Kristen Bell stars in Netflix’s ‘The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window’

Kristen Bell is hard to look at.

Go away fat frau.

Imagine being Amy Adams, Julianne Moore, Gary Oldman. Jennifer Jason Leigh and Hope Davis watching that trailer!

Good to see Lizzie Caplan's husband Tom Riley getting some work, no doubt as the ambiguously evil/handsome English villain/hero.

He played the lead detective in the sub par Dark Heart a few years ago and despite working on murder cases AROUND THE CLOCK he had time to work on his body so it had the definition of an Olympic swimmer.

Hopefully there'll be shirtless scenes in it.

Trailer? They basically showed the whole thing.

I personally can't stand Kristen Bell. Heard she's a major cunt IRL.

I worship at the altar of Veronica Mars. But FFS, please make Bell and her FUG husband go away.

Bell is really try hard.

Kristen Bell has an air of the AnnE Hathaway Syndrome about her.

From the title it’s obviously horror satire — and as long as it’s not made by Keenen Ivory Wayans it might actually be funny.

It's hilarious the show will air on the same platform that paid for that piece of shit, The Woman in the Window.

Anyway, Kirsten finally has a haircut that suits her. Progress!

The Corning Ware casserole was a nice touch.

I guess i should be grateful it's not another Veronica reboot.

The trailer wasn’t funny tho.

Will Tom Riley be shirtless in this?

Spoiler: They all did it.

I liked it, Gary Oldman was underused though.

It would translate to the stage easily, as long as the cast was compelling enough.

R5 i would be too if i was married to Dax.

I assume this is supposed to be satire? It looks so tiresome.

Is this an ‘homage’ to Dead To Me?

I get a "The Flight Attendant" vibe from the trailer. Not just because of the lead's alcoholism issue, but the whole semi Alfred Hitchcock plot.

R19 i was wondering the same thing.

[quote] "‘The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window’"

Please tell me this is satire.

Is it true there's a lot of sex scenes?

How many nude scenes from Tom Riley thus far?

It's a hot mess. It's not funny in the slightest.

R2 The Op is not a frau it is fat though. It is the bald gap toothed 400 pound Rican tard Ewwdwin from Brooklyn. He is the worst and we all loathe him!

She goes in the Bonnie Franklin pigeonhole. Obnoxious bossy perky cross eyed lady who thinks she’s soooo great.

These titles are absurd. Netflix needs to go.

[Quote] These titles are absurd.

It's supposed to be absurd.

So it's The Girl on the Train except in a stationary setting.

Too bad it's not a satire--that title would have been great instead of sad and the whole "drunk/crazy/confused person witnessed a maybe murder" story is ripe for lampooning.

R27 she IS like Bonnie Franklin! Great call!

I knew there was a reason I find her so irksome!

I thought that this was supposed be a parody, but they seem to be playing it straight and I’m not sure what I’m to think of it all. They needlessly shatter a lot of Corelle ware.

Why are they obviously using grape juice as wine, it’s much to thick and clings to the side of the glass. Doesn’t Hollywood have a much better stand in fir faux wine?

Wait, Amy Adams’s Woman in the Window is a Netflix movie to begin with, why would the same streamer develop a TV series that mocks one of their big movies from the year before?

With the title i was somehow expecting a satire. This and the ridiculous gigantic glasses. Then i saw the first episode, which used every Hitchcock reference you could pack in a 29 minute episode (including The Birds) and it seemed to be awful earnest (awful being the operative word). But now, 10 minutes in the second episode, a big reveal about the most ridiculously awful death imaginable i think we are again in parody territory.

[Quote] I thought that this was supposed be a parody, but they seem to be playing it straight and I’m not sure what I’m to think of it all.

Which is what most of the reviews said. Sounds like a mess.

Well, I'll defy gravity and say I LIKE Kristen Bell and this looks good. Bonnie Franklin, not so much.

I was going to ask if you needed to watch the Amy Adams movie to enjoy this one, but it sounds like I should skip it altogether.

I watched it this afternoon while trying to avoid being productive (mission accomplished).

According to a blurb I read, Kristen said the bad acting is deliberate. I think it’s supposed to be spoofing the Lifetime type murder movies. There is a new (usually unrealistic) twist every few minutes. The beginning of the last episode is absurdly hilarious and there is an amazing cameo in the final scene.

I’ve wasted four hours on worse.

I was inspired to read a review by the above, apparently the epitaph on the daughters tombstone changes each time. Once I read it I wasn’t going to again and didn’t notice it’s supposed to be Bart at the blackboard at the start of The Simpsons.

R38 I wouldn’t subject my worse enemy to watch that movie, I’m still contemplating suing to get back the time I spent watching it.

The only good thing is that hot male stripper

R41 so it's worse than Hillbilly Elegy?

R43 Hillbilly at least had coherent editing.

