First episode in three years sees Innie Mark attempt to reunite his old team of Helly, Dylan, and Irving, and introduces new characters like Ms. Huang

Apple TV+'s thriller returns with more sci-fi creepiness, nuanced social commentary and black humor. And perks like fruit leather.

Directed mostly by Ben Stiller, the provocative sci-fi series about a mysterious biotech company returns on Apple TV+, starring Adam Scott, John Turturro, Christopher Walken and Patricia Arquette.

Fortunately, “Severance” returns to Apple TV+ on Friday, and its makers seem to have used every second of the absence productively. The season takes new turns while remaining the most ambitious, batty and all-out pleasurable show on TV, an M.C. Escher maze whose plot convolutions never get in the way of its voice, heart and sense of humor.

It’s been quite a while since we last saw Mark S. (Adam Scott), an employee at the mysterious company Lumon Industries, which uses a surgical procedure called “severance” to separate people’s home lives from their work lives. Season 1 ended on a cliffhanger in April 2022, leaving viewers eager for the next chapter.

Creator Dan Erickson, director and executive producer Ben Stiller, and star Adam Scott tease what's to come for the severed employees at Lumon Industries.

Taking the idea of work-life balance to extremes, the sardonic and surrealist thriller “Severance” on Apple TV+ envisions a dystopian corporate world in which employees of a company called Lumon Industries have a chip implanted in their brains that severs their memory in two.