The Watcher (2022– ) User Reviews

Disappointing ending

[bangel3322 · 6/10 · 15 October 2022]

I didn't want spoilers so I did not read about what had happened to the real family behind this show.

The show started off wonderfully; it was intriguing, a bit creepy, mixed with some dark humour. It really looked like it was going to be really good. And it was for the most part. Lots of twists and turns in the show, lots happening...but unfortunately the last half hour or so were terrible. Once we find out it's not actually Theodora who was behind it, and Karen buys the house, we're like, oh so it was her after all, but it wasn't. We still don't find out who it was because the case (which I read about after I watched the show) was never solved. They never found out who wrote the letters. And I absolutely detest shows and films with no resolution. Makes me feel like I wasted my time watching them.

So as much as I praise Bobby Cannavale's performance in this show, (because he was actually brilliant), along with Noma Dumezweni, I have to take points off for the ending. Would have been an 8 otherwise. But I did enjoy it for the most part. It was interesting, it was engaging. The end just killed it.

Very binge worthy, full of plot holes.

[themadcamel · 7/10 · 17 October 2022]

Great show! Edge of your seat mystery thriller with all the trimmings and some great acting.

Unfortunately, it has more than a few major plot holes that makes it loose any form of logic.

The main characters become obsessed with solving the mystery and frantically chase many leads including leads that make very little sense... at the same time they completely ignore massive leads that might actually lead somewhere.

For example; your told that there might be secret tunnels leading into your basement. Your then given proof that someone can get into your house without using any main entrance or window. And you don't bother looking for any tunnels in said basement....?

Eventually a builder finds secret tunnels and you chase a stranger into said tunnels to a mysterious locked door. And that's it... no point in chasing that lead up at all... in fact just leave it at that. Seal it up and don't bother investing where that tunnel leads, because thats not worth anyones time at all.

I mean wow! It's beyond sloppy writing it's literally one of the first things you lean "not to do" when studying writing.

All that said it still had such a great hook I watched it till the end. Again, unfortunately, that's all it is... a great hook.

I Watched

[sarah-508-649421 · 6/10 · 14 October 2022]

Binged in two days all episodes of this series and though it starts off really well it peters out into a disappointment.

Ryan Murphy does what he does best. Atmospheric. Decent acting, production and scrip.

Ryan Murphy does what he does the worst. Embellished story that's not really anything close to the real story and dragging it all out to within an inch of its life with Tarantino style over long conversations and scenes. Digressing here and there with no real relevance to the none existing ending anyway.

The family of mom, dad and kids aren't likeable. Apart from maybe the son. The security lad was sweet too.

Stiflers Mom (Sorry Jennifer) is a great addition to the cast although her last few moments in the film could have been left out or done better. The creepy neighbours all delivered too. Great to see Mia Farrow. She shines in this.

Why didn't Ryan Murphy create an ending? That's the real mystery to this series.

Interesting series about material obsession

[kiowhatta · 7/10 · 13 October 2022]

I must admit this series did frustrate me at times and also felt like a typical thriller with too many plot twists and turns.

However, what I did find unique embedded in this series is the subject of obsession with materialism and the lengths people will go to to secure and protect those obsessions.

I'm not sure if that was deliberate on the part of the producers to do a series that is part social commentary part thriller but it does work as a suspenseful series that kept this viewer locked in, despite sometimes being frustrated with the obviously dead end twists and turns.

Overall an addictive viewing experience.

Ryan Murphy cant land a good ending....

[luciem-62442 · 6/10 · 14 October 2022]

And this series was no exception. Why the need for the hammy Jennifer Coolidge house scene? Didnt fit in with the tone of the series at all. Other than then ending it was a decent watch...definitely not a horror. Infact not many scares at all which was a shame. Performances were a mixed bag....character actress margo martindale was great, as was mia farrow as the weird neighbours. Jennifer Coolidge was also great even though she played to type...she does it well! As for the family....meh....dont know if they made me care that much about their plight due to being generally annoying and not nice people. Worth a watch if nothing better on.

Could have been great

[SliceNL · 6/10 · 15 October 2022]

Many things were done right in this tv show. The pace, the acting, the setting, the mystery... it was all pretty good and made me want to watch it all. However, there was one thing that made me give this tv show a 6 instead of something like an 8, and that was the ending. With a good mystery movie/tv show it is all about wanting to know what happened while this one just gives us an open ending. I understand it is based on true events but that is no way to end a mystery like that when it is made to entertain. They bring up interesting theories like a blood cult, but it seems like they were unable to wrap it all up into a good ending so they just left it as an open ending. It kinda made me feel like I watched this tv show for no reason as knowing what happened in the end is what made me keep watching.

