Created by Dan Erickson and directed by actor Ben Stiller and filmmaker Aoife McArdle, the science fiction series Severance (which can be translated as ”separation” in French) managed to attract the attention of viewers during its first season, in February 2022 on Apple TV+.
Three years later almost to the day, here its second season arrives, still on the same platform, starting this Friday, January 17 with two episodes, before the rest of the series is broadcast weekly.
Computers and kids
But the wait is great. Because Severance is in line with works like Twin Peaks or Lostwith a big, more or less cryptic mystery to solve. Here, everything revolves around Lumon Industries, a company located in our time in the United States, with unexplained goals, and whose employees follow a program separating their professional memories from their daily lives – the famous Severance of the title.
In this abstruse company, where computers from the 1980s rub shoulders with kids, we follow the members of the Macrodata Refinement department (what are they for? Still a mystery…) in their attempts to understand their work: Mark (Adam Scott) , who underwent this procedure to forget the death of his wife, Helly (Britt Lower), new employee who cannot bear the loss of her memories, Irving (John Turturro), who would like to get closer to Burt (Christopher Walken) from the Optics & Design department, and Dylan (Zach Cherry). Facing them, a hierarchy that seems just as cut off from the world: Mrs. Casey the psychologist (Dichen Lachman), the formidable supervisor Seth Milchick (Tramell Tillman) and their boss, Harmony Cobel (Patricia Arquette).
-Questions of memory
Evoking as much the degenerate bureaucracy of Brazil that the crazy daily life of The Office, Severance succeeds in creating its own identity by exploring all the themes around memory, carried in particular by a remarkable Adam Scott/Britt Lower duo.
Severance brings new characters into this season, including Gwendoline Christie, one of the stars of Game of Thronesin a still mysterious role. But will the new episodes answer the various questions already raised? Hard to say…
“Severance” season 2 on Apple TV+, two episodes starting this Friday, January 17.
