“Severance”, a surreal and elegant season 2 to watch on Apple TV +

After three years of absence, fans of “Severance” will finally be able to reunite with their “heroes” and their unenviable situation from January 17, 2025 on Apple TV+. Indeed, we were able to find the time long, even if “Squid Game” and “Stranger Things” took similar breaks. A look back at the first season is therefore necessary.

This series features employees working for the company “Lumon Industries”. These employees have had an electronic chip implanted in their brain: their consciousness is divided into a “personal self” and a “professional self”. He passes from one to the other when they take, by hiring, the elevator allowing them to access their workplace. Their entire personal identity (who they are, where they live, who they love) is erased, all during the workday.

The main character, Mark Scout, played by newly promoted Adam Scott, must guide newcomer Helly Riggs, played by Britt Lower, by showing her the ropes. However, the daily routine will be shaken up when Mark’s best friend, Petey, a former employee of the company, manages to reintegrate Mark’s memories, allowing him to remember his professional and personal life. This will upset the idealized concept of his work. From the start, Helly is reluctant to stay and attempts to escape several times. The employees will unite to rebel against their employer and develop a plan to finally discover the truth. The last image of season 1 shows Mark learning that Gemma, his supposedly dead wife, is alive and well.

Adam Scott’s picks

Ben Stiller directs five of the ten episodes of this new season. He reveals that actor Adam Scott was asked a lot: “He dug deep, explored in depth his character that he understands and knows so well. We were constantly talking about choices, options for a path forward for Mark. He has to go through many high-stakes experiences and emotionally charged situations like no one has ever had to go through. Adam very clearly chose to make the Mark on the inside a completely different man than the one on the outside. He remembers being married and knows that he will do everything to find his wife while knowing that he has no real connection with her. At the same time, his double will develop feelings for his colleague Helly and their relationship becomes more and more linked. This is what this second season will partly be based on.”

Jessica Lee Gagné, the director of photography, says: “A particularity, the flashbacks were shot, the old-fashioned way, on film. The result is particularly magnificent, it’s unlike anything else in the series.”

Over the course of the episodes, the public, who yearns for definitive and clear explanations, will be in turn satisfied then disappointed, intrigued and surely disconcerted. Those who return to “Severance” for the staging and its cold and disturbing settings will be served.