I am not mad at it

[melissakoger · 7/10 · 16 October 2022]

I think that it might have done better not to reference that it was based on actual events, as those references are loose, based on what actually happened. And that association seems to create a parallel that is throwing viewers off.

However, as a fictional thriller, I found it very watchable, suspenseful and engaging. The neighbors were creepy, the main casts' performances were believable, and the rest of the supporting cast was solid too. The only one that I really wanted to punch in the face was Karen! But everyone else here seemed to love her. (Except for that very last scene of hers! Thats exactly what you want to see happen to the mean girl! Except the pup thing, of course)

I appreciate that there were only 7 episodes and while some people felt that that was too long, I enjoyed each episode. I realize that not every show will be GOT or Breaking Bad quality but as someone who went into it with no expectation and not knowing anything about the actual story, I found it a fun whodunnit.

An enjoyable series.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 8/10 · 20 October 2022]

A family move into their dream mansion in New Jersey, and everything seems idyllic, until they start receiving letters from an unknown person, known only as The Watcher.

Based very loosely on some real life events, it's an intriguing mystery series set over seven episodes, it delivers lots of suspense, and plenty of entertainment. Some wonderfully zany characters to enjoy, the neighbours are particularly strange, and essentially it plays out like a whodunnit.

Initially it feels like a horror series, similar style to Bly Manor, but it quickly changes into a more conventional thriller. It may not be for everyone, but I thorough enjoyed it, I liked the vibe, and for the most part, the originality of it.

The final episode will be quite divisive, people will really like it, or really loathe it, it's a little on the vague side.

I thought Booby Cannavale and Naomi Watts were excellent in their respective roles, I did absolutely love Noma Dumezweni, who played Theodora, I thought she was a fascinating character, very well performed.

8/10.

Eh...

[danny-alissi-239-595346 · 15 October 2022]

Actors did a great job, just poorly written, over dramatic at times and countless characters/scenes were misleading. It started to get super confusing when Dean and Nora started to accuse everyone for everything. I don't even know if the whole john graff story is even true, and what ever happened with the tunnels. Honestly all I ever wanted to know is who the person is in the black hood. But never found out..., possibly "John" but I don't even know the point of that character at this point. I tried to make out the story at the last scene but it just wasn't clear enough. It was suspenseful and interesting, but an unsatisfactory end.

Almost great but then the last episode came...

[deloudelouvain · 7/10 · 31 October 2022]

After watching the excellent series Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, another creation from the succesful duo Ian Brennan and Ryan Murphy, I was pretty excited to see what they would come up with now. Could it be another great show based on true events? That how it starts though, stating it's based on true events, but after reading about it after watching this show you can only conclude that 90% of it is all made up, and that's honestly a shame and a letdown. I binge watched it though, like I did with Dahmer, and it's only faire to say that it is very watchable. The mystery level is very high, the suspense is mildly high, the acting is very good and that from the whole cast, but the ending is diappointing and that's why this show scores so low compared to Dahmer. But you can watch this show if you like mysteries, and if you like good acting, because with actors like Naomi Watts, Bobby Cannavale, Mia Farrow, Margo Martindale, and Richard Kind, just to name a few, you get quality acting. The Watcher could have been a really good show, they missed an opportunity here, just because of a weak last episode. Since they were making up 90% of the story they should and could have imagined a better end to this short series of seven episodes.

A Good Hook That Led Nowhere

[RonnieCrown · 5/10 · 8 November 2022]

When I first started watching, I was hooked. It was clear that this was going to be an interesting story and it caught and peaked my interest even more because I intentionally did not read up about the true story prior to watching.

It was good for the first few episodes but then it started to get sloppy. Every single person seemed like a potential suspect and certain pieces of information was just left unsolved. Too many plot holes. It began to feel like I was on a merry-go-round that was never going to lead anywhere. The show just became frantic with no clear direction, which ultimately spoiled it for me. I watched until the end to see if it became better, but it didn't. It was an ok watch but i wouldn't watch it again. A little disappointing.

Braco

[seanlawlor-69779 · 8/10 · 13 October 2022]

The plot in this series is very good full of deception, conflicts, betrayal, sabotage. This series had my attention from 5 minutes into the first episode, it just kept on grabbing my attention every minute more. It's so full of plot twists that it leaves the viewer wanting more to watch more to answer all the questions that are left unanswered. It's only at episode 5 that some of those questions get answered with certainty one of them is a pretty significant reveal yet still leaves so many more to be answered. The choice of actors, the roles they each played and the exceptional acting produced an easily watched very intriguing series.

Scenes way too dark but great show

[jfqcry · 7/10 · 7 April 2023]

I don't understand why directors think that people want to watch a show where they can't see what's going on. I think the watcher is very interesting and we enjoyed watching it other than it was so frustrating because the scenes were so dark, it was difficult to see what was happening. Typically when shows are filmed like this, we only watch about 15 to 20 minutes and then quit because it's so frustrating with so much lack of lighting to see reasonably. I wish the lighting would've been better and we would've given this full score in rating because we enjoyed the story.

