Joe Charbanic brings the Broaddus family’s chilling story to life in his new Netflix series, “The Watcher”, which became available to viewers on October 13, 2022. The seven-part series follows a family’s haunting experience moving into a large, secluded house. The house is located at 657 Boulevard, and the family enjoys stepping out of their unsafe home in New York City to find a moment of tranquility. As a word of caution, there are spoilers below, but I urge you to watch the series!

Nora Brannock, played by Naomi Watts, is an up-and-coming ceramic artist in America. She uses her small fortune to help her family afford their new house, offering a vast expanse of backyard for her son, Carter, and her daughter, Ellie. Nora’s husband, Dean Brannock, works at a business firm and hopes to be granted a promotion to assist his wife in providing for their family.

As soon as the family moves into the house, they begin to hear strange sounds. Ellie begins to hear classical music, and Carter hears people playing in the house’s dumbwaiter. One night, while Carter is playing, he is spooked by Jasper Winslow, a nonverbal member of the community who has hidden himself in the dumbwaiter. Dean throws Jasper off of the property, threatening him as his neighbors watch him in his fit of rage.

Not long after this incident, the Brannocks begin receiving threatening letters from someone who calls themselves “The Watcher”. This strange individual delivers typewritten notes to the family that indicate that they are being closely watched by a stranger. The Watcher references that he (or she) is keeping a very close eye on the family, and paranoia begins to set in.

Dean is especially plagued by this sense of paranoia. He continues to notice stranger and stranger occurrences on his property, and he chooses to combat these instances with violence and anger. Dean is portrayed as taking his stress out on his stranger neighbors (Mitch, Mo, Jasper, and Pearl), his daughter, Ellie, and his wife.

One fateful day, Carter is seen putting his pet ferret to sleep, who eventually escapes his cage, wandering into the hallway. The scene cuts to the ferret in the morning, its body mangled and destroyed. Dean goes ballistic, sending his family to live in a motel while he waits out for the Watcher. Because of this stress, Dean stops applying himself at work, dodging responsibilities to meet with his new hired investigator, Theodora Birch.

While Dean collaborates with Theodora, Nora spends her days at the country club with her frenemy Karen, feeding her information that she relays to the local police chief. Every time Nora opens up about the horrors that are taking place inside the house, Karen pushes her to sell the family’s estate, telling Nora she needs to get out before the rumors begin.

As Dean learns more and more about the community, more secrets about the neighbors of 678 Boulevard are unearthed. Find out who The Watcher is in this new series – it’s worth the watch!