Severance; Molly-Mae: Behind It All

“It is mesmerising, gorgeous, heartbreaking and triumphant. Mysteries and revelations, clues and new enigmas are rolled out in perfect syncopation, getting wilder and weirder as the series progresses but digging deeper – into questions of identity and selfhood, corporate malfeasance, capitalist malevolence, individual grief and collective responsibility that the first season interrogated – instead of spinning outwards into superficiality.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“Bottling the bolt-from-the-blue brilliance for a second season is infinitely tougher, but Severance pulls it off with style, balancing its various tones as expertly and effortlessly as a waiter during a Friday night rush. Thankfully, it is still one of the best shows on TV – certainly, one worth rushing home from the office to watch.”
Annabel Nugent, The Independent

“It continues to feel menacingly understated and spare for something that, at an apparent cost of $20 million per episode, is quite some budget for bare offices, a few chunky computers and a lot of overhead neon lighting. But happily the storytelling deserves a fresh outing as Mark is greeted by a new set of colleagues and is soon reunited with his old, rebel friends.”
Ben Dowell, The Times

“Apple has imposed numerous restrictions on what I can reveal, but I can tell you that Severance season twocontinues to build a complex mythology for its strange world and retains its weird, offbeat humour. It expands its tonal palette, dabbling, at one point, in supernatural horror. We discover more about the sinister Eagan dynasty behind Lumon. We encounter other departments on the Severed floor and spend a lot of time away from the office learning some of the backstory of important characters. Some mysteries are solved, new ones emerge. And the series goes deeper on profound questions about identity and memory and ethics.”
Neil Armstrong, The i

“While the socials-to-television road can be a bumpy one – the two formats are less compatible than they appear, despite sharing a screen – this is as carefully produced as Hague’s own posts. It is mostly sympathetic, and reveals just enough to give the impression of intimacy. When Hague was interviewed by British Vogue recently, she was described as ‘friendly, but guarded’. This series makes it look as if she is being less guarded, but when you play closer attention, I am not sure how true that is.”
Rebecca Nicholson, The Guardian

“Thanks to Amazon’s billions and Hague’s clout, Behind It All is slick and well-made; you can’t help but let out a giggle at the overly dramatic score, which lends each of Hague’s day-to-day stresses – controversy over Maebe’s dodgy fabric, Bambi throwing a tantrum over beans on toast – the OTT heft of a Hollywood epic. But the first three episodes suffer from their emphasis on clothes – nobody tuning in wants to hear Hague wax lyrical about mass-produced grey blazers and denim jeans. We’re here for the Tommy gossip: what did he do, and will they get back together?”
Poppie Platt, The Telegraph

“Just like Hague, the series is polished and clean. It’s more comparable to American documentaries on Lady Gaga or Taylor Swift, say, than the playful, rough-and-ready British reality shows on the likes of Katie Price or Gemma Collins. Behind It All goes some way to deliver its promise of revealing the intimate life behind the persona – but it could’ve gone further. There are another three episodes to follow in the spring, but you get the sense that they’ve got all the breakup stuff out of the way first.”
Hannah Ewens, The Independent