The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window

Main • Kristen Bell as Anna Whitaker, a painter who takes a break from her career to mourn the death of her daughter, and reads books with titles like The Woman Across the Lake and The Girl on the Cruise • Michael Ealy as Douglas Whitaker, Anna's ex-husband who is a forensic psychiatrist and an FBI profiler specializing in serial killers • Shelley Hennig as in dual identity; Lisa and Chastity, whom Anna believes has been murdered • Christina Anthony as Detective Becky Lane • Benjamin Levy Aguilar as Rex, a stripper Additional cast • Appy Pratt as Elizabeth, Anna's eight-year-old daughter who died in 2018 • Brendan Jennings as Massacre Mike, a cannibalistic serial killer who murdered Elizabeth • 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 • Lyndon Smith as Ms. Patrick, Emma's teacher • Michael Hitchcock as Paul M. Riordan, a fingerprint guy at the police station ==Episodes==

Development On October 20, 2020, Netflix and Gloria Sanchez Productions announced a limited series consisting of eight episodes, 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. Before working on the script, Ramras sent a monologue to Elbaum which she had prepared after being inspired with the women-centric books and series of certain genre. Different ideas in the drafts could not be executed for having a comfortable environment during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Ferrell was supervising them online through Zoom conversations. Casting On February 19, 2021, Tom Riley joined the main cast. On March 2, 2021, Mary Holland, Shelley Hennig, Christina Anthony, Samsara Yett, Cameron Britton, and Benjamin Levy Aguilar were cast in starring roles. On November 10, 2021, it was reported Michael Ealy was cast to star as a lead. Glenn Close revealed that she joined the cast on one request only, while the character's background was not decided yet. Yett's parents revealed that they explained her daughter the nature of the show and that she was not yet prepared to watch or understand it, however, they allowed her as a child actress to only follow her scene guidelines. Filming Principal photography took place in Los Angeles between March and May 2021, under the working title The Woman in the House. While filming, hibiscus tea was used in place of red wine. 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. Future Although always intended to be a limited series, it ended on a cliffhanger, a scene where Glenn Close was featured. The series creators discussed different ideas for a potential sequel, and Bell hoped that the murders will keep following her character. ==Release==

On December 8, 2021, the series was given a premiere date of January 28, 2022, with a new title, The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window, and Michael Lehmann was revealed as the director and an executive producer. Bell defended the title when Netflix wanted to shorten it. Described as a satire to the psychological thrillers having "The Woman" and "The Girl" in their titles, the 196-minute-series topped on Netflix in the US between January 30 and February 3. 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. Bell's detective role in the series is also inspired by her previous character Veronica Mars, and she also covered the rhyme "Rain Rain Go Away" for the opening theme. Nami Melumad provided the score, and the album consists of 30 tracks. ==Reception==

Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 49 out of 100 based on 21 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". While Chitra Ramaswamy, of The Guardian criticized the tonal confusion as "ludicrous at best and at worst disturbing", Critics like Ni'Kesia Pannell of TheKitchn and Micah Yip of CBR were left puzzled with many sequences in the storyline. Brian Lowry of CNN called it "enjoyable" but "not enough to generate much enthusiasm". Kristen Lopez of IndieWire commented that the series presents little that is not found in the "countless movies that already litter Netflix about women solving crimes". The series received praise for creating the curiosity of its suspense from critics like Proma Khosla of Mashable, and Cassandra Clarke of CBR. At the 48th People's Choice Awards, the series was nominated under The Comedy Show of 2022, and Bell had two nominations, namely The Female Star and The Comedy TV Star. ==Notes==