After binging on Thanksgiving dinner you can binge on Servant, a new horror series debuting on Apple TV+ tomorrow. It’s creepy and compelling enough to pull in generally positive reviews, and for Apple to greenlight the second season.
Apple describes this show as “a new psychological thriller from M. Night Shyamalan that follows a Philadelphia couple in mourning after an unspeakable tragedy creates a rift in their marriage and opens the door for a mysterious force to enter their home.”
The M. Night Shyamalan factor
Putting Shyamalan’s name on Servant is likely to attract some viewers but turn away others. Surely there are those concerned that this will be less The Sixth Sense and more like … well, almost anything he’s done lately.
But this polarizing figure is only an executive producer and directer of two of the season’s ten episodes, including the pilot. The show was created and written by Tony Basgallop, who also penned Hotel Babylon and Berlin Station.
What reviews say about Servant
Variety likes this Apple TV+ series, saying “The mood it conjures is so overwhelming, so claustrophobically creepy, that it’s easy to feel instantly stifled when an episode begins.”
Entertainment Weekly is quite positive on the show: “Servant is delivering the kind of giddy thrills you want from horror: Things are going from bad to worse for the Turner family, and I can’t help but enjoy it.
Vulture, on the other hand, said it’s “melodramatic, overwrought, overacted” but the reviewer admitted “I still wanted to get to the bottom of what’s going on.”
Several reviewers expressed concern about whether the creepiness can hold for ten half-hour episodes. But they admitted this is a problem for similar shows, even including American Horror Story.
The first three episodes of Servant debut November 28. The remainder will come out weekly. Watching it, as well all the other shows on Apple TV+, costs $4.99 a month. But anyone who bought selected Apple devices this fall can enjoy free one-year subscription. And for everyone else, there’s a one-week free trial.
Source: Entertainment Weekly
