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Servantwants to unsettle you and pulls out all the stops necessary to keep viewers off-balance.
Frequent screechy violins on the soundtracks?
Slow pans that pause to reveal a truly unexpected, shocking image?
Yep, its got some of those.
Servantis essentially aBlack Mirrorinstallment stretched into ten half-hour parts.
It isAmerican Horror Story, minus that franchises capacity to wink at itself and its own reliance on tropes.
Silly but watchable could be Apple TV+s brand.
Hey, its not theworstbrand.
At this point I am obligated to warn you that some light spoilers aboutServantfollow.
If you want to go into the experience completely cold, read no further.
Jericho is not hurt, though, because BIG REVEAL Jericho is not real.
Privately, Sean tells Leanne to play along with the situation.
Did Leanne conjure this human baby using some sort of witchcraft?
Or did she steal this child?
How will the Turners introduce this baby to others, having supposedly lost theirs?
Is it possible that everyone in this show has been deadthe whole time?
Look, this is an M. Night Shyamalan project, so itspossible.
Meanwhile, bad things start happening to Sean.
But occasionally she falls into trances, as though she is caught between two temporal dimensions.
There is nothing subtle aboutServant.
Every element of its creative approach is showy.
Spoiler alert: Most of them are not!
In keeping withServants hyperreality, some of the actors deliver heightened performances, particularly Grint and Ambrose.
But his simmering hostility as Julian feels performative.
And yet I kept watching, and not necessarily because I had to for work.
Heres a candy bar, she says to Buster, offering it to him and then taking it away.
Look at me, getting off.
Thats whatServantdoes and, I fear, more shows will do even less elegantly.
It offers possible resolutions and answered questions, and seems to get off on withholding them.
And despite its shortcomings, we keep going because we want a bite of that chocolate.
