[spoilers] no-one needs my thoughts on Severance

but i just rolled credits on S2 (weird phrase but it feels fitting), and here's some anyway:

• wow this gets really campy 60s spy show at the end. i think it was when he was running around in the brightly panelled sub-basement with a gun, covered in blood, i was suddenly like... wow, yeah, hi The Man From Uncle. or with the marching band, it was like... where's Patrick McGoohan? the credits, the end song, they both leaned into it too
• feels like it could have flipped just a shade more silly and the whole thing would have balanced over
• i mean generally S2 feels more accomplished than S1. you can see the budget. and the courage to have gorgeous expensive shots whose primary purpose is beauty. all the top down views of landscapes...
• also the budget increase is definitely reflected in them getting a load of extra corridor to run around in

some older thoughts now:

• wow it's funny that this is an Apple TV show and the bad corp uses a font real similar to the Apple font. just a real shading between the two identities there. i wonder if they got any notes on not pushing that boundary too much.
• the conflation of religion/corporation/underhanded stuff feels a bit much? too grand conspiracy. i am generally very cool on conspiracy theories in shows, it feels like it's a tendency that has gotten us bad places in the real world, and not something to encourage with fiction. see also: cops are good people, and the protagonists in any situation they are involved in
• i quit the show the first time round because i didn't want to hang out with Mark while he moped endlessly about Dead Wife. i mean, i get it, but. anyway, that's worn off now, it's fine.
• oh! lots of thoughts about the whole Helena sexual assault thing. handled pretty well, i think, overall. by which i mean, sure, yeah, victim blame him, meanwhile he's real fucked up about it...
• the bit about them not having months, only quarters is good
• saw someone writing about how S2 moves away from workplace satire and into broader adventures and shenanigans. yes. maybe that makes it a bit weaker, thematically? the metaphor doesn't work as well. idk.
• oh! wow the mixing in this is extreme, lots of whispering things i only just about catch, lots of scenes where it's real dark and then ones where it's all white. i mean i guess i'm in favour of it, just don't expect me to get everything while people whisper. this is why people put the subtitles on!

okay back to some newer, forward looking ones:

• i don't know that i have all that much ongoing curiosity about what's going on? goats are for sacrificing, MDR is sorting through memories, Lumon is expanding their mindfucking tech into non-work contexts ("the elimination of pain" etc). i guess the broader point becomes something about the numbing effects of phones the whole time, disconnecting from everyday emotional pains with distraction & pleasures? i mean, i guess i'm interested in how the rights of two people sharing a single body can be negotiated - but it feels like the start of S3 will be a big reset in terms of stakes & status. idk, maybe they'll keep some of the goofiness they started to lean into