The original post: /r/television by /u/ObviousAnything7 on 2026-01-07 10:58:21+00:00.
So I know I’m a little late to the Severance party, but I finally decided to binge watch both seasons back-to-back.
I thought season 1 was absolutely perfect. Everything was just so well done. But I think the most impressive part of season 1 now that I’ve seen season 2 is just how incredibly well paced and structured it is. While watching season 1, I felt as though every episode was paced just perfectly. Every scene felt meaningful and important and every episode had the perfect balance of asking the audience enough questions and answering a few them, such that each episode just felt so satisfying to watch all the way to the very end of the finale.
However, my thoughts on season 2 are a lot more mixed. While I absolutely loved the finale of season 2, I cannot say the same of everything leading up to the finale. I thought season 2 was paced quite disastrously and unlike the first season, most of the episodes left me annoyed more than anything else. I felt like I ended every episode thinking, “That’s it? I guess there’ll be more for the next episode”. And it kept going like that until we finally get all the answers towards the very end in the finale. I never felt myself feeling that way while watching season 1. I felt like this season was trying to stretch out the mystery way too much and was deliberately going slow in order to justify having 10 episodes. I kind of got the feeling that everything important that happened in this season only happened in handful of moments, and everything else just felt like mysterious filler.
I think the big problem season 2 faced was that season 1 ended with a giant cliffhanger. Everybody wants know how things are going to end up between Mark and Gemma. While the other characters are cool and the world of Severance is interesting, the story of Mark and Gemma is just too irresistible in comparison. This leads to an issue because it makes the audience feel like every other scene that isn’t directly progressing Mark or Gemma’s story is a distraction or a waste of time and this leads to frustration. At least this was the case for me.
Did anyone else feel like this? I’m honestly kind of surprised that season 2 has gotten such glowing praise. Perhaps because the finale redeems the rest of the season?