‘Severance’ Season 2 Review: This Masterpiece Will Exceed Your Wildest Dreams (And Nightmares)

In May 2022, one month after Severance’s Season 1 finale premiered, I quit my job. Unlike the Macrodata Refinement (MDR) Team at Lumon Industries, my brain was chip-free, my professional and personal memories were synced, and I earnestly loved my company and its culture. But Severance found me, floored me, and inspired the pursuit of a career path I’d dreamt of for years.

Since leaving that job, I’ve covered dozens of remarkable television shows here at Decider, but Dan Erickson’s workplace thriller remained my most anticipated series. From the night I first watched Irving (John Turturro) bang on Burt’s (Christopher Walken) door, Helly (Britt Lower) tell a roomful of gala guests that innies are miserable prisoners, Mark (Adam Scott) learn his outie’s late wife is still alive, and Dylan (Zach Cherry) flip the Overtime Contingency (OTC) switch in Severance’s epic Season 1 finale, my Season 2 expectations swelled to dangerous heights. It’s been a painful, preposterously long three-year wait for new episodes, but performance reviews are finally in, and Severance Season 2 is exemplary.

The slump-free sophomore season of Erickson’s acclaimed Apple TV+ series, directed and executive produced by Ben Stiller, brilliantly builds on its near-perfect debut. When we reunite with Lumon’s new Severed Floor manager, Mr. Milchick (Tramell Tillman), he’s scrambling to do damage control after the OTC protocol allowed innies to roam the outie world for a significant stretch of time. He informs Mark that he and his MDR teammates achieved “international fame” for their whistleblowing efforts, which brought about a new, more lenient “severance reform.” One might fear, then, that roaming Lumon’s stark white halls for answers would be too simple this season, but the rebellious refiners face unexpected consequences as they navigate their next steps.

Armed with invaluable information from the outside world, Dylan is motivated to learn more about his outie’s family. Irving is heartbroken that his severed soulmate has another man at home. Helly is horrified by the knowledge that her outie, Helena Eagan, is Lumon’s future CEO. And Mark, still eager to explore his feelings for Helly, returns to office following the unshakable revelation that Wellness Director Ms. Casey (Dichen Lachman) is his outie’s wife, Gemma.

When we last saw Ms. Casey, she reluctantly braved the black hallway depicted in Outie Irving’s paintings and took the elevator down to Lumon’s terrifying testing floor. As Mark sets out to find her in Season 2, he uncovers new departments, alliances, and chilling truths that beget even more mysteries. Outside of Lumon, Mark’s concerned sister Devon (Jen Tullock) struggles to move past the “She’s alive!” of it all and thankfully gets more involved in his schemes. Her precious husband Ricken (Michael Chernus) is still flying high over Innie Mark’s adoration of his book. And Cobelvig (Patricia Arquette) — a helpful Harmony Cobel/Mrs. Selvig nomenclature courtesy of The You You Are author himself — plots to regain control in the wake of managerial missteps. 

“It’s been a painful, preposterously long three-year wait for new episodes, but performance reviews are finally in, and Severance Season 2 is exemplary.”

The 10-episode season (generously made available in full for review) drastically raises the stakes, tests loyalties, and creatively expands Severance’s story, surpassing viewers’ wildest dreams — and crucially, their nightmares. To quote our dearly beloved Dylan this season, “This is so many fucking dimensions of fucked.”

From exploring new floors of the building to traveling off-campus to uncover more of the biotech company’s murky history, Season 2 dives deeper into Lumon’s chilling lore, widening the scope and depth of its nefarious operations. Incredible writing and world-building will evoke deeper, darker discussions, with characters and viewers alike forced to confront the ethics of the severance procedure and the humanity of innies through various lenses. While Severance’s evolving premise remains one of TV’s most compelling, it wouldn’t hit nearly as hard without a meticulous attention to detail and rich, multi-faceted performances from an incredible cast.

