Fortunately, “Severance” returns to Apple TV+ on Friday, and its makers seem to have used every second of the absence productively. The season takes new turns while remaining the most ambitious, batty and all-out pleasurable show on TV, an M.C. Escher maze whose plot convolutions never get in the way of its voice, heart and sense of humor.

While “Severance” has a wonderfully creepy-compelling premise, it’s a concept better suited to a movie than a multi-episode TV series.

A person in a suit holds a white cowbell, standing in a room. Their expression is serious. Season 2 of Severance premieres January 17 on Apple TV+.

Though it took a couple of years to return, "Severance" Season 2 doesn't miss a beat, and the show maintains its spot as one of the best ones running.

The employees can choose to undergo a “severance” procedure, which means that outside the walls of Lumon, they cannot remember their work day, and when they’re at work, they cannot remember their outside lives.