''Servant'' is an American

psychological horror Psychological horror is a genre, subgenre of horror fiction, horror and psychological fiction with a particular focus on mental, emotional, and Mental state, psychological states to frighten, disturb, or unsettle its audience. The subgenre frequent ...

streaming television Streaming television is the digital distribution of television content, such as TV shows, as streaming media delivered over the Internet. Streaming television stands in contrast to dedicated terrestrial television delivered by over-the-air aer ...

series created by

Tony Basgallop Anthony John Basgallop (born July 1968)''England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1916–2007'' is a British television writer best known for writing ''Inside Men'' (2012), ''What Remains'' (2013), ''Servant'' (2019–present), and the m ...

and executive produced alongside M. Night Shyamalan, who serves as

showrunner A showrunner (or colloquially a helmer) is the top-level executive producer of a television series production who has creative and management authority through combining the responsibilities of employer and, in comedy or dramas, typically also th ...

. The series follows Sean and Dorothy Turner, a Philadelphia couple who hire Leanne Grayson to be the nanny for their infant son Jericho, a

reborn doll A reborn doll is a hand made art doll created from a blank kit or a manufactured doll that has been transformed by an artist to resemble a human infant with as much realism as possible. The process of creating a reborn doll is referred to as rebo ...

. Leanne's arrival brings about strange and frightening occurrences for the couple. The series stars

Lauren Ambrose Lauren Anne D'Ambruoso (born February 20, 1978), known professionally as Lauren Ambrose, is an American actress and singer. She performs in television, film, and on Broadway. Ambrose had television roles as Claire Fisher in ''Six Feet Under'' ( ...

Toby Kebbell Tobias Alistair Patrick Kebbell''Births, Marriages & Deaths: Toby is married to Arielle Wyatt. They got married in 2020 and they have one child together. Index of England & Wales, 1916–2005.''; at ancestry.com (born 9 July 1982) is an English ...

Nell Tiger Free Nell Tiger Free (born 13 October 1999) is a British actress. She is best known for her role as Leanne Grayson in the television series ''Servant'', and as Myrcella Baratheon in seasons 5 and 6 of the television series ''Game of Thrones,'' repl ...

and

Rupert Grint Rupert Alexander Lloyd Grint (; born 24 August 1988) is an English actor. Grint rose to fame for his role as Ron Weasley in the ''Harry Potter'' film series, for which he was cast at age eleven, having previously acted only in school plays an ...

as the four central characters. The series is produced for

Apple TV+ Apple TV is a digital media player and microconsole developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is a small network appliance hardware that plays received media data such as video and audio to a television set or external display. Since its secon ...

and debuted on November 28, 2019. The series has been met with positive reviews from critics. Ahead of the premiere, Apple renewed ''Servant'' for a second season, which premiered on January 15, 2021. In December 2020, ahead of the second season premiere, the series was renewed for a third season. The third season premiered on January 21, 2022. In December 2021, ahead of the third season premiere, the series was renewed for a ten-episode fourth and final season. The fourth and final season is set to premiere on January 13, 2023.

Premise

A wealthy Philadelphia couple, Dorothy and Sean Turner, experience a fracture in their marriage after the death of their thirteen-week-old son, Jericho. The couple undergo transitory object therapy using a lifelike

after Dorothy experiences a full

psychotic break Psychosis is a condition of the mind that results in difficulties determining what is real and what is not real. Symptoms may include delusions and hallucinations, among other features. Additional symptoms are incoherent speech and behavior t ...

. The doll, which Dorothy believes is her real child, was the only thing that brought her out of a

catatonic state Catatonia is a complex neuropsychiatric behavioral syndrome that is characterized by abnormal movements, immobility, abnormal behaviors, and withdrawal. The onset of catatonia can be acute or subtle and symptoms can wax, wane, or change during ...

following Jericho's death. Six weeks after his death, they hire a young nanny, Leanne Grayson, to move in and take care of Jericho, the reborn doll, opening their home to a " mysterious force". While Sean deals with the grief on his own, he becomes deeply suspicious of Leanne.

