REVIEW: ‘The Woman in the House Across the Street From the Girl in the Window’ Nails it

The white woman thriller genre is large. This includes Woman in the Window, The Girl on the Train, and all of the “girls” doing things and becoming obsessed voyeurs watching a crime.  Netflix’s The Woman in the House Across the Street From the Girl in the Window is acutely aware of all the girls in all the windows, and the small details make them so entertaining and so absurd. A dark comedy that radiates wine mom energy, this satirical look at white woman thrillers dives headfirst into making you laugh and somehow mapping out exactly how things would actually happen with the nosy attractive neighbor who has no idea of how to actually investigate things without becoming obsessed.

The Woman in the House Across the Street From the Girl in the Window stars Kristen Bell as Anna, a grief-stricken mother who resigned herself to a simple routine: pouring a glass of red wine to the brim and watching the world through her window. Curled up in her armchair, wine mom drunk, and of course medicated, her life changes when a handsome neighbor (Tom Riley) and his adorable daughter (Samsara Yett) move in across the street. Anna starts to see the light at the end of the tunnel as she gets close to the family across the street, but when she witnesses a gruesome murder, her newfound excitement becomes dangerous. Or did she just hallucinate a crime through her window to make her life better?

Across 10 episodes, The Woman in the House Across the Street From the Girl in the Window is an astute satire that embodies every bit of the genre it’s based on down to small details, exaggerating them to make them even more absurd. People popping out of nowhere, twists and misdirections happening at every turn in the story, and of course, the internet sleuthing that involves finstas and assumptions, that spiral and spiral.

The most comedic thing about the series is how it plays out. Everything, including Anna’s final confrontation in the finale, is hilarious. But the most important element is the sincerity with which every line is delivered and every plot point executed. Every episode is aware of exactly what trope is being highlighted to satirize. This makes The Woman in the House Across the Street From the Girl in the Window thoroughly entertaining. Instead of raking over the same thing over and over, the series works to pull everything we know from the genre into different moments and make them something entirely funny.

But even outside the humor, The Woman in the House Across the Street From the Girl in the Window manages to capture a mystery that you can’t help but want to solve. In fact, there is an added push to stay with the growing mystery as we see Anna fumble through her detective work. She says things out loud when she shouldn’t she can’t help but be suspicious, and of course, she misses the biggest clues because she’s focused on the attractive men around her.

The Woman in the House Across the Street From the Girl in the Window is something special and absurd, and Bell brings her best self to the role – which is, well, bringing the wine mom energy we need into 2022.

The Woman in the House Across the Street From the Girl in the Window is streaming exclusively on Netflix January 26, 2022.