"The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window", who makes a title like that? Where is the creativity? Is it some sort of a reverse psychological trick?
It could be. It probably is. When I saw this title on the trending section of Netflix, I almost couldn't believe my eyes. I had very conflicting thoughts running through my head. On one hand, I am binging The Mentalist, which is incredibly awesome, and on the other hand, I see this mediocre, uncreative, mundane, absolute shame for a title on trending.
From the very beginning, right from the moment I read the title I knew there was something that didn't sit well with me. It dragged me right into watching the series. And since it's Kristen Bell on the poster, I had to bring my partner along the ride. After all, it is Kristen Bell and I don't like her. Her works hurt me. I need someone I can channel the cringe and pain towards. The series was nothing short of a gigantic disappointment. That is how I felt. But not for long.
The entire story, at least for the most part, was a bit too cliche and very very mundane for my taste. A divorced white woman who lost everything in her life, blames herself for it, lives in a very nice neighborhood, used to be successful, drinks too much wine, everyone bickers about her, things will go extremely south when she will want to turn her life around, but she will eventually emerge as the hero.
Where have we seen that before, right?
As the story progressed, which was extremely slowly, I began to think it was a more unhinged, less psychotic, female version of the first two seasons of "You". Come to think of it, there was absolutely no real progress or underlying storyline for the first 3 episodes. Imagine watching 3 episodes of a series and still not having a real idea what the series is about. Very entertaining stuff.
But there were parts I enjoyed A LOT. For example, not knowing what was part of a hallucination and what was real. The parts where things were so cliche that it was funny, like the hot single guy across the house, the annoying friend that is a true friend, the way she turns into the Instagram thot she despises, and the typical distant character (aka handyman) and bitchy neighbor. As funny as they were, these things forced me into plotting my own stories. Trying to dot the lines and creating an expectation.
The entire series simply rubbed off as horrible to me. It wasn't cohesive. There was no balance between the excellent camera work, design, costume, suspense with the acting, dialogues, or story. It felt like a very nicely polished car with no wheels or engine.
With three episodes remaining I was already done. I had no more interest in watching it anymore. If it weren't for my partner enjoying it suspiciously too much, I wouldn't have matched the enthusiasm. Fast forward to the ending..."Are you serious?". That is all I could say.
Honestly, I was in shambles. I had no clue if I had no understanding of what good series are like nowadays or if the world had lost it. I could not believe that such a shameful piece of writing made its way to the public, moreover to trending!
WHAT AM I MISSING?!
I had to look it up. I needed to know if the series was based on a real story or a book or something with a huge fanbase that drove it to such a height. I wanted to know what was the thing about this disappointing series that I didn't notice which made it so good. Maybe it had a certain type of target audience that I didn't fit into.
Turns out I had been played. It seems that the series was made as a parody. Poking fun at the books, movies, and other series of the same kind...as ridiculously as possible. Now I don't wear tinfoil hats, but unless and until the creators haven't openly claimed this theory as true, I think it is a way to save face for creating such a horrendous series. But if it is true, then hold my chicken casserole 'coz I have 4 words to say:
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