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Tag: The Watcher

  • Even the Stars Don’t Know Who ‘The Watcher’s Title Character Is—Will We Find Out in Season 2?

    Even the Stars Don’t Know Who ‘The Watcher’s Title Character Is—Will We Find Out in Season 2?

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    Some mysteries seem destined to remain unsolved. In October 2022, Netflix debuted The Watcher, a mystery-thriller based on the true story of a New Jersey family terrorized by a mysterious stalker via threatening letters. The show was an instant hit on the streamer and quickly became one of their most-viewed series of the year.

    Although The Watcher was originally intended to be a standalone miniseries, the fact that the watcher’s identity is never revealed left fans wondering if there might be a second season after all.

    What’s The Watcher about?

    To recap, The Watcher follows the story of Dean (Bobby Cannavale) and Nora (Naomi Watts) Brannock, a fictionalized version of Derek and Maria Broaddus. Journalist Reeves Wiedeman first reported on the Broaddus’ bizarre tale in an article on The Cut, exposing the traumatic series of events that led the family to abandon their recently-purchased dream home for a huge financial loss.

    The story goes that after the family moved into their posh Westfield mansion, anonymous letters started arriving. Some of these letters threatened members of their family, referenced cult rituals, and called out each family member by name. The letters were signed “The Watcher,” and the family never discovered who sent them.

    Renowned television writer and producer Ryan Murphy saw the story during the COVID-19 pandemic and started writing a loosely based version of it for the small screen. Ian Brennan helped him finish the script and get the show made by Netflix.

    Watts stars and co-executive produces with Murphy, Brennan, and others. She and Cannavale lead the cast with a stoic unease, and Jennifer Coolidge appears as a scene-stealing corrupt realtor called Karen Calhoun. Isabel Gravitt and Luke David Blumm appear as the Brannock children, Ellie and Carter. Noma Dumezweni stars as Theodora Birch, a private detective who plays a crucial role in the series, and Hollywood royalty Mia Farrow stars as nosey neighbor Pearl Winslow.

    How did season 1 of The Watcher end?

    Netflix
    (Netflix)

    **Spoilers for The Watcher season 1 ahead!**

    In the last episode of season 1, Theodora, dying from terminal cancer, calls Dean to “confess” to being the watcher just to ease his troubled mind. Later, her daughter admits she lied. Karen uses a duplicitous LLC to purchase 657 Boulevard from the Brannocks, then moves in. Nora warns Karen that she “will be watching,” and it doesn’t take long for Karen to find an ominous watcher letter addressed to her. When her dog turns up dead, Karen gets out of there as fast as she can, and a new young couple purchases the home from her.

    Months later, Dean sneaks back into the house disguised as “John,” perpetuating the whole curious storyline for the new homeowners. Meanwhile, Nora watches silently as her husband lies to her about returning to the house. Are they the new watchers? Is that how this works?

    No one knows who The Watcher is … not even the cast

    After seven increasingly troubling episodes involving dead pets, eerie music playing from an empty room, creepy strangers prowling where they don’t belong, neighbors turning up dead, then alive again, and, of course, a “the call came from inside the house!” moment, the main mystery remained unsolved. Who is the watcher? We have no idea … and neither does the cast.

    Entertainment Weekly reported that at a special New York City screening of the show, Watts admitted the entire cast and crew were left in the dark about the identity of the watcher.

    “We didn’t know, and we still don’t know,” she said, adding, “I loved that. I loved not knowing. I think that we knew the story and that was unresolved, and I liked how this couple—who started off in a great place, seemed to be enjoying life and reaching their dreams and still having sex, everything is peachy—become unraveled by this situation and turn on each other.”

    Cannavale agreed that not knowing the watcher’s identity was a strong motivation for his character’s development. He equated not knowing to how helpless and confused we all felt during the COVID-19 pandemic, which was when Murphy came up with the idea to write The Watcher.

    “He came up with the idea during [the pandemic]—he wrote it during that—so it was always sort of metaphorical for me: loss of control, loss of power, loss of protective ability. So, in the end, it didn’t really matter to me. What mattered was what it put these people through.”

    Booby Cannavale, Jennifer Coolidge, and Naomi Watts in The Watcher
    (Netflix)

    Will there be a continuation of the story or not?

    In reality, the mystery of the watcher remains unsolved, but Murphy and Brennan could correct that injustice in their fictional version. In November 2022, Variety reported a second season deal for The Watcher and two more seasons for Monster, another Murphy/Brennan collaboration. Both of the first seasons of these series were among the most-watched Netflix originals for 2022, so it makes sense to bring them back by popular demand.

    As for whether or not we’ll see more of fan-favorite Coolidge in the next season, we can only hope. The actress herself told Entertainment Weekly that she’d love to reprise her role, but she hasn’t heard anything about casting or production just yet. “I mean, I’m wondering. I wonder if they will call Karen back,” she said. “I would definitely go if they offer, if they ask me. I hope she’s back.”

    Same!

    You can catch up with all seven episodes of season 1 of The Watcher right now on Netflix.

    (featured image: Netflix)

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    Beverly Jenkins

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  • Netflix’s ‘The Watcher’ Is Based On A Real House In New Jersey

    Netflix’s ‘The Watcher’ Is Based On A Real House In New Jersey

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    The house at 657 Boulevard has curb appeal. And in real estate, it’s all about location, location, location. So, when Dean and Nora Brannock set their eyes on the place, they immediately agree it’s their suburban dream home. They have to have it, but unfortunately, they aren’t the only ones who want it.

