What if you could separate your work life from your personal life? Severance takes the work-life balance concept to science fiction heights, and the results in Season 1 were extraordinarily thrilling. I loved how the scenes were allowed to flow naturally. There were no attempts to grab the eyeballs of the audience every second with some major drama or twist. Severance doesn't mind when its characters pause and gather their thoughts before making any choice. Take the scene from Season 2, Episode 1, where Mark, Helly, and Dylan ask Irving what he saw outside. He remains quiet for a few seconds while the camera cuts to the faces of the other characters, eagerly waiting for a reply. Before this discussion regarding the innie's experience of the world outside, everybody watches an animated video where the Lumon building praises Mark and his colleagues for the action they took in the first season, which has apparently made their outies heroes in the eyes of the public. The video further explains that Lumon has realized and fixed its mistakes by promoting a better working environment that includes tasty new snacks, incentives ranging from hall passes to pineapple bobbing, and a brand-new room consisting of playful mirrors.
This corporate video serves as an amusing recap of the first season and also manages to mock the four employees by turning them into caricatures (Dylan experiences an orgasm after eating a snack). It informs us about the evolution of the Lumon building and its commitment to creating a happy workplace, yet it leaves out a crucial aspect. What do the severed employees do in their office? What do those "scary numbers" represent? Why was Lumon founded? What is its objective? Is it merely interested in doing a work-life experiment? While watching the first season, you didn't bother yourself too much with these questions because you were probably busy having fun coming up with various interpretations. For instance, the relationship between the severed employees and Lumon could be seen as a relationship between a parent and a child. The latter almost blindly follows the orders given by the former. And most parents prefer having kids who listen to them without launching into a protest. This is the kind of bond the company desires from their employees - complete subservience.
You can come up with more such notions, but with Season 2, Severance can no longer ask us to "form our own interpretations." We need details. We want to know more about Lumon, its board members, and its mission. I am also curious about the science behind the separation of work and home life. How exactly do certain memories remain while others disappear from the head? There are plenty of intriguing elements in Severance that I wish do not remain unexplored, and unexplained in this new season. For now, we can relish small details like how the corporate world sucks the joy out of entertainment. Do you remember Milchick's dance from the first season? It looked hilarious because of his rigid movements as if he was enjoying himself within particular constraints. In Season 2, Episode 1, we see Mark holding balloons and walking down the white corridors of the building. There is something comical about this visual, as it seems to give you the impression of watching an employee under strict orders to enjoy himself for the boss and the board members. I call moments like these "Severance Humor." They make you chuckle and leave you wondering about the peremptory connection between employees and employers. That animated video could have opened or ended with this line: Welcome to Lumon, where pleasure comes with terms and conditions, rules and regulations, validity, and a fixed range.
Final Score- [7.5/10]