{"id":104690,"date":"2022-10-22T11:14:09","date_gmt":"2022-10-22T11:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/netflixs-the-watcher-villanizes-historic-preservation\/"},"modified":"2022-10-22T11:14:09","modified_gmt":"2022-10-22T11:14:09","slug":"netflixs-the-watcher-villanizes-historic-preservation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/netflixs-the-watcher-villanizes-historic-preservation\/","title":{"rendered":"Netflix’s ‘The Watcher’ Villanizes Historic Preservation"},"content":{"rendered":"
The neighbors in Netflix’s The Watcher<\/em> are displeased. The Brannocks, a family that recently moved from Manhattan to the Boulevard in Westfield, New Jersey \u2014 the town’s most desirable street \u2014 are renovating their house. Their design choices are especially offensive to Pearl Winslow, an elderly neighbor (played by Mia Farrow) who looks like she’s walked out of Grant Wood’s American Gothic <\/em>painting. \u201cButcher-block countertops? Are you turning your house into a delicatessen?<\/em>\u201d she sneers at Dean Brannock (Bobby Cannavale) in episode six. \u201cI have never seen anyone spend so<\/em> much money making a house look so<\/em> awful.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\nBut the Brannock family is dealing with something more dangerous than a rude neighbor. Dean and his wife Nora Brannock (Naomi Watts) are receiving menacing letters signed by someone who calls themselves \u201cThe Watcher,\u201d and they spend most of the series desperately trying to figure out who that is. The show, which premiered on October 13, is based on the true story of the Broaddus family, who were forced to their six-bedroom dream home abandon in Westfield after receiving those letters (which are read verbatim in the series), as detailed in a 2018 new York<\/em> feature by Reeves Wiedeman. In both the article and the show, the mystery of who is watching the couple and their children through \u201call the windows and doors\u201d of the house, as a letter reads, is never solved. In Ryan Murphy’s adaptation, the potential suspects include Pearl and every fellow historic-home enthusiasts, who make up the three-person Westfield Preservation Society. After all, they think it’s okay to break into someone’s home to admire a dumbwaiter and smash windows they don’t think are architecturally appropriate. As another member of the society says during a meeting, they are \u201cvery interested in keeping this town the way that it ought to be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n <\/picture>\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n <\/picture>\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n Pearl Winslow, Jasper Winslow, and a mysterious character who calls himself John but is really named William Webster comprise the three-person Westfield Preservation Society, a group that’s fixated on the countertops of 657 Boulevard. Photos: Netflix.<\/span>\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n Pearl Winslow, Jasper Winslow, and a mysterious character who calls himself John but is really named William Webster comprise the three-person Westfie… more<\/button><\/span>\n Pearl Winslow, Jasper Winslow, and a mysterious character who calls himself John but is really named William Webster comprise the three-person Westfield Preservation Society, a group that’s fixated on the countertops of 657 Boulevard. Photos: Netflix.<\/span><\/span>\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\nIt’s typical Ryan Murphy to take things to extremes, so it isn’t that much of a stretch for him to cast preservationists, who often have a self-righteous streak, as villains. They have their real-world counterparts in trad-arch crusaders \u2014 people who hold up classical European architecture as a symbol of the traditional values \u200b\u200bthey want to see in society and view modern architecture as a threat to the way things \u201cought to be.\u201d Most recently, they had their biggest champion in the White House, when Donald Trump signed a \u201cMake Federal Buildings Beautiful Again\u201d executive order in 2020, and classical-architecture-themed Twitter accounts that idolized European buildings became a magnet for white nationalists. The Watcher<\/em>‘s Westfield Preservation Society is organized around a similar desire: to maintain the traditional values \u200b\u200bthey believe their neighborhood represents.<\/p>\nBut would a group of quirky, overzealous preservationists who gush over turrets and ornamental plaster turn violent? It seems likely. When Pearl learns that her brother, Jasper, smashed the new glass windows ordered by the Brannocks, she says approvingly, \u201cSix-by-six windows on a Queen Anne is a travesty.\u201d We hear more nostalgia for the past from \u201cJohn,\u201d whom we first meet in the Brannocks’ kitchen making himself a sandwich. He introduces himself as the building inspector and starts to ask Dean, \u201cAre you a Christian family?\u201d When Dean says they don’t go to church, John sighs in disapproval. \u201cThe way the world is now, all of civilization is just burning down,\u201d he says. Then he adds, \u201cWhen I was a kid, nobody locked their doors and everyone went to church. Now everyone locks their doors and no one goes back to church. I don’t think that’s a coincidence.\u201d It’s a familiar lament about social collapse often forwarded by conservatives. It turns out soon after that John is not the building inspector, and may in fact be John Graff, a murderous former resident who killed his wife and children and disappeared after. Could he be The Watcher? It seems possible when Dean and Nora discover a tunnel that leads to a neighbor’s house and catch someone seemingly living in an underground room. They never see his face, but the audience does. It’s John, and he exits the tunnel through Pearl’s house. \u201cThey’re onto us!\u201d he says when Pearl opens the door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n <\/picture>\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Pearl Winslow’s living room is, of course, traditional.