If the middle chapters of life wrestle our younger selves into submission, forcing us to accept the inevitabilities and limitations of life, then it’s in our twilight years that we get the chance to reacquaint ourselves with a little youthful rebelliousness. To push back on the generations in our wake that start to look past or dismiss us because of a little thing like age.
That’s where Netflix’s new sci-fi series “The Boroughs” finds its characters, tucked away in a luxurious, retro-futuristic retirement community in the middle of the desert that asks for compliance in exchange for comfort. In the new series, executive produced by The Duffer Brothers of “Stranger Things” fame, a ragtag group of older folks must fight back when they learn the glossy later-in-life existence they paid a hefty sum of money for comes with a hidden clause — they may or may not be living with a bony, multi-armed monster that sucks the life out of them each night.
Leading the hunting pack is Sam (Alfred Molina), a retired TV technician, who reluctantly fulfills the commitment he and his wife Lily (Jane Kaczmarek) made to move to the Boroughs after she passes away. He’s grieving and completely unenthused by a life without her, especially one where people greet him with lines like, “This is not a last chapter, but a new beginning.” Here, it’s easy to dismiss the ravings of a sad old man when he starts suspecting that a neighbor’s sudden death — and the mysterious death of the former occupant of his new home — may have been the work of a darker force, and that’s exactly why he and his fellow cul-da-sac crew are the ideal marks for this monster mayhem.
While Sam is more of a lone wolf, he quickly learns there is strength in numbers so he starts testing the tolerance for the bizarre with his fellow cul-da-sac crew: Wally (Denis O’Hare), a rowdy retired doctor who is terminally ill but refuses to let it keep him down; Judy (Alfre Woodard), a restless woman who has unexpectedly given her heart away; Art (Clarke Peters), her laidback husband who is looking for meaning in life in the world around The Boroughs; and Renee (Geena Davis), a free spirit who isn’t afraid to wield her fiery personality against authority, especially the lackluster town police.
As a TV series, created by Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews, “The Boroughs” is hardly subtle in its commentary on what society takes from our elders. Through their monsters-in-the-night approach, Addiss and Matthews create a silly but effective conduit for the knowledge and influence we reap and warp from the generations before us. But what’s so smartly done about this collision of reality and science fiction is that Sam, Wally, Art and Renee don’t waste much time pondering the absurdity of their circumstance. They face the possible existence of aliens or something like it with humor and even a little passive disinterest. With Wally dying of cancer, Sam trying to make sense of the visions of his dead wife, and Judy and Art navigating a marriage that never completely worked, these creatures can do their worst. Really, they should fear these people because they are preying upon the one thing they don’t want to sacrifice anymore, and that is time. Hell hath a retiree robbed of their hard-earned leisure!
To their credit, the core five are brilliantly calibrated as an ensemble. There’s an inherent thrill to watching seasoned actors be given the reins of an action adventure, even one that loses a bit of steam as it barrels toward its big finale. Even the rockier parts of the journey prove their value as a unit, especially when the story frustratingly continues to tear them apart for disparate missions. Molina is winningly gruff as the reluctant but lovable hero who has to find the will to question his surroundings and save his new chosen family. He’s always been great with characters in the throes of the extraordinary. There is a reason why he remains one of the best supervillains of all time as Doc Oak in “Spider-Man 2,” because he’s brilliant at drawing upon that thin line between hurt and hope. It’s why even though he isn’t the tentacled chaos agent at the center of the story anymore, Sam still connects with it.
Davis and Woodard are equally excellent as two sides of the same coin, each trying to understand what they want from love and partnership later in life. Davis’ flirty but genuine relationship with a handsome younger cop (Carlos Miranda) and Judy’s secret relationship with a neighbor give both actresses the runway to prove why they are legends. Davis gets to luxuriate in the freedom of a woman who never counted her worth by her age, while Woodard gets to mine the pain of shattered illusions about the life she could have had.
It’s O’Hare though, often the best part of anything he’s in, who continues that streak as Wally. His sleuthing antics with Sam and Judy early on are among the show’s best moments; comical and sincere, but never too much of either. Of them all, Wally may have the least time left. He carries with him a heartfelt hunger to understand this new shade of life they are presented with, and he sees it as a chance to make the loss he’s experienced in life mean something.
“The Boroughs” may feel like “Stranger Things” meets “Coccoon,” but that oversimplification is a disservice to what viewers get here. Even in moments that are shaggier than the 1960s carpets in their homes, the experience of this cast matters in carrying multiple genres at once. In other words, the Grey Rebellion (their words, not ours) could drive golf-cart circles around those Hawkins kids when it comes to getting the job done.
“The Boroughs” is now streaming on Netflix.
