Netflix
I like Kristen Bell, I really do, and I was very much looking forward to her new show on Netflix, The Woman in the House Across the Street From the Girl in the Window. The trailers and pre-release material gave the impression that this was a comedy-mystery series, something Bell is built for after her past work on Veronica Mars. It also gives her the chance to put her voice-over skills on display once again, something she’s done so well on both iterations of Gossip Girl. So it feels like The Woman… has all the necessary ingredients to make it an engaging and fun show.
The eight-episode season focuses on a young woman named Anna. It doesn’t take long to learn a whole lot about Anna within the first episode — her marriage has broken up, her child is dead (with the ridiculously gruesome details revealed later), she is/was a very accomplished artist, she has a fear of rain (connected to her daughter’s death), she cooks one dish (chicken casserole), has an infinite supply of Corning baking dishes, and she has a drinking problem, pouring herself a full bottle into an over-sized wine glass (girl just get a big straw and take it right from the bottle) to imbibe while snuggled up in her favorite chair, reading and staring out the front window at the world passing her by. The arrival of new neighbors, a man with a young daughter, sparks Anna’s interest and she promptly cooks up a casserole as a welcome gift … but it suddenly starts raining as she walks across the street and she drops the dish before collapsing (a recurring motif).
Embarrassed by this ignominious first impression on new neighbor Neil, Anna tries again on a clear night and Anna, Neil and his daughter Emma enjoy a lovely evening of food and laughs, leaving Anna with the impression that perhaps her life is finally looking up as there is a definite spark with Neil. That spark is quickly extinguished when Lisa shows up … Neil’s heretofore unmentioned flight attendant girlfriend. A bit taken aback, Anna still tries to be friends with Emma, who also shows an interest in art, and gifts her a box of markers … which Lisa promptly disposes of because ‘they smell’. Tossing them in the trash unapologetically right in front of Anna only drives her even deeper into her wine stash and Rear Window-type of staring. One night, Anna believes she sees Lisa in the window, her throat apparently slashed, bleeding out and attempting to signal for help. Of course it’s raining so Anna again collapses in the middle of the street before she can help, with a mysterious pair of hands carrying her back to her own sofa.
Neil does not believe Anna’s wild story because he knows Lisa is working on a flight to Seattle. Anna’s concern and accusations are only creating a huge rift between her and Neil, to the point that he forbids Emma from interacting with her. The bitchy neighbor, who is supposed to be Anna’s friend, chalks it all up to Anna shamelessly throwing herself at Neil, and her drinking problem. The call to 911 the night of the supposed murder also did not help Anna’s cause since there was no evidence of a murder. Even after breaking into Neil’s house and not even finding a drop of blood on the floor, Anna is still convinced Lisa is dead, and uncovers a bit more evidence to support her theory. But the question is, is Anna just reaching to prove she isn’t losing her mind because she wants Neil or does she need some serious mental therapy?
Netflix
The Woman in the House Across the Street From the Girl in the Window tries really hard to be a spoof of the type of films you’d see on the Lifetime cable channel. In fact, one of the producers is Will Ferrell, who starred in a Lifetime movie spoof (A Deadly Adoption) that actually aired on the Lifetime network. Unfortunately, it was hard to tell if that was meant to be taken seriously or laughed at and The Woman also suffers the same fate. One of the biggest problems is the running time. Even with eight half-hour episodes, it’s still too long to sustain the gag. But that’s not to say the cast doesn’t try. Hard. Bell is a delight, and her performance as the ‘straight woman’ for the absurdity going on around her would have worked much better if the absurdity going on around her was actually … absurd. Playing these situations completely straight without the slightest wink to the camera doesn’t make it ironic or funny. It’s just a confusing mess that keeps us wondering exactly where we’re supposed to laugh. Bell, as an executive producer, should have recognized that none of the satire was working but between her, Farrell and the six other producers, maybe they all just spent the time laughing at their own jokes but forgot to include the rest of us.
Tom Riley as Neil plays it even straighter than Bell, to the point that he becomes a bit infuriating to handle because of how he treats Anna. And the fact that he doesn’t even mention his girlfriend is unforgivable. One of the more annoying characters is Anna’s friend Sloane, played by Mary Holland. All I could think whenever she was on screen was ‘I guess Sarah Paulson or Kristin Wiig was unavailable.’ Michael Ealy is pretty much wasted, and the rest of the cast just takes things way too seriously. The one bizarre character in the show is Buell, the handyman (Cameron Britton). Buell spends every day working on Anna’s mailbox, either fiddling with the flag or the door. Seriously, every day. For about half of the series, I assumed he was a figment of Anna’s imagination (or a figment of her drinking) because who can work on a mailbox every day without the owner of said mailbox finally putting and end to things and just getting a new mailbox? Turns out he was real because others began to notice and talk to him.
Again, none of this is really funny in any way, and that’s head-scratching coming from writers with credits like Robot Chicken, The Looney Tunes Show, Mike Tyson Mysteries and Nobodies to their credit. It’s like they watched a bunch of Lifetime movies but then forgot to check out movies and TV shows that successfully satirized various genres, like Airplane! for example. Or Mel Brooks’ films from Blazing Saddles to Young Frankenstein to High Anxiety. Those projects were able to focus on a serious genre and make them funny through writing and deadpan performances where everyone was in on the joke. No one on The Woman in the House was in on the joke. And it’s even more sad because director Michael Lehmann is behind one of the most darkly humorous satires of 1980s teen angst films, Heathers. He just really needed to bring that sensibility to The Woman in the House, and the writers needed to inject more humor into the script. Look at that other murder mystery series over on Hulu, Only Murders in the Building, which was infinitely more clever and funny — both in writing and performances — and had what is arguably one of the best episodes of television this year with ‘The Boy in 6B’ which had just a single line of dialogue! Or seek out the indie film Die Mommie Die! which spoofs a film genre – ‘Women’s Pictures’ – with deadpan humor and a cast that is completely in on the joke, balancing camp and seriousness beautifully. That’s what The Woman in the House needed … more camp.
As it stands, it takes itself much too seriously then goes completely batshit crazy at the end (which I at least did not see coming unlike one of the other finale reveals). If it had more of that crazy, it could have been a classic. Sadly it’s just a missed opportunity.
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