The long-awaited second season of Severance, Apple TV+‘s dark office drama about a company whose employees’ memories are “severed” while in the office, returns with more high-stakes drama, even more darkness, and — perhaps best of all — more Mr. Milchick (Tramell Tillman). If you thought Season 1 was weird… just wait. As the “innies” begin to learn more about the outer world, and the questions about Lumen continue to stack up, this immensely compelling series ratchets up the sci-fi as well as the tension.
“The brand of this show is that the more you dig, the more questions you have,” teases Tillman, though he also admits that viewers will get to know more about both Lumen and its employees this season, including the highly entertaining Mr. Milchick.
“My takeaway from Season 1 is very similar to my takeaway in Season 2. The first line in Season 1 is ‘Who are you?’ I think this show speaks a lot about identity and who we are to each other. I think that’s still there. We’ll have to see about Season 2, but you can sort of see the characters are almost bleeding into the work world and their personal lives. The curiosity doesn’t leave. It’s more about their traits instead of the memories.”
The theme of identity certainly comes across throughout the series, which seems to be asking “Who are we at work, and who are we at home? And are they the same people?” In some ways, the show seems to be saying Yes, absolutely, since even if it could be possible to remove a memory, one cannot so easily remove a character trait. On the other hand, there’s something to be said about boundaries.
“There is a deep lesson too,” Tillman adds. “I think severance is also a quality of compartmentalizing, and we all do that. I’ve had experience working in corporate America. I’ve had people who were very adamant about keeping their personal life out of the office. I think that’s very similar to the severance procedure. It’s not a chip in your head. And I think we all do it in many ways, keeping certain aspects of our humanity away from other levels. That may be the draw for this show because it’s a human quality.”
The idea of severance certainly is an interesting one; would it help productivity if your office life was completely disconnected from your personal life? Tillman isn’t so sure. “Look at Season 1: How often were the innies distracted with each other?” Tillman questions. “It’s the desire to connect. We’re not islands. We all need to have a level of camaraderie in whatever sense that is. That desire, that need to have a sense of community and camaraderie, is so important. And Milchick knows that which is why he builds these incentives. He has the melon party, the egg bar, the dance experience because all of that feeds productivity.”
This only begs the question: Why do these employees need to be severed at all?
Severance, Season 2 Premiere, Friday, January 17, Apple TV+