OK, I know what this is now. This is a reboot of Veronica Mars, without the other characters.

It's just pointless. It's neither amusing nor clever.

Why is the stripper fucking her? This makes no sense?

I'm hate watching this. Ep 2 starting. HATE it.

Oh my god, this is awful, even if it adheres to the source material.

Mzssacre Mike!

It's not supposed to be taken seriously. If you watch it understanding that it's spoofing a genre of movies, it become hilarious and for me enjoyable. The beginning of episode 8 alone made the entire run worth it for me. Baby teeth bitch!

I agree, R37. DL has become overrun with people who think hating everything makes them clever or interesting. Then they cry”pointless bitchery”. If you’re going to be a pointless bitch, be witty about it.

I love her.

Her face looks different, her eyes especially. The tell tail new hairstyle is another clue.

Has Amy Adams commented yet?

OK I've stopped hating as we move into Ep 4. Say what you will but the first 2 episodes are dreadfully dull as they set up the story.

I can't believe that some of you couldn't grasp that this was meant to be a parody? Did you fall down and knock yourselves in the head?

That said, from what I've read, although it is meant to be a parody it's nowhere near funny enough to actually be one. I'm really disappointed, something like this done well could have been great. I had it on my list - I don't think I'll bother now, even though I like Kristen Bell, and I've seen the movies it's ripping the piss out of so would likely get all the references.

List? What list?

R56. Calm your tits. The show is poorly written. It can't even make clear it's a parody until a few episodes in.

Another abysmal shitshow from Netflix. No wonder they are hemorrhaging customers to other streaming services right now.

I don't want to spoil but I'd really like to address that upsetting cameo appearance.

It was good for a rainy day binge. It's parody and packs every cliche in. The ridiculous wine glasses, the weird handyman who never seems to get the mailbox fixed despite working on it for years, the daughter's tombstone which has a different epitaph each time it's shown.

It's mocking the frau wine murder stories.

If you have half a brain you can figure out pretty quickly that it's a parody (if the title alone didn't clue you in). I think some people are frustrated because they don't get right away that it is a parody, because the cast is playing it totally straight, instead of like a Leslie Nielsen parody film. That's one of the things I liked most about it. For what it was, I found it to be entertaining. And Kristen Bell was very good in it. Not the greatest television show ever made, but I was entertained enough to want to watch every episode, and the finale made me laugh. Nothing bad about that.

The finale was pretty fucking funny. "You're casseroles taste like SHIT!"

The scene in the AA meeting when a woman tells Kristen it's so hard to talk openly about the death of her brother. Kristen says she understands how painful it must be. Woman: "it's not that. I find it hard to pronounce autoerotic asphyxiation".

Loved their spin on 'take your daughter to work day'.

'

It's a parody/satire but it's not a good one.

They simply didn't do enough.

[quote]because the cast is playing it totally straight, instead of like a Leslie Nielsen parody film.

I feel that was the mistake.

The thing that made those films funny is that they did play them straight most of the time. Nearly everyone's delivery was serious. The characters took themselves seriously.

People weren't necessarily intentionally hamming it up.

It was what you were seeing and what exactly they were saying that made them funny.

It's the "Citizen Kane" of streaming films. Bell is this generations Streep!

When I think of all those wonderful shows, some that got renewed only to then be cancelled, that Netflix dismissed only to make and put up this crap all I can say is the golden age of this streamer has passed and it’s circling the drain even as it adds another subscription bump.

[quote]The thing that made those films funny is that they did play them straight most of the time.

Not a chance. Just because Leslie Neilson didn't deliver every line accompanied by blowing a horn and throwing up jazz hands, his "deadpan" delivery was intentionally NOT straight. Take another look at the clip you embedded. His facial expressions tell all - he is in on the joke and playing it for the audience, and he did it fucking brilliantly. But for this show they took a different approach. The actors performed a serious crime drama and let the sight gags (oversized wine glasses, changing tombstone, etc.) be the "funny man". You may not like it, but I liked the fresh approach and found it at least entertaining enough to be engaged in the story for all episodes.

[quote]Not a chance. Just because Leslie Neilson didn't deliver every line accompanied by blowing a horn and throwing up jazz hands, his "deadpan" delivery was intentionally NOT straight.

Films where they don't "play it straight" are Brain Doners, Robin Hood Men in Tights, My Blue Heaven, Black Sheep, any of the Ernest movies, Scary Movie or any of their ilk. Even in Dracula Dead and Loving It was no one playing it straight.

Frank Drebin was not going to be running around singing, "Fat guy in a little coat." George Kennedy wasn't going to play a priest with a weird accent that asks one of his students to "pull your dress down" so she can flash her boobs. There were no dance sequences where the entire cast sings, "We're manly men in tights!" What they did is a long way from the slapstick you'd find in a film where they weren't playing it straight.