\n Photo: Netflix<\/span>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\nThe real-life Broaddus family did not have an underground tunnel nor did they undertake any dramatic renovations. The local historical society also left them alone early on in their short tenure at the house. What the Broadduses experienced was something more mundane: \u201ca clear undertone that the neighborhood was one way for a long time but new money has come in and is changing things,\u201d Wiedeman told me. The real architectural drama happened only after the family decided to list the home and, after getting no offers, considered selling to a developer and subdividing the lot, which would require a zoning variance. There was a huge outcry from the Westfield Historic Commission and the neighbors on the block. Rather than preservation, \u201cit was more about protecting their property values,\u201d Wiedeman says. \u201cThey wanted the neighborhood to look pretty.\u201d The society, for its part, had this to say about its fictionalized portrayal in the drama: \u201cMia Farrow’s character is an outdated caricature of the preservationist as a reactionary scold who bears no resemblance to anyone on our diverse, multigenerational commission,\u201d says Jennifer Jaruzelski, the commission’s vice-chair. \u201cWe are far more interested in engaging residents through walking tours, homeowner awards, and informational ‘meet and greets.’\u201d<\/p>\nBut it turns out that the preservationist villain is not entirely an invention of Ryan Murphy’s amped-up brain. In a follow-up published this month, a new Watcher suspect emerges: a high-school English teacher who was obsessed with another historic house in Westfield and even wrote letters to it. He appears in the series as Roger Kaplan, a longtime Westfield resident who loves its old homes. A flashback shows him as a child admiring a hand-carved Newel post (he even uses the technical name!) And asking his friend, who is just a few years older, if she knows the woodworker. Dean immediately thinks Kaplan is a suspect. For a while, he looks likely, but in the end, Kaplan is revealed to be harmless and instead appears key in identifying who The Watcher really is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n <\/picture>\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n The Brannock family renovates their historic house to look more modern on the inside.\n Photo: Netflix<\/span>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\nThe series, unlike real life, does wrap up with a more satisfactory ending that hints strongly toward at least one Watcher candidate. In the final episode, after the Brannocks have moved out, we can see the preservationist society is still obsessing over the countertops, this time because the new owner of 657 Boulevard, the real-estate agent Karen Calhoun (Jennifer Coolidge), has installed pink marble In the meeting of the newly expanded society, as the group introduces themselves, we finally learn that \u201cJohn\u201d is William Webster, who works at the library, which has typewriters with the same font as the one in The Watcher’s letters. He says he’s lived in Westfield since 1995, the same year the Graff murders took place. Kaplan seems to recognize him and asks, \u201cHow’s your family?\u201d William, who goes by \u201cBill,\u201d replies sternly, \u201cYou know me from the library.\u201d Kaplan gives him a suspicious glance, but the conversation moves on. As they discuss appropriate countertops for the house, Bill reveals that he has been paying close attention to 657 Boulevard for decades. \u201cI do remember the countertops were original. They were polished Black walnuts.\u201d In one of the final scenes, we see that Calhoun has left the house (The Watcher tormented her too) and a new family has moved in. As they’re outside barbecuing, Bill is inside the house, watching them from a second-story window.<\/p>\n
But the Brannock family is dealing with something more dangerous than a rude neighbor. Dean and his wife Nora Brannock (Naomi Watts) are receiving menacing letters signed by someone who calls themselves \u201cThe Watcher,\u201d and they spend most of the series desperately trying to figure out who that is. The show, which premiered on October 13, is based on the true story of the Broaddus family, who were forced to their six-bedroom dream home abandon in Westfield after receiving those letters (which are read verbatim in the series), as detailed in a 2018 new York<\/em> feature by Reeves Wiedeman. In both the article and the show, the mystery of who is watching the couple and their children through \u201call the windows and doors\u201d of the house, as a letter reads, is never solved. In Ryan Murphy’s adaptation, the potential suspects include Pearl and every fellow historic-home enthusiasts, who make up the three-person Westfield Preservation Society. After all, they think it’s okay to break into someone’s home to admire a dumbwaiter and smash windows they don’t think are architecturally appropriate. As another member of the society says during a meeting, they are \u201cvery interested in keeping this town the way that it ought to be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n <\/picture>\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n <\/picture>\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n Pearl Winslow, Jasper Winslow, and a mysterious character who calls himself John but is really named William Webster comprise the three-person Westfield Preservation Society, a group that’s fixated on the countertops of 657 Boulevard. Photos: Netflix.<\/span>\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n Pearl Winslow, Jasper Winslow, and a mysterious character who calls himself John but is really named William Webster comprise the three-person Westfie… more<\/button><\/span>\n Pearl Winslow, Jasper Winslow, and a mysterious character who calls himself John but is really named William Webster comprise the three-person Westfield Preservation Society, a group that’s fixated on the countertops of 657 Boulevard. Photos: Netflix.<\/span><\/span>\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\nIt’s typical Ryan Murphy to take things to extremes, so it isn’t that much of a stretch for him to cast preservationists, who often have a self-righteous streak, as villains. They have their real-world counterparts in trad-arch crusaders \u2014 people who hold up classical European architecture as a symbol of the traditional values \u200b\u200bthey want to see in society and view modern architecture as a threat to the way things \u201cought to be.