What’s the real story behind “The Watcher” on Netflix?

After the success of ‘Dahmer’, Ryan Murphy returns to Netflix to present ‘The Watcher’, a suspense series based on a real case, specifically that of the Broaddus family, a couple who bought a house at 657 Boulevard, and who, shortly after being in the house, began to receive a series of letters threatening them if they stayed long on the property.

On 13 October it premiered ‘The observer’ on netflix, and has since been able to position itself in the Top 10 of the most viewed on the platform. Naomi Watts and Bobby Cannavale bring to life Maria and Derek Broaddus, the protagonists of this story in real life, and whose names have been changed for their adaptation, to Dean and Nora.

Everything seems perfect in Derek and Maria’s life, however, shortly after they arrive at the house at 657 Boulevard, strange letters appear in their mailbox. This is when it starts the real story behind it ‘Traffic warden’, because an anonymous author writes threatening messages in the letters, such as the one in which he thanked them for bringing “young blood”, in reference to his children.

As the story goes onThe observer’ on netflix, we realize that there are some changes to what actually happened. Well, the author of the letters, who called himself “the vigilante”, operated alone, while in the dramatization there seem to be more threats surrounding the tragic life of the Brannocks, such as Jasper and Pearl Winslow, the characters of Terry Kinney and Mia Farrow.

The tragedy that surrounded the Broaddus of ‘The Watcher’

In an article published in 2018 by The Cut, it was revealed what was going on 657 Boulevard, Westfield, New Jersey. It had only been three days since they bought the house when Maria and Derek received the first letter, which intrigued the family to know what was going on.

The letters became more and more frequent, and more specific, to the point that in one of them “the guardian” asked them what they were doing there, how they got the house and if they would stay long. The Broaddus did not hesitate to call the police as their nerves got the better of them, but the agents were unable to find any leads that would lead them to the suspect.

The Broaddus finally, and in a state of desperation, called the former owners of the house, who had confirmed that they too had suffered the same torture, however, during the 23 years they lived there, nothing ever happened to them. But Maria and Derek didn’t want to wait for something to happen, and they immediately left the house.