The Watcher – Netflix Series Review

THE WATCHER on Netflix is a new horror, drama, and mystery mini-series based on a true story. With an amazing cast, a story that’ll scare most people, and a crazy development, you’ll want to check this out. Read our full The Watcher series review here!

THE WATCHER is a new Netflix mini-series with seven episodes. It’s based on a true story, which is insanely creepy and intensely scary. I have heard about the true crime case before, and this is very much a horror-drama-mystery, which are the official genres of this new Ryan Murphy series on Netflix.

MORE NEW SERIES FROM RYAN MURPHY

Check out Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story which is (obviously) also based on a true story >

The cast is absolutely brilliant and chock-full of actors that you’ll know from other amazing series (and movies). The story itself seems too strange and wild to be true, but it absolutely is. It’s based on the infamous “Watcher” house in New Jersey, which makes it all the more terrifying.

Continue reading our The Watcher series review below. The series premieres on Netflix on October 13, 2022.

The stuff nightmares are made of

This new horror-mystery series begins when Dean (Bobby Cannavale) and Nora Brannock (Naomi Watts) decide to move from New York City to the suburbs. They purchase their dream home in the idyllic suburb of Westfield, New Jersey.

Here they meet Karen (Jennifer Coolidge), who is both the realtor and an old acquaintance of Nora’s. She seems more concerned with getting them to sell the house again, than welcoming them to the area. They never manage to enjoy this new home for long in any case.

Shortly after putting every last cent of their savings into the house, they come to learn that this suburban neighborhood is anything but welcoming.

Also, there are some extremely weird, invasive, and very direct neighbors.

You’ll meet the kooky older woman named Pearl (Mia Farrow) and her brother Jasper (Terry Kinney). The latter even sneaks into the Brannock’s house to play with their dumbwaiter. And Pearl gets very upset when the family finds it weird that a very grown man just shows up in their house at all hours.

Also, the nosy neighbors Mitch (Richard Kind) and Mo (Margo Martindale) definitely don’t respect property lines. They do, however, enjoy sitting in front of their own house, in lawn chairs, just sipping lemonade and staring at the new neighbors.

However bad the icy welcome of their neighbors may be, it’s nothing compared to what comes next: Ominous and very specific letters start to show up. All from someone calling themselves “The Watcher”.

Amazing character portrayals

The letters from “The Watcher” quickly terrorize the Brannocks to their breaking point. Both due to very specific information and barely (if at all) hidden threats and physical things happenings inside and around the house.

Dean Brannock is quick to look into it, and this is when the more sinister secrets of this “lovely” neighborhood come spilling out.

While the story itself is more than enough to check out this Netflix series, the actors in it are what will keep you hooked. Bobby Cannavale (Nine Perfect Strangers) and Naomi Watts (Goodnight Mommy) work really well as the married couple making the move to the safe and quiet suburb of Westfield, New Jersey.

Their kids are portrayed by Luke David Blumm (the 2021 horror movie Son) as the young Carter, and Isabel Gravitt (Little Fires Everywhere) as the teenager Ellie, who is growing up very fast. Far too quickly for her dad to keep up.

Jennifer Coolidge (The White Lotus) offers some quirky sass but never goes too far into anything silly. This is a terrifying story, not a silly one. As a private detective, Theodora Birch, hired by Dean, we see the always intriguing Noma Dumezweni (The Undoing).

Mia Farrow (Rosemary’s Baby) is channeling an extremely efficient kind of creepy neighbor as “Pearl” with Terry Kinney (Oz, The Little Things) as her brother, who is more big and dumb than creepy.

Finally, Richard Kind (Gotham) and Margo Martindale (Orphan, Dexter) are brilliant as the nosy neighbors who feel extremely entitled to “their” arugula! You’ll see.

Check out The Watcher mini-series on Netflix now!

Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan are the creators of the Netflix series The Watcher. The two also co-created series such as DAHMER – Monster and Scream Queens. Overall, Ian Brennan has written on many Ryan Murphy shows over the years. Including Ratched, which I really loved as well.

The pilot episode of this latest Netflix series was directed by Ryan Murphy himself. Other episodes are directed by familiar names such as Paris Barclay (Dahmer, Sons of Anarchy) and Ariel Schulman & Henry Joost (Paranormal Activity 3 & 4, Nerve, Viral), and Max Winkler (Cruel Summer).

You can watch all seven hour-long episodes on Netflix now and they tend to end on a cliffhanger, so this is very binge-worthy. Just be ready to get a little paranoid – or maybe just appreciate the home you live in despite the things that irritate you. Watching this series will surely show you that things could be a lot worse!

The Watcher is out on Netflix globally from October 13, 2022.

Details

Creators: Ryan Murphy & Ian Brennan
Cast: Naomi Watts, Bobby Cannavale, Jennifer Coolidge, Mia Farrow, Margo Martindale, Terry Kinney, Joe Mantello, Richard Kind, Noma Dumezweni, Christopher McDonald, Michael Nouri, Isabel Gravitt, Henry Hunter Hall, Luke David Blumm