TV Review: The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window (2022), Netflix, and The Flight Attendant, Seasons 1-2, HBO Max.

The TV mini-series The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window, starring Kristen Bell, is remarkably similar in genre and concept to HBO’s TV series The Flight Attendant starring Kaley Cuoco, which just arrived on HBO Max for a second season.  

 

In both series, the plot centers on an attractive young woman protagonist, each with her own serious emotional problems and excessive drinking habits, stumbling into a murder mystery which in The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window may or may not have even happened, and in both cases may or may not have been done by the intoxicated leading lady herself, who then has to try desperately to clear herself and solve the mystery by playing amateur detective. 

 

Both Bell and Cuoco are gifted comedic actors, and both pull off their respective roles convincingly and amusingly.  This is no mean feat in either case, since they need somehow to convey their characters’ tortured souls, their drunken irreverence and silly but self-destructive misbehavior in absurd situations, and yet also cleverly manage to figure out “who dun it” from a baffling list of likely suspects and clues that would challenge a sober person, all at the same time.   

 

The amateur detective work and smart-alecky response to mysteries, violence and dire personal straits is familiar territory for Bell, whose acting stint as the girl sleuth Veronica Mars earlier in her career contained much of the same appeal as this new show.  I saw all the Veronica Mars TV seasons and the follow-on movie a few years ago, and thought it was an outstanding and entertaining series, with a very gutsy and appealing young heroine. 

 

For Cuoco, her long acting run as Penny, the sweet but clueless party girl next door in The Big Bang Theory, who had to constantly improvise, make up stories, tell little lies and use her sexy good looks and flirtation to get herself out of embarrassing situations with the socially inept but brilliant tech nerds across the hall, was similarly good preparation for her role here, as a different sweet but clueless party girl (and flight attendant) who finds herself in far more dangerous situations than Penny ever faced.

 

For some viewers, trying to combine comedy, murder, intrigue, psychological thriller and satire into one show might be all too much.  However, I think both these series are worth seeing just for the enjoyment of watching these two remarkably talented actors working their onscreen magic to get their characters out of impossible situations.  Recommended.