Severance takes over Bell Works in New Jersey for an ORTBO Activation and panel discussion. Photo: Apple TV+
Apple TV+ brought Lumon Industries to life Saturday in a surprise, star-studded event — and it confirmed renewal of Severance for season three in the process.
The streamer surprised thousands of the show’s fans with a Lumon-style Outdoor Retreat Team-Building Occurrence, aka ORTBO. It featured a panel discussion moderated by Stephen Colbert at the surreal workplace thriller’s primary location, Bell Works in Holmdel, New Jersey.
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Mark and Helly gaze upon the nearly complete Cold Harbor file and contemplate their demise. Photo: Apple TV+
It’s season finale time! In our Severance season 2 episode 10 recap of “Cold Harbor,” we find Mark S. carrying out a wild plan with his allies while his tattered team makes a dangerous last stand against Lumon Industries. At 75 minutes, the episode’s a long one, directed by Ben Stiller. And with the hit show just renewed for a third season, the Severance season two finale actually asks more questions than it answers — before delivering a twist at the end.
Last week’s penultimate episode gave us a slower burn than expected on the way to Friday’s climactic season finale, but it did its job. As the macrodata refiners scattered while Mark and his sister Devon teamed up with company soldier Harmony Cobel to fight Lumon, it felt more like everything was coming apart than coming to a frenzied boil. But that groundwork set the stage for Friday’s outstanding final episode.
It's not like it's going to get any less weird, right? Photo: Apple TV+
Watching the new Severance season two trailer, below — and the new sneak peek at the first eight minutes of episode one Apple TV+ dropped Monday — my excitement for the new episodes became one with my grim determination to watch the entire first season again before the undoubtedly bizarre new scenes of workplace hell start streaming on January 17, 2025.
Never before have I force-marched myself through a whole TV series season as a matter of preparation. But this funny-yet-unnerving workplace psycho-thriller deserves and demands it. If you’re preparing for season three and catching up on all things Apple, you might also want to check out how to activate Apple AirTag—and while you’re at it, read up on Apple TV+ renewing Severance for a third season.
Update: As a twisted sort of holiday gift, Apple TV+ posted a sneak peek at the first eight minutes of Severance season two on Monday, December 23. It’s safe to say the main character is very much on the run through Lumon Industries sterile yet deeply alienating hallways until he comes face to face with a team of direct reports he doesn’t recognize. And he ends up with more questions than answers in a one-on-one with Mr. Milchik. Watch the sneak peek at the link above and the trailer below.
Gary Oldman and Jack Lowden received nominations for "Slow Horses," already greenlighted for its sixth season. It's also nominated for Best Television Drama. Photo: Apple TV+
While it’s only about half the Golden Globe nominations Apple TV+ racked up in the awards for 2024, the streamer managed to snag eight nominations this year. The 2025 nominations include no movies. But three nods go to TV series Slow Horses, two apiece honor Disclaimer and Shrinking, and one goes to Presumed Innocent. This edition marks the Golden Globes’ 82nd year.
Ouch! Which hurts more, the ripped-open face or the kid in your brain? Expect surprises about who Crystal's character and the kid he's trying to help really are. Photo: Apple TV+
Billy Crystal has enjoyed a long career in comedy as a standup and in film and TV roles, but that’s not all he does. The unnerving trailer Apple TV+ dropped Tuesday for his new series Before, billed as a psychological thriller and a “supernatural mystery,” pushes a truckload of horror tropes fit to run you down in the dark of night. You weren’t sleeping anyway.
And Crystal not only stars but also executive produces the creepy-looking limited series, set to premiere October 25 on Apple TV+.
Update: Billy Crystal’s psycho-thriller limited series Beforestarted streaming Friday on Apple TV+, so have at it. Reviews so far seem mixed, by the way. Some call Crystal “convincingly somber” and “spooky.” Others call the series “the year’s most disappointing show” and a “stagnant, repetitive mess.” Wow, tell us how you really feel.
This season two promo image has been out for a while. The new teaser trailer gives a clue as to why he's carrying balloons with his face on them. Photo: Apple TV+
Fans of hit Apple TV+ series Severance — call it a surreal workplace thriller — would expect nothing less than to have their heads exploded by the season two trailer. And without too much exaggeration, that’s pretty much what they get with the video Apple TV+ dropped on YouTube Wednesday.
It leaves you with nothing but tantalizing questions. Like: What the hell are they doing? Well, whatever it is, we want in. The January 17 streaming date can’t come soon enough. Watch the teaser trailer below.
"Disclaimer" debuts on Apple TV+ with two episodes October 11. Photo: Apple TV+
A revered London journalist’s life seems picture-perfect at the start of the new trailer for Apple TV+ psychological thriller series Disclaimer. But by the end of the trailer, she stands on the precipice of ugly ruin.
Created and directed by five-time Academy Award winner Alfonso Cuarón, Disclaimer stars Cate Blanchett as the journalist, Sacha Baron Cohen as her supportive husband, and Kevin Kline as a man bent on destroying her by revealing “the truth.” The trailer for Disclaimer, released Tuesday, looks seriously enthralling. The show premieres October 11 on Apple TV+.
UPDATE: Alfonso Cuarón’s Disclaimer series started streaming Friday on Apple TV+. Reviews seem mixed, to say the least. One reviewer called it “the best TV show of the year” while another damned it as a “flaccid, pretentious slog.” You better watch it and make up your own mind.
The teaser trailer doesn't tell us much. Photo: Apple TV+
The enigmatic teaser trailer Apple TV+ dropped Wednesday for psychological thriller series Disclaimer, from Oscar-winning director Alfonso Cuarón and starring Oscar winners Cate Blanchett and Kevin Kline, disclaims very little beyond a dark and foreboding mood and a warning to “be aware” of the assumptions that color our understanding of a story.
The seven-episode limited series debuts on Apple TV+ October 11.
UPDATE: After publishing the initial post, I realized a clever deep fake appears to be in play in the trailer’s narration, so I thought I’d better mention it (better late than never!) It only took seven days after posting about the trailer for me to realize I knew the narrator’s voice. And it seems she never said what she seemed to say in the trailer. See below.
Jacobi Jupe and Billy Crystal star in the psychological thriller “Before,” premiering October 25, 2024 on Apple TV+. Photo: Apple TV+
When you think of psychological thrillers, the first two people you picture probably aren’t Billy Crystal and Rosie Perez. But apparently they don’t just do funny — they do tense and scary, too. Apple TV+ gave a first look at the stars in upcoming thriller Beyond on Wednesday.
The new 10-episode series starring Crystal and Perez arrives on Apple TV+ on October 25.
Looks like things are about to go south for the big-time author played by Cate Blanchett. Photo: Apple TV+
Looks like Cate Blanchett might get a vile taste of her own medicine at the hands of Kevin Kline in upcoming psychological thriller Disclaimer, according to a “first look” at the limited series Apple TV+ put out Tuesday. That could be dawning horror on the Oscar winner’s face in the new image, above.
Notably, Academy Award winner Alfonso Cuarón (Children of Men, Gravity, Roma) created and directed the show. Based on a bestselling novel, Disclaimer premieres on Apple TV+ October 11.
The psychological space-thriller premieres on Apple TV+ February 21. Photo: Apple TV+
After a disastrous mission, an astronaut returns to Earth to find parts of her life missing, and it appears a horrifying conspiracy may be to blame, according to the trailer Apple TV+ dropped Monday for the upcoming eight-part space-thriller series Constellation.
The streamer describes the series, which stars Noomi Rapace and Jonathan Banks, as an “action-packed space adventure,” but the trailer feels more like horror. Good thing Apple also calls it a “conspiracy-based psychological thriller.” It premieres February 21.
Whatever Jo (Noomi Pace) is looking at here, it's ain't good. Photo: Apple TV+
After a disaster in space, an astronaut returns to Earth to find pieces of her life missing in the upcoming Apple TV+ sci-fi series Constellation. Apple released a “first look” at the action-packed psychological thriller Thursday.
The “conspiracy-based space adventure,” which stars Noomi Rapace and Jonathan Banks, sets down on Apple TV+ on February 21.
English actor Tom Holland plays a troubled young American in "The Crowded Room" on Apple TV+. Photo: Apple TV+
Apple TV+ dropped a trailer Wednesday for The Crowded Room. The new 10-episode psychological thriller centers on a shooting in New York City in 1979. It stars Tom Holland as a suspect and Amanda Seyfried as an interrogator. She gets in his head and seems to find a lot going on there.
The trailer doesn’t come right out and say — spoiler alert! — Holland’s character suffers from dissociative identity disorder — multiple personalities — but you can’t help but consider the possibility. The show premieres June 9 on the streaming service.
Zach Cherry, left, Adam Scott and John Turturro star in Severance on Apple TV+. Photo: Apple TV+
Production on the second season of Severance, the Apple TV+ thriller about a profoundly creepy workplace, has seen delays because the series’ two showrunners hate each other, according to a recent report.
Scripts were scrapped amid the two not speaking to each other as director Ben Stiller searched for help. And it seems he finally found it. Stiller also downplayed on-set drama in a tweet.
Veteran actors John Lithgow and Julianne Moore star in the new film. Photo: Apple
“Sharper” is old slang for a con artist or swindler. And in the trailer Apple TV+ dropped Thursday for its first film of 2023, a “neo-noir thriller” that shares the slang term as a title, it’s not easy to tell the con artist from the conned.
But it looks like it’ll be fun guessing which rich Manhattan people will lose their shirts in the film, starring Julianne Moore and John Lithgow.
It comes out in theaters February 10 and streams February 17, Apple TV+ said.