A mini-series appeared on Netflix with the longest possible title – The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window. This is a parody of well-known psychological thrillers in which the characters become accidental witnesses of a violent death.

Actress Kristen Bell ( Veronica Mars , The Good Place , Queenpins ) plays an artist named Anna. For several years now, she has not been able to recover from the death of a loved one. Before the tragedy, the heroine spent time with her family and was inspired to create paintings in her home studio. Now she sits in an armchair for days and indifferently watches passers-by, emptying bottles of wine.

Life becomes more interesting when a young man with his daughter drives into the house across the road – it seems to Anna that she has a chance to start everything from scratch, getting close to pleasant neighbors. Hopes are shattered at one moment when the heroine sees the murder in the window opposite.

No one believes the words of a man who drinks antidepressants with alcohol. In addition, there is no body of the victim anywhere, as well as evidence pointing to the crime. Therefore, Anna will have to conduct her own investigation and prove that her testimony is not a hallucination. But everything is not so simple. The self-proclaimed investigator sometimes has visions that remind her of painful losses. And, even worse, she experiences intense fear when it rains outside.

As the long title suggests, the series openly mocks detective thrillers where characters spy on other people. Here everything is guessed at once – this is a satire on the film classic “Rear Window” by Alfred Hitchcock and the film adaptation of the bestseller “The Girl on the Train” with Emily Blunt. But most of all, the showrunners are making fun of last year’s Netflix film The Woman in the Window , starring Amy Adams.

“The Woman in the House Opposite the Girl in the Window” fits into 8 episodes, which last from 20 to 28 minutes. As planned, this is an easy leisure for a weekend evening, which you want to devote to solving a crime, making fun of all kinds of clichés. It is a pity that the embodiment of this idea does not live up to expectations.

The first series creates an atmosphere of drama, in which the hope for a happy future is overshadowed by mysterious circumstances. The off-screen voice voices Anna’s feelings, and distinct steps in the attic in every possible way escalate the situation (and only the book that the heroine reads betrays a mockery of the detective genre).

Kristen Bell in just a couple of scenes disposes to an unstable character who does not let go of the glass from his hands. From beginning to end, the actress manages to maintain an unflappable seriousness, pronouncing frankly ridiculous details of the plot.

With the development of the detective story, more and more absurd circumstances appear that direct the series towards a black crime comedy. Alas, the writers can not cope with this genre. Jokes are rarely funny, and the plot, playing on the absurdities of other films, turns into outright stupidity (which even the cameo of a famous actress who starred in thrillers from the 80s does not save).

With a comedic detective story built around an amateur investigation, the series Only Murders in the Building does a much better job. It has less parody and more situational interaction between the actors, which fully compensates for the ridiculous revelation of the mystery.

It is also worth remembering The Flight Attendant , another series with a heroine who is trying to solve a crime clouded by alcohol and hallucinations.