The series focuses on the Brannocks, an upper-middle class New York City family who buy their dream home in the suburbs of Westfield only to begin receiving strange and threatening letters from a self-styled "Watcher" who is obsessed with their house.
The series stars Bobby Cannavale, Naomi Watts, Margo Martindale, Mia Farrow, Christopher McDonald, Jennifer Coolidge, and Richard Kind. It premiered on October 13, 2022; despite having been created as a miniseries, it was announced in November that it was getting another season.
Tropes
- The Alcoholic:
- Theadora Birch admits that she was once a raging drunk whose marriage fell apart due to drinking.
- Hinted at with Karen, who is always drinking wine at lunch and demands a "holiday pour" from the waitress.
- Bad Cop/Incompetent Cop: The Brannocks can't tell if Chamberland is involved in the conspiracy in some way or just a bad cop.
- The Big Rotten Apple: New York City is portrayed as a Wretched Hive. Dean desperately wants to take his family to a better environment. When they are forced to go back, a junkie is shooting up right outside their door, and we hear police sirens constantly in the background. Later, Dean notes that a psychopath murdered two people on the subway that morning for no reason.
- Boyfriend-Blocking Dad: Dean is frequently criticized for freaking out at the slightest hint of sexuality coming from his 16-year-old daughter.
- Blatant Lies: The middle-aged, dumpy lush Karen proclaims that she's in the best shape of her life before her tennis match with Nora. Later, she calls Nora rude for beating her so soundly.
- Captain Obvious: When Nora arrives at Karen's work to accuse her of writing the expose about her house, Karen tells her that that should have been obvious, considering that Karen told her she was going to do it.
- Chivalrous Pervert: Dakota can't stop ogling and flirting with Ellie even though she's 16, but when the two form a relationship, he seems to make a decent boyfriend.
- Costume Porn: Theadora wears a different, colorful and elaborate outfit in every scene.
- The Conspiracy: The Brannocks neighbors Jasper and Pearl, who run the "preservation society," are determined to keep old things in town from changing, even protesting against the Brannocks renovating their own home after they buy it. Throughout the series, they are willing to go to extreme lengths, including vandalism, to keep things from changing. It is also revealed that they sent John Graff/Bill Webster, the society's vice president, to the Brannocks' home to pose as an inspector. It is also revealed that there is a tunnel under their home that connects to the Brannocks so they can access secretly their home. It isn't clear whether they are connected to the Watcher, however.
- Consummate Liar: When Dean meets with Andrew Pierce, a previous owner of the house who also received Watcher letters, he talks about how his son witnessed Mitch and Mo being part of a blood cult. However, Theadora later tells Dean that Pierce is a chronic liar who once told the police that his son was sexually harassed by a teacher on a field trip that his son didn’t even go on. And the police chief later tells Dean that if Pierce received Watcher letters, he never went to them about it, another thing Pierce claimed he did. Later, Dean finds out that he’s an actor, which puts a lot of what he claimed into question.
- Cranky Neighbor: Both sets of the Brannocks' neighbors become almost instantly antagonistic toward them for various reasons, making them prime suspects.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: Theadora relates how she investigated and tracked down her formerly estranged husband's former girlfriend and threatened to kill her if she ever contacted him again.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Nora pointedly notes that Dean is falling apart because he's drinking whiskey at 9 am.
- Everyone Is a Suspect: Virtually everyone the Brannocks meet becomes a suspect for one reason or another.
- Evil Is Petty: When The Brannocks accuse Karen and Chamberland of being the watcher when they discover they are a couple, due to Karen constantly trying to coerce Nora into selling the house (which will benefit her most) and Chamberland in general being unhelpful; Karen is so offended that she posts an article that prevents the Brannocks from being able to sell the house when they finally do decide to move. When Nora confronts her and asks her why she would do that when they were finally moving, and when Karen knows that they put all their savings into the house, Karen says that she feels the Brannocks deserve to "loose their shirts" for getting her country club membership suspended with her outburst.
- Failed a Spot Check: Dakota is supposed to be watching the Brannocks' doors all night but takes a break to watch videos on his phone, causing him to miss Ellie sneaking out of her room and scaring him.
