The Watcher on Netflix: Could the Broaddus family actually afford the 657 Boulevard house?
Netflix’s The Watcher is now streaming and it’s the central topic of discussion. The show is based on the 2018 article of the same name by Reeves Wideman, which was published in The Cut. It follows the true story of a family who becomes the target of an anonymous letter writer after purchasing their dream home.
The Netflix limited series centers around the Brannock family, but the actual family who was tormented was the Broadduses. Shortly after they bought what was supposed to be their ideal home in June 2014, the family of five began receiving creepy letters from a mysterious stalker named “The Watcher.” The Broaddus family did everything in their power to track down who was behind the letters, such as getting the authorities involved and hiring private investigators and FBI agents. But, every time they came up empty.
As the Broaddus family struggled to find a suspect, their neighbors began coming up with their own theories. Many people around the neighborhood came up with the theory that the Broaddus family made everything up because they were experiencing buyer’s remorse. They believed that the Broadduses concocted an elaborate scheme to get out of the house because they couldn’t actually afford it. But was this actually true?
Spoilers ahead from The Watcher.
The Watcher on Netflix: Could the Broaddus family actually afford the 657 Boulevard house?
According to the Netflix series, the Broaddus family (Brannock family) could not afford the house at 657 Boulevard. There’s a scene in episode 1 where Dean Brannock is told that he doesn’t qualify for a loan on the house because 10 years prior, he filed for bankruptcy. Dean even mentions to the guy he’s talking to that “everyone buys a house they can’t afford,” which means he doesn’t have the funds to purchase the house. Later in the series, Nora Brannock tells the realtor of the house that they’re not rich and that they had financial troubles after making a couple of bad investments.
However, we must remember that this is a television series and it’s not entirely based on actual events. Some things are made up for the show, and it looks like the Broaddus family could actually afford the 657 Boulevard house. In the article the show is based on, it says that Derek Broaddus was a senior vice president at an insurance company in Manhattan and was making enough money “to afford the $1.3 million house.” So, it looks like it was just neighborhood gossip.
Honestly, it’s hard to believe that Derek and Maria Broaddus would come up with an extensive plan of creating fake letters and getting the authorities involved just to get out of the sale. They would’ve been putting themselves in deep trouble if it really was a scheme and they got caught.
The Watcher is available to stream on Netflix.