Honestly, skip this and just watch the Buzzfeed Unsolved episode.
When you know the true story, this is too over dramatized and over the top…my eyes were rolling by episode 2
A 7 episode whodunit drama comedy mystery thriller. It'll make you question the motives of every character similar to a game of Clue. The mystery is quite engaging and makes the series very bingeable.
The characters are intriguing and they all get their time to shine. My personal favorite is Theodora (Noma Dumezweni) great actress and I love her voice and way of speaking. I would of wanted way more of her i'm a sucker for amateur sleuth characters and she was a great one. I love Naomi Watts but I don't think they gave her enough of a challenge with this character. The performance was just really safe for such a great actress. Although I admit she has great chemistry with Bobby Cannavale and they portray a great couple. Also it's funny that Naomi's always drinking something in every scene.
I had some problems with the plot such as why install cameras all over the property if you're never checking them. They never once checked them, what the hell? There's lots of plot holes but I think it's worth checking out overall.
The mystery remaining unsolved by the end kinda elevates it in a way because everyone will have a different answer as to who it was and it's open to discussion. They don't spoon feed it to you but the clues along the way give a pretty good indication.
I enjoyed it. It's not spectacular and has a bit of the 'american horror story' atmosphere, but lighter. There is a good cast there, but their talents weren't fully utilized.
Dumb, bad, and ultimately disappointing. just be warned ahead of time that this is an unsolved case. sincerely not worth watching, unless you want to riff on it and rip into how truly incomprehensibly stupid this show is. Ryan Murphy has officially lost his touch, I'm no longer interested in projects whose only merit is 'produced by Ryan Murphy.' I'm out
The worst TV show in the last couple of years.
The claim that this story is based on true events is very far from the truth. Yes, maybe 1% of the story is probably true, but everything else is complete BS: it's just a very bad written fiction (full of plot holes and mistakes) from an untalented writer.
The story, the acts and decisions of the characters are totally unrealistic, frustrating, irritating and dumb.
While watching this nonsense I was constantly feeling myself angry because of the unrealistic twists, which never could happen in real life. I wouldn't recommend this awful mess to anyone to watch.
As an adult survivor of the trauma of living in the suburbs, I particularly delight in watching series and movies in which clueless characters move into a suburban neighborhood with high hopes for happiness, only to encounter instead a haunted house, a sketchy history, nightmare neighbors, or in the case of Netflix's The Watcher, all of the above. Rich assholes Nora and Dean are rather dull, (played by Naomi Watts and Bobby Cannavale, aided by co-stars Naomi's glasses and Bobby's eyebrows) but it's the performances of the supporting cast where the real magic happens on the smaller screen. Jennifer Coolidge as a ruthless realtor is especially sinister, and neighbor Mia Farrow is delightfully creepy; ten bucks says that your hair will surely stand on end when she screeches, "NOT very neighborly!" Noma Dumezweni as an amateur sleuth is by far one of the most captivating players in this ensemble, and her driving gloves and UK accent will make you shiver with antici...pation . I keep wanting to quit Netflix, but a series like this makes a real "dumbwaiter " out of me. Watch the show, and you'll get it.
Only watched this for Jennifer Coolidge and even she wasn’t enough for me to enjoy this.
9/10
Superb
I am glad I WATCHED this
as I am absolutely fascinated with the real life case. Yes the family had their name changed for this show and they never actually moved into the house.
So all the rest of the show apart from the
letters was a full on dramatisation.
I was cool with that because what we got was one Hella of an unsolved mystery based on a true event that is such a creepy scary situation that it carried the who show no matter how much was changed are added.
The acting was strong the mystery is frickin awesome and the show as a hole was superb and in the near future I will Definitely be
"WATCHING"
it again.
VERDICT: LOVED IT
Pretty good show. During the first episode I thought it was going to go down the haunted house/demonic crap, but it isn't. I would also have bolted the basement door from the outside after the first incident, but that's just me. I'd also have punched the nosey neighbours on the nose for coming onto my property and threatening me... I'm not a violent individual, but that's what I'd have done.
It's decent, I just don't like the ending. True story or not it flops a few times. The casting was really good. The drama they all stirred up and the confusion they caused kept it entertaining but the overall journey wasn't worth it. If they turn this into an anthology with different watchers type mysteries, my rating would go up because theres definatly mystery. It just more than likely led to nothing. The dialogue was simplistically terrifying and blunt. "It's coming close to 80 years" sends shivers down my spine.
I enjoyed it at the beginning to the middle, seemed like a good whodunit. But towards the end I loathed Dean’s acting and character; didn’t think he was a right fit and didn’t find his acting particularly inspired - the rest of the cast including Dakota were good to me. But I absolutely hated how they ended up abandoning rational analytical thought and just accused a new person each day upon each lead without finding valid evidence. The whole investigative nature of the show just fell apart at the seams then and turned into me forced to watch some idiots with no impulse control who is so rude I wouldn’t be surprised if the entire town wanted to ruin their lives in response and not help. The slurs he uses on different types of characters and acting like a typical “rich person” stereotype was uncomfortable. They ruin everyone’s lives and made enemies over their own financial desperation. I suppose that was the whole idea of the storyline it seems but it’s absolutely frustrating turning a potentially good mystery into a mad idea-shooting spree. I completely shut off after Dean turned into a mad dog because if I didn’t I would’ve thrown a shoe at the tv.
