'Severance meets Stranger Things': The returning sci-fi everyone should know about

The series is based on a Stephen King novel.

The Institute, an excellent sci-fi thriller based on a Stephen King novel, has just returned for a second season, and it should be on your radar.

Irish viewers may have been slow to discover the show to date. After all, its first season premiered in 2025 on MGM+, a streaming service only just made available in Ireland at the start of September 2026. This is as an add-on subscription for Prime Video customers.

Title	The Institute (Season 2)
Genre	Sci-fi / Horror / Thriller
Based On	The Institute (2019 novel by Stephen King)
Showrunner	Benjamin Cavell
Main Cast	Ben Barnes, Joe Freeman, Mary-Louise Parker, Alfie Allen, Simone Miller, Fionn Laird, Hannah Galway, Robert Joy, Julian Richings, Arlen So
Episode Count	8 episodes
S2 Premiere Date	Sunday, 8 November 2026
Release Schedule	Weekly on Sundays (8 November – 20 December 2026; double-episode finale)
Where to Watch (Ireland & UK)	MGM+ (via Prime Video add-on channel)

As such, we'll avoid season two specifics and stay focused on the basic set-up of S1 of the series. The story follows Luke Ellis (an excellent Joe Freeman, son of Sherlock star Martin Freeman), a teen genius with minor telekinetic abilities. He is kidnapped in the middle of the night and then held prisoner in a strange facility with a group of other children.

Dubbed 'The Institute', those in charge of the facility, including its enigmatic director, Ms Sigsby (a hypnotic Mary-Louise Parker, RED), say the kids are there for a top-secret, world-saving mission that requires doctors to run bizarre experiments on them.

Ms Sigsby tells the children that if they follow the Institute's rules, they won't find the experience "excessively unpleasant" for the most part. She also says that once the kids' work is completed, they will have their memories wiped and be returned home.

Luke does not believe her, however, and quietly begins leading the other children, who all have similar special abilities, in a revolt against their captors.

Watch the trailer for The Institute S1 right here:

Juxtaposed with Luke's story is a plotline focused on Tim (a very likeable Ben Barnes, Westworld), a haunted former cop looking for a fresh start. He gets a job as a night watchman in a nearby town to the Institute.

Learning more about the area's history, he grows suspicious of the Institute, which locals have been told is a facility to study infectious diseases. As he continues to investigate its true purpose, it becomes clear that he and Luke's stories are "destined to collide".

JOE has seen The Institute's first and second seasons in their entirety. We believe the new batch of episodes cleverly recreates the claustrophobic thrills and the compelling battle between the children and adults of The Institute of S1, while not undoing that season's satisfying finale.

We said before of The Institute S1: "Many have drawn comparisons between The Institute and Stranger Things, as they both feature young protagonists, a sci-fi story involving experiments on children and a kindly cop character with a dark past seeking answers.

"That said, we'd argue that fans of Apple TV's hit Severance may also enjoy the new King series. This is because the two shows are about people trapped in a building and forced to do mysterious work for a sinister organisation that acts like it has the best interests of what are essentially its prisoners at heart."

Watch the trailer for The Institute S2 right here:

We'd argue S2 adds a welcome dose of Steven Spielberg's Minority Report and a hint of Brandon Cronenberg's sci-fi horror gem Possessor, all filtered through producer Stephen King's inventively dark mind. This is as The Institute dives deeper into the titular organisation's objectives and practices and the fascinating moral and sci-fi paradoxes they inspire.

To Ms Sigsby and co (other Institute-related bigwigs include Jeff Fahey, Robert Joy, and welcome S2 addition Alfie Allen), the severe suffering of a select number of children is worth it to save the world. While you never want to side with the staff because of their cruel practices, part of the show's central driving tension is that you can sometimes see their point. That is until the S2 finale reckoning, where showrunner Benjamin Cavell's ultimate thoughts on the central organisation become clear.

S2 takes one or two episodes to find its footing, after outgrowing the source material of King's 2019 novel. Occasionally, the special effects leave a little to be desired. But this is ultimately gripping, pacy, thought-provoking, well-acted sci-fi. Plus, most episodes end with shocking cliffhangers that will have you immediately eager to start the next entry.