\u201d Most recently, they had their biggest champion in the White House, when Donald Trump signed a \u201cMake Federal Buildings Beautiful Again\u201d executive order in 2020, and classical-architecture-themed Twitter accounts that idolized European buildings became a magnet for white nationalists. The Watcher<\/em>‘s Westfield Preservation Society is organized around a similar desire: to maintain the traditional values \u200b\u200bthey believe their neighborhood represents.<\/p>\nBut would a group of quirky, overzealous preservationists who gush over turrets and ornamental plaster turn violent? It seems likely. When Pearl learns that her brother, Jasper, smashed the new glass windows ordered by the Brannocks, she says approvingly, \u201cSix-by-six windows on a Queen Anne is a travesty.\u201d We hear more nostalgia for the past from \u201cJohn,\u201d whom we first meet in the Brannocks’ kitchen making himself a sandwich. He introduces himself as the building inspector and starts to ask Dean, \u201cAre you a Christian family?\u201d When Dean says they don’t go to church, John sighs in disapproval. \u201cThe way the world is now, all of civilization is just burning down,\u201d he says. Then he adds, \u201cWhen I was a kid, nobody locked their doors and everyone went to church. Now everyone locks their doors and no one goes back to church. I don’t think that’s a coincidence.\u201d It’s a familiar lament about social collapse often forwarded by conservatives. It turns out soon after that John is not the building inspector, and may in fact be John Graff, a murderous former resident who killed his wife and children and disappeared after. Could he be The Watcher? It seems possible when Dean and Nora discover a tunnel that leads to a neighbor’s house and catch someone seemingly living in an underground room. They never see his face, but the audience does. It’s John, and he exits the tunnel through Pearl’s house. \u201cThey’re onto us!\u201d he says when Pearl opens the door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n <\/picture>\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Pearl Winslow’s living room is, of course, traditional.\n Photo: Netflix<\/span>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\nThe real-life Broaddus family did not have an underground tunnel nor did they undertake any dramatic renovations. The local historical society also left them alone early on in their short tenure at the house. What the Broadduses experienced was something more mundane: \u201ca clear undertone that the neighborhood was one way for a long time but new money has come in and is changing things,\u201d Wiedeman told me. The real architectural drama happened only after the family decided to list the home and, after getting no offers, considered selling to a developer and subdividing the lot, which would require a zoning variance. There was a huge outcry from the Westfield Historic Commission and the neighbors on the block. Rather than preservation, \u201cit was more about protecting their property values,\u201d Wiedeman says. \u201cThey wanted the neighborhood to look pretty.\u201d The society, for its part, had this to say about its fictionalized portrayal in the drama: \u201cMia Farrow’s character is an outdated caricature of the preservationist as a reactionary scold who bears no resemblance to anyone on our diverse, multigenerational commission,\u201d says Jennifer Jaruzelski, the commission’s vice-chair. \u201cWe are far more interested in engaging residents through walking tours, homeowner awards, and informational ‘meet and greets.’\u201d<\/p>\nBut it turns out that the preservationist villain is not entirely an invention of Ryan Murphy’s amped-up brain. In a follow-up published this month, a new Watcher suspect emerges: a high-school English teacher who was obsessed with another historic house in Westfield and even wrote letters to it. He appears in the series as Roger Kaplan, a longtime Westfield resident who loves its old homes. A flashback shows him as a child admiring a hand-carved Newel post (he even uses the technical name!) And asking his friend, who is just a few years older, if she knows the woodworker. Dean immediately thinks Kaplan is a suspect. For a while, he looks likely, but in the end, Kaplan is revealed to be harmless and instead appears key in identifying who The Watcher really is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n <\/picture>\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n The Brannock family renovates their historic house to look more modern on the inside.\n Photo: Netflix<\/span>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\nThe series, unlike real life, does wrap up with a more satisfactory ending that hints strongly toward at least one Watcher candidate. In the final episode, after the Brannocks have moved out, we can see the preservationist society is still obsessing over the countertops, this time because the new owner of 657 Boulevard, the real-estate agent Karen Calhoun (Jennifer Coolidge), has installed pink marble In the meeting of the newly expanded society, as the group introduces themselves, we finally learn that \u201cJohn\u201d is William Webster, who works at the library, which has typewriters with the same font as the one in The Watcher’s letters. He says he’s lived in Westfield since 1995, the same year the Graff murders took place. Kaplan seems to recognize him and asks, \u201cHow’s your family?\u201d William, who goes by \u201cBill,\u201d replies sternly, \u201cYou know me from the library.\u201d Kaplan gives him a suspicious glance, but the conversation moves on. As they discuss appropriate countertops for the house, Bill reveals that he has been paying close attention to 657 Boulevard for decades. \u201cI do remember the countertops were original. They were polished Black walnuts.\u201d In one of the final scenes, we see that Calhoun has left the house (The Watcher tormented her too) and a new family has moved in. As they’re outside barbecuing, Bill is inside the house, watching them from a second-story window.<\/p>\n
