|
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
|
Positive:
30
Mixed:
8
Negative:
2
|
Watch Now
| Stream On |
|
Critic Reviews
The Daily BeastJan 12, 2023
Season 4 Review:
Servant has always been a malevolent beast of a TV show, its humor stinging and its horror perplexing, and its formal sharpness hasn’t dimmed in this fourth go-round. ... Even if their saga doesn’t wrap up in wholly satisfying fashion, Basgallop and Shyamalan cast an eerie spell that makes the waiting, and guessing, a pleasure unto itself. ... Regardless of its ultimate destination, its harrowing and baffling journey has been more than worth it.
Read full review
The PlaylistJan 11, 2023
Season 4 Review:
It’s a show about damaged people who unload their trauma on one another, and the supernatural forces that will either tear them apart or hold them together. Somehow, either possibility feels equally likely, and potentially equally satisfying. That’s a hard trick to pull off, and it feels like “Servant” is a show that will
be easier to appreciate once it can be viewed in its entirety. Until then, expect the unexpected.
Read full review
ColliderJan 10, 2023
Season 4 Review:
If the remaining episodes are as good as these first three, it will be the audience who can truly count themselves the winners. A disquieting and dynamic portrait of one family’s descent, the final season of Servant is one that promises to reward those who have kept the faith.
Read full review
Nov 20, 2019
Season 1 Review:
After watching all 10 episodes, it’s hard to imagine the mystery sustaining more than two seasons or so. But it’s far too early to quibble. Right now, 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.
Read full review
RogerEbert.comJan 11, 2023
Season 4 Review:
This season of “Servant” delights in upending the status quo of our not-quite-nuclear family and seeing how it rattles the psyches of everyone involved. The results here, at least in the three episodes available for review, are just as delectable as ever, even if the show feels like it’s rushing to its mandated end.
Read full review
The Daily BeastJan 21, 2022
Season 3 Review:
There are only so many times one can be on the precipice of comprehension, only to be thrown back into confusion, before aggravation sets in. Nonetheless, there’s something rewardingly compelling about being strung along in this excessive fashion, thanks both to a serpentine formal structure that suggests unholy malevolence in every constricting door frame and hallway, and performances that are constantly threatening to tip into abject madness.
Read full review
Jan 14, 2021
Season 2 Review:
"Servant" vibrates with such luxury brand histrionics, all of which undercuts The story's escalating supernatural queerness. True to Shyamalan form Leanne has powers that have yet to be fully explained, but between their unpredictable appearances and the return of Screaming Dirty Uncle it's all ... a whole lot. The thought of jumping into this Olympic-sized pool of white nonsense may not be tempting for anyone drowning in the reality of it, and as I implied it takes a conscious paradigm shift to enjoy "Servant" as a laugh riot. ... You can only truly get that once you see it.
Read full review
Nov 25, 2019
Season 1 Review:
Servant is essentially a Black Mirror installment stretched into ten half-hour parts. It is American Horror Story, minus that franchise’s capacity to wink at itself and its own reliance on tropes. And yet as silly as the show gets, I still wanted to get to the bottom of what’s going on.
Read full review
Jan 19, 2022The PlaylistJan 18, 2022
Season 3 Review:
“Servant” sometimes struggles with realism for the sake of plot—a criticism that could be levied at a lot of Shyamalan work, really. ... But that exaggerated realism has been a part of the Shyamalan brand and it’s certainly not as pronounced here as it is in something like “Old,” for example. ... It becomes an easy program to get lost in, stuck wandering the rooms of the Turner home along with these crazy people, nervous about who’s at the front door.
Read full review
Jan 11, 2021
Season 2 Review:
Season two does possess a much surer sense of blackly absurdist humor about its ever more outlandish story. Whereas the comedy often previously came from the belief-beggaring state of affairs themselves, the show now wisely leans into the aggressively heightened performances of its leads.
Read full review
RogerEbert.comNov 27, 2019
Season 1 Review:
There are times when a new episode begins and the characters lack the urgency they would naturally have after what they discovered in the last chapter. Honestly, if you can get over that, a slight dip in urgency in 4-5, and the outright insanity of the finale, there’s more than enough to like here.
