The Woman in the House: A psychological satire

Kristen Bell’s new Netflix satire, The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window, is an eight-episode limited series that can be just as eccentric as its name. Although the series takes most of its inspiration from the film, The Woman in the Window, it does not hold back in poking fun at psychological thrillers in general.

The show starts with Anna, who loves her bottles of wine just as much as her many casseroles. Anna is still reeling from the devastating loss of her daughter and is struggling with a fear of the rain.

The satire portrays Anna following a similar path as the film’s protagonist, as she watches her neighbor through the window. However, Anna is horrified when she witnesses her neighbor’s girlfriend, Lisa, being murdered in the house across the street. Quickly calling the police, Anna frantically explains the situation. But, Anna is in for a rude awakening when the officers tell Anna there was never a murder, and Lisa continues her work as a flight attendant.

At this point, the plot is pushed forward as Anna is determined to prove that Lisa had been killed. The Woman in the House remains a satire of the psychological thriller genre to the end, but it is not a parody for parody’s sake.

The series balances its dark comedic moments with a genuine mystery and intriguing characters. It also uses the trope of a questionable narrator as Anna has been hallucinating before the murder occurs. The show even questions Anna’s memory at times, suggesting that there are events that she can not recall. However, Anna never backs down from searching for answers for long, as she knows what she saw had happened.

When no one else takes Anna seriously, it is up to her to follow the clues that eventually lead to discovering the truth of what happened that night.

The Woman in the House is a drastically different tone than The Woman in the Window, which it needs to be for its more bizarre jokes to land. Still, although it may be intriguing to see how a satire tackled The Woman in the Window’s storyline, The Woman in the House could act as a stand-alone show, as its satirical plots and dialogue could apply to plenty of psychological thrillers.