Pearl Winslow, Jasper Winslow, and a mysterious character who calls himself John but is really named William Webster comprise the three-person Westfield Preservation Society, a group that’s fixated on the countertops of 657 Boulevard. Photos: Netflix.<\/span>\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n Pearl Winslow, Jasper Winslow, and a mysterious character who calls himself John but is really named William Webster comprise the three-person Westfie… more<\/button><\/span>\n Pearl Winslow, Jasper Winslow, and a mysterious character who calls himself John but is really named William Webster comprise the three-person Westfield Preservation Society, a group that’s fixated on the countertops of 657 Boulevard. Photos: Netflix.<\/span><\/span>\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\nIt’s typical Ryan Murphy to take things to extremes, so it isn’t that much of a stretch for him to cast preservationists, who often have a self-righteous streak, as villains. They have their real-world counterparts in trad-arch crusaders \u2014 people who hold up classical European architecture as a symbol of the traditional values \u200b\u200bthey want to see in society and view modern architecture as a threat to the way things \u201cought to be.\u201d Most recently, they had their biggest champion in the White House, when Donald Trump signed a \u201cMake Federal Buildings Beautiful Again\u201d executive order in 2020, and classical-architecture-themed Twitter accounts that idolized European buildings became a magnet for white nationalists. The Watcher<\/em>‘s Westfield Preservation Society is organized around a similar desire: to maintain the traditional values \u200b\u200bthey believe their neighborhood represents.<\/p>\nBut would a group of quirky, overzealous preservationists who gush over turrets and ornamental plaster turn violent? It seems likely. When Pearl learns that her brother, Jasper, smashed the new glass windows ordered by the Brannocks, she says approvingly, \u201cSix-by-six windows on a Queen Anne is a travesty.\u201d We hear more nostalgia for the past from \u201cJohn,\u201d whom we first meet in the Brannocks’ kitchen making himself a sandwich. He introduces himself as the building inspector and starts to ask Dean, \u201cAre you a Christian family?\u201d When Dean says they don’t go to church, John sighs in disapproval. \u201cThe way the world is now, all of civilization is just burning down,\u201d he says. Then he adds, \u201cWhen I was a kid, nobody locked their doors and everyone went to church. Now everyone locks their doors and no one goes back to church. I don’t think that’s a coincidence.\u201d It’s a familiar lament about social collapse often forwarded by conservatives. It turns out soon after that John is not the building inspector, and may in fact be John Graff, a murderous former resident who killed his wife and children and disappeared after. Could he be The Watcher? It seems possible when Dean and Nora discover a tunnel that leads to a neighbor’s house and catch someone seemingly living in an underground room. They never see his face, but the audience does. It’s John, and he exits the tunnel through Pearl’s house. \u201cThey’re onto us!\u201d he says when Pearl opens the door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n <\/picture>\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Pearl Winslow’s living room is, of course, traditional.\n Photo: Netflix<\/span>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\nThe real-life Broaddus family did not have an underground tunnel nor did they undertake any dramatic renovations. The local historical society also left them alone early on in their short tenure at the house. What the Broadduses experienced was something more mundane: \u201ca clear undertone that the neighborhood was one way for a long time but new money has come in and is changing things,\u201d Wiedeman told me. The real architectural drama happened only after the family decided to list the home and, after getting no offers, considered selling to a developer and subdividing the lot, which would require a zoning variance. There was a huge outcry from the Westfield Historic Commission and the neighbors on the block. Rather than preservation, \u201cit was more about protecting their property values,\u201d Wiedeman says. \u201cThey wanted the neighborhood to look pretty.\u201d The society, for its part, had this to say about its fictionalized portrayal in the drama: \u201cMia Farrow’s character is an outdated caricature of the preservationist as a reactionary scold who bears no resemblance to anyone on our diverse, multigenerational commission,\u201d says Jennifer Jaruzelski, the commission’s vice-chair. \u201cWe are far more interested in engaging residents through walking tours, homeowner awards, and informational ‘meet and greets.’\u201d<\/p>\nBut it turns out that the preservationist villain is not entirely an invention of Ryan Murphy’s amped-up brain. In a follow-up published this month, a new Watcher suspect emerges: a high-school English teacher who was obsessed with another historic house in Westfield and even wrote letters to it. He appears in the series as Roger Kaplan, a longtime Westfield resident who loves its old homes. A flashback shows him as a child admiring a hand-carved Newel post (he even uses the technical name!) And asking his friend, who is just a few years older, if she knows the woodworker. Dean immediately thinks Kaplan is a suspect. For a while, he looks likely, but in the end, Kaplan is revealed to be harmless and instead appears key in identifying who The Watcher really is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n <\/picture>\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n The Brannock family renovates their historic house to look more modern on the inside.\n Photo: Netflix<\/span>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\nThe series, unlike real life, does wrap up with a more satisfactory ending that hints strongly toward at least one Watcher candidate. In the final episode, after the Brannocks have moved out, we can see the preservationist society is still obsessing over the countertops, this time because the new owner of 657 Boulevard, the real-estate agent Karen Calhoun (Jennifer Coolidge), has installed pink marble In the meeting of the newly expanded society, as the group introduces themselves, we finally learn that \u201cJohn\u201d is William Webster, who works at the library, which has typewriters with the same font as the one in The Watcher’s letters. He says he’s lived in Westfield since 1995, the same year the Graff murders took place. Kaplan seems to recognize him and asks, \u201cHow’s your family?