Read full review
Dec 4, 2019
Season 1 Review:
All of this works better if you watch it as a comedy or whatever genre bucket you think Shyamalan belongs in. Indeed, if you try to watch Servant as a horror show, or a suspenseful thriller, I think you’ll be disappointed and even a bit bored. ... Whether Servant can deliver on this promising start, only time will tell.
Read full review
Nov 26, 2019
Season 1 Review:
For the first couple episodes, Servant is engrossing; the premiere is some of the best work Shyamalan has produced in years. That said, pacing proves to be its biggest hurdle; the latter episodes move just a bit too slowly, and rely on a series of twists and suspenseful mechanisms that feel more like padding than actual, crucial story.
Read full review
ColliderJan 19, 2021
Season 2 Review:
When it feels like you've finally gotten your footing and you know what's happening, you're hit with a plot twist that jolts you awake. Even if the actions a character takes don't make sense or the focus of an episode seems to be slightly off, you'll still want to know what happens.
Read full review
IndieWireJan 15, 2021
Season 2 Review:
No matter what you think you learned after last season’s pseudo-revealing cliffhanger ending, rest assured, more twists are in store. By Episode 7, “Servant” enters a whole new genre, and some fans will roll their eyes at the escalating plot contortions while others should delight in the sheer audacity of writer/creator Tony Basgallop’s ideas. All in all, I’m much closer to the latter, though much of the enjoyment that “Servant” could deliver is hampered by how it chooses to tell its story.
Read full review
Nov 20, 2019
Season 1 Review:
Servant can be a frustrating watch, with its oddball ensemble manifesting as eerily, purposefully translucent, but it’s a compulsive one. The 30-minute episodes help—every minute feels purposeful, symbolic, or some combination of the two—and there’s a hysterical quality, both in its performances and plotting, that gives its austere, shadowy aesthetic a surprising spark.
Read full review
IndieWireNov 20, 2019
The GuardianDec 3, 2019
Season 1 Review:
Creepy, yes. Atmospheric, always. Unsettling in general. But so little actually happens that the series drags. Tension rises to such small payoffs that you stop hoping for any kind of terrifying climax, and start wondering why you are watching something that might have made a decent 90-minute schlockfest being spread so agonisingly tastefully over five hours.
Read full review
Nov 25, 2019
Season 1 Review:
Over 10 episodes, the M. Night Shyamalan-produced series gets under your skin and pokes at insecurities and phobias tied to childbirth and parenting. What Servant is less effective at is finding that next level, narratively or psychologically, that would allow it to go from an efficient technical gem to anything deeper. It's very creepy, but maybe not especially scary, disturbing or, ultimately, satisfying.
Read full review
Nov 21, 2019
Season 1 Review:
“Servant” is a tough show to embrace. Dorothy is an insufferable, emasculating, high-strung local TV news reporter. Sean is a grumpy, unsupportive husband and snooty chef who thinks lobster ice cream is a good idea. They’re both miserable people, not characters a viewer would want to spend time with.
Read full review
Dec 2, 2019
Season 1 Review:
Kebbell, Grint and the brilliant Ambrose (whose performance settles down after some first-episode histrionics) do their best to sell the story. ... Enjoyment also requires some patience, as Basgallop pipettes the suspense over five hours, egregiously stretching out the flashbacks that eventually explain what really happened.
Read full review
Nov 26, 2019
Season 1 Review:
Ultimately, though, Servant is too empty to be worth the time, in spite of the performances and the great atmosphere. The end of the season is designed to make viewers intrigued by what happens next, but it mainly left me exasperated that so much had been promised and so little delivered. The early scares and creepy vibes fade away long before it’s over.
Read full review
Nov 20, 2019
Season 1 Review:
“Servant” is fascinating to look at and, at first, contemplate. But its slithering, reversing structure elides the fact that it must move the plot forward only infinitesimally each episode in order to conserve it, and that this is a shortish feature in the costume of a ten-episode drama. That’s its biggest, and least welcome, twist of all.
Read full review
Jan 14, 2021
Season 1 Review:
Despite the fabulous looks at wine and a late season, ominous, and very muddy and wet appearance by Boris McGiver in Episode 6, I cannot think of a good reason to invite "Servant" into your orbit for more than a few minutes, to say nothing of checking in over multiple weeks.
Read full review
Current TV Shows
By MetascoreBy User Score