Stephen King Raves About M. Night Shyamalan's Servant on Apple TV

Apple TV+ doesn’t exactly have a horror show reputation, but if you dig around its catalog, you’ll find Servant: a bizarre, skin-crawling, four-season nightmare that landed there a few years ago. It’s one of those series that never broke out in the mainstream like Severance or Ted Lasso, but ask around among horror fans (or, apparently, Stephen King), and you’ll find it’s got a serious cult following. If you missed it, here’s why it’s still worth your time.

How Creepy Does It Get?

Servant dropped its first season back in November 2019, with M. Night Shyamalan producing and sometimes directing. That name alone probably tells you there’s going to be at least two twists and one thing you thought was real turns out to be something else entirely. Here’s the core setup: Dorothy and Sean Turner (played by Lauren Ambrose and Toby Kebbell) bring home a quiet, mysterious nanny named Leanne (Nell Tiger Free) to care for their baby, Jericho. Only problem? Jericho is a reborn doll, not a real baby. A deeply traumatized Dorothy treats the doll like a living, breathing son after suffering a terrible loss, and Sean is—let’s say—less enthusiastic about pretending their grief away.

If you think this series is just about a family in denial hiring a weird nanny, let me assure you: Servant gets wild, fast. The first episode upends everything you thought you knew about that baby and the people in this brownstone, and every season adds more layers of paranoia and supernatural unease. And lest you forget, Rupert Grint (yes, that Rupert Grint, the former Ron Weasley) shows up as Dorothy’s brother Julian, injecting a snarky, kind of desperate energy that’s far from Hogwarts territory. His scenes are a weird highlight.

'The trailer for Servant is definitely eerie and opens with the question, "Do you know who you welcomed into your home?"' – Stephen King (Yes, the big guy himself tweeted about the show right after it premiered.)

Look, It’s Not Just a Doll Story

This show might make you think of Child’s Play or even Scream when it starts—horror’s love affair with creepy dolls is basically eternal—but Servant isn’t just about literal killer toys. Sure, Chucky is iconic, but Servant has more on its mind: exploring how a family survives loss, and what happens when denial turns into something unrecognizable. The real horror isn’t the doll itself; it’s the way Dorothy clings to the fantasy, and how that fantasy infects the whole household.

• Nell Tiger Free as Leanne Grayson – the enigmatic nanny who’s way more complicated than she lets on
• Lauren Ambrose as Dorothy Turner – a local TV anchor completely shattered after tragedy
• Toby Kebbell as Sean Turner – a professional chef barely keeping it together
• Rupert Grint as Julian Pearce – Dorothy’s brother, the family’s half-functioning watchdog

Why Stephen King (and Horror Nerds) Love It

King is famously vocal about the horror TV he loves, like Marianne and Mike Flanagan’s Midnight Mass. He singled out Servant early as one of his favorites, which honestly isn’t surprising once you get past the surface. Shyamalan plays with all his usual themes—twisted families, love as a weapon, and mysteries that keep spiraling—but this time, he wrings nerve-shredding suspense out of one Brownstone and its guests.

Each season deepens the puzzle, so it’s not a retread. New secrets come out, Leanne’s supernatural undertones (is she or isn’t she something other than human?) slowly come into sharper focus, and the stakes keep shifting. The weird thing is, it all winds up being less about jump-scares and more about psychological horror—that gnawing dread that you get when life falls apart, and the uncanny creeps in while you’re distracted.

Should You Watch It?

If you’re up for a slow-burn, artfully twisted family horror with enough WTF moments to keep you coming back for another episode, Servant is worth your Apple TV login. Just don’t expect to sleep easy—or to look at the seemingly normal people in your life the same way for a while. Bonus: Watching Rupert Grint play a trainwreck of a brother is oddly satisfying.