Ah yes, the plague of bad second seasons has affected Severance. It’s the 5th one on the list of shows whose second seasons I was genuinely excited for, only to be disappointed at the end. The 1st series that was struck by this odd affliction was Silo. That was followed by Bandidos. Then came Paatal Lok. After that was Squid Game. Now we have Severance. I wasn’t hyped for these shows in a fanboy-ish way where I wanted them to be masterpieces, and anything short of that would be considered utter garbage. My interest had been piqued by the 1st seasons of these titles, and I was looking forward to what came next. And all I got was an unhealthy dose of bad storytelling. I didn’t expect Severance Season 2 to suffer from the sophomore slump because Season 1 had such intelligent writing, direction, acting, production design, and more. Yet, here we are. So, allow me to express my dismay so that I can move on.
Spoiler Alert
1. Filler Episodes
Every time people complain about filler episodes in recent TV shows, you’ll find a bunch of snobs pushing their literal or metaphorical specs up the bridge of their nose and saying that filler episodes are a common aspect of episodic storytelling and those who scoff at it should just shut up. A YouTube channel that I follow, Entertain the Elk, explained the importance of filler episodes whilst highlighting the fact that they were tolerable because they were usually used in TV shows with around or more than 20 episodes. Nowadays, TV shows rarely have 10 episodes. So, to divide that limited time between plot-heavy storytelling and filler is plain stupid. And then there’s the quality of said filler episodes. Did we really need entire episodes to get an idea of Harmony and Gemma’s respective pasts? Especially when the main plot is barely gaining momentum? The Harmony-centric episode has been deservedly lambasted, but I think the Gemma-centric episode was equally bad; maybe worse because of its use of a heavily-maligned trope.
2. Unsatisfactory Main Plot
Correct me if I am wrong, but I guess that the 2 main objectives of the primary plot of the show were saving Gemma and reintegrating Mark. We learned that Gemma was in the basement of the Lumon building in Kier Town. Fine, that’s great. How did the Innies of Dylan, Helly, and Mark learn about that basement? From Irving. How did Irving get the elaborate directions to the Exports department? Probably from Felicia. How and why did Felicia have such a detailed idea of the path to the Exports hallway? I have no clue. So, there goes the foundation of 1 of the 2 main objectives of the primary plot. On top of that, the rescue mission is so uncharacteristically convenient that even if the objective is fulfilled—saving Gemma—it doesn’t really hit. Then there’s the reintegration. Such an ungodly amount of time is spent on reintegrating Mark, and then, nothing. There’s a gaping hole in Mark’s head, and it’s not even a big deal. Yes, the show is in the sci-fi genre, which means there are no rules, but messing with the fictional world’s own internal governing principle is never a good idea.
3. Odd Subplots
Oh man! I don’t even know where to start with the subplots. Milchick’s arc was about racism and standing up to it, I guess. Then, by the end, he continued fighting for Lumon. Miss Huang was present in almost every other episode. It seemed like that was leading up to something, but no, it didn’t. Harmony just drove around for a bit and then revealed that she was the brains behind the severance project. Great. Then what? Nothing. Ricken got some attention. Why? Because Lumon wanted him to write a book for the Innies. Yes, the same Lumon that was preparing a program that would essentially turn the Innies into robots. Make that make sense. Reghabi hung around till the 7th episode and then vanished. We never really got to know why she was doing what she was doing. Dylan and Gretchen’s whole subplot was such a massive nothingburger. It had potential for some great conflict. But I guess the writers thought that it was too similar to the conflict between Mark’s Outie and Innie. So, they just wrapped it up haphazardly. Irving, in my opinion, got the perfect ending in episode 4. Then they stretched his arc a little more and ruined it all. However, I guess that the odd writing of the subplots is merely a symptom of a larger problem.
