Why second season of ‘one of the best TV shows ever’ reportedly cost £200 million to make despite being set in an office

When you’re talking the most expensive TV shows ever, there is an obvious set of shows towards the top of the list.

The big spenders are all made up of a similar type of show in a certain way, with Rings of Power, Amazon’s Citadel, Stranger Things, the various MCU and Star Wars shows, they all are obviously massively expensive.

Whether it be CGI, huge sets, expensive actors, it’s fairly self-explanatory how they rack up the bills they do.

The show is a tense thriller (Apple TV+)

One series, however, which many are calling ‘one of the best TV shows ever’, cost as much, if not more, than many of the ones listed above.

Rather than be set on a faraway world or in Middle-earth though, majority of the scenes appear in an office.

The show, of course, is Severance, an Apple TV show and for many – the best show on TV right now.

The upcoming season two is hotly anticipated after what will have been a nearly three year wait by January when it comes out.

Eyebrows were raised all over the shop when it was revealed that the second season had a production budget of $200 million.

One tweet said: “Lol, I feel like Severance is a show absolutely does not need this type of budget.”

Another said: “More expensive than game of thrones??? This makes zero sense”.

The answer to ‘why’ is a complicated one, as the press tour hasn’t begun yet for the new season, and no one at Apple has spoken about why the budget ballooned the way it did.

The most obvious reason is the 2023 SAG strikes.

Severance’s season two already had a truncated production, and the strikes extended this out even further.

While not guaranteed, many studios kept on their production crew and staff during this period, which would’ve been an expensive for a four month long strikes.

Added to that is the talent involved, with Ben Stiller directing and Adam Scott’s star power growing.

Severance is set mostly in an office (Apple TV+)

Add to that the returning John Turturro, Chistopher Walken, and Patricia Arquette, all of whom will be used to movie star cheques, and the costs are piling up.

While the show is set in an office primarily, this does not rule out potential action set pieces in season two, and even the sets of the offices themselves are incredibly detailed, and would be very expensive.

The high spending does not appear set to continue however.

Earlier this year, it was revealed by Bloomberg that, in the wake of Severance season two’s massive budgets, Apple would be scaling back their spending on projects moving forward.

The article, titled 'Apple Tries to Rein In Hollywood Spending After Years of Losses’ stated that Apple will be more strategic in their spending moving forward and not simply ‘spend essentially unlimited money on its TV shows when it has failed to perform compared to rivals in the space’.