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Apple TV+ Thriller 'Servant' Nominated for 2021 TV Choice Award

Ar40 said:
Actually, I think the writers put a ton of thought into this show. You're operating as if this show is taking place in our reality - I'm of firm belief that the characters are all already dead and in purgatory. If you notice, you'll find a lot of clues that the various characters have all previously died in different ways (overdose, burnt to death, suicide, etc.)

The beauty of this show is that there is so much incredible ambiguity. For someone like me who obsesses over theories and loves to analyze shows piece by piece, this show is a veritable feast.

Furthermore, the show is slated for 4 seasons exactly. Shyamalan has written the show with a 4 season arc and there is absolutely an end point and a grand vision going on. This is the kind of show where you need to be a more abstract thinker and not as much a realist.
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I'm not expecting it to be realistic, you just can't have this kind of story without a "grounded" character. You can flip it around for a twist - hey, the sane guy is actually the crazy one! - but it lacks tension if everyone is pulling in the same direction.

Incidentally, I don't know why Shyamalan gets so much credit for this, it isn't his idea and he didn't write it. Tony Basgallop is credited as creator and writer, and I bet he doesn't know when or how the plot will end.
 
Ar40 said:
Shyamalan has written the show with a 4 season arc and there is absolutely an end point and a grand vision going on.
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Sure, like the grand vision of The Happening, and Lady in the Water, and Avatar, and The Village...
 
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DJTaurus said:
Great first season.
Dull and dump second one…..
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I couldn't agree more. It was such a great show during its first season and then in the second season it really went downhill. The first episodes from the second season could have been merged into one single episode because I feel like almost nothing happened in them...

Edit: Plus, a general issue I have with the show is that too many questions remain unanswered or are answered in a very vague way. Are such unanswered questions exciting for a few episode? Oh yeah! Does it get annoying when after 2 seasons so many mysteries are still unsolved? Oh yeah!
 
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garnerx said:
I'm not expecting it to be realistic, you just can't have this kind of story without a "grounded" character. You can flip it around for a twist - hey, the sane guy is actually the crazy one! - but it lacks tension if everyone is pulling in the same direction.

Incidentally, I don't know why Shyamalan gets so much credit for this, it isn't his idea and he didn't write it. Tony Basgallop is credited as creator and writer, and I bet he doesn't know when or how the plot will end.
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To correct myself, yes Basgallop and Shymalan stated it’s already written and it’s a 4 season arc.
 
ComRadMac said:
Sure, like the grand vision of The Happening, and Lady in the Water, and Avatar, and The Village...
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This is Tony Basgallop writing it though. Shyamalan is only responsible for the direction and visuals of the series
 
Part of me wonders if I liked the first season because I watched them all in a couple days. By the second, I was doing the weekly thing. For a show this short, I have a tough time. I don't really know why.

Makes me concerned for Ted Lasso :(
 
Ar40 said:
To correct myself, yes Basgallop and Shymalan stated it’s already written and it’s a 4 season arc.
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I read the Wikipedia page and all it says is that he "plans" (i.e. hopes) for it to be 40 episodes. There is no way 40 episodes are already written. Ron Weasley said the cast get scripts shortly before filming each episode, and I bet they are still hot from the printer.

This isn't something that has an end yet. It's all beginning and middle, because they're making it up as they go along. If viewer figures slump, there will be no season four. If it's still a hit, they won't pull the plug until the money dries up.
 
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211 said:
I have found this TV series very frustrating. Too many questions and hardly any payoff. The biggest problems are the unrealistic characterisations, actions and reactions. It's like the creators have never interacted with real people and thought what they would do in such circumstances.

The concept of the show is good as well as the filming of it, but it stretches credibility to nonsensical and the patience of its audience.
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You seriously summarized the show perfectly. unbelievably slow build up to absolutely nothing. It's well acted, the cinematography in unique, but the script is dumpster fire.

It's the TV show equivalent to the movie "Mother".
 
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Off topic a bit - but how has For All Mankind not won every TV award available? Great frackin show. I just finished the second season and wish the third season was already available. Fantastic, riveting television.
 
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chris4565 said:
The first episodes from the second season could have been merged into one single episode because I feel like almost nothing happened in them...
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If that bothers you how did you enjoy season 1?

I'm kinda inclined to watch season 2 now just to see what's changed!
 
mattopotamus said:
You seriously summarized the show perfectly. unbelievably slow build up to absolutely nothing. It's well acted, the cinematography in unique, but the script is dumpster fire.

It's the TV show equivalent to the movie "Mother".
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Mother! was brilliant! Even if you didn't like it (and I can see why people wouldn't) it was nothing like Servant. It had pacing, it built and built to an undeniable climax. You may have thought the climax was stupid and random or just spectacle for spectacle's sake but it was absolutely a climax, and things were resolved (rather neatly in fact).

Also, Mother! was certainly about weird stuff happening but unlike Servant it didn't set itself up as a mystery which would be solved if you kept watching. Servant is constantly giving the impression (or at least a lot of us are taking it as such) that it's leading to something but never gets there. I don't think Mother! did that.
 
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mattopotamus said:
You seriously summarized the show perfectly. unbelievably slow build up to absolutely nothing. It's well acted, the cinematography in unique, but the script is dumpster fire.

It's the TV show equivalent to the movie "Mother".
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The cinematography isn't even that unique. The show Hannibal did it better.

I saw mother! in the theater and thought it was frustrating and unsettling. Then it (spoiler) suddenly clicked on the ride home and I couldn't stop thinking about it. So I went to watch the movie again. I now think it was actually quite fantastic.

Servant is typical Shyamalan post-Sixth Sense. Like a lit fuse that fizzles out before reaching the dynamite.
 
Gator5000e said:
Off topic a bit - but how has For All Mankind not won every TV award available? Great frackin show. I just finished the second season and wish the third season was already available. Fantastic, riveting television
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Yup. One of the best shows on any network. Grounded drama that asks questions and answers them in a fantastic way
 
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mazz0 said:
Personally I find with programmes like Servant and Fringe it's not so much a feeling I don't know the whole story, it's more that there was no story and they were making it up as they want along
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Historically, that's been true of 95% of the drama series in the past. The idea of having a macro-plot with a planned final resolution is new to this century.
 
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