They’re trying not to get lost in the hallways of Lumon.
“Severance” on Apple TV+ premieres its second season on Jan. 17 — marking the return of the latest buzzy “mystery box” show to captivate the public.
A mystery-box show isn’t a straightforward murder mystery, but rather presents a wide-ranging series of enigmas that make the audience and characters alike ask, “What’s happening?” Past shows in this subgenre include “Lost” and “Westworld.”
But after starting strong, those shows ended up collapsing under the weight of unanswered questions and convoluted twists.
It’s still early days for “Severance,” but so far, the Emmy-winning drama is succeeding where those shows flubbed.
Allen Stare, 60, who hosts “Severed: The Ultimate Severance Podcast,” told The Post that the danger with a mystery-box show is the audience pondering, “OK, you’re wowing me now — but can you continue to wow me two seasons from now?”
“That is always the thing that you’re going to be up against,” Stare said.
He cited NBC’s “Heroes” as another popular show in this subgenre that had a great first season.
“And when they came back for Season 2, it was so obvious they had no idea where to go with it,” he said.
The first season of “Severance” — which stars Adam Scott, Patricia Arquette, Britt Lower and John Turturro — set up the premise that “severed” employees at the sinister biotech company Lumon have a chip in their head that severs their work self from their greater identity. Outside of the office, they have no memory of what they did at work all day, and vice versa.
To add to the intrigue, Lumon is a bizarre company with layers of mysteries about what they’re really doing.
Stare said that since “Lost” was a broadcast network show – airing on ABC from 2004-2010 – “there had to be something in that hour to fill it every single week.”
“And I think that pushed the creatives to sometimes just come up with filler, because you can’t call up ABC and say, ‘Well, we aren’t going to have one this week, run something else!’” he noted.
In contrast, “Severance” is on a streaming platform, and Season 2 has 10 episodes, where “Lost” had to fill up 20 episodes or more for most of its seasons.
“With streaming, I think we’re in a different time now when it comes to storytelling. And I don’t think the pressure is there, time-wise to just come up with something, even if it’s not good,” said Stare.
Jasmin Lila, 36, who co-hosts the “Severance Peaks” podcast, said that when other “mystery box” style shows go wrong, “I feel like they get to a point where the main thing is just the mystery. And it’s like they’re trying to be smarter than [the viewers] basically. And the characters get lost in all of that. Then there’s no heart, there’s no joy. There’s like nothing to connect to, anymore.”
“And so far with ‘Severance,’ they’ve done such a good job of creating these amazing characters that you root for and relate to,” Lila went on. “You care about the mystery because they care about the mystery…other shows like this, you didn’t end up getting all of the answers, and they didn’t work as well. But for some reason this is just working so well.”
Patrick Mahan, 37, who also co-hosts the “Severance Peaks” podcast, said that he’s heard that “Severance” creator Dan Erickson has an ending in mind.
“And I’m not so sure that maybe the others did,” he said, referring to shows like “Lost” and “Westworld.”
“I think ‘Westworld’ tried too hard to trick their audience, after audiences figured out some of the twists…so it just got more confusing,” he added.
“I don’t think I ever understood where it was going, beyond the first season. And I actually think that first season was great.”
Meanwhile, he’s not bothered about getting every question answered on “Severance.”
“There’s always going to be a part of the audience that wants answers. And I think that’s perfectly fine. There’s some stuff that deserves some sort of explanation. But it depends on what the explanation is. It depends on how they go about it. I think maybe they’re doing what no other show has done, and have found a perfect balance as far as answers and mystery goes.”
Stare said that there are certain pitfalls that a mystery box show should avoid.
“Going to the mystical or the supernatural. It’s always a bad place to go, because it just becomes a McGuffin.”
He added that part of what’s making “Severance” compelling is that it’s “so grounded in reality, and the reality of this procedure actually happening and people wanting to do it… there are a lot of arguments that you can make for people wanting to have [the severance procedure].”
The “Severed” podcast host noted that the show isn’t overly sci-fi, because everything in it is real “except for the chip. Everything else…could exist today.”
Characters on “Severance” frequently refer to the company’s late first CEO, Kier.
Stare said that he would feel like “Severance” was heading down the wrong path if the plot took a more supernatural turn such as, “Let’s summon the mystical spirit of Kier, and have him cast spells on people! That’s where it becomes, like, ‘Come on!’”
“I think we’re staying grounded in this very bizarre situation that makes it compelling. And as long as they keep answering questions, bringing up more questions is great. We’ll keep picking up the breadcrumbs.”
He cautioned that that’s where a lot of shows veer off course.
“If they stop giving you the breadcrumbs and giving the answers to certain things, you lose interest. It’s like, ‘I can’t penetrate this, what you’re trying to tell me. So I’m not interested anymore.’ I think we’re getting enough to keep us on that trail, and keep us interested about finding out the next thing.”