MOVIE REVIEW By Lucas Allen: ‘Women in the House etc.’ a reason to stay home and stream

The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window
(Netflix)

By Lucas Allen

The sub-genre of “women in distress” psycho thrillers have been cropping up in film, books and hundreds of original titles from the Lifetime network, which surely retains a large female audience. It was only a matter of time before it fell into parody, and Netflix is the right place to make it happen nearly a year after releasing the long-delayed “The Woman in the Window” last year. In fact, the title of this spoof from Michael Lehmann the director of the ‘80s cult comedy “Heathers” is quite a title-and-a-half that rolls off the tongue. The eight-episode limited series is also co-produced by Will Ferrell, who previously delved into the genre alongside Kristen Wiig for their Lifetime thriller “A Deadly Adoption.”
Divorced and grief-stricken Anna (Kristen Bell) spends her days home alone drowning in wine and reading after the death of her daughter Elizabeth (Appy Pratt) and her husband, Douglas (Michael Ealy), leaving her. Not to mention, she develops a traumatizing fear of rain and becomes a constant target of gossip from her nosey neighbor Carol (Brenda Koo). Her best friend Sloane (Mary Holland) tries to help her out of her funk, but to no avail.
One day, Anna meets a new neighbor named Neil (Tom Riley), who moves in across the street with his daughter Emma (Samsara Yett). A growing friendship makes her start to become whole again. Then she sees a woman, Lisa (Shelley Hennig), murdered in Neil’s house. The police, including Detective Lane (Christina Anthony), don’t believe her because Lisa is out on her job as an airline stewardess. Feeling something’s out of place, Anna conducts her own investigation by looking into Neil’s sketchy past and Lisa’s connection to an Instagram model named Rex (Benjamin Levy Aguilar). The deeper Anna digs, the more revelations come to light.
The long title would’ve suggested this series is a spoof in a traditional sense of “Airplane” or “Hot Shots.” Instead, the parody part is mostly subtle, with background jokes like the different book titles or different quotes on the daughter’s tombstone. The series also nicely takes aim at the many tropes and cliches of the genre, while it’s written as straightforward as those thrillers to give the show a healthy mix. In the end, the show is just as funny as the many titles its spoofing. Of course, it also works for any fan of the endless Lifetime thrillers.
At eight episodes (roughly half hour each), it suffers from inconsistent pacing as well as repeating the same dialogue and jokes that drag some momentum. One might say this could’ve worked more as a two-hour film, condensing it as a basic thriller with sprinkles of parody here and there. It starts off pretty slow in set-up and execution, but then it starts getting juicier around the midway point including an out-of-nowhere sex scene. But then you get to the final episode when the killer is revealed, and it becomes unexpectedly more insane and crazier, and will shock you beyond belief. It makes the finales of those shlocky thrillers look like any day of the week.
Fans of “The Good Place” will be delighted by Bell’s charmingly cute, good girl personality taking a hilarious dark turn. While still a bit funny, she wonderfully throws herself in such over-the-top, dramatic fashion that it looks like she’s really going for all the awards. Ealy only appeared in a few episodes, but he too offers a good performance contrasting well with the other performances.
Lastly, this show ends on another set-up for a possible second season (or sequel) with a surprise appearance from an Oscar-nominated star. Whether or not that will happen, this show will surely entertain fans and non-fans of the genre with its clever spoof and thrilling twists and turns. As a Netflix series, it’s worth binging in one rainy afternoon as well as giving another reason to stay home and stream.
THE SHOW’S RATING: TV-MA (contains substances, violence, language, and nudity)
THE CRITIC’S RATING: 3.25 Stars (Out of Four)