Cast and characters

Main

as Dorothy Turner (née Pearce), a local television news reporter and highly overprotective

mentally ill A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitti ...

mother who accidentally killed her thirteen-week-old firstborn child by vehicular heatstroke. *

as Sean Turner, Dorothy's husband and a stay-at-home consulting chef. *

as Leanne Grayson, a mysterious young nanny from Wisconsin hired by the Turners to look after "baby Jericho". She seems to possess very powerful yet involuntary and uncontrollable

supernatural Supernatural refers to phenomena or entities that are beyond the laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin (above, beyond, or outside of) + (nature) Though the corollary term "nature", has had multiple meanings si ...

abilities that develop gradually and grow stronger every night she stays at the Turners' house. *

as Julian Pearce, Dorothy's alcoholic younger brother who is aware of Leanne's ever-developing, strengthening supernatural influence and unspecified

extrasensory Extrasensory perception or ESP, also called sixth sense, is a claimed paranormal ability pertaining to reception of information not gained through the recognized physical senses, but sensed with the mind. The term was adopted by Duke Universi ...

and life-based abilities.

Recurring

* Jack and James Hoogerwerff as baby Jericho (season 2, 3, and 4) * Mason and Julius Belford as "Baby Jericho" (season 1) * Phillip James Brannon as Matthew Roscoe, Julian's private detective friend *

Tony Revolori Anthony Revolori ( Quiñonez; born April 28, 1996) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Zero Moustafa in ''The Grand Budapest Hotel'' (2014), for which he was nominated for numerous acting awards, and Flash Thompson in the Marv ...

as Tobe, Sean's

commis chef A chef is a trained professional cook and tradesman who is proficient in all aspects of food preparation, often focusing on a particular cuisine. The word "chef" is derived from the term ''chef de cuisine'' (), the director or head of a kitche ...

Sunita Mani Sunita Mani (born December 13, 1986) is an American actress, dancer and comedian. She is best known for her television roles as Trenton in the USA Network drama ''Mr. Robot'' (2015–2017) and Arthie Premkumar in the Netflix comedy '' GLOW'' (2 ...

as Veera (season 3), Julian's new girlfriend * S. J. Son as Wanda (season 1), a babysitter who Leanne befriends * Molly Griggs as Isabelle Carrick, an up-and-coming reporter at 8News where Dorothy works * Boris McGiver as Uncle George, Leanne's "uncle" * Jerrika Hinton as Natalie Gorman (season 1–2), Dorothy's friend and therapist who suggested the

as a temporary coping method *

Todd Waring Todd Waring (born April 28, 1955) is an American actor, best known for replacing Tom Hanks in the roles in both the television series version of ''Nothing in Common'', as well as ''Splash, Too''. Early life Waring was born in Ballston Spa, New Y ...

as Frank Pearce, Dorothy and Julian's father, and maternal grandfather to baby Jericho *

Alison Elliott Alison Elliott (born May 19, 1970) is an American actress. She was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award for the 1997 film ''The Wings of the Dove''. Her other film appearances include ''The Spitfire Grill'' (1996), ''Birth'' (2004), ''The A ...

as Aunt May Markhem (season 1, 2, 4), Leanne's "aunt" and leader of the Church of Lesser Saints cult

Guest

* M. Night Shyamalan as a Delivery Guy ("Reborn") * Katie Lee Hill as Kourtney (season 2–3), Frank's much younger girlfriend *

Barbara Sukowa Barbara Sukowa (; born 2 February 1950) is a German actress of screen and stage and singer. She has received three German Film Awards for Best Actress, three Bavarian Film Awards, Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress, Venice Film Festival ...

as Aunt Josephine ("Josephine")

Episodes

Season 1 (2019–20)

Season 2 (2021)

Season 3 (2022)

Season 4 (2023)

Production

Development

On February 27, 2018, it was announced that

Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company b ...

had given the production a series order for a first season consisting of ten episodes. The series was created by

who also wrote for the series and executive produced it alongside M. Night Shyamalan, Ashwin Rajan, Jason Blumenthal,

Todd Black Todd Black (born February 9, 1960) is an American film producer best known for producing ''The Pursuit of Happyness'' (2006), '' The Equalizer'' (2014), '' Southpaw'' (2015), '' The Magnificent Seven'' (2016), and ''Fences'' (2016) for which he r ...

