Kristen Bell Is 'The Woman In The House' For Netflix

There's an on-going trend in book publishing that has authors throwing "woman" or "girl" into the titles of their mysteries. Gone Girl. The Girl on the Train. The Woman in the Window. I guess you could even go back further with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and its subsequent Girl sequels. And now Netflix is getting into the action with The Woman in the House. It's not a book, though – it's a new limited series that will star Kristen Bell. In the show, Bell plays a woman who thinks she's witnessed a murder. Or has she?

According to Variety, Kristen Bell will star in The Woman in the House, a Netflix limited series that has Bell as "the heartbroken protagonist Anna. For her, every day is the same. She sits with her wine, staring out the window, watching life go by without her. But when a handsome neighbor moves in across the street, Anna starts to see a light at the end of the tunnel. That is until she witnesses a gruesome murder... Or did she?"

Rachel Ramras, Hugh Davidson, and Larry Dorf created the series and will also serve as executive producers and co-showrunners. Their credits include the TV Land series Nobodies and they also worked on the recently-canceled Adult Swim animated series Mike Tyson Mysteries. Will Ferrell, Jessica Elbaum, and Brittney Segal will also executive produce the series, for Gloria Sanchez Productions. Marti Noxon, whose work includes Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Sharp Objects, Dietland, and more, will serve as a creative consultant on the series.

While the Variety story doesn't clarify if this is a comedy or not, the talent involved suggests some sort of comedic element, making me wonder if this is going to be a send-up of all those woman/girl-titled books I mentioned at the top of the story. The plot alone – lonely, potentially alcoholic woman who thinks she witnessed a murder but could be wrong and/or going crazy – is more or less the same basic set up of both The Girl on the Train – which was adapted into a pretty crappy movie starring Emily Blunt – and The Woman in the Window, which was adapted into a still-unreleased movie starring Amy Adams. That movie has been delayed so many times already that I won't be surprised if turns out to be a stinker. But The Woman in the House might be fun, and I think Bell can do something interesting with this type of set-up.