diff --git a/watch/watch.py b/watch/watch.py
index bdf24f1a..79b2358d 100644
--- a/watch/watch.py
+++ b/watch/watch.py
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@
 from kubernetes import client
 
 PYDOC_RETURN_LABEL = ":return:"
+PYDOC_FOLLOW_PARAM = ":param bool follow:"
 
 # Removing this suffix from return type name should give us event's object
 # type. e.g., if list_namespaces() returns "NamespaceList" type,
@@ -65,7 +66,7 @@ def __init__(self, return_type=None):
         self._raw_return_type = return_type
         self._stop = False
         self._api_client = client.ApiClient()
-        self.resource_version = 0
+        self.resource_version = None
 
     def stop(self):
         self._stop = True
@@ -78,8 +79,17 @@ def get_return_type(self, func):
             return return_type[:-len(TYPE_LIST_SUFFIX)]
         return return_type
 
+    def get_watch_argument_name(self, func):
+        if PYDOC_FOLLOW_PARAM in pydoc.getdoc(func):
+            return 'follow'
+        else:
+            return 'watch'
+
     def unmarshal_event(self, data, return_type):
-        js = json.loads(data)
+        try:
+            js = json.loads(data)
+        except ValueError:
+            return data
         js['raw_object'] = js['object']
         if return_type:
             obj = SimpleNamespace(data=json.dumps(js['raw_object']))
@@ -122,7 +132,7 @@ def stream(self, func, *args, **kwargs):
 
         self._stop = False
         return_type = self.get_return_type(func)
-        kwargs['watch'] = True
+        kwargs[self.get_watch_argument_name(func)] = True
         kwargs['_preload_content'] = False
         if 'resource_version' in kwargs:
             self.resource_version = kwargs['resource_version']
@@ -136,9 +146,12 @@ def stream(self, func, *args, **kwargs):
                     if self._stop:
                         break
             finally:
-                kwargs['resource_version'] = self.resource_version
                 resp.close()
                 resp.release_conn()
+                if self.resource_version is not None:
+                    kwargs['resource_version'] = self.resource_version
+                else:
+                    break
 
             if timeouts or self._stop:
                 break