4. Mystery Box Storytelling
If you’re not familiar with JJ Abrams’ infamous mystery box style of storytelling, here’s the gist of it: if your story is set in the mystery genre, you basically avoid answering what’s at the core of the story for as long as possible. That leads to all kinds of theories and speculation, thereby generating intrigue. And when you notice your audience’s attention span waning, you either add more mysteries or keep them hooked by incorporating a fan theory into the plot. The 1st season did do a lot of that, but it was balanced by its over-the-top critique of capitalism. The 2nd season went overboard with the questions they were throwing at the audience, though. Is Mark dying? How did Gemma fake her death? What is up with the goats? What is up with Jame? What was Drummond’s whole deal? What is Reghabi’s angle? What is Mauer’s plan? What is Cold Harbor exactly? What’s myth and what’s the truth about the Eagans? Was Burt some kind of a hitman? What was Fields insinuating with all that church talk? Where does the train go, and where does it come from? Were those clones of Mark, Helly, Irving, and Dylan at the Dieter Eagan National Forest? The list goes on. And trust me, there’s no way to answer these questions in a satisfying fashion. All of them have been thrown into the mix just to pad the runtime and slow down the audience’s urgency to get to the bottom of Lumon’s activities. That’s understandable, but I guess some thought-provoking alternatives to these questions would’ve been a better way to solve the conundrum of delaying the inevitable revelation of the Eagans’ masterplan.
5. Repetitive and Redundant Themes
I don’t think Season 2 of Severance had anything interesting to say. I don’t think it even fleshed out the themes and messages of Season 1 in a cohesive and provocative way. I suppose the writers tried to focus more on the personal side of the central four characters, which is fine, at least on paper. But when it came to balancing all that with the whole “capitalism is the real evil” stuff, I feel that they completely fumbled the ball. Much like The Bear, I had a very visceral reaction to Severance Season 1’s portrayal of work-life balance. I kept thinking and thinking about office culture in real life, how it’s being celebrated and normalized, and how people are justifying their decision to become corporate slaves. The show served its purpose, and I was a satisfied customer. I can’t say the same about Season 2. It was just too scattered, repetitive, and incoherent to make any kind of impact on an emotional level. Well, they got to save Gemma, and I guess that’s something.
6. Forgettable Dialogue
Apart from the “devour feculence” interaction between Milchick and Drummond, Season 2 had nothing to offer in terms of memorable pieces of dialogue. This problem probably arises from the fact that the characters spent more time outside than inside Lumon, and the line between the Innies and the Outies has been blurred. In the 1st season, it felt like the Innies were discovering the English language and trying to communicate according to the guidelines of the company while also letting their individuality flourish. That stood in stark contrast to how they conversed as their Outies. In the 2nd season, everything felt same-ish, and the vocabulary that was used by the characters to express themselves was really bland. That’s why Milchick stood out, because his whole shtick was that he used “big words.” Another reason why the dialogue probably seemed off was because the writers were trying too hard to not reveal anything substantial and were saving the meat of the plot twists for future seasons. Hence, the characters kept repeating the same piece of information in slightly different ways. You won’t notice it in the first 2 episodes, but it became really noticeable after that.
7. Pacing
In my opinion, every single second in each episode in the 1st season was used incredibly efficiently. The runtime ranged from 45 minutes to nearly an hour, and I was always left yearning for more. In the 2nd season, it was the exact opposite. Barring the first 2 episodes, the pacing was glacial at best and horrible at worst. And Ben Stiller and his team can claim all they want that it was intentional, but it won’t convince me that they failed when it came to executing whatever they intended to do. I mean, there were long stretches of empty space that added up to just nothing. Sure, if the main plot and the subplots were stressful enough, maybe I would’ve enjoyed some breaks. However, if your storytelling is made up of a bunch of long breaks with some occasional spurts of energy, then you’ve lost me. To be clear, I am all for changing the established rhythm and tempo of a show over the course of 2 seasons. That said, if it doesn’t enrich the viewing experience, what’s even the point? Do I really need to watch 4 unathletic people walking across a snowy forest for so long? Do I really need to watch that many minutes of setup of the goat people just for a miniscule payoff? Do I have to watch a whole episode of people huffing paint or some other drug to understand the Eagans’ destructive nature? No, I don’t. I am sure there’s an audience for this, but I am clearly not among them.
