The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window is a comedic 2022 Netflix miniseries which parodies psychological thrillers such as The Girl on the Train and The Woman in the Window. It is about a woman named Anna Whitaker (Kristen Bell), who is still grieving the death of her young daughter three years ago and the subsequent breakup of her marriage to Douglas (Michael Ealy). Anna soon becomes obsessed with her new Tall, Dark, and Handsome neighbor, widower Neil (Tom Riley). After she witnesses a murder in Neil's house, she decides to investigate it, in spite of the fact that she doesn't know if the murder was real or not.
Tropes:
- Absurd Phobia: Anna is afraid of the rain. Justified, as it was raining the day her daughter Elizabeth died. While Anna think it's stupid, her therapist states it's okay to be afraid of something that reminds her of a traumatic memory.
- Abusive Parents: Buell alludes to having had a difficult relationship with his parents.
- Affably Evil: Buell, turns out, murdered his family with a claw hammer, but was found criminally insane and ultimately rehabilitated. The sudden reveal of his crime and that he had been sleeping in her attic leads her to believe that he's the murderer, but he turns out to have reformed.
- Affectionate Parody: Of psychological thrillers in general, and of The Woman in the Window and The Girl on the Train in particular.
- The Alcoholic: Parodied. As to be expected with a parody of The Girl on the Train, Anna drinks a lot. She even fills her wine glass up to the very top.
- Apologizes a Lot: Anna's friend Sloane is constantly apologising for turning up to her house uninvited, despite the fact that she's an Only Sane Woman who's genuinely checking in on a friend going through a rough time. She also continues to show up uninvited all the time, of course.
- Asshole Victim: Lisa Meines is a mild example. She is at best rude towards Anna, throwing away the markers she gave to Emma, and is cheating on and scamming Nick.
- Babies Ever After: When Douglas and Anna live happily ever after in the epilogue, they have another baby girl.
- Bait-and-Switch: At the end, in the plane, the stewart asked Anna if she wants wine to which she replies modestly that 'she don't drink wine anymore', implying a new found sobriety... and then proceed to ask for a vodka instead.
- Black Bra and Panties: Both in fantasy and real life, whenever Anna is shown undressed, she's wearing a black combination like this.
- Black Comedy: Much of the humor in the show is pitch black, especially regarding the death of Anna's daughter.
- Blood from the Mouth: Emma spits blood all over Anna after being punched in the face, despite the fact that the punch didn't injure her.
- The Cameo:
- Jim Rash plays the flight attendant at the end.
- Michael Hitchcock plays the chatty forensic scientist.
- Captain Obvious Reveal: In-universe. The fact that Anna's daughter is Dead All Along is revealed in the first fifteen minutes, having been heavily implied, rather than being held off until a more dramatic moment as it is in some of the works being parodied.
- Cathartic Scream: Anna randomly screams after being released from prison for Chastity's murder.
- Chekhov's Gag: Anna repeatedly drops and breaks the pots she makes her casseroles in. This comes in handy when she has to defend herself against Emma.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Rex disappears from the narrative completely after he's wrongfully arrested for Lisa/Chastity's murder. Despite having recently joined forces with Anna on the investigation and the fact that the two had become romantically involved, neither he nor Anna never attempts to contact one another again once he's proven innocent and released. Given the nature of the series, this is likely deliberately odd, though granted, he may have fled the country or just been laying low to avoid arrest for his and Lisa's scam.
- The Comically Serious: The show as a whole. Like Airplane!, there is no dearth of ridiculous things, yet all the actors are playing it wholly straight, as the seriousness helps enhance the parody.
- Convenient Photograph: A recurring staple.
- Anna figures out where Meredith's sister lives because she Instagrammed a picture of People magazine, with her address in plain view.
- Anna finds out that Neil was chaperoning the field trip because she finds a picture of him and Emma at the lighthouse.
- Cute and Psycho: Emma may be an adorable young girl, but she's also a psychopath who murders people over small things.
- Dark and Troubled Past: The flashback shows Anna's Backstory of why she became an alcoholic, a divorced woman and ombrophobic. Her then husband Douglas brought their daughter Elizabeth to his investigation on a rainy Take Your Child to Work Day. He then accidentally left Elizabeth in a cell with a cannibal serial killer named Massacre Mike, where she was killed and eaten.
- Dashing Hispanic: Rex is a hot-blooded Mr. Fanservice, scammer, and stripper who is introduced attacking Anna.
- Dead All Along: Anna's daughter is revealed to have died after she briefly pretends that she's still alive.
- Death by Cameo: An uncredited Glenn Close plays the murder victim on the plane in the final episode.
- Death of a Child:
- Anna's daughter Elizabeth was brutally murdered and devoured by a cannibal.