- Gender-Blender Name: "Dakota" is usually a woman's name, and "Murray" is usually a man's name.
- Hates Rich People: The Brannocks get some disdain from others for their wealth, especially when they start getting paranoid and accusing people of being the watcher.
- He Who Fights Monsters: While struggling to find the identity of the Watcher, Dean sends watcher letters of his own, one to his own family and then one each to some of his suspects. In the end, it's implied that Dean will become just one more member in the next family's list of suspects.
- Hope Spot: In the sixth episode, the family has managed to sell the house for a large sum, managing to turn a profit on the entire ordeal. Almost immediately after this reveal, the offer is withdrawn after Karen publishes a history of what's happened at the "nightmare house," sinking the family right back into financial turmoil.
- Idiot Ball: It's pretty against character for Nora to be so gullible as to instantly believe that Dean is cheating on her after watching hidden camera footage of a girl undressing and jumping into bed with him while he's asleep, with all the craziness going on, but she has to to make the plot point work.
- Jailbait Taboo: Ellie is 16 and even describes herself as "jailbait" to the 19-year-old Dakota. It turns out that New Jersey's age of consent is 16, something even Dakota didn't know.
- Kick the Dog: The first sign that Karen isn't the greatest friend is when she passive-aggressively chastises Nora for beating her at tennis.
- Killed Offscreen: Mitch is revealed to have died of an embolism during a Time Skip.
- The Loins Sleep Tonight: Karen tells Nora that her former husband was a loser and had ED. She later has a bad break-up with Chamberland for his own ED. There seems to be a pattern here.
- Legacy Character: It seems at the end that Pearl and Jasper may have taken up the "Watcher" as a method of scaring away unwanted neighbors, since the actions "the watcher" took against Karen differ from how they terrorized the Braddocks. Its also heavily implied at the end that the Watcher letters have just been the result of a long line of paranoia and revenge, since Dean started writing watcher letters to his former neighbors in revenge, thinking it was one of them, and has started stalking the new family who moved into the house, determined to find out who terrorized his family.
- Mistaken for Racist: Ellie accuses her father of being racist for tossing her black boyfriend out of the house. It's really because she's only 16. The accusation gets the Brannocks in deep trouble.
- Nothing Is Scarier: What scares the Braddocks most about the Watcher is that they have no idea who they are, why they were writing such creepy letters to them or how they knew their children's names.
- Nosy Neighbor: Mitch and Mo as well as the Winslows immediately start interfering in the Brannocks' lives, making them prime suspects.
- No Sympathy:
- Very few people that the Brannocks know understand how scared and desperate they are when they start getting the water letters and tend to react negatively to them when they start accusing others.
- Karen in particular describes their situation as "not even scary" and dismisses the fact that someone killed their pet (and broke into their house to do so). This turns out to be a Fatal Flaw when she decides to move into the house herself. It doesn't work out well for her.
- Not Me This Time: Its heavily implied that a lot of the things that the Braddocks think are done by the Watcher, such as someone breaking into their home and killing their pet, the appearance of "John Graff" in their house and someone appearing in the Braddocks' bed in a video are actually just Pearl and Jasper in their attempts to scare the Braddocks away because they don't like how they are trying to change their house. Though it is still ambiguous if they wrote the first two watcher letters, it is implied that they were responsible for the watcher incident that Karen went through when she moved into the house.
- One-Hour Work Week: The fact that Dean seems to have unlimited free time to deal with the Watcher and other issues at home becomes a plot point when his work suffers for his lack of attention.
- Pædo Hunt:
- Dakota is sweating bullets when he starts a relationship with a 16 year old, but it turns out that New Jersey's age of consent is 16.
- Dean is framed to be in a sexual relationship with a girl who is obviously underage.
- Police Are Useless:
- The Westfield police are so useless in helping the Brannocks that they quickly begin to suspect that Chamberland is the culprit or part of a coverup. When the Brannocks accuse Chamberland in public, he is so offended that he not only decides to stop helping them further but he also tells them he will use his connections to make sure the FBI doesn’t help either.
