Photo by Waldemar Mad on Unsplash
It seems like satirizing popular movie tropes is the new big thing. Knives Out saw huge success subverting the typical whodunnit mystery, while The Afterparty on Apple TV+ parodies the same genre in a comedy. But Netflix’s The Woman In The House Across The Street From The Girl In The Window genuinely homages the concept, and totally succeeds! Now, I know that the title is such a mouthful that a wine break is required after each mention. But the show itself is incredibly compelling and riveting from start to finish. Even if it doesn’t always make sense. But I also wonder if that was kind of the point? So let’s grab our own entire bottle of a California red and dig into my review of The Woman In The House Across The Street From The Girl In The Window.
Going forward, I’ll refer to the new Netflix original as ‘The Woman In The House’, to save time.
The New Netflix Original Satirizes The Mystery Novel Trend
While Knives Out and The Afterparty play with a specific genre of storytelling, the Agatha Christie murder mystery like Death On The Nile, The Woman In The House digs a little deeper. The show homages the more popular and modern-day mystery stories like The Girl On The Train or The Woman In The Window. But the new show puts a more genuine spin on it with a compelling story that is just a whole lot of fun to watch. Sure, there’s some satire and parody with some things that don’t make a lot of sense. And it’s also kind of the fun of the show, seeing characters reference it.
Kristen Bell Is ‘The Woman’ In The New Netflix Series
After a traumatic loss, Anna (Kristen Bell) finds herself divorced, alone and in an empty house unable to move on from her grief. With nothing but a plethora of wine bottles to keep her company, Anna starts losing it. When a handsome widower (Tom Riley) moves in, Anna finds hope for a new life. These hopes don’t last long when his catty girlfriend (Shelley Hennig) seems to get in the way. But after witnessing her murder, Anna’s life gets super complicated, as she questions her own grasp on reality.
The Woman In The House is an exciting and bingable series that will absolutely have you guessing who done it all the way until the end. And the reveal is incredibly surprising, even for a cynic like me. The show sets up Anna as an unreliable narrator from the jump, and the rest of the series is a wild ride of suspense, questions and constantly second-guessing; for Anna as well as the audience. Some aspects of the show are still eyebrow-raisingly suspect, like that absolutely bonkers ending that still has me screaming. But by the end, the journey is worth the watch.
The Woman In The House Across From The Street From The Girl In The Window is now streaming on Netflix.
What did you think of this new series? Let me know in the comments below. And make sure you share your theories about what happens in the mind-boggling ending!
Featured image via Netflix.