Servant: Season One (Television Review)

Servant
2019 Apple TV+
Season One
The Nicsperiment Score: 8/10

Dorothy and Sean Turner's baby, Jericho, died at 13-weeks of age. Dorothy then went into a catatonic state after suffering a psychotic break. The only thing that has apparently brought her back is a doll, which she believes, in her state of psychosis, to be a living and healthy Jericho. While Sean and Dorothy's brother, Julian, are glad that Dorothy is functioning again, neither is comfortable with enabling Dorothy, and both have serious undealt with trauma from all that has passed. Dorothy decides she's ready to go back to her job as a TV reporter, meaning that the wealthy couple will need to hire a nanny to take care of their...doll. In comes the strange, quiet, yet totally devoted Leanne...and after several days, so does a seemingly alive and breathing Jericho. Sean and Julian are shocked and confused at the seemingly miraculous, possibly sinister turn of events, yet Leanne seems confused that either are even bringing up that fact that Jericho died weeks before...and shouldn't be wiggling around in his crib. That's when things REALLY start to get weird.
I love M. Night Shyamalan and I don't care who knows. He may have made some of the worst movies I've ever seen, but he's also made two of my all-time favorites, and a bunch of other films I enjoy, as well. He works as an executive producer and sometimes episode director for Apple TV+'s creepy psychological horror series, Servant, though he is not its creator--that credit goes to Tony Basgallop. In a way, Servant operates in that classic J.J. Abrams, post-Lost mystery box mold, which means that this first season is as addictive as audio-visual crack, but may greatly disappoint in the end if the writer, entirely Basgallop in this first season, isn't asking the show's questions without already having the answers in mind.
Who is Leanne? How did Jericho die? Who are Leanne's mysterious aunt and uncle? Servant's first season asks a multitude of questions, and surprisingly answers many of them by season's end. While in the long-term, I want the show's mysteries to completely pay off by the end of its pre-ordered four season run, I burned through these first ten episodes for two reasons: the performances of the lead actors, and Shyamalan's absolutely stunning, hypnotic, and seductive direction.
As the central couple, the always reliable, Lauren Ambrose, and the generally solid, Toby Kebbell, turn in a pair of stunning performances. Ambrose has done many great things by this point, but Dorothy is such a complex and intricate character, Ambrose gets more meat to chew than she did in even Six Feet Under. The biggest surprise here, though, is Rupert Grint as the shell-shocked and horrified Julian. Grint had me completing forgetting he embodied Ron in Harry Potter after just a couple of Servant's episodes, proving yet again that whoever the hell originally casted that first Harry Potter movie over twenty years ago was some type of acting-ability prognosticating genius. Grint can act...and Shyamalan...holy cow, can Shyamalan direct.
Servant's pilot episode, directed by Shyamalan, has to be one of the best-looking television episodes ever made. This first season almost entirely takes place in the Turner's home, and Shyamalan commits its geography to viewer's memories almost immediately. Every frame looks like some dread-inducing work of art, from haunting shots of each dimly, generally lamp-lit room, to perfectly staged closeups of the actor's faces, to unexpected angle, after claustrophobic unexpected angle. Even in his worst work, Shyamalan's visuals have still generally been praised, but the first episode of Servant feels like his masterclass. It sets the tone for every episode to come, all directed by others, save the penultimate emotional tidal wave of the ninth, for which Shyamalan returns. By its fourth-season end, Servant may infuriate me, but the creepiness of this first season, along with its visual beauty, may still have been worth it, and for the moment, this is a season of television I highly recommend.