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.

Yet another Hollywood icon, with no need of introduction. Christopher Walken plays Burt in Severance. He won an Oscar for his role in The Deer Hunter, while he was also in Dune: Part Two just last year.