    Hellbent on getting it, Dean (Bobby Cannavale) and Nora (Naomi Watts) have just purchased their dream home in the idyllic suburb of Westfield, New Jersey. On the surface, it’s a picturesque neighborhood with perfectly manicured lawns and tree-lined streets. In truth, it holds sinister secrets. Or is it all a hoax?

    Dean and Nora put all their savings into closing the deal but soon realize their neighbors don’t want them there. They’re surrounded by suspects who all seem to have the same intention: to get them to sell the house. Their excitement quickly turns to regret when a stalker who goes by “The Watcher” starts leaving threatening letters in their mailbox.

    This series is based on the shocking true story of the infamous “Watcher” house in New Jersey and Reeves Wiedeman’s article “The Haunting of a Dream House,” originally published in the November 12, 2018, issue of New York Magazine.

    This gripping seven-episode series comes from co-creators, writers and executive producers Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, who recently brought Netflix
    NFLX
     subscribers the disturbing masterpiece Dahmer.

    There are plenty of colorful characters in the neighborhood. There’s an eccentric neighbor, Pearl (Mia Farrow), and as the president of the local preservation society, she loathes the concept of renovation. She lives with her oddball brother, Jasper (Terry Kinney), who sneaks into the Brannock’s house and hides in their dumbwaiter. There is also the nosy couple just across the way, Mitch (Richard Kind) and Mo (Margo Martindale), who don’t seem to understand the concept of boundaries and always have binoculars in hand.

    The always-brilliant and hilarious (and recent Emmy award winner) Jennifer Coolidge portrays Karen Calhoun, a real estate agent and old acquaintance of Nora’s. Like everyone in the neighborhood, she has her share of secrets and motives. One secret she cannot keep is her desire to sell the house.

    This whodunit is excellent from start to finish, but what’s the real story? In June 2014, Derek Broaddus and his wife, Maria, closed on the $1.3 million six-bedroom house at 657 Boulevard. Within days, they received the first letter. They hadn’t yet moved in but had already started doing some renovations, provoking the ire of the person writing the letters. Derek and Maria were excited to start this new chapter with their three children, who were 5, 8, and 10 years old.

    “I see already that you have flooded 657 Boulevard with contractors so that you can destroy the house as it was supposed to be,” the letter read in part. “Tsk, tsk, tsk … bad move. You don’t want to make 657 Boulevard unhappy.”

    More letters would follow, and the writer mentioned wanting “young blood” in the house. The couple went to the police and contacted the previous owners, John and Andrea Woods, who had lived in the house for 23 years.

    Andrea told the new owners that a few days before she and her husband moved out, they had also received a letter from The Watcher that she described as odd. It also mentioned that The Watcher’s family had been observing the house for years. It was the first time the Woods received anything like it. She threw the letter away. When the new owners got their first letter, the old owners accompanied them to the police station. Detective Leonard Lugo advised them not to tell anyone about the letters, including the neighbors, who were now suspects. They were terrified.

    More letters followed and made mention of their children. “It has been years and years since the young blood ruled the hallways of the house. Have you found all of the secrets it holds yet? Will the young blood play in the basement? Or are they too afraid to go down there alone? I would be very afraid if I were them. It is far away from the rest of the house. If you were upstairs, you would never hear them scream,” another letter read in part. They hadn’t yet moved in and weren’t sure if they ever would.

    Westfield is an upper-crust, well-to-do idyllic town. It’s less than an hour away from the bustling city streets of New York and the perfect place to raise a family. But their dream had turned into a nightmare. They’d already sold their old home, so they moved in with Maria’s parents. They were stuck paying the mortgage and property taxes on 657 Boulevard. Both were depressed, and within six months after that first letter, they decided to put the house back on the market and sell it. But you know how small-town gossip is. Rumors spread, and while some suspected the couple had buyer’s remorse and claimed it was a hoax to get out of the house, others felt sorry for them and saw them as victims.

    They thought of selling, even at a loss, and instead decided to rent it out in the hopes that a few years without incident might help them sell in the future. As of 2018, the prosecutor’s office was still investigating, but no one had been caught.

    Wiedeman’s article was updated on October 11, two days before the show’s October 13 premiere. It’s been four years since the article was first published, and the case remains unsolved. But a lot has happened.

    In March 2019, five years after the Broaddus family paid more than $1.35 million for 657 Boulevard, they put it back on the market for $999,000. They hoped to sell it to a builder who would tear it down; a family bought it for $959,000. They took a considerable loss. Per Wiedeman’s update, the Broaddus’ made 60 mortgage payments of $5,495.13 for a house the family never lived in. The new owners claim they haven’t received any letters (yet), and though the investigation has continued, the case has gone cold but remains open. Without a confession or a DNA match, it may never be solved.

    The article speculates that though the family has turned down countless media opportunities and offers from documentarians, the family made money by giving Netflix the rights to their story. You know how gossipy neighbors are. There are rumors the family made $10 million, but the reporter wrote that the money from the Netflix deal didn’t cover the family’s losses on the house. Maybe Murphy and Brennan’s TV adaptation will renew interest and help law enforcement finally solve the case.

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    Dana Feldman, Senior Contributor

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