The characters on “Severance” — at least, the “innie” versions of them — don’t experience time like the rest of us. Innies exist only on a subterranean floor in the headquarters of Lumon Industries, a company that splits some employees’ consciousness into a work self and a not-work self.

Now, the lauded Apple TV+ drama from creator Dan Erickson returns with a briskly paced sophomore season that refines its many themes into a timely, rewarding, and challenging debate about the power and parameters of personhood.

Three years is an absurd amount of time to wait for a new season of TV. That’s triply true when the TV show in question is Severance, a series whose near-flawless first season left us on the steepest and sharpest of cliffhangers.

Lumon employees grapple with newfound information about their alter egos in Apple TV+’s striking, superlative series

Severance season 2 premieres Friday, January 17 on Apple TV+. New episodes debut on Fridays, culminating with the finale on March 21.

Season 2 of Severance is premiering years after the first one, so let’s begin this review with a reminder of what the Emmy-winning sci-fi dramedy is about: Set in an alternate universe lush with retro technology,

Adam Scott stars in the Ben Stiller-produced series about employees of a corporation who've undergone a procedure to separate their work memories from the rest of their lives.