Adam Scott stars in the Ben Stiller-produced series about employees of a corporation who've undergone a procedure to separate their work memories from the rest of their lives.

If you feel like you’ve had your memory surgically wiped since you last saw Severance, it’s understandable. It’s been nearly three years since the Apple TV+ sci-fi series first burst onto the scene with one of the most thrillingly original concepts in years.

Lumon employees grapple with newfound information about their alter egos in Apple TV+’s striking, superlative series

There were reasons to worry about a "Severance" sophomore slump. Foremost, the Ben Stiller-backed, 2022 Apple TV+ series was such a brilliantly realized paranoid thriller/sci-fi satire of the work-life balance illusion -- recreating its first season magic would be a herculean task under the best circumstances.

Now, the lauded Apple TV+ drama from creator Dan Erickson returns with a briskly paced sophomore season that refines its many themes into a timely, rewarding, and challenging debate about the power and parameters of personhood.

When it premiered in 2022, Apple TV+'s surreal workplace show was a hit. Now it's finally back – and from the playful storytelling to the layered performances, there's a lot to savour.

The characters on "Severance" - at least, the "innie" versions of them - don't experience time like the rest of us. Innies exist only on a subterranean floor in the headquarters of Lumon Industries, a company that splits some employees' consciousness into a work self and a not-work self.

In May 2022, one month after Severance’s Season 1 finale premiered, I quit my job. Unlike the Macrodata Refinement (MDR) Team at Lumon Industries, my brain was chip-free, my professional and personal memories were synced,