Worst Neighbor Ever is an anthology docuseries from the makers of Worst Ex Ever and Worst Roommate Ever. This series discusses different disputes between neighbors that turn violent. The format is like the aforementioned Worst Ex Ever in that it includes interviews with people involved with the case as well as law enforcement. The ominous live-action scenes are punctuated by animated reenactments.
Opening Shot: “Normally,if your neighbor is mad at you, over a little fight or a property dispute, it’s simple: It’s a civil issue. Well, it is until it turns to murder,” says a voice as we see two ominous shots of small houses and some grainy security camera footage.
The Gist: The first case the series takes on is the 2018 incident in Mount Sterling, KY, where Frances Zaayer, after a year of making paranoid calls about her neighbors, Shawna and David Scott, walks across the street and shoots them both. David is killed and Shawna is shot through the side of her face.
Shawna survuved the shooting and is the primary person interviewed for the episode, along with her daughter, Haley Boyd. Shawna recalls how she and David moved to Mount Sterling to be closer to her father, who lived in the house next to the property Frances eventually purchased and moved into. Frances was a family friend back when Shawna was a teenager in the 1980s, and moved back to town after her marriage ended. She stayed with Shawna and David while her house was being finished, and Frances and Shawna got along famously at first.
But things took a turn when Frances showed the couple a YouTube video of herself railing against Muslims and others, and David started thinking that Frances couldn’t be trusted. Haley felt uncomfortable bringing her husband and young son around her mom and stepdad’s house because of Frances and her “resting bitch face.” Frances yelling at Shawna’s grandson was the last straw.
But after Frances moved into her house, her harrassment of the Scotts began, culminating in a fight between Frances and Shawna. Determined to see Shawna go to jail, Frances called 911 over every perceived violation of protection orders or other “offenses.” She also claimed that David, a part-time jailer at the county lockup, got preferrential treatment because of his job.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? As we mentioned, Worst Neighbor Ever is from the creators of Worst Ex Ever and Worst Roommate Ever. It also reminds us of a darker version of the HBO docuseries Neighbors.
Our Take: Like the previous two docuseries, the folks at Blumhouse know how to get to the point in Worst Neighbor Ever. Since there is a new stroy for each episode, the producers need to balance building the back story while also making the mounting tension between these neighbors apparent. In the case of Zaayer, her series of increasingly paranoid 911 calls and the responses by the exasperated dispatchers — all of whom know her case because it’s such a small town — help build that tension.
We did get a good picture of the tight-knit nature of Shawna’s family, who lived in a small cluster of houses in the same neighborhood, the relationship Shawna and David had and how well David fit in with Shawna’s family, David and Haley’s relationship, and even Shawna and Frances’ initial relationship. But soon enough, Frances’ unhinged behavior takes over, and the episode does a good job of ratcheting up the tension until, as the title of the episode indicated, “She Finally Snapped.”
Performance Worth Watching: Shawna Scott has had to go through a lot of surgeries, pain and trauma since the shooting, but she does a great job telling her side of the story here.
Sex And Skin: None.
Parting Shot: A shot of Dave and his grandson. “He had a smile that could light up a room,” says Shawna. “And he didn’t deserve this.”
Sleeper Star: As with the other series from these producers, we enjoyed the animated reenactments. It was a refreshing change of pace in this genre, even if the animation reminded us of the 1970s Super Friends series.
Most Pilot-y Line: It’s interesting that David and Shawna’s younger child didn’t want to participate, and the producers never put up a graphic explaining that they even reached out for an interview.
Our Call: STREAM IT. Worst Neighbor Ever gets the job done through a good combination of straightforward storytelling, effective tension-building and a visual style most series like this don’t have.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
