I have been waiting more than 2 months for Apple to release the entire season 1 of Servant and last Friday was finally the day I could start binge-watching this cool looking show. The plot appears very simple at the beginning, but as the episodes continue things start getting complicated with no proper answers regarding what we are watching onscreen.
The basic premise is that a couple lost a baby and as a way of dealing with the trauma, they bought a realistic-looking baby doll in order to pretend they still have a baby. Right at the beginning things get a weird turn when their new live-in nanny, as is having a nanny for a doll wasn't weird enough, is delighted and doesn't seem to find anything strange in being hired to take care of a doll. And soon after that, things get even crazier!
At this point, I got to say that this basic premise sounds similar to the one from the movie The Boy, but the stories are actually totally different from each other and explaining said differences would require writing several spoilers which is something I prefer not to do. The one difference I can safely write is that when it comes to the genres, The Boy is horror and Servant is more of a mystery-thriller with no actual horror.
The character we see above is the nanny, she is the most mysterious character of the entire story and the key to understanding its greatest mystery. She is the one who turns this story from a drama into a big mystery. The problem is, that season 1 doesn't explain everything we need to know about this character. We do learn a few basic things but not enough to understand the nature of this character. Is she a master conwoman and a criminal? I think there are enough reasons and hints to believe she is more than that. Or is she someone special with powers? Is she even human? These are questions that are left unanswered.
One thing I enjoyed about Servant is that it is constantly giving you little pieces of information to encourage you in trying to figure out what happened but ultimately, it is left to each viewer how they interpret what they saw. Season 2 will be released hopefully in about 10 months and for the sake of the show, it will have to give the viewers a lot of answers about everything related to this character.
The cinematography in this show is spectacular and it really helps in building up the mystery and the eerie setting. The cast also does a great job in each of their roles so I don't have any complaint regarding any of the performances. The only complaint I do have is, as I just said, the lack of answers about the nanny and other related stuff. Season 1 left me interested in what season 2 will offer, but for other people, it can get frustrating to not have proper answers about this central part of the mystery.
If you enjoy the mystery genre it is easy to say this series is a must-watch. I have also been enjoying HBO's latest mystery series The Outsider, and it is also well worth the watch. Once the season ends I will probably write an article about it.
The best
- Intriguing plot.
- Great performances all around, the 4 lead characters really did an amazing job.
- Beautiful cinematography.
The worst
- There are BIG questions about the nanny and not knowing more answers can be frustrating, especially because some episodes were really slow and they could have included more information. These slow episodes weren't really too frustrating to me because I was binge-watching the entire season, but I bet that waiting an entire week for a 30-minute episode and then finding out it is a slow one can surely be frustrating.
More information: https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/88055-servant Review: AAA In numbers: 8/10