It's been a bit frustrating. It started out well, in fact when I saw Ryan Murphy I was glad, but with each episode, with each new person, suspicion, letter and nonsense it becomes very "repetitive", very obvious, very self-indulgent. The first episode is painted as one thing, as is the trailer, and it ends up being disappointing.
Great season. But still many questions remain.
Very creepy neighbours. Perhaps not such an idilic place after all? :thinking:
My first comment on Trakt. Couldn't find a show worse than this. Do not watch this crap.
Believe the imdb and trakt ratings, and follow my advice: don't waste your time. The series look good and is well acted, but who cares if the plot is that bad. Couple receives mean letters after buying a beautiful suburban home and for the next 6 hours, the series will try to make you believe that the author of the letters can be anyone out of the gallery of unlikeable characters around, in the most convoluted ways, with the dumbest plot twist. If this is your idea of fun go for it! I warned you.
The sense of mystery is great but it's a very unsatisfying ending plus all the people are so unlikable (except for Theodora Birch). I feel like the family Brannock stayed way to long in this house... They make poor decisions out of emotion which is understandable but still. Karen was mocked by Dean for only lasting 48 hours in that house but I thought he was probably the only smart person there. She experienced the hell that comes with the house and immediately said 'Hell no'.
I know this is based on a true story and therefore I'm careful with how I phrase my words because it involves real people but if I had known up front that the case was never fully closed than I wouldn't have watched it.
It could have been better told as a mini series I think.
i went back and forth a lot while watching on whether or not i thought it was good. i thought it was extremely cheesy in the beginning, but towards the middle, i started to suspend my belief a little bit and i was totally enjoying it! since it's based on a true story that remains unsolved in real life, i thought they were going to make the decision to solve it in the show? especially since they fabricated SO many other elements? super disappointed with the ending
Jennifer Coolidge just makes every show better. Cast is solid, it's just overly dramatized like others have noted. Dialogues aren't great. The setting doesn't work for the mystery they were going for. I also think it drags on a bit longer than it should have. I was bored pretty easily, just wanted to finish it. Would not recommend.
Unsettling but in a good suspenseful way. Liked this! Wish the ending was better though for that poor family.
A good physiatrics thriller that has the viewer's though process all over; is it a ghost, is it this person or this person, could it be something else???? However, just when you thought the mystery is going to get solved there is another turn of events and it all seems to get unraveled again with not much progress. Yes, a bit disappointing ending, but hopefully this is no the end. But, regardless of that and some poor acting, this was certainly a edge of your seat series with great plot twists and character development and genre development, as sometimes it seems like a thriller and sometimes you might think its going to be a slasher.
I don't recall anywhere saying this was "based on a true story". After reading the actual true story, this show is pretty far out there. Not knowing it was "based", the ending really sucked. Now knowing.... the ending makes sense, but the show is terrible. The show is so loosely based that they could have just wrote a whole show and not have it based and ended it so much better. On the plus side, I thought the acting was good. So, save your time, don't watch the show. If you really really want to though, first go read up on the actual true story (you'll find out what the ending is and hopefully decide to steer clear), then after watching an episode, you'll probably decide to skip the rest.
It's a very good series, but we don't know who the Watcher is at the end of the series and it's too bad everything else is very good, the mystery and suspense elements are well integrated. the neighbors are so annoying.
Thought this was a comedy but it wasn't even funny. The story line was poor, acting was bad, and the mystery was just plain boring. The ending was basically a set up for another season and honestly I don't think that anyone will watch it unless they need a filler show they can put on while doing something else.
[Netflix[ A strange true story that the screenwriters take care to make especially messy, possibly because the true events were never resolved. But it didn't take 5 and a half hours to tell it, so continuous turns are created that, in most cases, lead nowhere. The endemic problem of the so called prestige tv, dragging it all out until it is no longer possible to find any more skeins to unwind.
More drama then true story. It was struggle to get thru after 3 episodes
Just a big ugly house IMO. Anyway, the show had some moments, but it's more a spoof than a mystery. Pretty average fair.
PS Just read it was actually a true and scary story ... this seemed more like a comedy to me ... opps!
Every character in this show is so unlikeable, but Dean most of all, so whenever someone would butt heads with him they came off looking better by comparison. But Theodora was pretty cool, so, points for that I guess.
They really missed out on a chance to make the show marginally better by not having Ryan Bergara read The Watcher's letters.
Pretty sure the moral of the story is that rich people be crazy, and bring their stupid problems on by being garbage rich people.
The main male actor was a horrible casting choice in my opinion.
Shout by DrMadnessBlockedParent2022-10-17T17:30:06Z
Ok.. Let me make this a short one: this show is decent, has potential and a twist. But it's annoyingly over-dramatized. It quickly becomes old and thank god it's only 7 episodes.