When Severance Season 2 hits the 2025 TV schedule, it will be just a few months shy of three years since I was left shouting at the TV (much like Mark Scout’s Innie) after one of the best cliffhangers in TV history. Finally the sci-fi drama is returning to give us some answers about what happened to the macrodata refiners following their little field trip outside of the Lumon severed floor (and for godsakes, why there are the baby goats!), but can the sophomore season possibly live up to the first? Critics have screened the 10-episode season, so let’s see what they have to say.
We can blame Ben Stiller and Dan Erickson’s need for perfection for why Severance Season 2 took so long, but with the big cast additions and intriguing sneak peeks we’ve gotten, I’ll happily sever myself from the past three years of pain in favor of new episodes. Let’s get to the reviews, which I will keep spoiler-free, because it’s not too late to get your Apple TV+ subscription and binge Season 1! Jeremy Mathai of SlashFilm rates the second season an 8 out of 10, calling the series “darker, more ambitious, and as confounding as ever.” Mathai writes:
Season 2 truly outshines itself through its expanded sense of scope and scale. A whopping 14 Emmy nominations and overwhelming critical acclaim will buy any show a long leash, but Severance wastes no time showing off its bigger budget and ability to take even bigger swings. It's tough to beat a season that already packed in unforgettable imagery like baby goats hidden in the deepest recesses of an office building, a waffle party culminating in an erotic dance by performers behind creepy masks, or the sinister torture chamber known as the Break Room. Believe it or not, this season raises the bar even higher without ever losing sight of what made the show so special to begin with.
Nicole Gallucci of Decider says her expectations had swelled to dangerous heights during the three-year wait for new Severance episodes, but there’s no sophomore slump in sight, as Season 2 slaps harder than Page 197 (iykyk). The next chapter of the Lumon employees’ story brilliantly builds on a near-perfect first season, Gallucci writes, continuing:
The 10-episode season drastically raises the stakes, tests loyalties, and creatively expands Severance’s story, surpassing viewers’ wildest dreams — and crucially, their nightmares. To quote our dearly beloved Dylan this season, ‘This is so many fucking dimensions of fucked.’ From exploring new floors of the building to traveling off-campus to uncover more of the biotech company’s murky history, Season 2 dives deeper into Lumon’s chilling lore, widening the scope and depth of its nefarious operations.
Carly Lane of Collider gives the second season a perfect 10 out of 10, saying that already Severance makes a strong case to be one of the best shows of 2025. Questions are answered as quickly as new mysteries are introduced, and you’ll be left dissecting a couple of standalone episodes for weeks. Lane writes:
Season 2 should silence any lingering concerns viewers might have through its stunning direction, outstanding performances, and sinuous, compelling mysteries. This evolving, mind-bending continuation, as crafted by Erickson and fellow writers Mohamad El Masri, Wei-Ning Yu, Anna Ouyand Moench, Erin Wagoner, Mark Friedman, and Adam Countee, cements Severance as an absolute triumph of television, proving beyond a shadow of any doubt that the best stories are always worth waiting for.
Alison Herman of Variety echoes the sentiment that Season 2 was worth waiting three years for, as the universe expands to give us more of the Outies’ experiences (after following only Adam Scott’s Mark outside of Lumon in Season 1). Herman also confirms that the goats. are. back. The critic says:
As long as Severance can deliver these bits of sublime strangeness, it’s easy to suspend one’s disbelief, as well as one’s thirst for concrete information. Whatever the destination Severance is aiming for, the journey dramatizes the arbitrary rules and compartmentalized nature of modern work better than anything else on air. Besides, the most pressing matter is addressed: after watching Season 2, I finally get what the deal is with the goats.
Angie Han of THR notes that Season 2 of the upcoming Apple TV+ series is darker, bringing less humor than the first season and leaning into the drama of a cruel corporation that hits uncomfortably close to home. Han says:
The scattered focus can be a bit of a drag to sit through — not enough to inspire an invested viewer to quit, but enough to inspire groans of frustration when a cliffhanger takes an extra week or two to resolve, or grumbles of skepticism about whether the series might ever fully clarify its biggest mysteries. (I still can’t tell which way it’ll go.) It also comes at the expense of some of the character dynamics that made the first season so winning, particularly among the members of MDR.
It’s been too long that we’ve had to wait for some kind of explanation for what happened to Mark’s wife, what “mysterious and important” work Lumon’s Microdada Refinement division even does and so many other questions. The wait will officially end on Friday, January 17, when Severance Season 2 hits Apple TV+.