The story was intriguing and caught our attention quickly... Just wish we could've seen what was going on. Do directors ever watch what their end result!?

Enjoyed up till the last episode. Don't watch, save your time.

[jacobmeudt · 5/10 · 17 October 2022]

I knew nothing about The Watcher and was looking to watch something while on the treadmill the other day. At first I was questioning some of the writing and thinking things were a bit hokey, but then I got hooked.

I watched the entire season in one day. I had to to know what was going on and what was going to happen next. I truly was enjoying what I was watching.

So the last episode came on and I was excited to see how the heck they were going to wrap this up and man did they really mess this up. The plot twists were getting to be too much and when it was all over I was like "Huh? What about this thing and that thing? Why did they bring these things up and not address them any further?

I am disappointed to have spent the day watching six interesting episodes only to have the seventh episode (the last one) be a complete turd.

I would save your time and watch something else.

Not bad, not excellent.

[Stranger_Sins · 7/10 · 13 October 2022]

In tone and content it will, not surprisingly seeing it's the same creators, remind you of "American horror story". Also along the lines of "The Amityville horror". Not only because it's based on a true story.

It's not bad but not excellent either.

There are some silly situations and things happening that could easily be explained or debunked (not spoiler material: girl, pigtails, camera - sigh, how come they didn't have footage of her actually leaving the bed eventually...)

Good acting all the way through.

But I somehow found myself wondering that this show WANTED TO BE. Chilling or a bit...comedic or both? The tone is shifting quite a lot and I wanted it to lean more towards chilling and scary. I wish it would've been darker.

A fascinating character study with inconsistent writing

[Janturetsky · 7/10 · 15 October 2022]

The acting was very good. Particularly, mentionable: Bobby Cannavale, playing a very strong lead; Jennifer Coolidge, a fiercely determined woman, slightly askew; Noma Dumezweni, a highly controlled multi-dimensional dark woman; Margo Martindale, a convincingly scary lowly-bred, nosy woman who could turn friendly. Also deserving congratulatory mention: Henry Hunter Hall, Seth Gabel, Christopher McDonald. The story was overly long, however, and the poor writing at the end of the series brought it down. The house, as a focal point, failed to rally enough interest to sustain what could have been a compelling story. The house seemed to be a little too ordinary to capture the imagination. It was big, but not well explored. There were too many leads and side-issues, which turned out to be semi-dead ends. It seems like the writers added unnecessary sub-plots to keep the series going. There was a lack of cohesiveness. Overall the acting and interesting characters made the series interesting in spite of the inconsistent writing.

Engaging but lacks logic

[akash-goila3 · 6/10 · 14 October 2022]

A simple mystery where all cameras could have been placed on a letter box to check who is placing those letters was simply twisted and turned unnecessarily. It was like a curious prank teaser video where you keep watching it till the end and come to know there is nothing else more to learn. I liked only till first three episodes. Good acting, exotic locations, good editing is the only reason why I could watch it till the end. Not revealing became the habit of director which went too far. It was turning out to be good watch which lacked logic big time and sadly made me also just the undiscovered watcher of the series.

It's not about who is the watcher, it's about letting go

[nikola-djikic · 7/10 · 22 October 2022]

I've red many reviews with the disappointment because of the last episode and because it is not resolved who is the watcher etc.

When I come to the end of the series I was positively surprised, because the series actually had a point (takeaway) and goes above just a thriller and who-is-a-villain template.

Remember this wisdom?

"God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."

The series is about this and Dean's struggle. Acting is top-notch.

I am giving it a 7 because it is a fine series, but not a must-watch which is by my scale (and general imdb scale) an 8 or higher.

An incredibly good psycho horror series to binge on

[Melvin4tw · 8/10 · 13 October 2022]

I'll make it short: I've rarely had as much fun with a series as I had with this one. The acting, the musical accompaniment, the scenery and how the viewer is kept going until the last minute is unbelievably good.

The fact that the story is based on true events ties you even more to the series. You don't get horror in the classic sense, but constant psychological terror.

We watch a family slowly being broken apart by insanity and the drama is conveyed so believably by everyone in the cast. I especially loved Bobby Cannavale in his role.

"The Watcher" is definitely worth a recommendation and is something to be proud of.

Justice For Sprinkles!

