Apple Takes Full Control of 'Severance' in Surprise Deal

(macrumors.com)

24 points | by tosh 5 hours ago ago

15 comments

  • DustinEchoes 5 hours ago ago

    > Apple apparently now plans to position Severance as a long-term flagship franchise. The show has already been renewed for a third season, and a fourth season is reportedly considered a certainty

    Ok, so the show has now turned into Lost and nothing will get resolved. No need to waste any more time watching it.

    • mhitza 34 minutes ago ago

      This is such a disappointing development. They can create sequels or prequels after the show is done. Further complexity to the show to stretch it for two seasons, or worse dillute it, really feels now like a net negative for the show.

    • BoorishBears 5 hours ago ago

      I don't know why this is getting a negative reaction: there was already a 3 year gap between season 1 and 2, and watching this show originally it felt like a 1-2 season premise.

      It becomes a very different show (and yes, probably very Lost-like) if they have to make it last 4+ seasons.

      • nozzlegear 2 hours ago ago

        It doesn't seem farfetched that Apple is privy to the overall plot and story beats the writers have planned. If you've got a very popular, profitable show, and you know it's going to be about X seasons long, why wouldn't you just send it? I'm just spitballing.

        • BoorishBears 2 hours ago ago

          What does this have to do with either comment above?

          You think a show is going in a certain direction: a news piece comes out and confirms that, with millions of dollars of incentive to seal it, it's probably not going to go that way...

          What's wrong with voicing displeasure at that? They said they're canceling their viewership, not that the show should be shut down due to their preference or something.

  • firmretention 3 hours ago ago

    I bounced off Season 2. Too much "weird for the sake of being weird". You could tell the first season had a plan, and the second was just winging it. Sadly an all too common occurrence for successful shows.

  • willio58 4 hours ago ago

    I loved season 1. Season 2 I thought was great, but to me they opened much more new story than they resolved. I worry season 3 will be much of the same, especially if they’re saying season 4 is basically a certainty. I think severance could have been 2-3 seasons.

    • WorldMaker 3 hours ago ago

      I think they've been making a solid pace for the story including answering more questions than I expected, but then I can't help but compare the pacing favorably to both the problematic Dollhouse and the under-appreciated later seasons of HBO's Westworld.

      • tracker1 2 hours ago ago

        I think Dollhouse would have been better had it been an HBO series rather than on Fox... Likely 90% of the issues were studio interference.

        And totally agreed on Westworld... they just went off the rails at some point.

        • WorldMaker an hour ago ago

          Knowing what we know of Joss Whedon today, I think at least 70% of the problems with Dollhouse were Whedon's own issues. It came out in an interview that morally dubious character Topher was Whedon's close to a self-insert character, and that tracks and also explains a lot about the show's problems.

          I maintain that Seasons 3 and 4 of Westworld were quite good, but not enough people watched them because they got lost or otherwise fell off in Season 2. But you sort of have to understand Season 2 to get a lot of what 3 and 4 did, to the show's peril. (Massive spoilers: I refer to Season 2 as the Futurama Robot Church season as I think the Season 2 arc was largely about how Delores was the Robot Devil, like in the Futurama Robot Church stories if they were not played for laughs. A lot of what Delores does in S2 and S3 maybe doesn't make half as much sense without that context. S2 trying to be an S1-like puzzle box made the meaning of that a lot less clear than it should have been. Not to mention how many people didn't want Delores to take that dark of a turn, despite it being deeply telegraphed in Season 1, and per flashbacks had already happened once before, hence the whole weird Wyatt thing.)

    • rPlayer6554 3 hours ago ago

      I was ok with it opening a new story at the end of season 2 because it’s a fascinating dilemma and I’m happy they wanted to explore a deeper question about the morality of having two souls in one body and how that affects their humanity.

      However, it should end next season. This idea it’s going to be a long term project is going to ruin everything and now I am sad.

  • MagicMoonlight 2 hours ago ago

    20 million an episode, for a show filmed in a single room?

    • nozzlegear 2 hours ago ago

      Season 2 in particular has a lot more locations than just "a single room."

    • undefined 2 hours ago ago
      [deleted]
  • tibbydudeza 4 hours ago ago

    The "Lost" curse.