Servant just concluded its fourth and final season, wrapping up a strange 40-episode psychological tale with increasing supernatural elements. The show was created by Tony Basgallop, but the executive producer and showrunner (and occasional director) was M. Night Shyamalan, taking a run at television rather than movies with buzzed-about twist endings.
The show follows a young couple, Dorothy and Sean Turner, whose infant son Jericho has recently died. The trauma has psychologically broken Dorothy, so with the help of her brother Julian, Sean has introduced a lifelike doll to replace Jericho -- and Dorothy has taken it for her real son and blocked out all memory of the loss. When Dorothy pushes to go back to work, Sean and Julian play along by looking for a nanny to look after the doll, finding young Leanne and welcoming her into their home. But as soon as Leanne has settled in, things take a strange turn: the doll Jericho has suddenly been replaced with a real, live baby.
That's just the first episode, and the show only gets wilder from there. The first season largely focuses on where Leanne comes from, and whose baby she might have abducted and brought to the Turner household. But with each new season, the story becomes more fantastical and bizarre, until a final cataclysmic season weaves together cultism, religion, destiny, and more.
For the Shyamalan doubters out there, let me tell you that this show ultimately does have a satisfying ending. Season two does spin out a bit, as the show stops trying to sit on the fence of whether "magic" is at work here. Yet it does feel like the writers' room either had a plan for where they were going all along, or made a decision and then stuck with it. If you want to "figure out" what's really happening here, there are enough breadcrumbs along the way to do that. And while the series ending does have one or two surprises to it, they aren't about trying to upend your understanding of everything you've seen before.
But honestly, the writing isn't the main reason I'd suggest trying Servant. The main appeals here are the acting and the filmmaking. The core cast of four are all excellent. Lauren Ambrose (from Six Feet Under) plays the highly-strung Dorothy, a woman so controlling that she's controlling her own memories without even knowing it. Toby Kebbell (who has popped up many places, including a memorable Black Mirror episode) plays Sean, who struggles to survive the chaos without upsetting the powerful women in his life. Nell Tiger Free plays Leanne, who is asked to change her performance the most over the course of four years, and always rises to the challenge. But the scene stealer is Rupert Grint (yes, Ron Weasley) who plays foul-mouthed, boozing, grumpy Julian. He's absolutely incredible -- the reason I hung with Servant at a point where my husband had enough of the meandering in the second season and abandoned the show.
The filmmaking and production of the show are, if anything, of an even higher caliber. The house in which the Turner's live is the perfect blend of fancy and creepy. The fake Jericho doll is a horror genre triumph. Amazing use of the camera controls every aspect of the experience, punctuating moments by being uncomfortably close to or far from the actors. The use of lighting steers the eye effectively. The way food is photographed toggles back and forth between sumptuous and horrific. Servant showcases the sort of considered cinematography you usually only get in films, because the schedule of television making rarely allows for it.
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