The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window
Poster featuring Kristen Bell as Anna looking through a rainy window, holding a glass of wine filled to the brim, with caption "When it rains, she pours."
Promotional release poster.
Genre
Created by
Directed byMichael Lehmann
Starring
Music byNami Melumad
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of episodes8
Production
Executive producers
  • Rachel Ramras
  • Hugh Davidson
  • Larry Dorf
  • Kristen Bell
  • Will Ferrell
  • Jessica Elbaum
  • Brittney Segal
  • Michael Lehmann
ProducerDanielle Weinstock
CinematographyJohn W. Lindley
Editors
  • Tara Timpone
  • Jennifer Van Goethem
  • Stephanie Willis
Running time22–29 minutes
Production companies
Original release
NetworkNetflix
ReleaseJanuary 28, 2022 (2022-01-28)

The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window is an American dark comedy streaming television miniseries created by Rachel Ramras, Hugh Davidson, and Larry Dorf for Netflix. Actors Kristen Bell, Michael Ealy, Tom Riley, Mary Holland, Cameron Britton, Shelley Hennig, and Samsara Yett star in the series, which has elements of thrillers, but is primarily a parody of mystery psychological thrillers. The eight-episode series runs less than four hours and was released on January 28, 2022, on Netflix. It received mixed reviews from critics, while Bell's performance was praised.

Between January 23, 2022, to February 20, 2022, the show was watched for 133.62 million hours on Netflix globally.[1]

Premise

A heartbroken woman named Anna (Kristen Bell) is unsure of whether or not she witnessed a murder. She mixes alcohol with medications prescribed by her therapist, has frequent hallucinations, and suffers from a crippling fear of the rain (ombrophobia). Anna is ostracized by members of her community, including her new neighbors, and labeled "crazy" by the police. Regardless of whether or not she saw a murder take place, Anna takes it upon herself to find the truth.[2]

Cast and characters

Main

Recurring

Additional cast include: Appy Pratt as Elizabeth, Anna's 8-year-old daughter who died in 2018, Brendan Jennings as Massacre Mike, a cannibalistic serial killer who murdered Elizabeth,[6][13] Janina Gavankar as Meredith, Neil's wife who died a few months before he moved in across from Anna, Nitya Vidyasagar as Hillary, Meredith's sister, Nicole Pulliam as Claire, Douglas's coworker, and Lyndon Smith as Ms. Patrick, the murdered teacher.[15][18] The final episode features cameo appearances by Jim Rash as a flight attendant and Glenn Close as a businesswoman on the flight.[19]

