The prolific director, screenwriter and producer Ryan Murphy – creator of such excellently shot and told, but at the same time excessively overdone series such as “American Horror Story”, “Glee”, “Pose”, “The Politician” and several others – has overtaken himself : After weeks of his serial killer thriller Dahmer topping the Netflix streaming charts, the series about real-life killer Jeffrey Dahmer has now been dethroned by Murphy’s most recent show, The Watcher. And it doesn’t leave viewers in peace even after their finale.
The seven-part miniseries tells a fictionalized version of a true story. In 2014, Derek and Maria Broaddus bought a home in Westfield, New Jersey. After moving in, they received letters from an unknown sender who called himself “The Watcher,” apparently watching them and subtly threatening them. The Broaddus family went through and survived a form of psychological terror that we fortunately only know from horror films. And thus a through ball for Ryan Murphy, who specializes in fear and horror in addition to high-gloss entertainment, who has turned the true story into a classic haunted house plot with “whodunnit” puzzles.
In The Watcher, Nora and Dean Brannock, played by Naomi Watts and Bobby Cannavale, move into a mansion at 657 Boulevard. After getting to know various neighbors who already seem suspicious, they find a letter in their mailbox. More follow and thus the beginning of the end of the oh so perfect family life: The Brannocks feel watched and threatened and get sucked into an ever stronger downward pull into the history of the house, the neighborhood, the neighbors and into their own dark interior. They no longer trust anyone, hire a private detective, become snoopers themselves, constantly drinking wine, and – beware, spoilers – work off various suspects who could be “The Watcher” over the course of the seven exciting episodes. For example, 19-year-old Dakota, who installed their alarm system. Opposite Mo and Mitch, about whom a previous owner of what must have been the cursed house told them his child once observed them performing an occult baby sacrifice ritual. The amazingly uninvolved cop. The agent Karen. A teacher and architecture fan who already had his students write letters to Häsuer. A certain John Graff, who is said to have murdered his family here and has been on the run ever since. In the penultimate episode, the sick amateur detective Theodora confesses on her deathbed that she is “The Watcher”. She made up the Graff story, previously owned the house herself, and sold it to pay for her treatment. Her daughter disagrees after Birch’s death: her mother only thought up this story to bring some peace back to the Brannock family – which would not have lasted long anyway, because more letters followed. After a lot of their own speculation, viewers get the impression that The Watcher could be a coalition of all neighbors against the new owners, but even then not all threads come together. Maybe 657 Boulevard is actually haunted.
Spoilers: This is what happens in the final episode of The Watcher
In the final episode of The Watcher, we finally see how deep the trauma has become and eventually become an accomplice in the family: Having previously learned that Dean wrote one of the letters himself, the Brannocks appear to have made the jump. They sell their house, the real estate agent Karen turns out to be the buyer and thus apparently clearly “The Watcher”, and they move to New York. Karen herself is haunted by noises, threats and a dark figure on her stairs on the first night, and her dog is also murdered. In the final scene of The Watcher, we see Dean in the car. His wife calls him, asks how the interview for a new job went, and praises him for all his effort and the therapy he’s doing. He says he is on his way home, both profess their love. In fact, Dean parks in front of her former house at 657 Boulevard, makes small talk with the new owner, pretends to be a local John, answers his parting phrase “See you around then?” an ominous “Definitely…” and watches in the rearview mirror , as new owner Ben seems to find a certain envelope odd under the mail in the mailbox. And after Dean drives off, we see Nora chasing after him in her own car from a distance.
“The Watcher” seems to be terrorizing other generations after previous generations. Just whether and to what extent Dean will take on this job, who The Watcher was then and is now – Ryan Murphy leaves this one big question just as unanswered as it is in the template. Before the credits we read the overlay “THE WATCHER CASE REMAINS UNSOLVED”.
The real Broadus family has reported, by the way, that they will not watch this series. Even the trailer was retraumatizing for her.