With the U.S. already in strange waters in the Trump 2.0 era, the last few weeks have only gotten darker: conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination and a subsequent MAGA freakout that is still playing out across an attack on free speech in the United States and other fronts.
Therefore, it’s worth pointing out that Apple TV+’s decision to roll out The Savant on Friday, September 26th, a drama about the FBI and domestic terrorists, is happening right in the mix of these larger and momentous events.
Whether the timing ends up being “good” or “bad” or “who cares?” remains to be seen.
Here’s The Savant’s official trailer:
The cast, lead by Jessica Chastain in the titular role (her colleagues literally refer to her as The Savant, catchy right?) and Pablo Schreiber as the domestic terrorist Big Bad (“He’s recruiting for something… massive” we’re told in the trailer) is pretty great, and overall the production looks top notch.
Now, it’s also worth noting that Apple TV+ is known for spending money on top level talent and productions with uneven results (see: The Morning Show and Invasion), so again it remains to be seen whether The Savant will end up being an entertaining and worthwhile TV show to check out while we’re all cooling down from another day of doomscrolling.
The trailer also lets us know: “Between 1994 and 2020, 893 extremist attacks took place in America. Today unseen heroes protect us from countless more.” The set-up is that Chastain-as-Savant is an overworked, obsessive FBI agent with a family who ends up going in “too deep” with her investigations into domestic terrorist groups.
There are many clues for why this is in the trailer, and here are two of them:
- “I thought this was a no work weekend, mom,” The Savant’s husband kindly admonishes her at one point
- “They have photos of your family,” we hear at another point. Uh oh!
As noted, the cast is truly top notch, which always helps. Chastain will be forever known for her roles in movies like Zero Dark Thirty and The Help, and she more recently won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in The Eyes of Tammy Faye. Pablo Schreiber has been on my radar going way back to his outstanding work playing Nick Sobotka on The Wire, and The Savant cast also includes wonderful character actors such as Richard Gant.
The Savant premieres on September 26th on Apple TV+, with eight episodes scheduled.