Episodes

No.TitleDirected byWritten byOriginal release date
1"Episode 1"Michael LehmannRachel Ramras & Hugh Davidson & Larry DorfJanuary 28, 2022 (2022-01-28)
Anna, a divorced woman in Canterbury Hill, hears strange voices in her house coming from the attic, making her believe in the existence of monsters. She often breaks chicken casserole dishes which she prepares, and passes out drunk on her sofa. One morning, from her window, she sees her handsome new neighbor, Neil, taking his daughter Emma to school. As Anna hallucinates the existence of her dead daughter, Elizabeth, she goes to school herself intending to drop Elizabeth there. She stands up a blind date arranged for her by her neighbor, Carol, and visits Elizabeth's grave to talk about her new neighbors, where the headstone reads, "If love could have saved you, you would have lived forever". The next day Emma sells some chocolates to Anna. Neil helps Anna after she faints, and finds out that she has an irrational fear of rain. Afterwards, she hallucinates having sex with him. The next day she grows close to them when they offer her dinner.
2"Episode 2"Michael LehmannRachel Ramras & Hugh Davidson & Larry DorfJanuary 28, 2022 (2022-01-28)
Anna is surprised and upset when she sees Neil's girlfriend, Lisa. On the telephone, Anna's therapist urges her to stop taking pills with wine, but Anna ignores this advice. She reveals that her then-husband, Douglas, took their daughter Elizabeth to an investigation in a prison, where Elizabeth was murdered and eaten by a prisoner. Anna's friend Sloane suggests that Anna should start painting again for Sloane's art gallery. Anna tries to paint but rips the painting with her palette knife. She overhears Carol talking about Anna's addictions and scares her with the knife. Anna feels upset and visits Elizabeth's grave—the headstone now reads, "In Heaven you can dance like no one's watching". She starts stalking Lisa on Instagram. She believes that Lisa has been cheating on Neil with a man named Rex, and connects with Rex on Instagram. Looking through her window, Anna witnesses Lisa being murdered in Neil's house. She tries to rush to Lisa's aid, but faints in the rain.
3"Episode 3"Michael LehmannRachel Ramras & Hugh Davidson & Larry DorfJanuary 28, 2022 (2022-01-28)
Detective Lane responds to Anna's 911 call and tells her that there is no evidence of a murder. Determined to solve the mystery herself, Anna breaks into Neil's house, where she finds one of Lisa's earrings. Neil discovers Anna and orders her to stay away. He claims that Lisa, a stewardess, has left for Seattle, and he shows Anna Lisa's texts. Despite Neil's awareness of Anna's drinking and hallucination problems, Emma sells chocolates to Anna. Anna joins a support group at Sloane's suggestion. She finds out at the airport that Lisa's airline does not fly to Seattle and reports her findings to Lane, who does not believe her. Lane reveals that she had been a junior detective investigating "Massacre Mike", the prisoner accused of killing and eating people. Lane regrets not killing him at the time, before Elizabeth became his victim. Anna receives a death threat, "Stop or UR next". While continuing to be suspicious about Neil, she uses Douglas's FBI credentials to request profiles of Lisa and Rex.
4"Episode 4"Michael LehmannRachel Ramras & Hugh Davidson & Larry DorfJanuary 28, 2022 (2022-01-28)
Anna examines Neil's past, learns that he was a suspect in the drowning of his wife Meredith, and visits Meredith's sister, Hillary. She also learns that Emma's teacher, Ms. Patrick, died while on a school field trip to a lighthouse, 12 days after Meredith's funeral. Anna visits the school and the lighthouse and finds out that Neil was a chaperone on the trip, which reinforces her suspicions. Upon returning, Anna sees a babysitter at Neil's house and Neil leaving with a large bag. Believing that the bag contains Lisa's body, she follows him. Neil catches her, explains that he is a ventriloquist and asks that she keep it a secret. When she returns home she gets a call from the FBI with information about Rex, who then suddenly appears at her house.
5"Episode 5"Michael LehmannRachel Ramras & Hugh Davidson & Larry DorfJanuary 28, 2022 (2022-01-28)
Rex threatens Anna and forces her to text her husband to run an errand to delay his arrival. Anna wants an explanation from Rex, who reveals that Lisa, whom he knows as Chastity, was a bartender at the club where he worked as a stripper. Chastity recruited Rex into a plan to defraud wealthy men, and Neil, a wealthy widower, was their latest target. Rex tried to back off when he learned that Neil has a daughter, but Chastity threatened to blame Rex for the plan. She abruptly cut off contact, making him suspect that Anna was involved. Neil gets a restraining order against Anna and Douglas arrives worried about her. Anna does not tell them about Rex and sees a woman in Douglas's car. After Anna tells Rex that she is divorced, the two feel sympathy for each other and have sex. Meanwhile, Chastity's body has been found in pieces.
6"Episode 6"Michael LehmannRachel Ramras & Hugh Davidson & Larry DorfJanuary 28, 2022 (2022-01-28)
The next morning the police arrest Rex for Chastity's murder. He insists on his innocence but Lane plays Anna a wiretapped recording in which Rex threatens to kill Chastity. Horrified, Anna tries to turn over a new leaf and gets rid of all of her wine and pills. She enjoys a manicure-pedicure with Sloane, who is being considered for a job at an art gallery in SoHo. Anna applies a dressing to an injured Buell's wound, then visits Elizabeth's grave on her birthday, where the stone now reads "There is no 'I' in Heaven". There, she finds a birthday card from Douglas and meets Neil and Emma, who have just attended Chastity's funeral. Back at home, Anna starts to paint but is interrupted by Lane, who tells her that Rex has been released after the police found the murder weapon - a palette knife identical to Anna's. The police search the house and find a portrait of Anna, Emma, and Neil labeled "The Perfect Family", which Anna does not remember painting, and Anna is arrested.
7"Episode 7"Michael LehmannRachel Ramras & Hugh Davidson & Larry DorfJanuary 28, 2022 (2022-01-28)
At the jail, Lane interrogates Anna, who has no memory of killing Chastity. Anna shares her history as a starving artist who found success after painting her dog as Mona Lisa and began painting other people's dogs into masterpieces. During her pregnancy, while she was confined to bed rest for three months, Douglas hired Buell to build a custom easel for her, and she started painting flower bouquets. After Anna's fingerprints are matched with those on the palette knife, she hallucinates stabbing Lisa and dreams of Douglas's second marriage to the woman she saw earlier with Douglas. The next day, Sloane pays Anna's bail with a $500,000 loan. Neil demands of Anna that she stay away. Anna calls her therapist, who is revealed to be Douglas. In her attic she discovers a ripped painting of Chastity and a whole living area; she realizes that Buell, who has been living there, could have murdered Chastity. From the window, Anna sees Buell, carrying a claw hammer and moving towards Neil's house.
8"Episode 8"Michael LehmannRachel Ramras & Hugh Davidson & Larry DorfJanuary 28, 2022 (2022-01-28)
Rushing after Buell to save Emma, Anna struggles with her fear in the rain. She unexpectedly finds a severely wounded Buell and Neil dead, murdered by Emma, the true mastermind. Anna now becomes Emma's target as Emma reveals that she stabbed her father because she disliked his ventriloquism. She stabbed Lisa for not buying chocolates from her, and framed Anna. She also killed her pregnant mother because she did not want a sibling, and her teacher, whom she disliked. After a bloody fight, Anna kills Emma in self-defense and Douglas arrives. At the hospital, Lane and Carol apologize to Anna for not believing her. Days later, Anna allows Buell, who survived, to continue living in her attic. Sloane hosts a successful exhibition and receives a job offer in New York. Douglas and Anna are reconciled in the rain, as he buys her painting. One year later, Anna, who has a newborn daughter with Douglas, takes a flight to New York to visit Sloane. She finds an apparently dead woman on the flight; the steward claims there has been no one as the body vanishes, leaving Anna to delve into another mystery.

