The Watcher

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.

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.

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.

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.

So, the backstory on this is pretty underwhelming in my opinion. 3 letters and people that didn't even move in. So, the writers really had a very blank slate to create something amazing. It seemed like they were on track but episode 4 was when all hope was lost for me.

You could see very clearly that they lost their way and didn't know how to close this. 7 episodes was just dragging out a story that was running out of fuel after 3. There is a lot of filler in the first three episodes but you can overlook that with anticipation that something great is just around the corner. Unfortunately when you turn the corner, there is just a bag of meh.

I can think of several ways this could have gone that would have been much better. Some of the stuff is just so far out there is is just insulting to your intelligence. This concept would drive most anyone nuts for sure, but humans are pretty predictable and the characters in this just seem to act in repetitive ways that make the story just annoying.

A real missed opportunity.