The Boroughs: Fun Netflix Miniseries Pits Retirees Against a Mysterious Monster

By Karen Gordon

Rating: A-

I honestly don't know what’s scarier: the fact that the new Netflix series The Boroughs is about a creature menacing a desert retirement community, or that the soundtrack includes hit songs the retirees grew up with, and I did too. 

The Boroughs is a fun eight-part horror/comedy/thriller miniseries created by Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews and exec produced by The Duffer Brothers (the team behind Stranger Things). Nicely plotted and written, it has clever elements that give a spooky series depth, and a little gravitas, as you might expect from a story built around people in their later years (don't expect me to use the word seniors).  

Alfred Molina in The Boroughs

But what tips the series over the edge are terrific, well drawn characters, beautifully cast. This is an ensemble to die for.

Alfred Molina is retired engineer and recent widower, Sam Cooper. While David Bowie’s Golden Years plays on the soundtrack (ahem), his daughter Claire (Jena Malone) is dropping him off at his new house in a retirement community called The Boroughs.  

He’s not happy about it. He was supposed to have moved with his wife, who chose it as the place they’d be together. Now that she’s gone, he’s doesn't want to be there.  But owners Blaine (Seth Numrich) and his wife Anneliese (Alice Kremelberg) wouldn't let him out of his contract, so he's stuck. 

Within minutes, he has uninvited visitors. Edward (Ed Begley Jr.) has wandered away from The Manor, the care facility on the Boroughs, and back to his former house, which is now Sam’s.  

Edward appears to have dementia, and, although friendly, he’s repeating what sounds like a nonsense phrase about “The owl is in the walls.”

When Edward is collected by his caregivers, Sam is once again interrupted, this time by by his‘chatty and overly familiar neighbour Jack (Bill Pullman).  Jack is dialed up to 11, but is smart and engaging and enough fun that the two men bond.  

That night an alarm goes off at Jack’s place in the middle of the night.  and when Sam rushes over to see what’s happening, he sees it: A creature that seems to have it’s—um.. hands? arms? Inside Jack’s throat.  Jack dies. 

The mystery of his death connects him to other concerned residents, including craft teacher Renee (Geena Davis), Wally (Denis O'Hare), a brilliant doctor with stage four cancer who has come to The Boroughs to live out his days having cocktails. 

There’s a young guard, Paz (Carlos Miranda), who propositions Renee pretty boldly.

Then there’s Judy (Alfre Woodard) and her husband Art (Clarke Peters), ex-counterculture activists now retired to a place where they can enjoy life. But unresolved issues exist in their relationship, and Jack’s death brings some of the problems in their relationship to a head. 

Sam of course, saw what he saw and now he wonders whether Edward’s repeated phrases about owls might be more than a nonsense sentence repeated by a man with dementia. Sam likes to tinker with electronics and notices strange things about the TVs. And the wall ovens. 

And as the series progresses, the characters start to find information that is not only disturbing, but affects each of them directly.  And so, they team up, each bringing expertise to track down this increasingly weird situation. 

The Boroughs balances character relationships with the details of a supernatural, sci-fi mystery thriller. To its credit, it never stoops to cliches about old people. It treats them as individuals, living their lives vitally in the moment.   

They have experienced love, loss, grief, regret, but no one is hanging it up yet. That life experience brings with it good bullshit detectors, but also compassion and empathy. 

And casting is key to that. This is a beautifully assembled cast, all major talents who bring complexities to their roles and give us characters worth investing in.  

The Boroughs. Stars Alfred Molina, Geena Davis, Alfre Woodward, Clarke Peters, Denis O’Hare, Carlos Miranda, Bill Pullman, Ed Begley, Jr. Seth Numrich and Alice Kremelberg.

Now streaming on Netflix.