Even as Evan Peters was still terrifying bazillions of Netflix viewers with his Jeffrey Dahmer portrayal in Monster, its creator Ryan Murphy unleashed even more terror in the form of The Watcher. Though the latter’s true-to-life ending peeved certain audience members, more than enough droves of people binged through it that Netflix went ahead and confirmed Season 2 within the same announcement revealing that Monster is now a full-blown anthology series with two more seasons set for the future. But while it’s clear that Dahmer will be succeeded by stories devoted to other horrifying subjects, it’s not so clear how Murphy & Co. will be tackling what transpired during The Watcher’s first season.
As such, let’s look at the two clear ways a follow-up season could work for The Watcher, and what the best course of action might be however things go.
Season 2 As A Direct Follow-Up To Season 1
First would be the more traditional and seemingly obvious route, where The Watcher Season 2 would directly play off of the storylines and events that were set up in the first season’s seven episodes. Which would be a huge relief to many viewers out there who felt frustrated by the many loose ends that were left unexplained, no doubt. But that would also possibly be in direct contrast to the writers’ purposefully setting up so many different clue-filled elements to go unanswered, since the New Jersey case that the show is based on is still unresolved.
Not that there weren’t plenty of fictionalized details introduced, but those also speak to the idea that there may be too many moving parts going within the neighborhood surrounding 657 Boulevard for a second season to do them all justice. At this point, do we really want to see how far Dean Brannock goes over the edge when it comes to the new owners? Do we really need to see Mia Farrow and Margo Martindale’s characters directly conspiring to terrorize other residents across an entire season in order to feel closure? It wouldn’t be out of the question for an additional episode to pop up with some explanations, but I find it somewhat difficult to picture another seven episodes devoted to these characters.
But would I watch it if that’s what Season 2 ended up being? You bet your never-closing-your-curtains ass I would. I’m 100% into Martindale and Richard Kind’s charismatic antagonism in any capacity, along with the rest of the stellar cast.
Season 2 As An Anthologized Entry About Different Case
On the flip side of the equation, The Watcher Season 2 could take after Monster, American Horror Story, American Crime Story, and other Ryan Murphy shows by becoming an anthology horror-thriller. This would allow for the creative team to latch onto a completely different storyline based potentially on a real-world case (or something completely made up) that also focuses on one or more characters being secretly watched by one or more other characters. I can’t imagine there’s a lack of creepy stories that can be used as launch pads for it, although I can’t argue against the viral nature of The Cut’s original article being a prime reason why Netflix quickly made moves to spin it into a TV show.
From a freshness perspective, focusing Season 2 on another standalone case would obviously be a solid move, and would allow a new ensemble of A-listers to step in and haunt viewers’ dreams for a few nights. And while that would also allow the creative team to set up a whole new string of unexplained suspects and clues, it’s likely that the writers will take note of the feedback from Season 1 to play into what people enjoyed, and stray from what they didn’t. Hopefully, anyway. Poaching more real-world cases obviously presents more opportunities to negatively impact the lives of those who were involved, but things don’t necessarily have to go in such ways, which can also be helped by hindsight.
There’s technically a third option where the guilty party from Season 1 is obsessed with another house, or another family, so that Season 2 would be focusing on newer elements while also still tying back to everything that was already introduced. Which might theoretically be a bigger headache to have even more people involved, but hey, being a threatening voyeur isn’t supposed to be easy.
The Watcher Season 1 is available to stream with a Netflix subscription. While waiting for more info, check out other shows on the same wavelength, and head to our 2022 TV premiere schedule to see what’ll hit the small screen in the near future.