[Wistful-Layman · 7/10 · 21 October 2022]

It was fine. Only very loosely based on the true events that inspire it. Lots of running around, but overall fairly enjoyable. My biggest complaint is that Sprinkles, the family's ferret, is brutally killed in the first episode and there is zero recourse or absolution offered at any point during the show. This was a needless detail added for no reason other than to make viewers uncomfortable; being fictional, I'd have liked very much to see some sort of explanation or justice for our poor little friend. However, viewers are offered no such comfort. An unfortunate turn of events for ferret lovers everywhere.

Should be called "Jumping To Conclusions"

[rallder19 · 3/10 · 17 October 2022]

I feel like this show was written by someone who thinks they're a very clever writer. There are constant occurrences of misdirection throughout the show but the issue with this is that, if you just take a couple seconds to actually think about it, you see right though it. It's like the second any information is divulged to the main characters they just automatically run with it instead of taking a step back to use their brain..

...without giving anything away I'll just give a relatable example. Imagine a movie where the main character's parents were killed with a golf club by a man in a red hat. Then 40 years later the main character is golfing and sees someone else on the green in a red hat... so they go up to this person and start bearing them up mercilessly... but the person they're beating up is only like 19 or 20 years old... meaning there's no way in hell they could have been the murderer..

That's what happens in this show over and over and over again. It's like the writer thinks they're being clever by relating one thing to another to misdirect you but entirely lacks the ability to connect the pieces logically.

Nobody in this show has a single ounce of common sense and it gets frustrating so fast and so frequently. Idk imagine someone gets shot and everyone in the area looks in the direction where they thought the bullet was coming from and they just see a baby in a cradle sleeping.. well in reality we can deduce that it 100% was not this sleeping baby that shot someone.. but in this show, all they would think would be, "man shot. Gunshot come from that direction. Sleeping baby in that direction. Must be sleeping baby. Everyone attack sleeping baby"

Just, not a well-written show at all.

Super amusing mystery

[shcxatter2 · 9/10 · 12 November 2023]

Don't listen to the reviews that say it back wack after the halfway point.

This is an insanely entertaining, really creepy and wacky mystery, which is acted to perfection, shot beautifully, the score transports you right into their world, and the dialogue is really witty and unexpected at every step.

I'm being brief here, because I don't want to spoil anything for you.

People talk about the plot holes, but the thing is, if you're in the situation this family was going through, you'd probably do just the same as in the show. The only kind of shady moment for me was, when they are considering all kinds of people as suspects, at about the middle of the series they get fed this clue, which is kind of weak to consider, but for a moment they run with it, but it's ok, because then the plot redeems itself by going another direction.

The show is absolutely gorgeous and worth it.

To Those Complaining About the Ending...

[GaryLE828 · 7/10 · 10 July 2023]

I just finished season 1 and have seen many reviews on here complaining that there is no reveal at the end, and this is a waste of time...but this is a series, and there will be a season 2...therefore, we will get more answers...

So, don't be deterred by some of the negative reviews complaining about the ending...we haven't gotten the ending yet...

As of the time of writing this, season 1 has concluded in 2022 with season 2 scheduled for 2023...

I am not sure if season 2 will be the last or if they will continue the series beyond that, but season 1 was pretty good overall; it just left some things unexplained to open the door for the next season...

Give it a go for yourself! Just know the end of season 1 leaves some questions unanswered, which I assume will be answered by the end of the series (however long that may be).

More well-acted, expensively-produced, terribly-written Ryan Murphy trash

[Hal_Opinot-Pepper · 4/10 · 16 October 2022]

Seems like Ryan Murphy realized after the last, oh, 5 or 6 out of the 10 seasons of "American Horror Story" that people were hip to the title and knew not to bother watching, so he started releasing seasonal "miniseries" without the AHS brand but essentially the same thing: well acted, well-produced, contrived, trashily written garbage, with "twists" you can see coming a mile off and absurd contrived characters whose overwrought behavior stretches the bounds of credulity. I was actually about 5 episodes into this, scratching my head about how something with such a talented cast could be such an unredeemable pile of soap-opera garbage in terms of plot, when I finally noticed Murphy's name in the credits.

Please, Ryan Murphy, go back to calling the new seasons "American Horror Story" so we know from the outset not to bother hoping for better.

this made no sense...

[gittarzan · 6/10 · 21 November 2022]

Okay so around episode 2, the wife is done, wants out, insists that they sell. Husband argues with her, changes her mind. Fast forward a couple of episodes, she wants to stay, but now she decides that her husband is behind all of it trying to scare her into selling. How stupid does the writer think we are exactly? She wanted to sell earlier in the series and he said no.

I was enjoying it early on, thought the acting was very good. The stuff with the daughter and the alarm guy...seemed pretty awful. Added race and other stuff that really wasn't needed in this, other than to drag it out to so many episodes. Reminded me of Lost where they tried so hard to be clever, but in the end, you find out nothing. I bagged this during episode 5 when the stupidity really started.