Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan's new show, The Watcher, has rubbed many people the wrong way because of their previous show, Dahmer. Based on a true story, the series follows the Brannock family, who begin to receive threatening letters from a sender known only as "the Watcher" after they move into a new house. The Brannocks believe that one of them is the Watcher because they refuse to respect their privacy.
The Watcher has received mixed reviews, with 50% of the critics giving it a negative review, and an average audience score of 36%. The series has a good premise, stellar performances, and frightening scares. The foundation begins to fall under the weight of its own ambition. A convoluted and far-fetched mystery with a lackluster conclusion is what the result is.
There are a lot of plotSPOILERS in the following article.
To understand everything that the Brannocks discover throughout the series, one needs to understand the things that went wrong. After receiving multiple letters from the Watcher, the Brannocks found leads that implied that their neighbors were part of a blood cult that wanted to sacrifice their kids. They learned that one of the house's previous owners, who vanished after murdering his family, may be the new Watcher and a member of the supposed blood cult. They suspect that Karen was trying to scare them away from the house by writing strange letters.
A girl with pigtails who looks like a dead girl gets into Dean's bed while he's asleep, as well as a series of underground tunnels connected to their basement, is discovered by the family. It is possible that the house is haunted by the dead family or that someone sneaked in dressed like her through the underground tunnel. The Watcher is thought to be Roger Kaplan, an English teacher who created a popular assignment for his students to write letters to houses they liked. The Brannocks were forced to move back into the city after the couple confronted Kaplan about the incident.
There are a lot of possible answers for what is happening at the Brannocks' house. The show's downfall is that it skips from one storyline to the next without presenting a cohesive narrative. Dean's 16-year-old daughter starts dating a 19-year-old woman. When Dean forbids it out of suspicion that Dakota is the Watcher, he retaliates by going online and saying he called the cops on Dakota for being a Black man. The audience is led to believe that this act will ruin the family's lives, but the Brannocks all recover relatively quickly, even though what she did was not ok.
According to her, Dean had an affair and she is going to file for divorce. She learns in the next episode that Dean wrote one of the Watcher's letters in order to help his case, which should have been a reason for divorce as he lied to his family and scared them even more. After they solve the case, Nora forgives him and leaves a divorce a possibility, but it never comes up again.
The show sweeps many of its twists under the rug so it can continue to explore the mystery of the Watcher, which makes them seem like they were only meant for shock value, with little bearing on the overall story. The Brannock family is cast as unrealistic and unlikeable, making it harder for the audience to invest in them as the series continues. A tangled mess of abandoned storylines and red herrings is more frustrating than entertaining when it comes to a web of lies and secrets.
Theodora claimed in the finale that she was the Watcher and that she orchestrated everything to claim her dream house. The couple learns that she lied so they could finally know who the Watcher is. Her story didn't explain why Grsff came in through the house's underground tunnel, which left this fake twist not having as much power as it should have had.
The Brannocks don't find out who the Watcher is, but Dean can't move on without knowing the truth. Dean waited to see if the new homeowners received a letter from the Watcher. Dean lied to his wife about his location, only for the show to show that he is being watched by his wife as well. A watcher is watching someone else. It is a large amount.
The show's creators wanted to have the series end the same way as in real life, since the Watcher's identity is still unknown. Dean's preoccupation with uncovering the truth continues to haunt him just like the Watcher did, which is why the conclusion fits with the show's message. After this series built up its own fiction, what is one more piece of fiction that will make for a good ending?
Murphy, the actor who plays The Watcher, would find changing the ending too much to be strange. The man who made the real-life serial killer Richard Ramirez an "immortal demon" in American Horror Story: 1984 thought James Corden would be a good lead in a musical.
The creators and audience could have their cake and eat it at the end of the show. The series could have ended by giving a more concrete answer that could be based in reality without saying it is correct, but not to the Brannocks.
The most likely truth behind the Watcher was that he was trying to get Dean to kill his family and give their blood to the preservation society in order to keep his violent legacy alive. That would make sense in the twisted mythology of the show.
The show ended without an answer or a lot of unanswered questions. There was a girl in Dean's bed. The person that sent the letters was the Watcher. Karen was driven out of the house by someone.
The official trailer for The Watcher was released today.
If the show had a second season, there would be more room for questions to be asked in the future. This season of The Watcher looks to be a one-and-done deal, and its conclusion is too ambiguous to satisfy a mass audience. The Killing's season 1 finale didn't resolve its central mystery. Murphy seems to have forgotten the lesson that the show's creator learned as she faced viewer backlash.
The show had a promising beginning, a messy middle, and an unresolved ending that no one is really happy with. Like most of Murphy's shows, there was potential for The Watcher to be watchable. Ryan Murphy productions like Hollywood, Ratched, and Halston left a bad taste in viewers' mouths.
The Watcher is available to watch on the internet. Don't tell us we didn't warn you.
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