The talk of the day is about The Watcher , a series that appeared on Netflixlast week. Choose a bizarre true story, make a contemporary series about itand you are sure to be successful, Netflix must have thought. After thesuccess of Dahmer they also care with The Watcher for unprecedentedsuccess. The series, inspired by a true story, is about a house on 647Boulevard.
This is what the mother of a Jeffrey Dahmer victim of the series thinks >
The Watcher on Netflix
Dean (Bobby Cannavale) and Nora Brannock (Naomi Watts) have just bought theirdream home in the idyllic suburb of Westfield, New Jersey. Although it’s abeautiful house they’ve invested all their savings in, it turns out theneighborhood isn’t very welcoming. Soon they are ravaged with ominous lettersfrom someone who calls himself ‘The Watcher’ and the Brannock family isterrorized. Will the secrets of this neighborhood finally come out? The serieswas inspired by a true story, but what exactly is that story?
The Broaddus family bought the home at 647 Boulevard, New Jersey in 2014.Derek and Maria Broaddus bought the home for $1.3 million from John and AndreaWoods, who had lived there for over 23 years. When they started the renovationof the house, they received a letter addressed to ‘the new owners’. The senderof the letter identified himself as The Watcher, claiming to be the guardianof the house, as seen in the brand new Netflix series.
The real family responds
Editor Reeves Wiedeman wrote in 2018 The Cut already an article about andwill return to the Broaddus family after the release of the Netflix series. In2019, five years after the Broadduses bought 657 Boulevard, they were finallyable to sell it to a contractor and a family eventually bought the house.Wiedeman tells in a new interview with Vanity Fair that no new letters havearrived at the address and that the police investigation has been completed,without result.
The Broadduses, who have stayed in town, are trying to move on with theirlives.” In 2018, a number of major film and TV producers expressed interest inacquiring the rights to adapt our article and their life story – a horrorproducer offered to buy 657 Boulevard in the hope of using the house as aset,” Wiedeman writes. “The Broadduses had little interest in giving anyonethe right to make some entertainment out of the worst years of their lives.”
After Lifetime the movie The Watcher released in 2016 without the family’sconsent, the Broadduses decided to sell the rights to Netflix and agree toadapt their story. They had two requests: that their name not be used (thefamily on screen is called the Brannocks) and that the family be as close totheir own as possible.
So what do they think about the series being on Netflix now? “I think this wasthe worst experience of their lives, they understand why people are interestedin their story. They don’t have much interest in the attention, publicity orexcitement surrounding the series. For them, it’s still something they want toget rid of — so they can have the fun suburban life they hoped to get whenthey moved into this house — or tried to move in. The Broadduses have not seenthe series. Derek isn’t going to watch it. Seeing the trailer was stressful