★★★★★
“Was a Pineapple Involved?”.
Opening with a disorientating, Mission Impossible-esque shot of Mark (Adam Scott) running through the severed floor, Severance season two takes no time to get going.
Erickson’s first two episodes cover the fallout of season one’s explosive finale, devoting their entire narratives to both the ‘innie’ and ‘outie’ perspectives of events. Acting as a bridge between the smaller scale of the first outing and an expected grander scale for the second season, the episodes delve further into the ‘outie’ lives of Helly, Dylan, and Irving.
Despite airing four years after the first season, Severance has not yet run out of things to say. The series continues to be one of the most thought-provoking shows on our screens, and persists in exploring our commonplace practices of compartmentalised trauma, drawing parallels to the isolated minds of the cast on the severed floor. Examining the innies and all that they have suffered, the third episode suggests that this suppression ultimately leads to new pains and new traumas. Before ending with a cliffhanger most shows would leave for the season finale.
Despite a high bar, season two seems a beaming visual upgrade from its 2022 predecessor. Actor-turned-director Ben Stiller’s lighting and more sweeping cinematic pans are a treat for the eyes, with a standout being Samuel Donovan’s directing of the second episode. From an animated office building voiced by Keanu Reeves to a bizarre emphasis on pineapples, weirdness remains front and centre, and it’s only getting stranger.
Severance is set to create splashes in the television landscape once again, as it continues to tickle every aspect of the mind with convoluted mysteries and gorgeous cinematography wrapped in an irreplaceable aesthetic. With early murmurings of episode four (released by the time of this article) telling of narrative innovations, I can only hope that season two continues the show’s legacy as one of the most intriguing shows on television currently.
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