\u201d William, who goes by \u201cBill,\u201d replies sternly, \u201cYou know me from the library.\u201d Kaplan gives him a suspicious glance, but the conversation moves on. As they discuss appropriate countertops for the house, Bill reveals that he has been paying close attention to 657 Boulevard for decades. \u201cI do remember the countertops were original. They were polished Black walnuts.\u201d In one of the final scenes, we see that Calhoun has left the house (The Watcher tormented her too) and a new family has moved in. As they’re outside barbecuing, Bill is inside the house, watching them from a second-story window.<\/p>\n
\n Pearl Winslow, Jasper Winslow, and a mysterious character who calls himself John but is really named William Webster comprise the three-person Westfie… more<\/button><\/span>\n Pearl Winslow, Jasper Winslow, and a mysterious character who calls himself John but is really named William Webster comprise the three-person Westfield Preservation Society, a group that’s fixated on the countertops of 657 Boulevard. Photos: Netflix.<\/span><\/span>\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\nIt’s typical Ryan Murphy to take things to extremes, so it isn’t that much of a stretch for him to cast preservationists, who often have a self-righteous streak, as villains. They have their real-world counterparts in trad-arch crusaders \u2014 people who hold up classical European architecture as a symbol of the traditional values \u200b\u200bthey want to see in society and view modern architecture as a threat to the way things \u201cought to be.\u201d Most recently, they had their biggest champion in the White House, when Donald Trump signed a \u201cMake Federal Buildings Beautiful Again\u201d executive order in 2020, and classical-architecture-themed Twitter accounts that idolized European buildings became a magnet for white nationalists. The Watcher<\/em>‘s Westfield Preservation Society is organized around a similar desire: to maintain the traditional values \u200b\u200bthey believe their neighborhood represents.<\/p>\nBut would a group of quirky, overzealous preservationists who gush over turrets and ornamental plaster turn violent? It seems likely. When Pearl learns that her brother, Jasper, smashed the new glass windows ordered by the Brannocks, she says approvingly, \u201cSix-by-six windows on a Queen Anne is a travesty.\u201d We hear more nostalgia for the past from \u201cJohn,\u201d whom we first meet in the Brannocks’ kitchen making himself a sandwich. He introduces himself as the building inspector and starts to ask Dean, \u201cAre you a Christian family?\u201d When Dean says they don’t go to church, John sighs in disapproval. \u201cThe way the world is now, all of civilization is just burning down,\u201d he says. Then he adds, \u201cWhen I was a kid, nobody locked their doors and everyone went to church. Now everyone locks their doors and no one goes back to church. I don’t think that’s a coincidence.\u201d It’s a familiar lament about social collapse often forwarded by conservatives. It turns out soon after that John is not the building inspector, and may in fact be John Graff, a murderous former resident who killed his wife and children and disappeared after. Could he be The Watcher? It seems possible when Dean and Nora discover a tunnel that leads to a neighbor’s house and catch someone seemingly living in an underground room. They never see his face, but the audience does. It’s John, and he exits the tunnel through Pearl’s house. \u201cThey’re onto us!\u201d he says when Pearl opens the door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n <\/picture>\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Pearl Winslow’s living room is, of course, traditional.\n Photo: Netflix<\/span>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\nThe real-life Broaddus family did not have an underground tunnel nor did they undertake any dramatic renovations. The local historical society also left them alone early on in their short tenure at the house. What the Broadduses experienced was something more mundane: \u201ca clear undertone that the neighborhood was one way for a long time but new money has come in and is changing things,\u201d Wiedeman told me. The real architectural drama happened only after the family decided to list the home and, after getting no offers, considered selling to a developer and subdividing the lot, which would require a zoning variance. There was a huge outcry from the Westfield Historic Commission and the neighbors on the block. Rather than preservation, \u201cit was more about protecting their property values,\u201d Wiedeman says. \u201cThey wanted the neighborhood to look pretty.\u201d The society, for its part, had this to say about its fictionalized portrayal in the drama: \u201cMia Farrow’s character is an outdated caricature of the preservationist as a reactionary scold who bears no resemblance to anyone on our diverse, multigenerational commission,\u201d says Jennifer Jaruzelski, the commission’s vice-chair. \u201cWe are far more interested in engaging residents through walking tours, homeowner awards, and informational ‘meet and greets.’\u201d<\/p>\nBut it turns out that the preservationist villain is not entirely an invention of Ryan Murphy’s amped-up brain. In a follow-up published this month, a new Watcher suspect emerges: a high-school English teacher who was obsessed with another historic house in Westfield and even wrote letters to it. He appears in the series as Roger Kaplan, a longtime Westfield resident who loves its old homes. A flashback shows him as a child admiring a hand-carved Newel post (he even uses the technical name!) And asking his friend, who is just a few years older, if she knows the woodworker. Dean immediately thinks Kaplan is a suspect. For a while, he looks likely, but in the end, Kaplan is revealed to be harmless and instead appears key in identifying who The Watcher really is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n <\/picture>\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n The Brannock family renovates their historic house to look more modern on the inside.