, and

Steve Tisch Steven Elliot Tisch (born February 14, 1949) is an American film producer and businessman. He is the chairman, co-owner and executive vice president of the New York Giants, the NFL team co-owned by his family, as well as a film and television pr ...

. Production companies involved with the show include

Blinding Edge Pictures Blinding Edge Pictures is an American film production company, founded on August 2, 1998 by M. Night Shyamalan, which is known for producing films written and directed by Shyamalan like '' Unbreakable'', '' Signs'', '' The Village'', '' The Happen ...

Escape Artists Escape Artists Productions, LLC, commonly known as Escape Artists, is an independently financed motion picture and television production company with a first look non-exclusive deal at Sony Pictures Entertainment, headed by partners Steve Ti ...

, and Dolphin Black Productions. Mike Gioulakis served as the series' cinematographer. On October 3, 2019, it was reported that the series was scheduled to be released on November 28, 2019. Ahead of the series premiere, on November 22, 2019, it was announced that Apple had renewed the series for a second season which is set to premiere on January 15, 2021. On December 15, 2020, ahead of the second season premiere, Apple renewed the series for a third season. On December 14, 2021, ahead of the third season premiere, Apple renewed the series for a fourth and final season. Shyamalan stated that he originally envisioned the series to stretch for 60 half-hour episodes, or six seasons, but he ultimately planned the show to be four seasons with 40 episodes in total.

Casting

On August 22, 2018, it was announced that

and

had been cast in leading roles. On November 30, 2018, it was reported that

had joined the main cast. On December 4, 2018, it was announced that

had been cast in a starring role. in December 2021,

was announced to be joining the cast.

Filming

The first season of ''Servant'' was filmed in Philadelphia from November 2018 to March 2019. Exterior scenes took place in Philadelphia's Center City near Spruce and 21st Streets. A set for the interior of the Turner home was built in a former paint factory in Bethel Township,

Delaware County, Pennsylvania Delaware County, colloquially referred to as Delco, is a County (United States), county in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. With a population of 576,830 as of the 2020 census, it is the List of counties in Pennsylvan ...

. Italian chef Marc Vetri served as a food consultant for the cooking scenes in season one. In March 2020, Apple TV+ shut down production of season two due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. In September 2020, production resumed to finish the four remaining episodes of season two. Philadelphia chef Drew DiTomo was the food consultant for season two, spending many days making pizzas and teaching the cast to make the pizzas that served as the basis for Cheezus Crust, the fictional pizza delivery company that Sean and Dorothy created during the season. In February 2021, it was reported that production on season three had begun. In an interview with ''

Backstage Backstage most commonly refers to backstage (theatre), also in motion picture and television production. Backstage may also refer to: Film and television * ''Back Stage'' (1969 film), a silent film starring Oliver Hardy * ''Back Stage'' (1942 fil ...

'', Grint revealed that unlike many film and television productions, ''Servant'' is filmed chronologically, with the cast getting scripts as they film each episode, keeping them just as much a part of the mystery as the characters and viewers. Apple reportedly asked Shyamalan not to display crucifixes on the walls during filming.

Release

The first season of ''Servant'' premiered on

on November 28, 2019, and ran for ten episodes until January 17, 2020. Ahead of the first season premiere,

Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...

renewed the show for a second ten-episode season, which premiered on January 15, 2021. In December 2020, ahead of the second season premiere, the series was renewed for a third season. The third season premiered on January 21, 2022. In December 2021, ahead of the third season premiere, the series was renewed for a fourth and final season. The fourth and final season is set to premiere on January 13, 2023.

