Severed from COVID context, office-set satire still cuts it Winnipeg Free Press [Video]

The first season of Severance streamed in the spring of 2022. It was dense with ideas, thick with mysterious menace. The second season just kicked off on Apple TV+, with new episodes dropping on Fridays.

In that almost three-year gap between seasons, my unsevered, overburdened brain hasn’t retained much of the show’s complicated plot. I recall a provocative premise, cool chairs, something about baby goats.

After a comprehensive online recap and a dip into the fevered fan theorizing that proliferated during the series’ hiatus, I picked up my keycard and returned to Lumon Industries headquarters. Thank Keir, Severance’s sophomore season does not slump.

The off-kilter comic satire is as sharp as ever, the ethical questions are even trickier, the unexpected emotional tenderness has deepened.

Plus, there’s more about the goats.

From creator Dan Erickson and executive producer and director Ben Stiller, Severance is basically The Officeby way of Franz Kafka. The series starts off with a disquieting speculative concept: Employees …