I don’t know… if you ask me, I’ll probably try it. I’ve imagined worse types of flavored ice cream, like SPAM ice cream. But lobster ice cream? I’d totally be down to sample it. After finishing the first season of Servant, I also know I’m not up for watching three more seasons of this show. I’ve been on a bit of a bad streak lately when it comes to picking my next TV series to binge. While Servant is not as bad as some Netflix series I’ve watched (*cough* The Boroughs), it’s one of those shows that tries so hard to be dark, mysterious, and weird but ultimately still can’t convince me to keep going.

I admit that the premise of this story is a bit freaky and has a lot of potential. A grieving mother who lost her baby boy goes stark mad and believes a baby doll is his replacement? All the while a mysterious nanny comes along and somehow the baby doll turns into a real-life baby? The first episode got me hooked. I knew it would be a slow burn of a show. The extremely dark and warm color palette I guess is supposed to convey a sense of darkness and claustrophobia, but there are times where it was a bit hard to see what was going on since the scenes were too dark. As the episodes went on, however, it just started to lose my attention bit by bit.

As for the characters, at first I thought all four of them were just irritating and unlikeable. However, I see them in a slightly different light toward the end, and for the better. Sean initially seems to care more about his profession and craft than he does about Dorothy. But as we learn later, the fact that he is still beside Dorothy and not putting the blame on her for losing their baby boy takes a lot out of him. Dorothy is basically living in a fugue-like state half the time. She is pretty cold to Sean, and I sense that something about her — and not in a good way — will be revealed in later seasons. Julien is a drunk and a druggie, but it’s obvious that he cares deeply about his sister. Leanne, well, she’s the mystery girl. Is she the devil? Can a devil be that meek in character? Is she an angel with superpowers? Maybe she’s in a cult? Or maybe all of the above? I seriously don’t know what to make of this show after 10 episodes. It shows some brilliance at certain times, but the magic kind of wears off after a while.

I really can’t see myself watching three more seasons of this show. I’ll have to hop on Reddit and Wikipedia or something to find out what’s going on. I’ve already read a lot of really good insights from other users and for a show such as this where it’s likely filled with a ton of symbolism in each episode, I’ll need all the help I can get to decipher things. The whole baby swapping thing was freaky at first. Like OMG, it’s a fake baby again. No, wait, it’s alive again! No, wait, someone did something bad, it’s a fake again! We do learn at the very end that Leanne is indeed part of a religious cult with her uncle and aunty but it’s also a bit obvious that Leanne is one of the good person? She’s obviously fighting and battling with something that we can’t see inside of her for all of season one. The one obvious connection I saw between Leanne and Dorothy was when the latter interviewed the former when she was a child on TV and based on Auntie May, she was completely charmed by her. Anyways, I’m signing off on this one and going to read the spoilers. I may have sounded a bit too harsh on this one and that bit of frustration likely isn’t justified to those who actually enjoyed the series.

EDIT:

I watched the seasons 2–4 recaps on YouTube immediately after writing this. It turns out that while many viewers found season two to be a huge step backward from the first, I actually thought it looked a bit more exciting judging by the recap. For one, it at least involves more outdoor scenes. I had gotten really bored with almost every scene taking place inside the Turners’ house. Season three looks to have expanded on this even more and even seems to include a bit more color splash than the dull, dark, and amber color palette. Season four looks to have ended with a bang. However, I’m still a bit glad I didn’t watch the show further. Viewers got frustrated with Dorothy’s sudden turn, after all this time, to finally be able to cope with Jericho’s loss seems like complete bullshit. Having them turn on Leanne in seasons three and four to hand her back over to the cult but then have Dorothy claim Leanne is the daughter she never had in the end, is just sloppy. But I can obviously only judge so much being that I’m only going by the recap.