Marketing

Coinciding with the release of the second-season finale, and paying homage to Cheezus Crust—the fictional pizza business that Dorothy and Sean create in the season—Apple partnered with two pizza restaurants in Los Angeles to offer free pizza throughout the weekend.

Reception

Critical response

For the first season, the review-aggregation website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

reported an 84% approval rating with an average score of 7.2/10, based on 61 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "Though ''Servant''s slithering mystery often wanders into dark, crowded corners, its claustrophobic atmosphere and powerful performances build enough tension to keep viewers hooked."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 64 out of 100 for the season, based on reviews from 20 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". For the second season, Rotten Tomatoes reported an 88% approval rating with an average score of 7.6/10, based on 26 reviews. The site's critical consensus reads, "''Servant''s second season serves up a solid—if not always convincing—set of thrills with a better grasp on its dark humor." Metacritic assigned a score of 76 out of 100 based on nine critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". For the third season, Rotten Tomatoes reported a 92% approval rating with an average score of 6.7/10, based on 12 reviews. Metacritic assigned a score of 73 out of 100 based on four critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Author

Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...

has praised the series on multiple occasions, calling it "spooky as hell", "extremely creepy and totally involving." Filmmaker

Guillermo del Toro Guillermo del Toro Gómez (; born October 9, 1964) is a Mexican filmmaker, author, and actor. He directed the Academy Award–winning fantasy films ''Pan's Labyrinth'' (2006) and ''The Shape of Water'' (2017), winning the Academy Awards for Be ...

has called it a beautifully crafted, elegant show which feels like a European slow burn. He also praised the surgical staging and camera work in the episodes directed by M. Night Shyamalan, as well as Rupert Grint's performance.

Accolades

Lawsuit

In January 2020,

Francesca Gregorini Francesca McKnight Donatella Romana Gregorini di Savignano di Romagna (born August7, 1968), known professionally as Francesca Gregorini, is an Italian-American screenwriter and film director. Early life Born in Rome, Gregorini is the daught ...

filed a lawsuit against ''Servant'' producers including Tony Basgallop and M. Night Shyamalan, the production companies involved, and Apple TV+, alleging copyright infringement for her 2013 drama film, '' The Truth About Emanuel''. ''The Truth About Emanuel'' is a psychological thriller in which a woman uses a lifelike doll to cope with the loss of her infant hiring a young girl as a nanny to take care of it. Basgallop and Shyamalan responded that neither had seen her film and that any similarity is coincidence. They go further in saying that ''Servant'' was in development before the creation of Gregorini's film. On May 28, 2020, a federal judge threw out the copyright lawsuit against Shyamalan and Apple, ruling that the TV show is not similar enough to the film to merit a lawsuit. Gregorini responded that the, "ruling is disappointing, but not surprising", and that "the balance of power in the entertainment industry has always favored powerful men and institutions" after the suit was thrown out. On July 21, 2020, the court ordered Gregorini to pay the defendants' attorneys' fees of $162,467. The court emphasized the objective unreasonableness of her claims. In February 2022, however, the

United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (in case citations, 9th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court of appeals that has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts in the following federal judicial districts: * District ...

determined that the lawsuit was dismissed prematurely, as the

discovery Discovery may refer to: * Discovery (observation), observing or finding something unknown * Discovery (fiction), a character's learning something unknown * Discovery (law), a process in courts of law relating to evidence Discovery, The Discovery ...

steps had not actually been carried out, ruling "'reasonable minds could differ' on whether the stories are substantially similar."

References

External links

* – official site * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Servant (TV series) 2010s American drama television series 2010s American horror television series 2019 American television series debuts 2020s American drama television series 2020s American horror television series American horror fiction television series Apple TV+ original programming English-language television shows Horror drama television series Works by M. Night Shyamalan Psychological thriller television series Psychological horror Television shows set in Philadelphia Television shows filmed in Pennsylvania Television productions suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic