The Duffer Brothers ‘The Boroughs’ Is a Captivating Sci-Fi Horror For the Ages: TV Review

Older folks are revered for their wisdom as they’re simultaneously pushed toward the edges of society. It is a conundrum most people don’t begin to consider until they near their own twilight years. In Netflix’s sci-fi horror dramedy, “The Boroughs,” creators Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews, along with executive producers the Duffer brothers, deliver a delightful, intriguing adventure with some very unexpected heroes at its center. Heartbreaking, funny and endlessly fascinating, “The Boroughs” is a show that examines loss, pain, time and the trials and tribulations of life during the golden years.  

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The eight-episode first season opens on a quiet cul-de-sac in an upscale retirement community, The Boroughs, helmed by CEO, Blaine Shaw (Seth Numrich) and his wife Annaenlise (Alice Kremelberg). Grace (Dee Wallace) goes through her nightly routine, eating dinner in front of the TV watching “Jeopardy,” and later video calling her husband, Edward (Ed Begley Jr.), who is now living at The Manor, The Boroughs’ long-term care facility. Though everything appears as normal, viewers quickly realize something is amiss.

A couple of months later, grieving widower Sam Cooper (Alfred Molina) arrives in town, driven by his daughter Claire (Jena Malone), son-in-law Neil (Rafael Casal) and two grandchildren. Unfortunately, the lifelong Chicagoan has no interest in setting up shop in the middle of the desert in New Mexico. After all, moving to The Boroughs was his late wife Lily’s (Jane Kaczmarek) idea, and now that she’s gone, Sam has only his agony, anger and disgust. Unable to get out of the contract he and Lily previously signed, the retired engineer finds himself unboxing the fragments of his former life and settling into the home once occupied by Grace.

Though Sam is a card-carrying curmudgeon, his next-door neighbor Jack (Bill Pullman) isn’t deterred from inviting him over for a barbecue. Jack — and other cul-de-sac dwellers, Wally (Denis O’Hare) a former doctor dying of Stage 4 prostate cancer; married couple, Judy (Alfre Woodard) and Art (Clarke Peters) and the spry and bubbly Renee (Geena Davis) — welcome Sam with open arms. Deciding his neighbors aren’t his enemy, Sam begrudgingly begins to build a routine at The Boroughs (which mostly consists of him stomping around his home). However, when he witnesses something truly horrific, Sam soon realizes that what’s lurking around the golf courses, swimming pools and diners of The Boroughs is a great deal more than he bargained for.

Monsters, shootings, crows and a very special liquid all show up in “The Boroughs”. Yet offering additional clues surrounding the sci-fi element would mean giving away too much of the story’s intricacies. However, what is most compelling about the series is its characters and themes, which anchor the narrative. From their sordid backstories to their day-to-day lives in the retirement community, all the folks Sam encounters have varying perspectives on this chapter. Grief, of course, is also an element here, but it’s not solely the misery of losing a loved one, whether they’ve died or are still living. As Sam explains it, grief also happens in the trauma of getting old while contending with the literal aching of your body breaking down.

As Sam and his motley crew come to understand, despite their lived experiences, so many are willing to cast retirees off as senile or sickly. As a society, we are dismissive of elderly people, and “The Boroughs” depicts how patronizing and infuriating this can be. Amid all the action-packed moments, the series really drills into why underestimating an entire generation is unlikely to be in anyone’s best interest.

Boasting a fantastic cast that brings this ensemble of intricate characters to life, “The Boroughs” turns a familiar genre on its head, allowing audiences to consider from a different vantage point the constraints of the human experience, what it means to be fearless and the finality of death. Fascinating and intense, with “The Boroughs,” viewers will indeed have the time of their lives.

“The Boroughs” is now streaming on Netflix.