Production

Development

On October 20, 2020, Netflix gave the production a limited series order consisting of eight episodes.[2] The miniseries is created by Rachel Ramras, Hugh Davidson, and Larry Dorf and executive produced by Kristen Bell (who also stars), Will Ferrell, Jessica Elbaum, and Brittney Segal. Gloria Sanchez Productions is involved with producing the miniseries.[20][21] The creators had to cancel different ideas in their drafts for getting a comfortable shoot during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Ferrell was supervising them online through Zoom conversations.[22]

Casting

On February 19, 2021, Tom Riley joined the main cast.[23] On March 2, 2021, Mary Holland, Shelley Hennig, Christina Anthony, Samsara Yett, Cameron Britton, and Benjamin Levy Aguilar were cast in starring roles.[24] On November 10, 2021, it was reported Michael Ealy was cast to star as a lead.[25] Glenn Close revealed that she joined the cast on one request only, while the character's background was not decided yet.[26]

Filming

Principal photography took place in Los Angeles between March and May 2021.[18][27][28][29][better source needed]

While filming, hibiscus tea was used in place of red wine.[7] Bell and Ealy had a five-minute dance sequence which was cut from the release. Bell and Yett filmed much of their fight scene themselves, but they did rely on stunt doubles for certain scenes. The rain sequences required Bell to act in 50 °F (10 °C) temperature. While Bell said she has no idea about a sequel after the cliffhanger, the creators however, hinted that they are discussing for a possible sequel when they were asked about the casting of Close.[30][31][32][33][34]

The series draws inspiration from A. J. Finn's The Woman in the Window, Paula Hawkins's The Girl on the Train, Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca, Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window, and Gillian Flynn's Sharp Objects.[35][36] Bell's detective role in the series is also inspired by her previous character Veronica Mars,[37] and she also covered the rhyme "Rain Rain Go Away" for the opening theme.[38][39]

Release

On December 8, 2021, the series was given a premiere date of January 28, 2022, and a new title: The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window.[40] Bell revealed that she defended the title when Netflix wanted to shorten it.[10][41] After it released, it topped on Netflix in the US, between January 30 and February 3.[42][43]

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 54% of 57 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.9/10. The website's consensus reads: "If this sendup of literary potboilers suffers from being as glacially paced as its own whopper of a title, at least Kristen Bell makes for delightfully deadpan company."[44] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 49 out of 100 based on 21 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[45] Chitra Ramaswamy, writing for The Guardian, gave the series two stars out of a possible five, criticizing the tonal confusion as "ludicrous at best and at worst disturbing" and summarizing it as "not amusing, just awful".[46]

References

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