Old age is often called a “second childhood.” The signs are easy to spot, increased reliance on others, the need for attention, a certain unfiltered honesty, and an emotional nakedness that age rarely bothers to conceal. The only thing separating the two is wisdom. Older people have simply seen more moonlight than the younger ones.
But what happens when you take a bunch of old people, place them inside a Stranger Things-like universe, and ask them to save their friends from creatures that crawl out of ovens at night and drink brain fluid while people sleep? You get The Boroughs, unsurprisingly executive-produced by the Duffer Brothers. And while the similarities between Stranger Things and The Boroughs are impossible to ignore, what ultimately separates the two is not the premise, but the treatment.
Monsters and creatures have enjoyed remarkable longevity in pop culture. It is a strange case, really. Entire living, breathing communities still struggle for meaningful representation (which they absolutely deserve), but monsters — whose existence remains wonderfully debatable — have enjoyed decades of cinematic importance. Good for them, one might say. The rest? Keep struggling, hopefully recognition will arrive.
If anyone deserves credit for shaping modern pop culture’s relationship with monsters, it is Steven Spielberg. Few filmmakers have managed to blend awe and terror with such emotional precision. During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in 2016, the Duffer Brothers admitted Spielberg “is a huge influence on us.” With The Boroughs, that influence is once again visible.
The story revolves around Sam Cooper (Alfred Molina), a recently widowed retired engineer who reluctantly moves into an idyllic retirement community in New Mexico after the deeply unsettling death of his wife. The place resembles the kind of peaceful neighbourhood his late wife had once dreamed they would retire to, quiet, comforting, orderly, almost suspiciously perfect. Soon, we meet the rest of the neighbourhood. There is Judy Daniels (Alfre Woodard), a retired journalist with enough curiosity left in her to still investigate the unexplained; her husband Art Daniels (Clarke Peters), whose quiet warmth complements Judy’s instincts; Wally Baker (Denis O’Hare), a retired doctor dying of cancer; and Renee (Geena Davis), a former music manager who unexpectedly develops feelings for a much younger security guard, Paz (Alex Lawther).
A still from The Boroughs
But before this unlikely gang assembles, The Boroughs wastes little time establishing the horror. In the opening moments, we meet Grace (Dee Wallace) and Edward (Ed Begley Jr.). While Grace continues living in one of the community homes, Edward stays at The Manor — a lavishly designed care home within the retirement complex. Then, in a sequence eerie enough to instantly lock your attention, a creature emerges in the dead of night and drags Grace into the shadows. You immediately understand what kind of story this is going to be. Grace and Edward, however, mostly exist to establish the threat. The real story belongs to the older OG gang. Sam is brought to The Boroughs by his daughter Claire (Jena Malone), and soon we are introduced to what feels like the retirement community of dreams. Golf courses, pools, a gym, endless activities, community dinners, everything feels less like an old-age home and more like a luxury hotel where retirement has been aestheticised into something aspirational. Of course, paradise comes with rules.
The community is overseen by Blaine Shaw (Seth Numrich) and Anneliese Shaw (Alice Kremelberg), a suspiciously polished young couple who appear to know more than they reveal. Everyone in this carefully curated ecosystem seems content living out their remaining years in peace — until Sam witnesses a creature murdering his neighbour Jack Willard (Bill Pullman) one night. Predictably, but entertainingly, that becomes the catalyst for our elderly Scooby gang to come together and figure out what exactly is lurking beneath them.
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The template The Boroughs follows is unmistakably familiar. Like Stranger Things, it begins with a mysterious disappearance, pulls together a ragtag group united by disbelief and grief, and sends them hunting for answers against a supernatural force hidden in plain sight. Only this time, the fight is not against something from the Upside Down, but something buried underground. The difference, however, lies in timing. When Stranger Things arrived, Netflix was still in the middle of reinventing television, and the series felt startlingly fresh. Its nostalgia had novelty. Its mysteries felt excitingly original. The Boroughs, arriving a decade later, inevitably suffers from familiarity. Throughout its eight episodes, there is little to complain about in terms of pacing. The show moves briskly, avoids excessive melodrama (which is admittedly surprising given it involves senior citizens battling monsters), and resolves most mysteries before they become frustratingly stretched.
There is an understanding here — perhaps Netflix’s awareness that we now live in what people call the “second-screen era” — that attention spans are fragile. So when suspense builds, the show wastes little time paying it off. And despite its predictability, The Boroughs remains consistently fun. Watching older people rediscover curiosity, depend on one another, and slowly embrace absurdity has a genuine emotional pull. They know no one will believe them, much like parents dismissing children who insist their imaginary friend is real or that there is definitely something under the bed. The joy comes from watching people at the perceived end of life suddenly behave as if adventure has accidentally found them again.
A still from The Boroughs
What pulls the show down, though, is its reluctance to take risks. Much like some of its characters, the story feels as though it has lived many lives before arriving here. It has seen different worlds, borrowed familiar templates, and now mostly wants comfort. Monsters and creatures have been done so extensively in film and television that making them feel novel has become a near-impossible task, something Vince Gilligan arguably managed recently with Pluribus, whose idyllic neighbourhood mirrors the world of The Boroughs so closely that they often feel like two stories unfolding on adjacent streets.
The real novelty here is not the monsters. It is age. And age changes the emotional architecture of the story. Unlike Stranger Things, The Boroughs has room for conversations about grief, regret, mortality, companionship, loneliness, and the strange negotiations that long-term love demands. What does it mean to lose someone after building an entire life together? What does it mean to let your partner evolve, to allow emotional space so a marriage survives? What does it feel like to unexpectedly desire companionship again, especially when the person is much younger? These are not conversations one expects in a creature-feature mystery. The group carries bitterness, regrets, old wounds, unresolved emotions — the residue of entire lifetimes. Yet beneath all of it, what they seem to want is painfully simple: love, understanding, and someone who still sees them. And perhaps that is where The Boroughs becomes unexpectedly moving. Because what is really scary here is not the monsters crawling out at night. It is the quiet reality of how old people are warehoused and patronised.
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The Boroughs trailer:
Beneath all its supernatural chaos, The Boroughs repeatedly hints at something deeply uncomfortable — the way society often treats the elderly as people waiting for life to end rather than individuals still capable of desire, rebellion, curiosity, foolishness, romance, and reinvention. The retirement community may look beautiful, but it often feels carefully controlled, sanitised, almost infantilising. The residents are protected, yes, but also managed. And that perhaps is the show’s sharpest observation. For all the creatures hiding underground, The Boroughs quietly argues that the greater horror may simply be becoming invisible while still alive. The monsters may drink brain fluid at night, but patronisation has a way of slowly taking pieces of you in broad daylight.
The Boroughs
The Boroughs Cast – Alfred Molina, Alfre Woodard, Denis O’Hare, Clarke Peters, Geena Davis, Seth Numrich
The Boroughs Director – Ben Taylor, Augustine Frizzell, Kyle Patrick Alvarez
The Boroughs Rating – 2.5/5
