My review of “Severance” is based on the two seasons that were released between 2022 and 2025. The first season is simply 10 out of 10, one of the best writing that I watched recently. Screenwriters managed to build an intense and mysterious plot. I was genuinely curious to understand what was the purpose of Lumon, in which shady activities the company was involved and why they had to sever people to perform the job.
Many questions that are answered along the way, however there was always that aura that kept me going on with the watch. The idea of having two separate personalities that have no recollection of each other, despite sharing the same physicality, is compelling and original. This element allowed a peculiar character development.
A minimalistic and liminal vibe
Overall the production is very minimalistic and cold, to highlight the dystopian nature of the story. Inside Lumol we have long white halls and many liminal and spacious rooms that are incredibly unsettling. Clearly there are a lot of references to “1984” where Big Brother is represented by The Board. Outside the company, the production keeps a simple photography, where for most of the time we see snowy landscapes.
There is clearly no real happy place for the protagonists of this show, that need also to face the constant critiques that the society is moving towards the company and the related severance procedure, which is subject to a lot of public controversies. These small details make the difference, enriching the plot.
The second season was very stagnant, giving little to no tangible answers
The second season manages to keep the same quality from a technical perspective but not in terms of story development. I feel that the pace was incredibly slow down and there are quite a few fillers that, despite having some interesting moments, are mostly pointless. While I see the efforts in taking the show in different directions, by displaying the characters more outside the context of the enterprise, I feel that the show remains unnecessarily cryptic.
Creators needed to unveil more of what is behind the company. Episode 8 “Sweet Vitriol” was the perfect opportunity to do that, but instead we got some useless information about Cobel that left me with a bittersweet feeling. The ending of the second season is very tense and has some good scenes, but once again it provides almost no accomplishment.
While I hope that in the future there are going to be some tangible solutions to the many enigmas, I am quite disappointed by the turn that “Severance” took in its latest season. This reason made me drop the rating from 10 to 7.5. Despite all the complaints, I still believe that this is one of the best sci-fi TV productions out there at the moment, and it is worth watching.