The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window has caused quite a splash on Netflix. Its title is comically long, which is the point according to the lead actor Kristen Bell. “We’re hoping that the title will tip you to the fact that we are making fun of the genre the entire time,” Bell told Today.
For purposes of this article, we’ll refer to the series as The Woman in the House. Bell stars as the woman in the house, a grieving suburban mom who spends her days drinking bottle after bottle of wine. While looking out the window one day, Anna (Bell) witnesses a murder (or thinks she has).
The Woman in the House isn’t scary, but it has some bloody moments
The Woman in the House is supposed to be a satirical psychological drama. It’s meant to poke fun at the psychological thriller genre that has captivated audiences over the past decade.
The title seems to pay homage to several thrillers, including The Girl on the Train and The Woman in the Window. It’s supposed to prepare you for an eight-episode satirical ride, which the series woefully fails to provide.
From such a spoofy title, we expected the series to dial up the satire only for it to present us with a few laugh-out-loud moments sprinkled through the episodes. The Woman in the House takes itself too seriously for a parody, making the show feel dull.
It invests too much in the mystery rather than the comedy – and to make matters worse, the mystery isn’t exactly memorable or too difficult to decipher.
Since it isn’t a thriller, you don’t get the usual scares and gore synonymous with the genre. However, it has some bloody moments, including a bloody fight in the last episode. It also features stabbing, but it’s not enough to scare you.
The series can get a thumbs up for being suspenseful, but it isn’t dreadful enough to send chills through your spine. If you can make it through a psychological thriller, watching The Woman in the House won’t faze you.
The Woman in the House is neither one thing nor the other. It’s too dreary to be a proper satirical project and too tame to be a thriller.
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