Worth Watching: ..., Apple's Creepy 'Servant, ...'
Servant (streaming on Apple TV+): If you'd rather get your creep on, the new Apple streaming service complies with a bizarre series from executive producer M. Night Shyamalan (who directs the premiere) and creator Tony Basgallop (Inside Man) that kept reminding me of Rosemary's Baby with its suffocating and claustrophobic weirdness. I can't help wishing Servant was a limited series — it was renewed for a second season before premiere — because it's hard to imagine the shocking and unsettling premise sustaining over the long haul. Or even over the entire first season. But the first three episodes available now kick off with a Gothic chill as we're introduced to Dorothy (
Six Feet Under's Lauren Ambrose), a Philadelphia TV reporter who's been lost for weeks in grief over her infant son, Jericho, while her chef husband Sean (Toby Kebbell) seems more interested in preparing exotic dishes in the kitchen. (Wait till you see his way with an eel.) When they invite Leanne (Nell Tiger Free), a seemingly naïve and quietly devout 18-year-old nanny from Wisconsin, into their posh home, she goes along with the subterfuge that little Jericho is still alive. Until things change. Rupert Grint (
Harry Potter) tries to lighten the mood in appearances as Dorothy's brother, Julian, who's just as baffled as we are.
