The Apple TV+ series Breakup returns for a second season on Friday, January 17. Above, Adam Scott as Mark and Britt Lower as Helly.
Apple TV+
hide caption
toggle caption
Apple TV+
To understand the second season of BreakupIt’s worth remembering an important point from the start: when characters undergo a procedure that “cuts off” their memories, so that they can only remember what happens at work when they are in the office, it creates essentially two consciousnesses – two different people – living in the same body.
This means that, for one of them, their only reality is a well-lit, sparsely appointed office with cubicles where they perform menial tasks in a windowless room for eight hours every day – separated from other employees who work in the mysterious Lumon Industries. a special floor for the “separated”.
The more time laid-off people spend in their jobs, the more different the person inside the office, known as the “innie,” becomes from their “outie” or person outside. And all of this takes place in Lumon, a place with a cult-like internal culture that reveres its founder, Kier Eagan, as a quasi-divine figure.
If all this seems mind-bogglingly complex, you understand why. Breakup emerged as an eccentrically surreal and captivating puzzle box of a series when it debuted on Apple TV+ three years ago.
Now, over time during which certain series begin and disappear, Breakup is back with a second installment more gloriously strange and skillfully assembled than the original season.
Making the Most of Fan Anticipation
This time, the show’s producers — including executive producer/director Ben Stiller — knew fans would be waiting for their work. And they made the most of this anticipation by creating a second part that continues the mysteries mentioned in the first season.
(Pro tip: I highly recommend watching at least the last episode of the previous season before diving into the new episodes. Here is an excellent detailed summary. Also, Stiller and star Adam Scott have a podcast This can help you catch up.)
And here is a summary provided by Apple TV+:
YouTube
Last season, three of the “innies” found a way to briefly keep their memories outside of the office, by sneaking into the outside world. Adam Scott’s character, Mark Scout, realized that a woman he knew as an executive in the office was also the wife of his “outie” and who she believed to be dead.
Another “innie”, Helly Riggs, played by Britt Lower, realized that her “outie” was the daughter of the company’s CEO and a descendant of Kier Eagan. Just as she explained to attendees at a corporate event how hopeless the “innies” felt inside Lumon, their consciousnesses were brought back to their outer selves and the episode ended.
This season picks up sometime after this point. Mark learns that he and his three fellow rebels are world famous – his supervisor hands him a newspaper article that looks like a CIA transcript, with every other sentence blacked out, as some sort of proof – and Lumon has instituted reforms to make the lives of “innies” better.
But questions remain. Is Mark’s wife still alive and somewhere inside Lumon? Why is Helly, whose outward personality helps run the company, so rebellious within the office?
What is Lumon actually trying to accomplish with the severance program? Why is the new assistant principal who helps run Mark’s department a preteen? And why does the company have a room with white walls and a grass floor, filled with grazing goats, overseen by a character played by Game of Thrones the former Gwendoline Christie?
Like I said: gloriously weird.
Relying on Absurdity and Visual Style
Breakup tells its story with a bold and absurdist style, fueled by stark visuals developed by Stiller. One moment, Mark is rushing through an endless succession of featureless white corridors, trying to find the rest of his team, with jazz music ratcheting up the tension. The next moment, he’s stuck in a team-building exercise with his new supervisor, where another staff member asks “Why are you a kid?” »
Sarah Bock in Breakup
Apple TV+
hide caption
toggle caption
Apple TV+
His answer – “Because of my birth” – embodies the dry humor and relentless commitment to the bizarre premise that drives the entire series.
I’m not sure they really explained how the “innies” know English and have contemporary vocabulary, but they don’t remember what the sky looks like or if they have families outside.
But if you can suspend your disbelief appropriately, Breakup‘s odd storytelling touches keep the characters – and viewers – off-balance, deepening the mysteries at the heart of the series.
The series also grandly satirizes everything we hate about corporate culture: heartless leaders with ruthless methods; the thankless and often harmful tasks required of middle managers; and useless corporate jobs that everyone thinks they’re good at, even though they have no idea what they’re actually doing.
Eventually, BreakupThe second season of smartly refines its story of people working in a corporate office, which often feels like a prison, steeped in damaging secrets and hidden agendas, where getting fired is analogous to an execution and where freedom feels like a vague fantasy.
I can’t imagine why this series is resonating with so many fans right now.