- Anna kills the nine years old Emma in self defense. Granted given that Emma is a psycopathic brat, this hardly counts as a tragedy.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Emma is responsible for murdering Lisa (whose real name is Chastity). Her reason for killing Lisa? Because Lisa refused to buy chocolates for Emma's business. Not to mention that she murdered her own pregnant mother just because she doesn't want a sibling, and then killed her father because she thought his ventriloquist act was stupid.
- Divorce Is Temporary: The series ends with Anna and her ex-husband, Douglas, reconciling after Neil and Emma's deaths.
- The Dog Was the Mastermind: Double Subverted. It first appears that local handyman Buell killed Lisa and framed Anna by stealing her palette brush. As she sees Buell approach the Colemans' house, she braves her fear of the rain to rush by and stop him, only to find him seriously injured. Hearing Emma scream, she rushes to save her, only to find that she's standing over Neil's dead body.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: Neil is suddenly and abruptly Killed Offscreen because Emma thought he was a terrible ventriloquist. It also seems that this happened to Buell, but he's Not Quite Dead.
- Dull Surprise: How Buell reacts to everything from a dead raccoon to finding a nail in his hand.
- Enfant Terrible: 9 year old Emma turns out to be a mass murderer who killed her pregnant mother, her teacher, her father's girlfriend, and her father. She also turns out to be cruel in general.
- Eternal Employee: Exaggerated. Buell constantly does "handyman" work on the street — and he's always shown fixing Anna's mailbox.
- Evil Brit: Subverted. Despite justifiably being somewhat of a jerk towards Anna, Neil was Good All Along.
- Evil Is Petty: The murder reasons all enter this - see Disproportionate Retribution, above.
- Faint in Shock: Parodied again. Anna tends to faint and/or collapse when in stressful situations, especially when it starts raining.
- Fauxlosophic Narration: Parodied with Anna's infrequent monologues.To get to the bottom of something, sometimes you have to remind yourself that if you don't risk anything, you risk everything. And the biggest risk you can take is to risk nothing. And if you risk nothing, what you're really doing is risking not getting to the bottom of something. And if you don't get to the bottom of something, you risk everything.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: The saying on Anna's daughter's gravestone changes every time it's shown.
- Good All Along: Neil, as it turns out, was just a loving father who wasn't even aware of his daughter's crimes.
- Grief-Induced Split: Anna and Douglas split up after their daughter Elizabeth is kidnapped and eaten by a murderous cannibal in a prison where Douglas is working.
- Here We Go Again!: The series ends with Anna witnessing another mysterious murder, this time on a plane.
- Hope Spot: After Rex's arrest, life seems to be on the uptick for Anna for once as she quit her drinking and drugs and even begins to make up with Neil. Then she's arrested.
- Imagine Spot: Anna fantasizes about having sex with Neil. When she suspects him of murder, she imagines him killing his wife and Anna's teacher. Finally, she dreams about her ex-husband Douglas breaking her out of jail, only to wind up at his wedding to another woman.
- I'm a Humanitarian: Massacre Mike is a serial killer who eats people including Anna's daughter Elizabeth.
- Improvised Weapon: In the final fight, Emma hits and chokes Anna with a fire poker and knocks her out with her casserole pot. Anna then uses a shard from the broken pot to stab Emma in the chest.
- Insane Equals Violent: Teased by Anna's instability and pill-popping and the fact that Buell was a recovered psych patient who murdered his whole family with a hammer. However, both are innocent.
- Ironic Name: Lisa's real name is Chastity, and she's a compulsive scammer who worked in a strip club.
- Killing in Self-Defense: Emma's attempt at a Self-Defense Ruse backfires on her when Anna fights back and stabs Emma to death... in self-defense of course.
- Little Miss Badass: Parodied and played for horror. Emma is terrifyingly intelligent for her age, setting up a cunning trap to kill her pregnant mother. She also dominates her fight with Anna in the end.
- Motive Decay: Zigzagged in a deliberately silly way. While Emma's violence is constantly disproportionate, she at least has a reason to kill her mother (her mother was pregnant and she didn't want a sibling). She also had a tenuous but still present reason for killing Charity (because Charity refused to buy from her). There's never a motive given for why Emma would kill her teacher.
- Naked Apron: Rex appears in one.
- Nice Girl: Her eccentricities aside, Sloane is nothing but friendly and supportive of Anna and even offers to drive her to Mexico when she is arrested for Lisa's murder.
- Only Bad Guys Call Their Lawyers: Anna steadfastly refuses to hire a lawyer, saying that she is innocent.
- Only Sane Woman: Anna's best friend Sloane stands out as a supportive friend who gives genuinely solid advice, in contrast to the many selfish actions, poor choices, and bizarre behaviours of basically every other character in the series. By the end, she's just about the only character not revealed to have had some ulterior motive or secret role in Anna's life.
- Papa Wolf: Neil becomes increasingly hostile towards Anna, due to her scaring and endangering his daughter.
