Let’s start this review out with me admitting two things. A. I will provide spoilers in this review and 2. those spoilers will have no impact on the end of the show.
I’ll tell you how! By telling you that literally anything that happens, doesn’t happen or doesn’t make a single whimper of a difference in how it ends. If you are uninitiated with The Watcher here’s a quick synopsis.
The series follows the true story of a married couple who, after moving into their dream home in Westfield, New Jersey, are harassed by letters signed by a stalker who goes by the pseudonym “The Watcher”
Sounds fun right? Interesting? Compelling? Thought provoking?
Seriously nothing matters in any episode at all. The dad yells at a family who break into his house and then you don’t see them for like two episodes and all they do is scream, “That’s not very neighborly!” over and over again. One couple was ‘so scared of him they killed themselves’ but it turns out they have a kid who has schizophrenia and he just murdered two people while they were in Florida. There’s even a point where this guy’s 16 year old daughter sends “nudes” to a 19 year old and it seems like it’ll be a big deal but it’s not and then those two start dating and it’s totally chill.
The part that is just so frustrating is this. The dad loses his job because he’s so paranoid about these letters and his daughter makes a TikTok about how he’s keeping her prisoner and a racist. Seems like things are really going to go south for the dude. His wife starts to leave him but then she sells a bunch of art at a show put on by someone who’s name in the subtitles is literally ‘woman’ and it’s all good.
So here’s the end. You think it could be anyone in the neighborhood. You think you’ll get some kind of closure. And you get nothing but a paranoid man who continues to lie to his wife who is also paranoid. Like that’s it. Done. 0/10 ending. I mean it’s so obvious that it’s the ‘Preservation Society’ that’s doing it but you never get a conclusion. I was so mad. Hell I’m still mad. Screw you The Watcher.
