The Woman In The House Across The Street From The Girl In The Window Scene That Went Too Far
Contains spoilers for "The Woman in the House across the Street from the Girl in the Window"
Netflix's new dark thriller parody starring Kristen Bell has a lot to unpack. Not only does "The Woman in the House Across the Street From the Girl in the Window" have one of the lengthier titles to date, but the title also represents the twists and turns of the show itself. Bell plays Anna, a woman who is struggling with grief. She spends her days drinking and abusing prescription drugs while trying to come to terms with the death of her daughter.
Anna's neighbors are less supportive of her trauma, making Anna feel even more isolated. This changes when an attractive new neighbor arrives. Neil (Tom Riley) has a daughter of his own and it seems that this is the path for Anna to be whole again. But things take a turn for the worst when Anna witnesses the brutal murder of Neil's girlfriend Lisa (Shelley Hennig). Because of her history with drinking, the police don't believe Anna and she is forced to investigate the crime herself. The series walks a tightrope between parody and earnestness throughout, but there was one moment of the show that was particularly difficult to get behind.
The cause of Anna's grief is more upsetting than funny
At its heart, "The Woman In the House ..." is a parody. It pokes fun at thrillers such as "The Girl on the Train" and "The Woman in the Window." But as much as it uses humor to great success in some areas, the death of Anna's daughter pushes the boundaries from funny to inconsiderate. With Anna's fear of the rain, it is implied that Elizabeth (Appy Pratt) may have died in a car accident, but the truth is far more horrifying. Anna's husband Douglas (Michael Easly) was a forensic psychologist who worked primarily with serial killers. Even though that does not seem to be an environment suitable for a child, Anna prods Douglas into taking Elizabeth to Take Your Daughter To Work Day. When Douglas is called away while interviewing a killer by the name of Massacre Mike (Brendan Jennings), Elizabeth is accidentally locked in a room with the murderer, who proceeds to kill and eat her.
While the over-the-top revelation is clearly meant to be played for gallows humor, this outrageous occurrence takes things too far. Instead of grounding the viewer in Anna's tragic loss, it makes this event unrelatable. Renaldo Matadeen of CBR called the reveal a "tasteless joke" and argued that the extreme nature of Elizabeth's death is too violent for the comedic aspects of the series while also being too outlandish for the dramatic side of things. Anna's grief should be real, as the viewers see the consequences of Elizabeth's death and live in Anna's trauma with her. When finally learning how Elizabeth died, though, it becomes a punchline that no doubt left some viewers uneasy at being asked to laugh at the devastation of losing a child.