\n Photo: Netflix<\/span>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\nThe series, unlike real life, does wrap up with a more satisfactory ending that hints strongly toward at least one Watcher candidate. In the final episode, after the Brannocks have moved out, we can see the preservationist society is still obsessing over the countertops, this time because the new owner of 657 Boulevard, the real-estate agent Karen Calhoun (Jennifer Coolidge), has installed pink marble In the meeting of the newly expanded society, as the group introduces themselves, we finally learn that \u201cJohn\u201d is William Webster, who works at the library, which has typewriters with the same font as the one in The Watcher’s letters. He says he’s lived in Westfield since 1995, the same year the Graff murders took place. Kaplan seems to recognize him and asks, \u201cHow’s your family?\u201d William, who goes by \u201cBill,\u201d replies sternly, \u201cYou know me from the library.\u201d Kaplan gives him a suspicious glance, but the conversation moves on. As they discuss appropriate countertops for the house, Bill reveals that he has been paying close attention to 657 Boulevard for decades. \u201cI do remember the countertops were original. They were polished Black walnuts.\u201d In one of the final scenes, we see that Calhoun has left the house (The Watcher tormented her too) and a new family has moved in. As they’re outside barbecuing, Bill is inside the house, watching them from a second-story window.<\/p>\n
It’s typical Ryan Murphy to take things to extremes, so it isn’t that much of a stretch for him to cast preservationists, who often have a self-righteous streak, as villains. They have their real-world counterparts in trad-arch crusaders \u2014 people who hold up classical European architecture as a symbol of the traditional values \u200b\u200bthey want to see in society and view modern architecture as a threat to the way things \u201cought to be.\u201d Most recently, they had their biggest champion in the White House, when Donald Trump signed a \u201cMake Federal Buildings Beautiful Again\u201d executive order in 2020, and classical-architecture-themed Twitter accounts that idolized European buildings became a magnet for white nationalists. The Watcher<\/em>‘s Westfield Preservation Society is organized around a similar desire: to maintain the traditional values \u200b\u200bthey believe their neighborhood represents.<\/p>\nBut would a group of quirky, overzealous preservationists who gush over turrets and ornamental plaster turn violent? It seems likely. When Pearl learns that her brother, Jasper, smashed the new glass windows ordered by the Brannocks, she says approvingly, \u201cSix-by-six windows on a Queen Anne is a travesty.\u201d We hear more nostalgia for the past from \u201cJohn,\u201d whom we first meet in the Brannocks’ kitchen making himself a sandwich. He introduces himself as the building inspector and starts to ask Dean, \u201cAre you a Christian family?\u201d When Dean says they don’t go to church, John sighs in disapproval. \u201cThe way the world is now, all of civilization is just burning down,\u201d he says. Then he adds, \u201cWhen I was a kid, nobody locked their doors and everyone went to church. Now everyone locks their doors and no one goes back to church. I don’t think that’s a coincidence.\u201d It’s a familiar lament about social collapse often forwarded by conservatives. It turns out soon after that John is not the building inspector, and may in fact be John Graff, a murderous former resident who killed his wife and children and disappeared after. Could he be The Watcher? It seems possible when Dean and Nora discover a tunnel that leads to a neighbor’s house and catch someone seemingly living in an underground room. They never see his face, but the audience does. It’s John, and he exits the tunnel through Pearl’s house. \u201cThey’re onto us!\u201d he says when Pearl opens the door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n <\/picture>\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Pearl Winslow’s living room is, of course, traditional.\n Photo: Netflix<\/span>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\nThe real-life Broaddus family did not have an underground tunnel nor did they undertake any dramatic renovations. The local historical society also left them alone early on in their short tenure at the house. What the Broadduses experienced was something more mundane: \u201ca clear undertone that the neighborhood was one way for a long time but new money has come in and is changing things,\u201d Wiedeman told me. The real architectural drama happened only after the family decided to list the home and, after getting no offers, considered selling to a developer and subdividing the lot, which would require a zoning variance. There was a huge outcry from the Westfield Historic Commission and the neighbors on the block. Rather than preservation, \u201cit was more about protecting their property values,\u201d Wiedeman says. \u201cThey wanted the neighborhood to look pretty.\u201d The society, for its part, had this to say about its fictionalized portrayal in the drama: \u201cMia Farrow’s character is an outdated caricature of the preservationist as a reactionary scold who bears no resemblance to anyone on our diverse, multigenerational commission,\u201d says Jennifer Jaruzelski, the commission’s vice-chair. \u201cWe are far more interested in engaging residents through walking tours, homeowner awards, and informational ‘meet and greets.’\u201d<\/p>\nBut it turns out that the preservationist villain is not entirely an invention of Ryan Murphy’s amped-up brain. In a follow-up published this month, a new Watcher suspect emerges: a high-school English teacher who was obsessed with another historic house in Westfield and even wrote letters to it. He appears in the series as Roger Kaplan, a longtime Westfield resident who loves its old homes. A flashback shows him as a child admiring a hand-carved Newel post (he even uses the technical name!) And asking his friend, who is just a few years older, if she knows the woodworker. Dean immediately thinks Kaplan is a suspect. For a while, he looks likely, but in the end, Kaplan is revealed to be harmless and instead appears key in identifying who The Watcher really is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n <\/picture>\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n The Brannock family renovates their historic house to look more modern on the inside.