The Watcher recently came out on Netflix. It launched on October 13, 2022 and became Netflix’s second most-popular English language series of all time. The show states that it’s based on a true story, however further research has proven how different the two truly are.

The real Watcher House is located at 657 Boulevard in Westfield, New Jersey. That is just 20 minutes outside the small town of New Providence. The hit Netflix series was not filmed in the real home and was shot in a much larger home located in Rye, New York.  The house has now become a tourist attraction. Crowds have flocked to 657 Boulevard to snap photos of the infamous house. When I visited the house recently, there were many cars lined up outside the home. License plates varied from New York, Pennsylvania, to Maryland. There was a sign that read: “Please remember we are a real family with small children living here.”

This family is currently suffering from the public, rather than “the watcher”.

I spoke to several students at New Providence High School to get their take on the show.

Senior Corinne Walsh thoroughly enjoyed the show: “I loved the part when they were chasing after the person in tunnels and when they discovered the bed someone had been sleeping in.”

When asked who she thought was the watcher she responded: “I think it’s the people in the Preservation Society that lived behind the house. They were very secretive and seemed to have access to the house.”

Another senior at NPHS, Sophie McTigue, enjoyed the back story on John Graph:  “In the beginning, I remember seeing a figure walk by the main character in the house. I wondered how someone could just appear in the home. Then when they introduced the tunnels, it all made sense.”

While the discovery of the tunnels was exciting part for the viewers because it brought them a sense of fear, they are actually an example of how Netflix took the overall concept of a family receiving letters and turned it into something completely fictional.

As Mrs. Erikson, NPHS art teacher, explained: “My husband works as a police officer in the town next to Westfield. I remember him telling me about people receiving creepy letters in the home. And one of his really good friends is a Westfield cop, who was working when it happened. He said that the show had a lot of inaccuracies, like the tunnels.”

The underground passageways are completely fictional. The family that lived in the home never discovered a secret tunnel, nor were there people living under the house.

A resident of the town and student at Westfield High School, Sean Henderson, pointed out some other problems with the show: “Most people are saying that it is inaccurate and I think it is as well. For example the blood baby cult does not exist in real life and it was very over exaggerated in the show. The show goes in depth about an intruder being inside the home especially with the ending and none of that happened. The house is set near a lake and there is no lake in our town for a house to have access to, or a country club. Between the setting and story inaccuracies, a lot of residents are upset with how the story was portrayed and are not watching the docuseries because they do not want to watch what didn’t happen.”