- Parents as People: Exaggerated and played for laughs. Anna's big mistake is sending her daughter on a Take Your Daughter to Work Day...in a prison. Douglas' big mistake is leaving his daughter alone with a cannibalistic serial killer, in a police cell that locks from the outside. This culminates in a suitably angsty phone call between them.
- Pet the Dog: Detective Lane and Carol both apologise to Anna in the hospital scene.
- The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: Anna's ex husband Douglas is never shown actually working with anybody except helping Anna, which is played for laughs when he gives Anna an impromptu therapy session while in an interrogation room with a criminal, who he completely ignores.
- Police Are Useless: The police initially don't believe Anna about the murder, so she has to do the investigation herself. They later manage to arrest two innocent people, Rex and then Anna.
- Posthumous Sibling: In the epilogue, Anna and Douglas have another daughter after Elizabeth' death.
- Predatory Prostitute: Rex explains that he and Lisa/Chastity were ripping people off after meeting each other in a strip club. Anna notes that of course the manipulative Lisa would be a stripper, before Rex corrects her that she was the bartender and he was the stripper.
- "Rear Window" Homage: The show is about how a woman (who can't get out of the house during rainfall because of her fear of rain) witnesses a murder and tries to investigate it. Given that the show is a parody of mystery and psychological thriller works, it's intentional.
- Red Herring: The series is full of them. Anna first suspects Rex of killing Lisa but then starts to think Neil did it. Then it appears Rex may be the killer after all, only for him to be cleared. Anna herself comes under suspicion but it turns out she only stabbed a painting of Lisa. The final red herring is Buell, a handyman who killed his whole family with a claw hammer.
- The Reveal: Douglas is actually Anna's therapist; Buell is a reformed murderer and has been secretly living in Anna's attic (causing the unexplained noises that have spooked her all season); and Emma is the true killer.
- Romantic Rain: In the final episode, when the rain starts, Anna and Douglas rekindle their relationship as she finally overcomes her fear of rain.
- Running Gag:
- Anna bringing chicken casserol dishes.
- Elizabeth's tombstone has a different inscription everytime we see it.
- In the final episode, people apologising to Anna in the hospital and giving her flowers and Anna responding that she feels like she was hit by a "Mack truck driven by a 9 year old".
- Secret Squatter: Buell is revealed to have been living in Anna's attic. At the end, he continues living there, but no longer secretly.
- Self-Defense Ruse: In the final episode, Emma attempts to murder Anna and frame her as a murderer by pretending to be a victim who defends herself.
- Sex Montage: Parodied to a ridiculous degree. When Anna and Rex begin to have sex in the former's house, it cuts to a montage where we see them making love in a ludicrous number of different areas: a shower room, the window seat, Anna's bed, the kitchen island, and halfway up the staircase.
- Spooky Painting: Played for laughs in Anna's aggressive picture of Chastity in a bikini which she stabbed rather than stabbing her.
- Stealth Parody: Of mystery and psychological thriller works like Rear Window, The Girl on the Train and most clearly Netflix's The Woman In The Window 2021. The final episode is reminiscent of The Bad Seed.
- Super Drowning Skills: When Anna imagines Neil pushing Meredith into the water, she flails around for about five seconds before instantly dying and floating on the surface.
- Ungrateful Bitch: Anna braves her ombrophobia and crawls through the storm in order to save Emma from an approaching Buell and later shields her when she thinks Neil is attacking her. Emma responds by trying to kill her and insulting her casserole. In a flashback, she also kills her mother right after making her go over to the docks to fetch her doll.
- Verbal Tic: Every time Anna finds out about an address, a clue, or something similar, she says "Bingo." She also has a habit of saying "I know what I saw!" whenever someone denies her claims. Par for the course for a murder mystery and psychological thriller parody.
- Wham Shot:
- When Anna's phone call finally cuts to her unseen therapist, her ex husband.
- Anna rushes to protect Emma from the killer, only to find Neil's corpse and Emma holding a knife.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Parodied. Anna has ombrophobia, which means that she is extremely terrified of rain to the point where she either faints or crawls on the floor in a most dramatic way when the rain starts outside.
- Within Arm's Reach: Parodied in the finale's fight between Anna and Emma. Anna keeps finding objects just conveniently in her reach to stop her, such as a hammer, a wrench, and shards of Anna's casserole dish.
- Would Hurt a Child: Massacre Mike does not discriminate when it comes to killing. He has no qualms about killing and eating Elizabeth.
- Would Not Hurt A Child: Rex refused to carry on with the scam when he realized Neil had a young daughter.
- You Monster!: In the last episode, when Anna calls Emma a monster, the latter replies that her mother was the actual monster because she got pregnant without asking her permission.
- You're Insane!: In the last episode, when Anna calls Emma crazy, the latter quips that was also what her teacher said before being pushed off the lighthouse.
