By: Papa Minnow

Season 2 spoilers ahead in this article

Severance is one of the hottest shows on TV right now and for good reason. Season one of the series was essentially flawless and easily one of the best seasons in TV history. 

While having a strong first season is crucial in today’s landscape of endlessly great shows, it also comes with grand expectations that can be a detriment to a show’s longevity. Take Netflix’s Arcane for instance.

Season one of Arcane was also flawless. It delivered incredible pacing, worldbuilding, character development and plot. However, season two threw all that away for a half-baked storyline that led nowhere and left fans with a ton of questions.

The one answer fans did get however was that there will not be a season three and the show is now cancelled. Severance won’t follow that same path, season three was greenlit, but season two was quite messy with some glaring flaws.

Pacing Issues

One of the biggest proponents of season one’s success was its pacing. Every storyline had enough screen time to develop and didn’t linger past its welcome.

The show starts with a rigid and timid group full of questions as to who they are on the outside, why they work for Lumon, and what even is Lumon? But as the story progressed the characters got more emboldened to discover answers which came with resolutions but also more questions that built anticipation.

It was a perfect storm of “Oh s**t!” and “WTF?” moments blended together. It all culminated in a climactic ending that left viewers with several cliffhangers and clamoring for more from the subsequent season two.

Conversely, Season two is much more of a slow burn. Viewers are drip fed details that often lead to more “What the fuck?” questions than delivering answers.

The biggest issue with this is in how the directors chose to tell the story. A lot of season two’s focus was directed towards the cinematography, which is visually incredible, but comes off underwhelming when a long scene with no dialogue is shot and the payoff or understanding of that scene isn’t relevant until much later. 

It strips the viewer of their emotional attachment and gives them less reason to care. And there are many scenes that felt placed only as a means to say, “Look how cool this looks.”

Following the events of season one, it appeared as if we’d learn more about what Lumon is actually doing and have the cast’s aim be focused on solving that mystery. The writers showed us the goat room, but all that amounted to was the discovery of it being a whole department with weird herders.

More questions, not enough answers. The goats’ purpose was only revealed in the finale and by then the stakes were so high the reveal felt trivial.

Another issue with the pacing was in the writer’s focus on telling the story of a single character. We got Irving’s dinner with Burt, Gemma’s life with Mark and Lumon, and Cobel’s return back home.

The storylines were well written and thought out, but the problem with this method is the season’s length. It works well if a season is 13 episodes, but severance is a 10 episode season with intricate storylines and details. 

Spending 30% of your season solely on the storyline of basically three characters does not do well for the pacing of the show when these episodes are separate from the main plot. Some of this could have been woven in better with the season’s plot.

Which leads to my final issue…

Weak Story Lines

Season two introduced quite a few new storylines that paid off by the end of the season, but also introduced storylines that fell flat. Given the intricate details of the show, I’m willing to bet that some of these stories will pay off in season three; however, their confusing introductions left much to be desired within season two. 

Let’s start with the fat elephant in the room: Ms. Huang. We get introduced to Huang at the start of the season and are immediately hit with the question of “Why is there a little girl working as the floor supervisor of Lumon?”

The only answer we get is that she’s the new number two to Milchick as Milchick was to Cobel. But we have no idea where she’s from or why she got hired.

Her motivations are a complete mystery. Perhaps she is a symbol of how evil Lumon is to support child labour, but outside of that symbolism we’re left with little to nothing.

Here’s hope that her story evolves in season three; however, her role in season two was more annoying as a storyline than intriguing.

The other storyline that didn’t do much plot wise was Dylan and Gretchen. It is by no means a terrible one because there are some positives with this storyline.

It’s great that the writers expanded upon Dylan’s OTC storyline from season one, revealing that he had a family and his innie grew a desire to see them. And in true Severance fashion we get a relationship development of Gretchen and Dylan’s innie presented in a way where she’s “cheating” on Dylan’s outie: which is an incredible idea.

The main issue with this storyline is how fast it all unfolds. The initial scenes did a great job in displaying the awkwardness between innie Dylan and Gretchen meeting for the first time, but the gradual emotional buildup didn’t feel as natural.

Their relationship also diminished innie Dylan’s badassery within his work, which took him out of the season. Especially with the departure of his best Irving.

Which leads to the last storyline that felt weak this season: Irving & Burt. We saw how deep their innie love for each other was in season one.

They appeared magnetically drawn towards the other as if by fate, only for it to end abruptly leaving a lot of unresolved emotions.

Their outies seem to have this same loving fixation since Irving had prior knowledge of Burt’s house in the finale of season one. Irving’s outie also has an obsession with painting the dark hallway and Burt’s innie dealt a lot with art.

There’s far more to the two’s origins at Lumon than meets the eye which leaves a lot of intrigue as to who they are to the company and what they mean to each other. However, we don’t get any of those answers this season.

Viewers are kept completely in the dark. We know Burt was meant to eliminate Irving by Lumon’s request but couldn’t bring himself to do it. Conversely, Irving seems to be on a mission to expose or end Lumon.

It would have been more impactful if we were given a more in depth hint on what either of their roles are or how they came to be rather than just a dinner about their love.

Season two wasn’t a disaster by any means, there was still a lot to enjoy and uncover especially with how bombastic the finale was and how it tied certain story threads up. The biggest problems with season two lie mostly within the amount of mystery that goes unanswered and the pace of how it unfolds in comparison to a flawless season one.

Severance is still one of the best shows on TV and season three should deliver some satisfying conclusions to the open threads still left frayed.

Featured image via: Severance Season Trailer (YouTube)