging thriller about a quartet of employees of shady biotech giant Lumon Industries who twig their work/life balance is dangerously out of whack.
Our heroes were widower Mark (Adam Scott), quietly idealistic Irving (John Turturro), short-fused Helly (Britt Lower) and nerdish Dylan (Zach Cherry). They were “Innies” – Lumon lifers with no recollection of their outside (“Outie”) life.
But the curtain was snatched away in the finale when Dylan stayed behind at Lumon, manipulating a device in the office that allowed his colleagues access their real-life memories. With the flick of a switch, the bombshells were unleashed. Helly was the privileged daughter of Lumon’s Machiavellian founder. Mark’s wife might still be alive, and he may have potentially have bumped into her at work.
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It was the perfect pay-off – potentially too perfect, given that season two seems to have no idea what to do next. Should it press reset and go back to the core premise of four workers toiling in oblivion? Or expand the universe of Severance beyond the four walls of Lumon?
The unsatisfactory solution chosen by writer and creator Dan Erickson is to try to do both – resulting in a muddle that comes off like a smudged photocopy of series one.
The action begins back at Lumon, where Mark and his co-workers are struggling to process what they’ve learned about the organisation and their own twilight existence. Awkwardly, their bosses are aware that their secret is out, placing the foursome under scrutiny as never before.
But with the central concept of a secret work life now tampered with, the show has to fill in the cracks and build up the world outside Lumon. This isn’t entirely successful, and there are echoes of the dire Matrix sequels, which similarly struggled once they moved on from the big idea that sustained the original film.
Stiller’s directing has the wonderfully chilly qualities of a 1970s sci-fi movie – George Lucas’s THX1138 or Logan’s Run with bonus paper clips. There is also a conveyor belt of guest stars, including Gwendoline Christie and Alia Shawkat (Christopher Walken is back too, as loyal Lumon employee Burt).
But the magic has been ruined slightly now that Mark and the gang know they are cogs in a manipulative machine. Fans will still want to spend time with the characters. However, for the wavering viewer, this purgatorial workplace drama is in danger of receiving its P45.
