"Severance," Year Two

Minor spoilers ahead.

So, things are a little different on the Severed Floor since the last time we saw the Macro Data Refinement (MDR) crew. Lumon tries replacing everybody in the premiere episode except for Mark, which doesn't work because Mark realizes he has leverage and refuses to continue at Lumon without his innie friends.  Ms. Cobel has been removed - maybe given a new job, maybe fired - and Milchick is the new supervisor.  He has his own assistant too, a sinister child employee called Ms Huang (Sarah Bock).  Other Lumon employees like enforcer Mr. Drummond (Darri Olafsson) and the head of Mammalians Nuturable, Lorne (Gwendoline Christie), start popping up.  We meet more people from the main characters' outie lives too, like Dylan's wife Gretchen (Merritt Wever), Burt's husband Fields (John Noble), and Helena's father, Jame Eagan (Michael Silberry).   

There's a greater tension hanging over everybody this year, because we know that the Lumon leadership wants something out of Mark, and are willing to play nice until they get it, but neither Mark or anyone else in the MDR department  have any idea what this is.  Multiple other parties, including ex-Lumon employees like Burt and Reghabi (Karen Aldridge), are interacting with the outie characters in pursuit of their own agendas.  The innies, however, are slowly but surely discovering their own wants and needs, which increasingly come into conflict with the desires of their outie selves.  We get some really compelling character drama this year as the innie and outie worlds keep colliding in more interesting ways.  The bizarre absurdity of Lumon's corporate culture also continues to be a highlight.  This year, we're treated to a wilderness retreat, more weird animatronic figures, disturbing artwork, an industrial video with celebrity cameos, and a visit from the Choreography and Merriment department in the nail-biting finale.       

While I'm glad that the show is more popular, I don't think that the increased scrutiny of "Severance" is doing it any favors.  This is a show full of mysteries, where theorizing about the weird cult of Kier and the intentions of the Lumon leadership are part of the fun, but in the end these parts of the show feel pretty arbitrary.  "Severance" is  more concerned with its corporate nightmare vibes than with intricate plotting or unravelling conspiracies.  This season really boils down to a handful of characters with opposing interests, all trying to pursue what they want.  However, it gets complicated because some of those characters are sharing the same bodies.  I was really torn between innie Mark and outie Mark by the end of the season, and ended up rooting for Gemma.  The love triangle (or pentagram?) didn't come off as well as it could have, though, because we got so little of Helly this year.  Other characters like Irving and Cobel also felt shortchanged.  I can see a lot of the viewers being frustrated that the major revelations come so slowly - there's a reintegration subplot that doesn't seem to go anywhere, and two episodes that follow side characters late in the season, stalling some of the momentum - but the show is really good at paying things off.  There are some missteps along the way, but the highs are very high.

I suspect, however, that "Severance" can't go on for much longer at this level of quality unless it fundamentally changes its premise.  The fragile world of the Severed Floor is so fascinating because it feels so temporary and fleeting.  But beyond that, we're starting to come to some natural endpoints.  Burt and Irving's storyline, for instance, seems to have resolved itself.  There are only so many times the employees can quit and be coaxed back to maintain the status quo, and nothing happening outside the Lumon building feels very important anymore.  However, I understand why Dan Erickson and  Ben Stiller are reluctant to move too quickly.  "Severance" has a very particular mood and tone that might not withstand too much meddling with the existing formula.  Riding that thin line between absurd and sinister must be a challenge.  This set of episodes erred on the sinister side more often than not, and I admit that I liked the show better in its first season, when the stakes weren't quite so high, and the liminal strangeness was more pronounced.   

That doesn't mean that "Severance" didn't have a great year, or that I'm not very gung-ho for the next one.  I just want to acknowledge that "Severance" has changed and continues to change as a series, and I'm having to adjust my expectations along with it. The cast is fantastic through and through, with Trammell Tillman as the MVP.  Gemma's episode is one of the most beautifully directed hours of television I've seen this season.  The finale, however, is my favorite for ratcheting up the suspense to unbearable levels, and springing some delightful surprises on the audience.  There really isn't any other show out there right now that can do what "Severance" does.   

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