Steve Newall: Flicks.co.nz editor on the new season of Severance

Nearly three years after its initial release, Apple TV+ hit series Severance is back for a second season.

Starring Parks and Recreation's Adam Scott and Medium's Patricia Arquette, among others, the series offers a darkly comedic look at workplace culture as a set of employees have their memories of work and home separated.

Flicks.co.nz editor Steve Newall opens up about the plot threads and fan theories the first season introduced - and what viewers can expect for season two. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
EDB Entertainment Time Now and I'm joined by Steve Nell,
editor at flicks dot co dot in ZID. Happy New Year, Welcome.

Speaker 3 (00:19):
Back, happen Yeah, good morning. Eased in very nicely with
Billie Eilish. There, yeah, there we go, a gentle start
the traumas of returning to work.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Has it been that bad? Has it?

Speaker 1 (00:33):
No?

Speaker 3 (00:33):
But I was thinking about that a lot as I
watched the first episode of Apple TV's Severance which came
which returned to screens over the weekend. And for a
show that when it premiered back in twenty twenty two,
the world was in chaos and sort of notions about

(00:53):
work and workplaces and what they actually meant and what
connection within a workplace meant kind of all been sort
of set to one side by the fact we're stuck
at home or working from home or in lockdown or
having this awkward, awkward interactions. Let's take it two years.
Three years is a long time for a show to
have between its first and second seasons, and so there

(01:14):
possibly a lot of the actual kind of plot machinations
of severance have been forgotten by audiences. I know that
I forgot it, But as it comes back to air
in January, I mean, I've just gotten back to the
office too. So the sort of idea of returning to
these characters who are in this almost sort of dystopian
workplace all kind of lined up for me.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
I guess we.

Speaker 3 (01:38):
Run about way of saying, oh, holidays are great, what's work.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
So they've had a little bit of time to work
on this second series. Presumably does it live up to
the first? Is it better?

Speaker 3 (01:49):
Yeah? I'm not sure yet, And I think that gap
is an interesting one because you know, when you think
about how big shows, I mean, the big sort of
water cooler shows of previous eras Twin Peaks David lynch
Rip of course, relied on this kind of shared experience,
streaming's already kind of fragmented that. And yeah, like three

(02:11):
years is a heck of a long time between drinks.
Having said that, really enjoyed the first couple of episodes.
It's a great world to return to, and the time
that's been spent between these seasons, you know, impact by
things like writer strikes. The first season was filmed during COVID.

(02:31):
These things kind of all add up, but the thoughtfulness
that goes into the show, and they're sort of an
intriguing core proposition of what if you could switch your
brain off when you went to work, What if someone
else could do that work for you, be a different
version of yourself and you never have to had to
remember being at the office in the first place. Man,
there's still something that rings to you about that. Hey,
shout out to my coworkers, Love you guys.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
But you know, it's interesting you mentioned David Lynch there.
My almost sixteen year old daughter said to me a
week or so ago, I'm out of things to watch.
What can I watch? What else can I watch? And
I said, have you done the original twin Peaks TV show?
And she went no. He said, you went and watching
it and came back and went that was amazing. And
then was devastated to hear that David Lynch had passed away.

(03:13):
But really unique original character, wasn't he? And sometimes I
got it and sometimes I didn't get it. But I
love the fact that I watch my children eighteen and
almost sixteen, you know, immerse themselves in his work, and
you know, really saddened to hear about his passing in
the last year big.

Speaker 3 (03:31):
Time, and I think, you know, I elected not to
make myself super upset talking about David Lynch todays. It's
a really really significant loss for me as a cultural touchstone.
But I think one of the things that he gave
us permission to do was not always get it. Yeah,
and that it's not because the puzzles and the mysteries

(03:51):
are so obtuse and intellectualized. It's because there are things
that there are many questions that are more interesting than answers,
and a show like Severance and every single narrative TV
show that holds mysteries at its center post Twin Peaks
as a debt to that show, whether it's emulating it

(04:14):
or choosing to not emulate it. There's before twin Peaks
and there's after twenty two Peaks.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
Can we Josh Thompson is doing extremely well for himself,
isn't he?

Speaker 3 (04:24):
Yeah, Josh keeps popping up.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (04:26):
He was a memorable presence in the in Prime videos
Australian expansion of the Office. There's a wonderful there's a
wonderful awkwardness to Josh that he carries comedically and you
know New Zealand viewers will be familiar, probably most familiarly
Josh from from Seven Days. He's also had some memorable

(04:48):
roles in Young Rock Wellington Paranormal and as Pigsy in
the Netflix series The New Legends of Monkey. So you know,
international foothold kind of growing and growing for Josh. Pixar
has their first their first original new series on the way.
It's called Win All Lose and Josh is one of
the first people we meet in the trailer for this show,

(05:10):
which just dropped last week. You can check it out
on flex Dot, codo and z it along with all
the other stuff you can see coming up. But the
concept behind the show does sound a little bit like
inside Out when you talk about it, But basically, we're
seeing the anxieties of characters as they go through everyday situations,
animated as if they were in the real world. Like

(05:31):
they're not literally in the real world, but we're sort
of seeing these situations and the sort of I guess,
embarrassments and humiliations that we all carry, all sort of
animated in the Pexar style. And yes, in this trailer
we see Josh's character Frank make possibly the ill advised
decision to ask out someone working behind the cafe counter.

(05:52):
He's a regular at and he gets shut down. He
does not have a good time. That's sort of one
of the small examples that'll littered through the show.

Speaker 2 (06:01):
So when on Lose, I think that's out on Disney
Plus February, isn't it.

Speaker 3 (06:04):
Yeah, it's February nineteen, so about a month away from now.

Speaker 2 (06:08):
Brilliant, Thank you so much. Steve will catch up with
you next week.

Speaker 1 (06:11):
For more from the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks it'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.