- Then when Karen breaks up with Chamberland, he refuses to help her too even when she calls him about someone breaking into her home because she apparently made fun of his ED.
- Private Detective: Theadora Birch turns out to be a very unconventional one, being a middle-aged black woman from Britain who used to be an alcoholic jazz singer.
- Pronoun Trouble: No one knows the Watcher's gender, which causes a bit of confusion when talking about the person. Even when a DNA test comes back identifying the person who sealed the envelopes as a woman, Dean still considers it a possibility that the true Watcher had a woman do it for him.
- Recurring Element: Paranoia and revenge.
- As the Braddock become more paranoid about the watcher they start accusing everyone around them if being involved. This upsets all of them to the degree that they either stop helping the Braddocks, attempt to hinder them or both.
- In the first episode Dean upsets his new neighbors by asking them not to pick cale on his side of the fence, this upsets them and causes them to threaten Dean, making them watcher suspects.
- In the second episode Dean is upset by Jasper breaking into their house to ride the dumbwaiter (scaring his son in the process) and tells Pearl he’s gonna remove it out of anger, infuriating them.
- When Dean accuses Dakota of being the watcher he retaliates by revealing footage that apparently shows Dean in bed with another woman.
- Also, in response to the above and mad at her dad for making her move away from her friends, Ellie posts a video in the internet claiming her dad is racist, a purposeful lie with the intent of “ruining” his life like he did hers. She admits that this is her Fatal Flaw and that she regrets it.
- When the Braddocks accuse Roger he decides to actually stalk them out of spite. And later the police stop helping them and Karen posts an article to keep the Braddocks from felling their house out of spite when they do the same to them (and unintentionally getting Karen suspended from her country club).
- At the end, Dean starts sending watcher letters to all his old neighbors. Thinking that atleast one of them was the watcher, trying to “get back” at them. He later starts spying on the new family that’s moved into the house, determined to find the person who tormented his family. And will this likely become another watcher suspect in the future.
- It's implied that the Watcher has become a Legacy Character due to a succession of people's paranoia and revenge.
- Revenge Before Reason: Ellie posts a video painting her parents, her dad specifically, as racist as revenge for them scaring away Dakota and making her move away from her friends. It affects the whole family, including her. The next episode, she deeply regrets it and acknowledges that when she’s mad, she just wants to do whatever she can to hurt that person even if she knows she’ll regret it later.
- Riddle for the Ages: Like the real-life mystery, the mystery remains unsolved. Is it Pearl and Jasper using a tactic to scare away neighbors? Is it Roger Kapan? Is it just an old student who decided to make a sick joke out of his Ode to a House assignment? Is Bill Webster really John Graff or was he just pretending to be as a means of manipulating Dean? Are there many copy-cat watchers or just one person? Who knows?
- Sneeze Interruption: Dean's conversation with Pearl is interrupted by John Graff sneezing, revealing to Dean that someone else is hiding in Pearl's house.
- Take That!: When interrogated by Dean and Nora (who suspect him of being the Watcher), Dr. Kaplan says, "You think I can afford to live in a house like that? I'm a retired public-school teacher!"
- Teacher/Student Romance: Dr. Kaplan had a relationship with one of his teenage students, to whom he is as of the series' timeline married.
- That One Case: Theadora can't get the unsolved Watcher case out of her mind, just like the Brannocks.
- Unholy Matrimony: Mitch and Mo are very aggressive jerks who back each other up completely when feuding with the Brannocks.
- Very Loosely Based on a True Story: The story is based off a real-life incident where a couple and their family were harassed by an unknown person calling themselves The Watcher, but there are many changes to the story that diverted away from original account. Additionally, John Graff’s story takes inspiration from the story of John List, who went on the run for nearly two decades after killing his entire family in the early 1970s - though List’s story has nothing to do with the Watcher aside from the fact that both incidents took place in the same town.
- Window Watcher: The person we presume to be the Watcher is occasionally seen standing on the street gazing through the house's windows to watch the family. Whether the Watcher uses other methods to spy on the family is ambiguous.
- With Friends Like These...: Karen is manipulative of Nora throughout their friendship, and it turns out that she's been trying to take advantage of her financially since the beginning.
