I Watched Seasons 1 and 2 of Severance

A strange office nightmare with real payoff

March 16th, 2026

I was pretty skeptical going into Severance. The trailer looked good, but I've had bad experiences with mystery box shows - the kind that string you along for season after season without ever really answering anything, and you end up feeling like you wasted your time. This had all the hallmarks of that. I actually watched the first episode a couple of years ago and decided not to continue. It wasn't until Season 2 came out and the praise became impossible to ignore that I decided to give it a proper chance. I'm glad I did.

The concept and setting are genuinely brilliant. The cinematography is striking and distinct, the set design and wardrobe have a very deliberate aesthetic to them - the office feels like a maze, and the employees are subjected to these sad, dorky little traditions and morale exercises that feel like a pitch-perfect satire of office culture. Except it lands more like an indictment, because some of it is a little too accurate. There's also an interesting choice to populate the world with older technology and cars despite being set in the present day, and the town itself has this artificial, fabricated quality to it. The whole thing feels like a strange kind of purgatory. I think most of us have had the fantasy of being able to skip through the workday - closer to the lesson from Click than anything else, and the show seems to know that.

The ethical questions around the severance procedure are raised but never overly dwelt on, which I think is the right call. There are real-world applications touched on - using severance to erase the trauma of childbirth, or any painful experience really - and you can see the appeal. But I think some pain is a necessary part of life, and learning to sit with it or work through it matters. The show seems to believe that too, even if it doesn't lecture about it.

The main cast from Macrodata Refinement has fantastic chemistry, especially Mark and Helly. One of the more compelling threads across both seasons is watching how the innies evolve in their relationship to their outies - starting as a mutual mystery, moving toward a tentative desire to cooperate by the end of Season 1, and by Season 2 collapsing into full distrust. It raises genuine questions about bodily ownership and identity when two consciousnesses share the same body, and the show handles that tension well.

I'll be honest - there are moments that feel a little self-indulgent, like the show is being strange for the sake of it or deliberately trying to mislead the audience. It flirts with that frustrating mystery box quality at times. But I don't think it ever fully crosses that line, and by the end of Season 2 I was genuinely satisfied. The ending felt like it could be a proper conclusion - emotional, bittersweet, and with enough resolution that I wouldn't need a Season 3 to feel okay about it. There are still threads left open, but as it stands I'm happy with where it landed.

Season 3 is apparently another year or two away, which is frustrating - though at this point that's just the reality of watching prestige television. I wouldn't recommend Severance to everyone. It's slow, eclectic, and a little strange. But if you like mysteries that actually resolve, it's well worth your time.