8. Let’s Be Honest, That Finale Was Bad
I am just going to say it out loud: that finale was really bad. I don’t know what they were going for. It seemed like they tried to one-up the music dance experience and the overtime contingency sequences from the 1st season, but instead of doing something innovative with those concepts, they just made everything louder and more frenetic. If the lead-up to this “action-packed” final episode wasn’t so scattershot and shaky, maybe I would’ve enjoyed the release of some kind of pent-up tension. But boring the hell out of me over 9 episodes and then releasing a final episode that ran for a whopping 1 hour and 16 minutes was nothing short of criminal. And I think we need to put a stop to this practice of exceeding the 1-hour mark (maybe some pun intended) in order to “give the fans more of what they want.” I don’t know which show started it, but Stranger Things Season 4 was the one that really overdid it. Regardless of the popularity of the IP, no show that’s currently airing or will be airing in the near future has enough material to justify 1 hr+ episodes. They just don’t. They hardly have material for a 40-minute-long episode. 76 minutes is simply mind-numbing. Yes, you can say that a 76-minute-long finale is like watching a movie. Here’s the thing though: I don’t have to do 18 hours of homework to understand a movie whose run time is less than 90 minutes, do I? If you’re going to make a feature-length finale, it better be more impressive than Citizen Kane, or else you’re just wasting my time.
9. Overconfidence Due to Overhype
The biggest indicator of a show probably being bad is the reduction in the number of episodes. I’ve learned this lesson from Squid Game, The Umbrella Academy, Arcane, Daredevil: Born Again, House of Cards, and House of the Dragon. And since I was so used to that, I didn’t get suspicious when Severance went from 9 episodes in the 1st season to 10 episodes in the 2nd season. Maybe I should have. Then, at the very least, I would have been mentally prepared for the disappointment that I am currently experiencing. I am trying to understand the reason behind this decision. At the cost of sounding repetitive, much like the show itself, the writers clearly didn’t have the material to justify the increase in the number of episodes. So, did they just give in to the hype? I mean, yes, the hype for that 1st season was insane, and maybe that got to the heads of Ben Stiller and his team. Hence, they decided to indulge themselves a bit (well, more than a bit) and not really care if they were making something bloated and bland. Good for them, I guess. It’s their project at the end of the day. They can be efficient about it, or they can faff about for more than 10 hours in the name of “giving the fans more of what they want.” I hope they keep increasing the number of episodes with each season and make that the most memorable aspect of the series instead of the themes, characters, or anything else that made that 1st season so iconic.
10. Overall, a Boring Viewing Experience
I think this is the most important reason why Severance Season 2 didn’t work for me. It was really boring. I can talk about the technical stuff, the narrative, the visual storytelling, and whatnot all day to justify why it didn’t click for me. But there’s a good chance that somebody who is more experienced than me in terms of analyzing art can refute all those points and say that I just don’t “understand” this medium of entertainment. Hence, for my final act, I am just going to say that this 2nd season of a show that I was genuinely excited for wasn’t my cup of tea. To be clear, I am open-minded enough to watch something that’s out of my wheelhouse and enhance my palate. And, at any point in this show, if I felt that it was doing stuff that I wasn’t used to, but I was still enjoying it, I wouldn’t have been here writing this goddamn list. Instead of being engrossed and “locked-in,” I found my mind checking out most of the time. While watching the 1st season, I had to take long breaks after every episode just to take in what I had witnessed. Meanwhile, every episode of the 2nd season had me searching for something stimulating so as to erase the tedious experience of watching said episode. Does this mean that I’m not going to tune into the 3rd season? If I’m not tasked with covering it on a weekly basis, trust me, I won’t. Do I hope that the 3rd season is good? Yes, I do. Anyway, those are just my thoughts on Severance Season 2. Do you agree with me? Do you disagree with me? Please, let me know in the comments section below.
