This post was originally posted on March 21, 2025 on my old site and is being reposted here for posterity.
It’s 10:00 in the morning on Friday, March 21st. The finale of Severance has been out for approximately 10 hours. I have so far avoided all spoilers across the internet and am eagerly awaiting this evening when we’re going to settle down on the couch, start a video call with our friend across the country and find out what’s going on at Lumon. Or at least why this episode is rated TV-MA.
We’ve been looking forward to this all week, from the moment episode 9 ended. If episode 10 has been out, I cannot imagine that we’d have waited a whole week to put it on. But what would that have meant for our viewing experience?
I admit that I came to Severance a little late, so my experience of Season 1 was a few at a time, followed by a weekend where we binged most of Season 2 in time to watch Episode 8. And I honestly feel like that was a mistake. I wanted to get to the end and know what happened, but that means that most of Season 2 runs together. I remember what happened, but not necessarily which episode is which.
This is in stark contrast to my experience with Season 1 and the last few of Season 2. With those, I had time (at least a day, and now a week at a time) to sit with the events and mysteries that were going on, develop my own theories and even watch breakdown videos. I am not someone who thinks too hard about TV themes but a breakdown of the Severance theme (they did a lot of work with alternating major and minor keys if I recall correctly) helped me dive into just how much worldbuilding and detail are involved in this show!
When I compare this to binge release shows (I’m looking at you, Stranger Things), the difference is CLEAR. I’m pretty sure we watched the last season of Stranger Things in one day, and I honestly couldn’t tell you much about it beyond a few memorable moments (Eddie’s last stand and everything about Argyle, for instance) I can’t tell you much of anything about it! There was a lot of excitement leading up to it’s release, then a few days of “oh, did you watch it yet? Me too! I liked it!.” Then… nothing? It fell off of our radar SO fast.
Severance, on the other hand, and to a lesser extent, Ted Lasso (the last weekly show that I remember getting so invested in), the weekly release kept us talking because there was something to talk about. Because the story is not yet done, we can break down what’s already happened and consider what is to come. When you don’t talk about the season until it’s over, there’s so much content to discuss all at once that you don’t get into the details. You also only have big season plots to debate rather than smaller moments and character arcs.
Maybe I’m just nostalgic for being a kid and settling in every week to watch Survivor and The Amazing Race with my parents and getting SO invested in it. Maybe I like the ritual of having something to look forward to with people I love. Maybe I like having a conversation opener with coworkers about something other than work. Whatever the reason, I’m delighted that more and more shows are choosing a weekly release schedule and hope that continues.
Now, is it 7 o’clock yet?