The Severance fandom says season 2 is peak while the White Lotus fandom seems to think "nothing's happening" on season 3 and I couldn't be more diametrically opposed to both opinions - I think Severance S2 has done almost nothing but waste my time, setting up seasons 3 through 6B, while White Lotus S3 is everything I've ever wanted of the show and more.
Severance is a mystery box show ala Lost that thrives on edging the viewer with an ever engorging plot, to the point it has spent the last two weeks on what is essentially - sorry - filler: a flashback episode chronicling the backstory of a plot device that has been promoted to supporting character since S1, and the week after a spotlight episode coloring in the backstory of one of the antagonists (?). This means that it's been 3 weeks since we abandoned the protagonist to a cliffhanger, which was itself protracted from the third episode this season.
I think this pacing works for something self-contained like Twin Peaks: The Return, but in a long form show that will probably stretch over seven years for presumably four or five seasons if it doesn't get cancelled first (is Apple famous for cancelling stuff, or is that just Netflix?), it becomes simply unbearable. Two seasons of not knowing what exactly is going on, who these characters are or what is motivating them is a little too much. And I don't expect the season two finale to pay off anything of significance.
Meanwhile White Lotus is just a delight and I don't get people complaining about the pacing. Each season you now exactly who each character is and what they're all about, and the mystery of who dies doesn't get in the way at all of enjoying these people unravel in fun, unexpected ways. Stewing with them in this pretty but claustrophobic environment is the whole point.
