Crib mystery

In Servant, a new series streaming on Apple TV Plus, Sean (Toby Kebbell) and Dorothy (Lauren Ambrose) Turner are living every parent’s worst nightmare: Their infant son, Jericho, has died.

This tragedy is especially unsettling because Dorothy doesn’t realize Jericho is gone. In his place, she’s happily caring for a life-size doll—swaddling it, tucking it into a crib.

“I’m leaving my son for the first time since he was born,” Dorothy, a TV news reporter, informs the nanny on her way out the door.

A nanny?

Sean is caught between reality and his wife’s “full psychotic break.” Per the advice of a therapist, Sean is playing along—at least when his wife is around. Playing along includes hiring a live-in nanny, 18-year-old Leanne (Nell Tiger Free). But from the moment Leanne enters the Turners’ home, she seems as delusional as Dorothy.

“I should take Jericho for his walk now,” Leanne says, securing the doll in a stroller. Sean stares at her in disbelief.

Something’s not right with Leanne, and it’s more than her babying of “Jericho.” She hangs a crucifix above the crib and kneels at her bed, repeating the Lord’s Prayer. Is she an angel or a devil? Either way, she’s Hollywood’s favorite spook—a religious eccentric. (Servant is rated TV-MA for frequent explicit language and a few sexually charged scenes.)

Dark brown hues, a pervasive quietness, and a frequently motionless camera convey a sense of being trapped in an unbearable situation. Director M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense) isn’t one to waste a detail: Why employ a nanny when Sean, a consulting chef, works from home? How will the Turners’ jobs fit in to the story? Does Christian symbolism lie behind the splinters (thorns?) that pierce Sean in Episode 2? While Shyamalan is a master at spinning supernatural tales, they’re typically detached from Biblical realities about life and death, good and evil.

Each new 30-minute episode has brought a major twist. To avoid spoilers, I’ll end with this: As the first episode closes, Sean hears something unexpected in the doll’s baby monitor.