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How the ‘Severance’ Production Delay Hurt Fans

So Streaming Contributed to the ‘Severance’ Season 2 Postponement?

A lot can happen in three years, a truth that perhaps no group of people is better able to quantify than Severance fans. The Apple TV+ series faced numerous delays after its Season 1 release in February 2022, such as a 148-day WGA Strike and reported tensions between co-showrunners Dan Erickson and Mark Friedman behind the scenes. Production delays are all too common nowadays, such as with Netflix’s Stranger Things or Max’s The Last of Us. And, with eight-episode seasons being the new normal, many fans may feel it just isn’t worth it to continue staying tuned.
But it’s not just a matter of staying relevant — locations changing and child actors aging can lead to continuity issues. Season 1 of Severance may have been a masterclass in pacing with the way it unfurled its mystery and tensions between characters, but what good did that crescendo do if it was then followed by a three-year radio silence? And, worst of all, changes in the life of a TV viewer may mean they literally cannot continue watching — or at least not like they used to. Fans recently weighed in on Reddit to describe how the Severance Season 2 delay impacted them personally, and it’s so much more dire than you might think.

Release Date

February 18, 2022

Cast

Adam Scott
, Britt Lower
, Zach Cherry
, Tramell Tillman
, Jen Tullock
, Dichen Lachman
, Michael Chernus
, John Turturro
, Christopher Walken
, Patricia Arquette
, Sarah Bock
, Marc Geller
, Michael Cumpsty

How the ‘Severance’ Production Delay Hurt Fans

First, just for perspective, several fans chimed in to talk about how they now have an entire three-year-old child that they didn’t have when the show first aired.

One fan also reminisced about a lost loved one who they shared Severance Season 1 with.

This comment, in particular, really highlights what TV means to people beyond just a superficial level of enjoyment. It bonds people together, creates memories, and contributes to a feeling of “home.” It starts conversations, creates opportunities for discussion and debate and getting to know someone. These opportunities are diminished by a production delay, and while the strikes were obviously not the fault of the Severance team, the current TV streaming model is simply unsustainable.

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To expect a casual viewer to remember plot threads about Cobel’s mother — like how she told Innie Mark that her mother was an atheist, but Outie Mark that her mother was Catholic or that her Lumon shrine included hospital gear labeled “Charlotte Cobel” — is a big ask. Arguably the most heartbreaking comment on the thread was from a viewer whose mother’s condition deteriorated in the time it took for Severance Season 2 to come out:

So Streaming Contributed to the ‘Severance’ Season 2 Postponement?

In 2023, Variety exposed the cracks in the industry that only became more pronounced amid the strikes. They said this of the streaming industry’s rise and fall:

“For decades, pilot development episodic television was done assembly-line fashion on a steadily predictable schedule. The cap gun would go off in January, when each of the major networks would select two dozen or so scripts to greenlight to pilot production. Back then, industry insiders would grouse about the rushed pace of producing make-or-break series pilots in a three-month period in advance of the May upfronts. It was nonetheless a process that imposed a schedule for production and decision-making. In hindsight, it feels to many like a level of discipline that has been missing from the Peak TV binge.

Obviously, now, things have changed. “‘It was all or nothing, but at least you knew where you stood after a pilot season,’ Chupack reflects. ‘Now you can wait so long to hear anything on a greenlight and you can go months and months between seasons if you do get picked up.’” Shows on streaming, alternatively, don’t share the same constraints. So, if a series can get away with creative disagreements postponing its production schedule, it will.

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Another big difference between the old model and the new one is that many-episode seasons led to a number of “filler episodes,” a term which may carry a negative connotation to some but ultimately allowed space for certain episodes to be devoted to character development rather than plot advancement.
With fewer episodes per season now, every episode is chock-full of important details that further the story. Severance is a key example of this. During the pandemic, people may have had more time to sit and focus intently on intricate plots, but now, people crave good shows to watch in the background while they do chores or eat dinner. Again, remembering those plots after a delay was always going to be a big ask; but it’s an even bigger one now that the working world is mostly back to normal.
Charles Shreger, an NYU business professor, spoke with Marketplace about why streaming networks are now flooded with series meant for “ambient streaming.” He said you might subscribe to a streaming service for the prestige dramas, like Succession, but you’ll stay for a library full of series that’ll keep you just engaged enough that you can multitask. Severance is streaming on Apple TV+, with Season 2 arriving on January 17.