It was a perfect story for the time, one seemingly created for an exploding obsession with true crime, horror, and class politics.
Reeves Wiedeman’s 2018 New York Magazine article “The Watcher” brought all of these elements together and told a story that was equal parts ghost story and psychological thriller – the only difference being that it was real.
That is, as real as a mystery can be without resolution. The story, which has now become the newest series on Netflix, documented the Broadduses’ (renamed Brannock for the show) move to a home in New Jersey. They soon receive threatening letters from a sender posing as “the Watcher” – a neighbor apparently furious at wealthy out-of-towners taking over a historic home from locals.
This sender, who described the house as “my family’s theme for decades,” even went so far as to mention — and spy on — the Broaddus’ young children.
“Must you fill the house with the young blood I requested? Better for me,” the Guardian wrote in one of her letters.
“Was your old house too small for the growing family? Or was it greed to bring me your children? As soon as I know their names, I will call them and draw them to me.”
Now creator Ryan Murphy – fresh from the success of the controversial serial killer biopic Monsters: The Story of Jeffrey Dahmer – sets his eye on the house at 657 Boulevard, another strange and disturbing series of crimes. And this time he’s working with a pretty star-studded cast: Naomi Watts and Bobby Cannavale star as Maria and Derek, the hapless couple who move in.
Elsewhere, Jennifer Coolidge stars as a real estate agent who has a small part to play in the true story, while Mia Farrow and Margo Martindale play the overinvolved and vaguely menacing neighbors who freak out in and out of a property. Life suspect list that was never solved.
It was those two things — Murphy’s involvement and the underlying theme of anonymous terror — that most cast members say drew them to the project.
“It was a fresh story for me,” Watts said in an interview with CBC. “And I just imagined being in the same shoes of that family, being in a situation where they could finally get their claws on their dream home. And this fear that it’s not going well – but not wanting to give it up at the same time.”
Meanwhile for Coolidge — a veteran comedian who just won her first Emmy for work white lotus – there were other motives. First, she said she wanted to work with Murphy ever since he used her home in New Orleans to film scenes from it American Horror Story a decade ago.
Jennifer Coolidge told CBC News that despite her recent Emmys win, she jumped at the opportunity to star in thriller series The Watcher to get out of the comedy box.
But at the same time, she said the opportunity to work on something with a darker undertone influenced her choice. (Though Watts shared the hardest part of working with Coolidge, it’s still “keeping a straight face.”)
“We always want to change,” Coolidge said. “I think every actor wants to get out of the earlier point of view, they always want to improve in some way. But for most of the time, for much of my career… I don’t know if there was that much variation.”
Though the show is based on a family terrorized by an unknown letter writer, Naomi Watts says the hardest part of working with Jennifer Coolidge wasn’t the “laughs.” [her] head off.’
An unknown perpetrator
Even four years later, despite recent updates such as the Broaddus selling their home at a loss, police being harshly criticized for not adequately investigating the case, and a few discoveries that could constitute spoilers, the case is still alive not been resolved the series. That gave the show both obstacles and opportunities.
First, since the true observer is still unknown, the decision on which of the characters to choose for the role was similarly up in the air – even for the cast.
“They don’t know because we each got a script. So we weren’t sure where it was going and it was just so much fun to play,” Farrow said, explaining that this led them to speculate about whether their scene partners were characters – or even the Observers their own.
“We all said, ‘What? What is happening? What is happening? Is it you? I thought – I figured Margo must be the one.”
“And I was sure it was me,” Martindale said.
Watcher stars Margo Martindale and Mia Farrow discuss how the series’ closely guarded secret led them to guess if their characters were secretly “the Watcher.”
Resentment, speculation surrounds the true story
Elsewhere, this led to a lot of artistic license, including the fictional character of Theodora Birch, played by British actress Noma Dumezweni. This reel introduces a private detective with terminal cancer who plunges into the mystery surrounding the home.
While Dumezweni said she loved the freedom to just “play in this world,” building a character from suggestions from Murphy and her own instincts, they pose a threat to both The Observer‘s legitimacy and the Broaddus.
Even after selling their home, the family opted to remain in the same town of Westfield — where a number of residents appear to have resented the attention it has garnered and the supposed Windfall neighbors believe they got it through the Made sale of their rights to the story.
According to an update published by Wiedeman earlier this weekthe Broadduses agreed to the series only on the condition that the show change its name, change the makeup of its family (changing the real family’s three children into two on-screen) — and noting that “they wouldn’t mind.” , if the fictional house burned to the ground.”
They also stated that they would not watch the show themselves.
At the time of writing, the fate of the house and whether a fictional observer will be revealed are still mysteries: Per the show’s secrecy policy, journalists were only allowed to watch the pilot episode, rather than the full series as usual. That only gave a glimpse of what’s sure to be an intriguing mystery, though added enough to risk being overdramatized — even if it’s more entertaining than the truth.
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