"Severance" returns: Apple TV+ announces season two release date

Groundbreaking, exceptional, phenomenal. The adjectives full of admiration for Ben Stiller's series can be multiplied endlessly. "Severance" entered Apple TV+ quietly and unnoticed and became a hit. At last, we know the date of the second season.

After a long period of uncertainty, pleading, and worries from viewers, Apple TV+ released the trailer for the second season of "Severance," the series that became the revelation of 2022. Production on the continuation was interrupted due to ongoing strikes by actors and writers in Hollywood; however, the crew has returned to the set. Apple TV+ is a platform that perhaps cares less about promoting its titles (certainly in the Polish market), so all information about the title was fragmented and came from the executive producer, actor Ben Stiller, rather than the distributor. But it is here now, and no one can take it away from us: the second season will be released on VOD on January 17, 2025.

It is a sci-fi thriller examining an extraordinarily intriguing concept: what if we extended the idea of separating private life and work to the extreme? When we enter the company, we forget who we are outside of it. When we leave for home, we have no idea what we've been doing at work. The series makes this possible by surgically dividing a person's memory into internal and external.

Mark (played by Golden Globe, Emmy, and Saturn Award-nominated Adam Scott) is a man engulfed in grief and depression after the death of his wife. The only escape from a life of pain he sees is in a job where someone "turns off" his memory and awareness of who he is outside. In the mysterious Lumon company, he leads a team of people like him, with no knowledge of why they are there, who they really are, and what they are escaping from.

Lumon is a great mystery; it is unknown what this company does. The employees' days pass in meaningless numbers matching on computer screens. Those "inside" have no idea how unhappy people "outside" are because there is no communication between them.

"Severance" is a sophisticated, dramatic version of "Black Mirror." The series received three Golden Globe nominations and as many as 12 Emmy nominations. Still, unfortunately, it had no chance in the same category as "Succession" (which explains calling "The Bear" a comedy series to avoid competing with the unbeatable HBO series). The executive producer is Ben Stiller. Alongside Scott, the cast includes Patricia Arquette, John Turturro, and Zach Cherry. According to the trailer, the second season will feature "Game of Thrones" and "Wednesday" star Gwendoline Christie.

The first season ended with a dramatic cliffhanger when the two worlds of Lumon employees, external and internal, were finally about to merge. In a few months, viewers will discover what happened after Mark shouted, "She's alive!".