As Season 2 gives greater insight into severed characters on and off the clock, Severance’s stars achieve dazzling duality. While solidifying their status as the best office friendship since Mark and Petey (Yul Vazquez), Cherry and Turturro show more emotional sides of Dylan and Irving. With her innie and outie’s personalities at odds, Lower effortlessly crafts conflicting iterations of her character. She exhibits striking subtleties while playing Helly, the defiant innie hell-bent on fighting for her rights, and Helena, the devout company exec who believes innies aren’t human. Meanwhile, Scott, who we spent the most time with outside of Lumon in Season 1, delicately refines the distinction between Innie and Outie Mark. As they struggle both to keep their inextricably linked realities straight, Scott builds up to a mind-boggling, career-great performance in the Season 2 finale. 

Among the show’s new characters, standouts include Miss Huang (Sarah Bock), the Severed Floor’s suspiciously young Deputy Manager, and Mr. Drummond (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson), yet another intimidating figure at Lumon. Milchick was a scene-stealer in Severance’s first season, but Tillman is an absolute knock-out this time around. He wholeheartedly commits to excellence every second Seth is on screen, exhibiting invigorating humor, pizazz, rage, and wit, while desperately trying to make hell more heavenly. His predecessor, Ms. Cobel, grapples with a loss of power and turns inward to revisit her twisted past, inspiring another mesmerizing showcase of Arquette’s talents. And to properly praise Lachman for her astonishing range this season would be revealing too much. 

In honor of Ms. Casey, I tried my best to enjoy every Season 2 episode equally and not show preference for any over the others, but with three especially ambitious installments that shatter the show’s traditional format, it proved an impossible feat. (That’s 30 points off. I have 70 points remaining.) We also get Severance‘s first all-innie and all-outie episodes, plus new environments that allow for experimentation, and location shoots that skillfully incorporate Kier, PE’s cold, grey winter.

Based on Season 1, it should come as no surprise that Severance’s Season 2 production slaps harder than Page 197 of MDR’s self-help bible. Thanks to breathtaking cinematography from directors of photography Jessica Lee Gagné, Suzie Lavelle, and David Lanzenberg the series remains a visual stunner in monumental and mundane scenes alike. Season 2 leans even harder into the bold — but different — aesthetics of the inside and outside world, which make the series so spellbinding. From the glow of a fish tank in Mark’s dark living room and a sunset reflecting on Lumon’s glass building to the tight framing of expressive eyes, partially-obstructed spy shots, or seamless glitch-like transitions between the two worlds, any single shot is a work of art worthy of a spot in the Louvre (or the equally esteemed Severed Floor lobby).

On top of clever use of lighting, camera movement, empty space, and color schemes, Emmy-winning composer Theodore Shapiro’s perfect score continues to evoke all the right emotions. While Season 2’s soundtrack varies in tone, threatening to lift or lower the mood at any given moment. Directors Samuel Donovan, Uta Briesewitz, Stiller, and Gagné bring Erickson’s story to life with incredible care. Stiller directs five episodes this season, including two superb standouts and the powerhouse finale. But it’s Gagné’s Episode 7 — an achingly gorgeous, captivating, and thought-provoking 50 minutes of television — that I keep turning over in my mind.

Though Severance’s second season delivers some satisfying answers and insights, at times, it’s more complex than the first. With so much ground to cover and a particularly urgent mission at hand, it occasionally struggles to balance screen time amongst characters and fails to fully flesh out a handful of intriguing new plot points — two issues that will hopefully be remedied down the line, as the show seems incredibly confident in its vision, even when viewers are not. When we’re meant to have the answers, I have faith that Severance will provide.

When the end credits roll on this latest batch of cohesive episodes and you’re left to reflect on the beautifully orchestrated chaos, there will be no taming your tempers. A new barrage of burning questions, anxieties, heartaches, and tempting urges to quit your own job will swirl around your head. While the thought of another multi-year gap between seasons is enough to fill any fervent fan with woe, there’s no denying this wait was well worth it, so we have faith the next will be, too.

Severance Season 2 premieres on Apple TV+ on January 17 with new episodes dropping weekly on Fridays.