Managing Expectations (Severance Season 2)

I wrote my previous Severance post a little early

I Was Wrong

A little over a month ago I published my piece on Severance Season 2's Faster, Smarter Storytelling; I was feeling very high on the show after the first four episodes of the season and thought the consistent pacing of narrative beats up to that point would be indicative of how the rest of the season would go. The reality was a little different, but not entirely in a bad way.

Before I get into specifics, my opinion on this season and where the third might go: I think this is a great reminder about cautious optimism! I tend to be extremely skeptical about mainstream TV and film, but once I'm on board with a piece of media I'm a committed fan. As I've discussed before, my ADHD is always shaping my perspective into false dichotomies where a sliding scale would be more appropriate and useful.

So although it's sometimes tough for me, I think it's important to maintain a balanced perspective on some things; enjoying them while still holding a little skepticism in reserve. The reverse – trying things you're highly skeptical about – certainly has value too.

Anyway, let's get into Severance. (Spoilers for Severance Season 2 below.)

"The Exalted Victory of Cold Harbor" by Danny Aviles

Borrowed Time

In my previous Severance post I was ecstatic about the rapid-fire pace of revelations and plot developments in the first four episodes – I believed that the showrunners were setting a brisk pace because they had vast worlds to explore and were writing smarter TV, with less time taken to explain things to audience members who weren't paying as much attention.

(Even back in 2019 a poll suggested 88% of American viewers were using a second screen while listening to TV in the background – since then companies like Netflix have intentionally dumbed down their content so as not to alienate and confuse this disengaged audience.)

While the first four episodes of Severance's second season were certainly running at double speed, in reality this wasn't quite establishing a trend but rather simply borrowing time from the rest of the season. Episodes 5-9 advance the plot very little in their own right, instead working to process and flesh out many of the implications from 1-4.

Dylan & Gretchen, Helly & Mark, Milchick & Ms. Huang, Burt & Irving, Helena & the gang, etc. – we saw the main action of these relationships early on, then had to catch up on the emotional implications for most of the rest of the season. Unfortunately, the pattern my brain had found early on just left me wanting a return to the faster pace and I found these episodes to be a bit of a slog.

This was definitely exacerbated by episodes 7 & 8 being entirely dedicated to Gemma and Cobel respectively. I can certainly see the value of both – Gemma's journey is particularly touching, and important if she's stepping into a larger role in season 3 – but they also spelled doom for any hope I had of the gang's plot and character arcs moving much further this season.

"Severance" by lunarelles

Misaligned Understanding

And ultimately, my frustration arises from the simple fact that my expectations grew a little distant from what the showrunners were clearly aiming at. The first four episodes seemed to indicate a renewed interest in strange worldbuilding and in the relationships between the core group of characters, but in reality they were making room for the latter half of the season to move in new directions. If anything, the brief conflict with Helena served as a way of wrapping up and saying goodbye to the core MDR group before they all went their own ways.

It's also difficult to separate my feelings about the latter half of the season from Cobel's presence and role in it. Even learning that she invented the severance procedure doesn't help me contextualize her alien, off-putting screen time and Devon's strange trust in her. Visuals aside, the end of episode 9 was maybe the least interested I've ever been in a supposed cliff-hanger.

Personally, I think putting Cobel in the first half then bringing back Reghabi would have been far more rewarding. Then you could even have Mark's reintegration have actual implications this season, beyond putting him out of commission for half of it. That's maybe the biggest offender for me in terms of being misled by the early episodes; if it's going to take active steps to complete his reintegration, why even start him down that path? A shadowy, not quite sharp Sword of Damocles hanging over innie Mark's head?

And for a final time, I just have to express my disappointment in how little we really got of Dylan, Helly and especially Irving this season. At least Helly clearly has an essential role still moving forward; the other two feel barely relevant if they're even returning – incredibly rough for how interesting Irving's outie had been set up to be.

Eyes Forward

But there's no use dwelling on what might have been. My expectations for Severance going forward are drastically different than they were just a few weeks ago, and that's fine! To be fair, it was always difficult to imagine the show maintaining such a breakneck pace while retaining some quality and not completely jumping the shark in terms of its worldbuilding.

It's clear that season three will focus on the mess of relationships between the Marks, Helly/Helena and Gemma – but beyond that, who the hell knows? It's not like the innies have a job anymore, and the secrets of the Lumon building seem to all be on the table. I'm sure the writers will come up with something, though.

If you've made it this far, thanks very kindly for putting up with my ranting! Let me know if you'd be interested on another Severance piece on what I enjoyed this season and crackpot attempts at predicting where the next one might go.

In terms of managing expectations, I think this has also reminded me that all-out dedication to a piece of media isn't all that helpful to enjoying it. Let's all work on finding a middle ground between hyper-fixation and absent scrolling, shall we?

Until next time <3