Llatest collaboration between Ryan Murphy and Netflix is called The Watcher. After the boom of Dahmerthe second most watched English language show ever, the American producer tries again the bang – but it will be difficult – with one dark miniseries in seven installments less chilling than the monster from Milwaukee. And always taken from the crime news: a wealthy family pursued by a stalker. History is not new to adaptations; in 2016 a film with the same title was released (in Italian The observer). But there is a lot of anticipation on this reduction of Netflix, because it came after a very hard battle (you are the studios in the fight) on the film rights of the article that told the facts (which took place in 2014), written by Reeves Wiedeman on the site The Cut of the New York Magazine in November 2018.
The Watcher: the plot of the series
THE Brannock – typical upper middle class wasp core – have happily moved into a new home in New Jersey, surrounded by stately, ancient trees. But the tranquility of the idyllic neighborhood stops when Nora (Naomi Watts), Dean (Bobby Cannavale) and the two teenage children begin to receive a series of letters with alarming content. Signed by that the Observer. A relentless guy who has targeted them and to whom the most advanced precautions in the field of security and surveillance do not care. All this while the neighborhood changes attitude, becoming suddenly intrusive, confusing a lucid reading of the environment.
The cast
In the role of Nora Brannock, Naomi Watts is a mature woman, classy and successful that progressively gives way to terror. Next to her is Dean (Bobby Cannavale), just seen in Blonde in the role of Joe DiMaggio, an impulsive and suspicious husband who does not like intrusions from neighbors, much less being persecuted.
Jennifer Coolidge (The White Lotus) is Karen Calhoun, divorced and vindictive real estate agent, yet amiable and welcoming: she was the one who sold the villa to the Brannocks. In the series also check Mia Farrow – Hollywood veteran and now more famous for disputes with Woody Allen: her Pearl is a seemingly friendly but ambiguous neighbor. Its presence in The Watcher is particularly apt: in 1968 she was a young wife manipulated by the people across the street Rosemary’s Baby; now he is on the side of the bad guys, a community that looks like a sect.
Naomi Watts (Nora) and Bobby Cannavale (Dean). (Netflix)
The Watcher teaser and trailer
The first teaser released in early September shows Karen describing the villa, which is also equipped with a dumbwaiter large enough to hold an adult. A tour in which he advises the next tenants to keep the curtains closed of the bedroom, the neighbors are indiscreet, rather strange types.
In the first trailer – presented during Netflix’s Tudum event – the Brannocks receive the letter from the so-called Observer, which reveals the obsession with the house and consequently – since they ended up living there – also for them. Nora and Dean interrogate the neighbors while strange and terrifying facts occur.
Threatening letters. Strange neighbors. Sinister threats
Behind The Watcher there are Ryan Murphy And Ian Brennanhistorical collaborator of the showrunner from Glee to Scream Queens and up to Dahmer. The two – very skilled manipulators of low instincts sold in dazzling packaging – have created a horror more shocking than a horror, centered on the misfortune of having paid for a residential nightmare out of pocket.
The contrast between the bucolic charm of the neighborhood – pretty villas, manicured lawns – and the alienating atmosphere makes your skin crawl. And it does it better than supernatural and splatter play’s American Horror Story. Stories of monsters and ghosts are less scary than a hostile neighborhood there where it is invested for a sure happiness. To such an extent that the house becomes a security prison, perhaps as bad as everything else. In the throes of paranoia and claustrophobia, the Brannocks are good company if you can handle the tension of their downward spiral, certainly not for everyone.
The true story of the Observer
The story that inspired it The Watcher is that of Broaddus (real family surname), who bought the fateful house for $ 1.3 million in 2014 (in Westfield, New Jersey), and that about to move in after a refurbishment they received a letter (the first of three signed by L’Osservatore). “657 Boulevard has been an object of interest to my family for decades,” writes the stranger. And, as he approaches his 110th birthday, I have been charged with watching over and awaiting his second coming. ‘
So the house was always under “observation”? The confirmation comes with the second writing: «My grandfather guarded the house in the 1920s, my father in the 1960s. Now is my time. Do you know the history of the house? Do you know what is hidden within its walls? Why are you here? I’ll find out”. Details also emerged about the need to shed young blood, referring explicitly to the couple’s children; as well as descriptions of details inside the house known only to those who might have visited it.
The police investigation – all aimed at the neighbors – they failed to frame anyone; were examined Michael Langford and family, with a privileged point of view on the “guarded” dwelling. Then i Woodsformer owners who lived on 657 Boulevard for 23 years (who confessed to receiving a letter from the Observer shortly before moving elsewhere; and for which they were unsuccessfully denounced by the Broaddus). With the case still open, despite private investigations including the FBI, the legend of the graphomaniac guy has grown over time, expanding the imagination of the whole town. And the writers. Meanwhile, Nora and Dean – who have never lived in the house – sold it in 2019 for just $ 400,000.
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