On the surface, the character Kristen Bell plays in The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window bears some similarity to her most famous TV role: the teen detective Veronica Mars. Anna is the titular woman in the house — a troubled artist fond of giant pours of red wine who becomes convinced she witnesses a murder. The series follows Anna as she tries to get to the bottom of the mystery, but, unfortunately, it seems she doesn’t have the requisite crime-solving skills to solve the case. 

While the whodunnit aspect of Woman in the House and Veronica Mars are similar, Bell tells Tudum, "I think Veronica Mars would be ultimately very disappointed in the way Anna handles herself." Anna isn’t great at solving mysteries, but Bell is sympathetic to her plight: "She’s doing the best with what she’s got."

It doesn’t help that Anna’s neighbors and friends — and even the local cop — do not believe that she witnessed a crime at all. While the audience understands the grief-stricken character's motivations, the other players in the story are skeptical.

"You are meeting these characters through Anna’s lens," explains Bell. "When Neil, the neighbor, moves in next door, you’re seeing him as the answer to all her problems. And then when she starts to suspect him, he starts to look evil. And that’s the fun of making this type of a show because anyone can be anything [when] your lead character is a bit… unhinged. It’s all perspective.”

Bell, a thriller/mystery/true crime addict herself, confesses that she has "seen every episode of Dateline that’s ever aired," but credits her love for the genre to one specific show: The 2007 Glenn Close/Rose Byrne FX drama Damages.

"I remember watching Damages and going, 'What is this feeling I’m having? It’s 1 in the morning. We’ve watched five episodes of television.' We never did that before,” she confesses. “I love whodunnits. I love scary stuff. I love curling up on the couch watching a horror movie."

Part of the genre’s appeal is the interactive element involved in watching a psychological thriller: When you’re so invested while watching that you scream feedback at the screen or tell characters not to go down the stairs. "It means you’re invested in what you’re watching,” Bell explains. “This is purely for entertainment, but entertainment can be really important and allow people to decompress. And if you're interacting with the screen, it means you are invested. And for a moment, you’re not thinking about your own problems."