If Kristen Bell was still Veronica Mars in her new series, available since Friday on Netflix, she might have already solved the case. But she plays Anna, a woman broken by life: since the tragic death of her daughter and the separation from her husband, she spends her days in a dressing gown chaining glasses of wine and antidepressants and watching the world through her window. .
Only improvement, the arrival of a new neighbor and his granddaughter across the street. Well, not for long, because Anna soon witnesses what she believes to be a murder. Anna is “the woman who lived across from the girl in the window.” Yes, it’s the extended title of the series.
A parody, really?
And yes, there is a direct reference to station novels, and more specifically to The Girl on the Train and The Woman at the Windowtwo best-selling psychological and feminine thrillers, which have become a literary genre on their own, and recently adapted into films with, respectively, Emily Blunt and Amy Adams.
As you will have understood, the Netflix series is a parody of it. At least she tries. Anna reads the novel The Woman Across the Lake, drinks wine glasses filled to the brim, is a famous painter of objectively ugly works, suspects the whole neighborhood, and even doubts her own sanity. Because, as the voice-over admits: “she has an overflowing imagination”.
Kristen Bell, always great
But is aligning cliches and suspects enough to be funny? That’s the whole point of this Girl who lived…, who does not seem to know what tone to adopt and ultimately remains very first degree. On a register and with a similar character, The Flight Attendant managed to strike a better balance.
On rare occasions, however, such as the reasons for the death of his daughter or during the great resolution, the series recalls that its authors come from Adult Swim, the American channel specializing in the absurd, and turns into very dark comedy. . For the viewer, then, it’s make or break.
There remains the formidable, multiple, unpredictable Kristen Bell, who is of all plans and whom we would follow everywhere, even in a series which does not know where she is going.