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The Watchful Eye

The Watchful Eye season 1

Credits

Cast

Network

Reviewer

Kennedy Unthank

TV Series Review

It should be pretty simple—stealing from a rich family when you have easy access to the family residence, that is.

But Elaina’s not looking to steal just any pricey artifact or painting. No, she’s looking for a unique and extremely valuable ruby, rumored to be hidden away somewhere within the Greybourne building. And even though she’s just been hired on as a live-in nanny for Jasper, one of the children who lives inside the place, it won’t be easy.

As it turns out, there’s a lot going on inside the building, and while Elaina’s nannying Jasper, she’s also been hired by another tenant, Mrs. Ivey, to keep an eye and ear out for any…suspicious activities regarding a woman who supposedly committed suicide six months earlier.

“I think my niece, Allie, was pushed off that ledge,” Ivey says. “And only one person came into an eight-figure sum as a result of her death.”

And like the heist, that snooping is going to be easier said than done—for multiple reasons. There’s the fact that the very person Ivey wants her to investigate is Matthew, the father of Jasper. There’s the fact that it seems like no matter where Elaina goes, she feels like someone is watching her every move. And finally, there’s the fact that everything’s starting to point toward a malevolent presence haunting the Greybourne building.

This ruby better be worth it.

Watch Out

The Watchful Eye contains, as you might expect, a whole lot of watching. Elaina’s watching the residents of the building for suspicious activity. The residents of the building are watching one another to make sure their own secrets remain unrevealed. Some sort of supernatural presence seems to be watching everyone inside the building. And we, the viewers, watch all of it go down.

The show is a slow burn, made even slower by its many plots and subplots. In a mere episode, we find Elaina trying to steal a ruby while needing to spy on the residents of her building while simultaneously grappling with the supernatural. With that wide of a net, one of those just might interest you. But packing it all into one show just might bog up the whole concept.

Hulu’s TV-14 thriller might not be quite as unpleasant as some of the other shows the streaming service hosts, but that doesn’t mean that it steers clear of issues whatsoever. Sexual content, drug use, and a few bodies find their way onscreen. Foul language runs through each episode. Supernatural content is likely to become more prominent as the show continues. And, if we’re being honest, the majority of the characters express a sort of passive-aggressive snarkiness that comes off as just plain rude.

The Watchful Eye feels like it doesn’t quite know what type of show it wants to be, and the aforementioned concerns certainly don’t help.

Episode Reviews

Jan. 30, 2023 – S1, Ep1: “Hen in the Fox House”

After Elaina is hired to be Jasper’s nanny in the Greybourne building, she discovers that the building’s residents all seem to harbor secrets.

A woman jumps out of a window and falls to her death. We see her body on the ground, and her nose and mouth are bleeding. An inebriated man attempts to extort Elaina (likely for a sexual favor) when he catches her snooping through a room. Elaina saves Jasper from being hit by a car. A dead body is found at the base of some stairs.

Elaina passionately kisses a shirtless man. She straddles him, and we see her in her bra followed by implied sex. (Nothing more critical is shown.) Two women introduce themselves by their pronouns (“she and her” and “she and they,” respectively).

When hiring a babysitter, Matthew criticizes how many interviews they have remaining. “We’re not picking a pope here!” He exclaims. We hear rumors of a “malevolent spirit” in the basement.

A man smokes a marijuana joint. Elaina is gifted a joint, and she smokes it. People drink alcohol.

The s-word is used four times. We also hear a single use of “a–,” “d-ck” and “b—tard,” respectively. God’s name is abused twice. Someone’s name is Dick, and someone makes a mean-spirited joke about it.

Jan. 30, 2023 – S1, Ep2: “Hide and Seek”

Elaina begins to look into the strange disappearance of the previous nanny.

In a flashback, Elaina is brought into a police station after committing “seven counts of fraud.”

A man makes a sexual innuendo. Elaina kisses a man. She also catches a man and woman kissing, and it’s revealed the woman is married to someone else.

Elaina calls a heavy rain “biblical.” She also catches a glimpse of a ghost in a mirror. A woman says that she believes in auras. We hear disembodied whispers.

We hear more references to smoking marijuana. Elaina asks a friend to urinate in a cup for her so Elaina can pass a drug test she knows she will otherwise fail. People drink alcohol.

The s-word is used once. We hear a single use of “a–,” “d-ck,” “h—” and “p-ss,” respectively. God’s name is abused twice.

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kennedy-unthank
Kennedy Unthank

Kennedy Unthank studied journalism at the University of Missouri. He knew he wanted to write for a living when he won a contest for “best fantasy story” while in the 4th grade. What he didn’t know at the time, however, was that he was the only person to submit a story. Regardless, the seed was planted. Kennedy collects and plays board games in his free time, and he loves to talk about biblical apologetics. He doesn’t think the ending of Lost was “that bad.”

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