People Aren’t Getting ‘The Woman Across The Street From The Girl In The Window’ Is A Parody

Netflix has a new #1 show, and that would be The Woman Across The Street From The Girl In The Window, the series with a title so long I am just copying and pasting every instance of it into this article, rather than have to type it all out.

The reaction to the series has been rather fascinating to watch, as there seems to be a pretty significant percentage of the viewing public that somehow, does not understand that The Woman Across The Street From The Girl In The Window is a parody.

Many people are assuming that this is attempting to be a full-on drama, and while there are dramatic stakes at play, it’s kind of remarkable that people aren’t catching on to what’s going on here. The Woman Across the Street is a parody of a genre of fiction that has been adapted into a few different films like The Girl on the Train and Netflix’s own The Woman in the Window, where a woman sees some sort of terrible crime, then must convince everyone she actually saw it once the evidence disappears, while trying to solve it herself. They’re essentially all riffs on Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window.

I guess it’s a pretty specific genre, but I mean, come on. The title, first of all, is absurd and should be the blaring red flag at the beginning. If not that, then the first episode where Kristen Bell’s Anna fills every single wine glass to the rim, and shatters not one but three casserole dishes by the time the first half hour ends.

But people aren’t…getting it:

Or some people are horrified by what they assume are not jokes (spoilers follow):

Others I’ve seen get all the way through the entire series thinking it’s a drama, only to be shocked by the killer reveal (major spoilers follow) where the ultimate culprit is a murderous little girl that Kristen Bell gets into a knife fight with in the finale.

To her credit, Kristen Bell seems to be loving how confused people are about the whole thing. Here’s a retweet from her:

I mean, I guess I can sort of see it. The show does sort of play it straight about half the time, but many aspects are clear jokes to the point where I’m not really sure how people are missing it. But if you don’t get it, you probably just think this is a…pretty bad thriller drama. It very much helps if you understand that it’s a parody going in.

The show is performing well, but people being confused by it seems to be drawing mixed audience reactions. Critics, who do seem to get it, aren’t loving it either, as just because it’s a parody doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a good parody. I’m sort of in the middle, and I thought it was just okay, but dragged on about 90 minutes too long in total.

So, did you get it? If not, when did you understand it was a parody?

Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. Subscribe to my free weekly content round-up newsletter, God Rolls.

Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.