The Woman In The House Across The Street From The Girl In The Window || Review

3 years ago

A bereaved woman witnesses a murder across the street but no one would believe her because of the effect of her past trauma and the fact that she always has a full wine glass. Kristen Bell stars in this limited Netflix series created by Hugh Davidson, Larry Dorf, and Rachel Ramras. It's an 8 episode long crime mystery and a parody of other movies/tv shows in the same sub-genre.

Netflix

The Plot

Kristen Bell plays Anna, a woman who lost her daughter in an unfortunate incident and has since not recovered from the trauma. She suggested her psychiatrist husband takes their daughter to work on a "Take your child to work day" and while at work, he leaves his daughter unattended with a psychotic killer patient and it doesn't end well.

Coupled with a divorce after their daughter's death, Anna isn't doing well as she struggles with ombrophobia (fear of rain), a wild imagination and a constantly full glass of wine. Her life suddenly becomes interesting when a new neighbor moves into the house across the street.

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Anna befriends the man and his daughter just before she finds out he has a girlfriend but she doesn't stop obsessing about the man across the street and watches him closely from her window. In one of her many watches, she sees the girlfriend die from a stabbed neck and she calls the police but they don't believe her.

Determined to prove everyone wrong that she's not crazy or imagining things, she sets out on her own to figure out the murderer. With a trail of suspects, she comes up with different theories as to who the killer must have been and doubts her sanity when she's added to the list of suspects.

My Thoughts

I cackled the first time I saw the title 'The Woman In The House Across The Street From The Girl In The Window'. It was funny and sparked my interest and I wasn't disappointed. I've been a fan of Kristen Bell since watching 'The Good Place' so when I noticed a number of weird things happening in this series, I wasn't surprised, it's a Kristen Bell classic.

Not only did the title have me cackling loud, but the cover image also did. Like, who has a huge glass that full? Throughout the show, her glass was always full too and it was just funny. The title started making sense to me about three episodes in and I realized I was watching a satire. The show was essentially mimicking crime-drama movies and shows of a similar plot.

It gave me 'The Girl On The Train' vibes and a whole bunch of other crime-mystery movies while making me laugh. For a parody though, I think it should have been less serious. It doesn't hit it as exactly comedy but it was a darn good show.

The cast was great, Kristen Bell is an obvious favorite so forgive me if this comes off as a bias. The way she kept breaking her casserole bowls over and over was hilarious and I wondered how many more she had. She did dumb things like sleeping with a supposed killer but that's just one of the funny parts of the story.

Who leaves their child in the same room with a notorious man-eater by the way? It was crazy hilarious watching them talk about it with a straight face. There was also the handyman who fixed the mailbox throughout the show, I kept wondering when he'd be done with the damn box, typical crime-drama style.

The fight at the end was just silly and impossible, exactly how horror movies end with a silly fight that makes no sense. The movie ends in a cliffhanger and I would be interested in a sequel if there was any although I don't think it's necessary.

The production was great, it had the dark, eerie vibes of a mystery crime-drama and I liked all of the detailing as the story progressed. I think it would have been better as a film but I liked that each episode lasted only 25 minutes on average making it less of a chore to watch.

I'd rate this 8/10. It was a fun watch.

Have you seen it yet? What do you think?