I'm sure the poster at #15 was probably kidding, but I think "they all did it" would have to be my guess right now for that hypothetical season 2.

It’s #1 on Netflix today so someone is enjoying it.

R71 My god, I just saw that and I’m appalled! I don’t think the original film even made it to number one once. Amy Adams has been officially added to the scrap heap, her career is never recovering from this.

In interviews the actors keep talking about how unique this show is. But they're also acknowledging that most people were initially confused as to what genre this was supposed to be.

Just finished watching it. I feel like things only really started to come together in the last two episodes. I did find the prop gags funny and it was nice to see Kristen play someone who isn't snarky. Shelley should play a bitch more often and that cameo in the finale is DL gold.

I browsed a reddit discussion about this and it is absolutely baffling how many posters couldn't grasp that this was a parody.

R75 every fandom is filled with idiots. And reddit is a great example.

It was fine. I wasn't blown away, not did I hate it. I think there were some missed opportunities. That casserole dish should have been dropped more times.

I've started to watch this an I'm enthralled. I'm eagerly awaiting the follow up "The Man Downstairs from the Kids Watching the Video About the Woman Next Door to the Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window Who Doesn't Seem to be Dead."

Kristen Bell is a horrible actress. I don't know if there's a more technical term for this but whatever character she plays, it always just seems like "hey! it's Kristen Bell pretending to be whatever!"

She's always more than her character.

Is it a comedy?

It’s another project like the ones Will Ferrell did a run of a few years ago (in fact he’s a producer) — parody that is barely distinguishable from the real thing. He did a Lifetime movie with Kristen Wiig that was almost exactly like a real Lifetime movie, the sole joke being that it was Ferrell and Wiig doing it instead of some C-list actors. This project isn’t as subtle as that but it still spends a lot of time being a melodrama instead of spoofing one.

R80 - after watching two or so episodes, I came to that conclusion. That didn't help. I think it's a bad comedy.

R79 well she's mainly known for Veronica Mars and Gossip Girl so it checks out.

R80 It's a parody of the genre of thrillers featuring haggard ( not really haggard just Hollywood haggard) , traumatised and or alcoholic women who find themselves drawn into mystery and intrigue. And who may or not be imagining things.

It reminded me of the parody movie Kristen Wiig & Will Ferrell did a while back. This one was funnier though. I laughed out loud at the Take Your Daughter to Work Day, & several of Kristen’s voiceovers.

Kristen said her mother would watch this & not get that it’s a parody, she’d watch it as a literal thriller (as my mother did). She was shocked by the scenes I found funny, & didn’t understand the epitaph changing (she thought she was standing at the wrong headstone). Hearing her take on it made me appreciate it even more!

I watched it all last night. I thought it was hilarious. I'd watch another season. I like Kristen Bell.

R86 are you a white woman by chance?

R86 With a wine drinking habit by chance?

I liked it a lot, especially Kristen Bell's ridiculous phobia about getting caught in the rain.

I can't believe Ombrophobia is a real thing.

Rex is hot

The sex scenes were surprisingly graphic in a Show Zero T&A way. I guess Kristen is trying to show she still has it as a mom in her 40s.

I wish that sex scene had been with Michael Ealy instead.

I appreciated that it was a bit more subtle with the parody -- taking the Lifetime movies and tweaking them just a bit at times. Bell's monologs, the bad acting that was not over the top. The scene where it was revealed of how the daughter died was funny, because even though it was an over-the-top death, they for the most part played it straight.

I thought even the little girl nailed playing the sweet, precocious kid stereotype with just a touch of parody. They also did a good job with some of the supporting characters, the concerned cop, the neighbor who is worried how everything is going to affect her husband's Scott, the male stripper who was panicking about what type of bread to text. The love scene went on a little too long, but did chuckle about all of the inserted shower sex.

A lot of little things that were done as a quick throwaway line and moved on from were funny -- "I probably should have not prescribed..." the quick look at the gravestone with its changing epitaphs (there is no "I" in heaven).

Considering how unappealing she is in her real life I am always impressed with how likable KB can be when she acts.

loved it - was astonished by the lousy reviews some critics gave it - humorless pricks

R96 or it just wasn't their type of humour.

It was so subtle in its parody it nearly wasn’t. I put that down to the writing, not the acting, which was was quite good.

I didn’t realize it is a parody

Had I not laughed through The Woman In The Window in the last week, this would have seemed like a Domestic Thriller that didn’t take itself too seriously, with a wry sense of humour and an even shittier plot than usual.

I liked that despite its frivolity it requires your full attention. Otherwise you'll miss gags (or even the point of the series). I was on the fence for several episodes but the ridiculous sex scene won me over.

The stripper was hot. I remember him from that Kim Cattrel church soap opera from a few years ago. Nice ass on him. Too bad they cut away just as he was turning around.

I wish she'd wound up with the stripper. And Take Your Daughter To Work Day was brilliant.