M. Night Shyamalan on season 4 of Servant and its “precision movement towards an end”

The previous couple of years have been a little bit hectic for M. Night Shyamalan. The director is about to launch the psychological horror movie Knock on the Cabin in February, and whereas that film was within the works, he was additionally racing to finish the fourth and closing season of Servant on Apple TV Plus. When I spoke to Shyamalan over Zoom in December, he likened it to working two full-time jobs concurrently, calling the workload “non-sustainable.”

“We’re here, and I’m putting in the last hours on Servant as I talk to you, and I’m finishing a movie for Universal, and I don’t have literally another minute to spare,” he advised me. “I’m trying to get these things done, and I’m very excited about looking back on this time and saying ‘wow, that was almost impossible.’”

Season 4 of Servant premieres on January thirteenth, and it’ll wrap up a wierd and complicated storyline when the tenth episode airs. What began as a heartbreaking story a few younger couple shedding their little one has blossomed into one thing a lot larger and more odd. Shyamalan, who government produced the collection alongside Tony Basgallop, says he’s recognized the place the story was headed for a while. It was initially deliberate as a 60-episode series, however he says he finally realized that “the story wanted to be four seasons.” And whereas he notes that there was some flexibility for the primary season and a half, from then on, it has been “this precision movement towards an end.”

“The architecture of all the scenes, and the movement of the seasons, has stayed identical to what was drawn up on that board,” he says of the early narrative plan. “It’s not a magic trick. We aim at it and say ‘in this episode, the character experiences this.’ And we did that for 25 episodes, and they stayed pretty true.”

Nell Tiger Free in season 4 of Servant.
Image: Apple

But it additionally represents a brand new problem for the veteran director: ending a tv present. His early profession was outlined by the endings of movies like The Sixth Sense and The Village, however bringing an ongoing TV collection to a satisfying conclusion is one thing completely different altogether. And the issue of doing it properly, and with the ability to fulfill these viewers who’ve been alongside for the experience for years, is one thing that Shyamalan was properly conscious of going into Servant.

“I’m astonished now when I think of any peers who have done this.”

“When we look back at the history of this art form, very few have been able to pull the integrity and the narrative purpose through the entire run of the show to the end,” he explains. “Partly because you don’t know if you’re going to be renewed, partly because it’s so unrelenting in the amount that it’s asking of you. Those factors are crushing. So the Sopranos, the Breaking Bads, are very rare that they can sustain from beginning to end. I’m astonished now when I think of any peers who have done this. I’m humbled by the pressure of it. There’s something beautiful that can come from that. This is partly why we picked an ending — so we could aspire to this integrity and resonance.”

The challenge of renewals is especially related of late, with streaming providers seemingly canceling collection with reckless abandon. For thriller reveals specifically, like, say, Netflix’s puzzle field 1899, these cancellations might be particularly irritating for viewers who by no means get that promised narrative payoff. Despite this, Shyamalan says that the thought of not being renewed didn’t affect how they approached the story. There was no backup plan if Servant didn’t get the complete 4 seasons.

A photo of Rupert Grint in season 4 of Servant.

Rupert Grint in season 4 of Servant.
Image: Apple

“That would be a rational, healthy way to think about it,” he says of making a contingency plan. “But we didn’t. I was all in. And when I say all in: I own the show. If we don’t get to finish this story, I really don’t have anything that I own. You can’t tell this suspenseful story with no ending. It is a gamble that my partners, Apple, and — more importantly — the audience would be interested and supportive, which is what has happened with Servant. It was a risk. I love taking risks when the only mitigating factor is our execution. That’s been my approach to the industry for the last eight years.”

“Unless I put myself in jeopardy, I am not going to be the storyteller that I want to be.”

It looks as if a very worrying technique to stay, particularly while you additionally have a movie within the works. (Shyamalan assured me that he can be taking a full two-week trip quickly.) But he additionally believes that the stress is a mandatory artistic device and one of many keys to his course of.

“Unless I put myself in jeopardy, I am not going to be the storyteller that I want to be,” he says. “I’m not going to approach the challenge the right way if I know there’s a real safety net. Maybe it’s sadistic or maybe it’s unhealthy, what I’m saying, but I need to know there are real stakes.” He provides, “It is terrifying. But I don’t know if there is any other way to go through life.”

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