The best horror deals with a single powerful fear such as isolation, loss of identity, or the threat of technology. The psychothriller series Servant by Apple TV Plus, which is produced and partly staged by M. Night Shyamalan, pursues a rather scattering approach. It’s about grief, class and marriage. But most of the time, it’s about recombining a variety of horror to create a show that’s powerfully atmospheric, but not very meaningful.
Toby Kebbell re-plays his role in the groundbreaking Black Mirror episode “The Complete Story of You” as he plays Sean Turner, an emotionally distant, aggressive man in a deeply troubled marriage. Sean might be on the verge of losing his mind. He works as a chef from his stunning home in Philadelphia, creating gourmet meals for catering orders and photo shoots in scenes that combine the artistry and occasionally the grotesque meatiness of cooking in a way that Hannibal fans know.
While Sean spends his days grooming his luscious herb garden and sipping a glass of the expensive bottle he pulled out of his cellar, his wife Dorothy (Lauren Ambrose of Six Feet Under) works as a news reporter on television, tracking murder trials and wagons Go to the sewers of the city to bring an ax to a fat mountain. A few months after the birth of her son Jericho, Dorothy is ready to return to work and hires 18-year-old Leanne Grayson (Nell Tiger Free, Myrcella Baratheon of Game of Thrones) as a nanny.
What’s scary, the doll or me? Apple TV Plus
The phrase is that Jericho is dead and Dorothy was only brought back from a total nervous breakdown by a therapy in which she mothers a doll that is so lifelike it is deeply scary. Leanne seems quite ready to agree to the deception, even if Sean tries to get her to break the character when Dorothy is not around. The way different characters deal with the puppet triggers a disturbing dissonance as Sean ceases to gently rock her and throws her disgusted to the ground as soon as Dorothy is out of sight. A moment when he hits the doll’s head hard against the cot and then bursts into tears points to an emotional core that showrunner Tony Basgallop can rarely really access.
Shyamalan has had a remarkably inconsistent career since The Sixth Sense, but his terrible will is felt when he stages “Reborn,” the first of the series’ 10 episodes. (Shymalan also stages the ninth episode of the series, which is still under embargo.) This is deeply troubling, as the extremely muted, quietly spoken Leanne creates a quiet gap around her that Dorothy tries to fill with maniacal gossip. The camera always seems a bit too close, concentrating on hands and faces and creating tactile fear.
But there is so much untapped potential for some form of timeliness on the show. Sean and Dorothy discuss how much they need to worry about the help. When Leanne says that her dream for the future is to be happily married and raise her own children, Sean encounters the ambitions of his wife: “See, honey? That’s enough for some people. “Leanne seems to be preparing the same simple meal of tomato soup canned day after day, unlike Sean’s elaborate celebrations, Dorothy decides to become Leanne’s friend and goes shopping with her, then immediately lends her new shoes.
“You know, Jonathan Coulton wrote a song about this Apple TV Plus
But none of that makes much sense, since Basgallop’s focus is primarily on solving the puzzle of who Leanne is, what she wants and what she is capable of, rather than addressing questions about gender roles and class that she might represent.
Dorothy’s brother Julian Pearce (Harry Potter’s Rupert Grint) serves as a blend of the voice of reason and the comic relief in this mess. He storms onto the stage to gauge the appeal of the new nanny and eventually becomes a confidant and health check for Sean and a protector of Dorothy’s fragile psyche. The two men use Dorothy’s mental pause as an excuse to keep them in the dark as they become more and more suspicious of Leanne, but it’s also an excuse for Basgallop to extend the storyline beyond credibility. The characters repeatedly do not simply press Leanne to get answers and let them wander around the house like an enigmatic ghost.
She is really scary and does not feel in place in her very conservative dress and old-fashioned nightie. She radiates a mixture of innocence and malice, letting the scenes she sneaks into Dorothy’s room try on her jewelry and make-up, somewhere between a child putting on her mother’s clothes and the identity thriller Single White Female lying. Despite its tiny size and threatening mannerisms, Leanne seems to subtly dominate any interaction.
Each Episode of Servant lasts only about 30 minutes and produces compact voltage bites. But as the season progresses, their effect fades and Shyamalan passes the camera on to directors with less distinctive styles. While there is nothing supernatural in the show’s first three episodes airing on November 28, Basgallop resorts to a potpourri of horror tropes.
Yes, that looks like a healthy reaction. Apple TV Plus
Leanne lurks in shady corners of the house, spying on its occupants and setting up a creepy, woven cross over Jericho’s bed. Sean seems to be cursed with a series of minor physical ailments that cause a body scare, whose anticipation is more terrible than the execution. There are even elements of the horror of blurry cam footage, as Julian Sean calls video. Then, of course, there are all the tropics that revolve around scary dolls, bad babies, and the tribute of motherhood. The music of Trevor Gureckis underscores this theme by sounding like a baby cell phone made for a ghost.
But for the most part, Servant feels like a haunted house story with almost everything in the Turner’s home or right outside the door. As big as the house is, it feels stifling and insulating thanks to the small cast of the show. This may be a commentary on the isolation of grief and parenthood, but again Basgallop is more concerned with the genre’s idiosyncrasies than with its underlying meaning.
Like a less critical version of American Horror Story, Servant strives to captivate audiences by slowly breaking down parts of his mystery and ending each episode with a particularly effective new twist or information. It’s visually appealing and good enough to be a viable conversation, but like the creepy doll at the heart of the story, it has a lifelessness that makes it hard to love.
Servant will debut on November 28 on Apple TV Plus. Fridays will see new episodes.
