< The second season of 'Severance' manages to be even weirder than the first

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

"Severance" returns for a second season today. That's the drama series about people whose memories are severed between work and home. NPR TV critic Eric Deggans says the show digs into its oddball premise this season to produce some of the year's weirdest and most adventurous TV.

ERIC DEGGANS, BYLINE: To understand the second season of "Severance," know this - when the characters undergo a procedure where they can only remember what happens at work when they're in the office, they essentially become two people in the same body. In the first season, each character recorded a message to themselves explaining how it all worked.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "SEVERANCE")

BRITT LOWER: (As Helly R) I give consent for my perceptual chronologies to be surgically split. Separating my memories between my work life and my personal life.

DEGGANS: At the end of "Severance's" last season - which debuted nearly three years ago - three of the inside consciousnesses, they're known as Innies, snuck outside their office at the mysterious Lumon Industries. One of them addressed a corporate function, telling the world what was really going on.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "SEVERANCE")

LOWER: (As Helly R) And everything they told you about severance is a lie. We're not happy. We're miserable. We're prisoners.

DEGGANS: Got that? Because that's important to keep in mind as "Severance's" second season begins. The season leans into the tribulations of the Innies - office drones who only know a life of meaningless tasks in a windowless room, working from 9 to 5. Adam Scott's character, Mark Scout, was one of the Innies who snuck outside last season. In the first episode of this new season, he's working with a new team of coworkers, including one played by Alia Shawkat, who wants to know what the Outie world was like.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "SEVERANCE")

ALIA SHAWKAT: (As Gwendolyn Y) Did you really see the Outie world?

ADAM SCOTT: (As Mark Scout) Yeah.

SHAWKAT: (As Gwendolyn Y) How's the sky?

SCOTT: (As Mark Scout) I don't know.

SHAWKAT: (As Gwendolyn Y) What, you didn't see it?

SCOTT: (As Mark Scout) Well, I went outside for a second, but I was distracted by my brother-in-law.

SHAWKAT: (As Gwendolyn Y) Seriously? Because we made a list of what we'd most like to see on the outside. Brothers-in-law weren't even on the list.

DEGGANS: This season of "Severance" looks closer at the ramifications of creating severed people. I'm not sure they've really explained how people with limited memories know English but can't remember what the sky looks like. Anyway, "Severance" tells its story with a bold, absurdist flare, fueled by stark visuals developed by director executive producer Ben Stiller. One moment, Mark is charging through an endless succession of white featureless corridors with a slinky jazz score ratcheting up the tension. The next moment, he's stuck in a team-building exercise with his new supervisor, who happens to be a preteen girl.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "SEVERANCE")

SARAH BOCK: (As Miss Huang) My name is Miss Huang. It's my first day here. Something about me is that before this, I was a crossing guard.

BOB BALABAN: (As Mark W) Why are you a child?

BOCK: (As Miss Huang) Because of when I was born.

DEGGANS: When Innie Mark tries to explain why he wants to find a woman in the office who was married to his outside consciousness, he gets a surprising response from his coworker, Helly, played by Britt Lower.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "SEVERANCE")

SCOTT: (As Mark Scout) You know, we're the same-ish person, so it's mushy.

LOWER: (As Helly R) It's mushy?

SCOTT: (As Mark Scout) Yes.

LOWER: (As Helly R) Is that what it is? We're not the same, actually. Us and the Outies, we're not. And speaking for myself, I don't think we owe them [expletive].

DEGGANS: Helly's outside consciousness, by the way, is the daughter of Lumon Industries' CEO. "Severance's" odd storytelling touches keep the characters - and viewers - off balance while serving up new mysteries and satirizing everything from ruthless corporate overloads to how terrible middle management jobs can be. It's a deliciously mind-bending array of mysteries that I don't want to spoil here. Just don't be surprised if it takes more than one viewing to understand it all.

I'm Eric Deggans.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

Copyright © 2025 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.