\n Photo: Netflix<\/span>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\nThe series, unlike real life, does wrap up with a more satisfactory ending that hints strongly toward at least one Watcher candidate. In the final episode, after the Brannocks have moved out, we can see the preservationist society is still obsessing over the countertops, this time because the new owner of 657 Boulevard, the real-estate agent Karen Calhoun (Jennifer Coolidge), has installed pink marble In the meeting of the newly expanded society, as the group introduces themselves, we finally learn that \u201cJohn\u201d is William Webster, who works at the library, which has typewriters with the same font as the one in The Watcher’s letters. He says he’s lived in Westfield since 1995, the same year the Graff murders took place. Kaplan seems to recognize him and asks, \u201cHow’s your family?\u201d William, who goes by \u201cBill,\u201d replies sternly, \u201cYou know me from the library.\u201d Kaplan gives him a suspicious glance, but the conversation moves on. As they discuss appropriate countertops for the house, Bill reveals that he has been paying close attention to 657 Boulevard for decades. \u201cI do remember the countertops were original. They were polished Black walnuts.\u201d In one of the final scenes, we see that Calhoun has left the house (The Watcher tormented her too) and a new family has moved in. As they’re outside barbecuing, Bill is inside the house, watching them from a second-story window.<\/p>\n
But would a group of quirky, overzealous preservationists who gush over turrets and ornamental plaster turn violent? It seems likely. When Pearl learns that her brother, Jasper, smashed the new glass windows ordered by the Brannocks, she says approvingly, \u201cSix-by-six windows on a Queen Anne is a travesty.\u201d We hear more nostalgia for the past from \u201cJohn,\u201d whom we first meet in the Brannocks’ kitchen making himself a sandwich. He introduces himself as the building inspector and starts to ask Dean, \u201cAre you a Christian family?\u201d When Dean says they don’t go to church, John sighs in disapproval. \u201cThe way the world is now, all of civilization is just burning down,\u201d he says. Then he adds, \u201cWhen I was a kid, nobody locked their doors and everyone went to church. Now everyone locks their doors and no one goes back to church. I don’t think that’s a coincidence.\u201d It’s a familiar lament about social collapse often forwarded by conservatives. It turns out soon after that John is not the building inspector, and may in fact be John Graff, a murderous former resident who killed his wife and children and disappeared after. Could he be The Watcher? It seems possible when Dean and Nora discover a tunnel that leads to a neighbor’s house and catch someone seemingly living in an underground room. They never see his face, but the audience does. It’s John, and he exits the tunnel through Pearl’s house. \u201cThey’re onto us!\u201d he says when Pearl opens the door.<\/p>\n
Pearl Winslow’s living room is, of course, traditional.\n Photo: Netflix<\/span>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\nThe real-life Broaddus family did not have an underground tunnel nor did they undertake any dramatic renovations. The local historical society also left them alone early on in their short tenure at the house. What the Broadduses experienced was something more mundane: \u201ca clear undertone that the neighborhood was one way for a long time but new money has come in and is changing things,\u201d Wiedeman told me. The real architectural drama happened only after the family decided to list the home and, after getting no offers, considered selling to a developer and subdividing the lot, which would require a zoning variance. There was a huge outcry from the Westfield Historic Commission and the neighbors on the block. Rather than preservation, \u201cit was more about protecting their property values,\u201d Wiedeman says. \u201cThey wanted the neighborhood to look pretty.\u201d The society, for its part, had this to say about its fictionalized portrayal in the drama: \u201cMia Farrow’s character is an outdated caricature of the preservationist as a reactionary scold who bears no resemblance to anyone on our diverse, multigenerational commission,\u201d says Jennifer Jaruzelski, the commission’s vice-chair. \u201cWe are far more interested in engaging residents through walking tours, homeowner awards, and informational ‘meet and greets.’\u201d<\/p>\nBut it turns out that the preservationist villain is not entirely an invention of Ryan Murphy’s amped-up brain. In a follow-up published this month, a new Watcher suspect emerges: a high-school English teacher who was obsessed with another historic house in Westfield and even wrote letters to it. He appears in the series as Roger Kaplan, a longtime Westfield resident who loves its old homes. A flashback shows him as a child admiring a hand-carved Newel post (he even uses the technical name!) And asking his friend, who is just a few years older, if she knows the woodworker. Dean immediately thinks Kaplan is a suspect. For a while, he looks likely, but in the end, Kaplan is revealed to be harmless and instead appears key in identifying who The Watcher really is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n <\/picture>\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n The Brannock family renovates their historic house to look more modern on the inside.