Disclaimer: no spoilers are contained in this article
The Watcher, directed by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, premiered on Netflix October 13, 2022. These directors have contributed to shows such as Scream Queens, American Horror Story, Glee and Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. For those who are unfamiliar with the new series, it is about a family who moves into an expensive new property and start to receive letters with threats. These letters are from an unknown source that calls themselves “The Watcher.” This series is made up of seven episodes, each no more than 52 minutes long. Before watching the series, here is a brief rundown of the background of what the series is based on.
The Story Behind The Watcher
The story is based on a true story that happened in Westfield, New Jersey. In 2014, Maria and Derek Broaddus moved into a new home with their three children. Soon after the family moved in, they started to receive ominous letters from a person named “The Watcher.” These letters contained private information about the family and threats. In total, the family received four letters.
Here is a letter that the family received:
“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.”
To make it even more chilling, Netflix uses the actual letters in the series. After knowing that, it made watching the show even more frightening.
The Story Behind John Graff
John Graff is a fictional character in The Watcher that is based on a real person named John List. In 1965, List moved into a home with his mother, wife and three children. Later in 1971, List murdered his entire family after believing that he needed to save their souls due to evil in the world. In fact, before killing his last child, he made a sandwich and watched them at their soccer game. After the game, he drove his son home and proceeded to shoot him. Before fleeing, he removed all evidence and burned all photos of him. He wasn’t arrested until 1989 after a forensic artist determined what he would have looked like in that era.
I hope that after hearing a little about the backstory, you’ll want to watch the series. I personally binged the entire season in one day and enjoyed every moment of it. There has not been any talk of season two, but I feel that it could always be a possibility. However, we know that Netflix loves to discontinue good series.