\n Photo: Netflix<\/span>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\nThe series, unlike real life, does wrap up with a more satisfactory ending that hints strongly toward at least one Watcher candidate. In the final episode, after the Brannocks have moved out, we can see the preservationist society is still obsessing over the countertops, this time because the new owner of 657 Boulevard, the real-estate agent Karen Calhoun (Jennifer Coolidge), has installed pink marble In the meeting of the newly expanded society, as the group introduces themselves, we finally learn that \u201cJohn\u201d is William Webster, who works at the library, which has typewriters with the same font as the one in The Watcher’s letters. He says he’s lived in Westfield since 1995, the same year the Graff murders took place. Kaplan seems to recognize him and asks, \u201cHow’s your family?\u201d William, who goes by \u201cBill,\u201d replies sternly, \u201cYou know me from the library.\u201d Kaplan gives him a suspicious glance, but the conversation moves on. As they discuss appropriate countertops for the house, Bill reveals that he has been paying close attention to 657 Boulevard for decades. \u201cI do remember the countertops were original. They were polished Black walnuts.\u201d In one of the final scenes, we see that Calhoun has left the house (The Watcher tormented her too) and a new family has moved in. As they’re outside barbecuing, Bill is inside the house, watching them from a second-story window.<\/p>\n
The real-life Broaddus family did not have an underground tunnel nor did they undertake any dramatic renovations. The local historical society also left them alone early on in their short tenure at the house. What the Broadduses experienced was something more mundane: \u201ca clear undertone that the neighborhood was one way for a long time but new money has come in and is changing things,\u201d Wiedeman told me. The real architectural drama happened only after the family decided to list the home and, after getting no offers, considered selling to a developer and subdividing the lot, which would require a zoning variance. There was a huge outcry from the Westfield Historic Commission and the neighbors on the block. Rather than preservation, \u201cit was more about protecting their property values,\u201d Wiedeman says. \u201cThey wanted the neighborhood to look pretty.\u201d The society, for its part, had this to say about its fictionalized portrayal in the drama: \u201cMia Farrow’s character is an outdated caricature of the preservationist as a reactionary scold who bears no resemblance to anyone on our diverse, multigenerational commission,\u201d says Jennifer Jaruzelski, the commission’s vice-chair. \u201cWe are far more interested in engaging residents through walking tours, homeowner awards, and informational ‘meet and greets.’\u201d<\/p>\n
But it turns out that the preservationist villain is not entirely an invention of Ryan Murphy’s amped-up brain. In a follow-up published this month, a new Watcher suspect emerges: a high-school English teacher who was obsessed with another historic house in Westfield and even wrote letters to it. He appears in the series as Roger Kaplan, a longtime Westfield resident who loves its old homes. A flashback shows him as a child admiring a hand-carved Newel post (he even uses the technical name!) And asking his friend, who is just a few years older, if she knows the woodworker. Dean immediately thinks Kaplan is a suspect. For a while, he looks likely, but in the end, Kaplan is revealed to be harmless and instead appears key in identifying who The Watcher really is.<\/p>\n
The Brannock family renovates their historic house to look more modern on the inside.\n Photo: Netflix<\/span>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\nThe series, unlike real life, does wrap up with a more satisfactory ending that hints strongly toward at least one Watcher candidate. In the final episode, after the Brannocks have moved out, we can see the preservationist society is still obsessing over the countertops, this time because the new owner of 657 Boulevard, the real-estate agent Karen Calhoun (Jennifer Coolidge), has installed pink marble In the meeting of the newly expanded society, as the group introduces themselves, we finally learn that \u201cJohn\u201d is William Webster, who works at the library, which has typewriters with the same font as the one in The Watcher’s letters. He says he’s lived in Westfield since 1995, the same year the Graff murders took place. Kaplan seems to recognize him and asks, \u201cHow’s your family?\u201d William, who goes by \u201cBill,\u201d replies sternly, \u201cYou know me from the library.\u201d Kaplan gives him a suspicious glance, but the conversation moves on. As they discuss appropriate countertops for the house, Bill reveals that he has been paying close attention to 657 Boulevard for decades. \u201cI do remember the countertops were original. They were polished Black walnuts.\u201d In one of the final scenes, we see that Calhoun has left the house (The Watcher tormented her too) and a new family has moved in. As they’re outside barbecuing, Bill is inside the house, watching them from a second-story window.<\/p>\n
The series, unlike real life, does wrap up with a more satisfactory ending that hints strongly toward at least one Watcher candidate. In the final episode, after the Brannocks have moved out, we can see the preservationist society is still obsessing over the countertops, this time because the new owner of 657 Boulevard, the real-estate agent Karen Calhoun (Jennifer Coolidge), has installed pink marble In the meeting of the newly expanded society, as the group introduces themselves, we finally learn that \u201cJohn\u201d is William Webster, who works at the library, which has typewriters with the same font as the one in The Watcher’s letters. He says he’s lived in Westfield since 1995, the same year the Graff murders took place. Kaplan seems to recognize him and asks, \u201cHow’s your family?\u201d William, who goes by \u201cBill,\u201d replies sternly, \u201cYou know me from the library.\u201d Kaplan gives him a suspicious glance, but the conversation moves on. As they discuss appropriate countertops for the house, Bill reveals that he has been paying close attention to 657 Boulevard for decades. \u201cI do remember the countertops were original. They were polished Black walnuts.\u201d In one of the final scenes, we see that Calhoun has left the house (The Watcher tormented her too) and a new family has moved in. As they’re outside barbecuing, Bill is inside the house, watching them from a second-story window.<\/p>\n