The Boroughs: retirees battle monsters in Stranger Things-inspired drama

Netflix’s new sci-fi series is “an unexpectedly entertaining mix of adventure and wonder, drama and humour”, said Tim Glanfield in The Times. “Part ‘The Thursday Murder Club’, part ‘Stranger Things’”, it is set in a retirement community in New Mexico called The Boroughs.

This place gleams but reluctant new resident Sam (Alfred Molina) gradually perceives the rot behind its “seemingly idyllic world of dawn-till-dusk golfing, barbecues and pool parties”. After an unexplained death, he turns detective, helped by some fellow residents – who include a free-spirited former band manager (Geena Davis), a retired journalist (Alfre Woodard) and her pot-smoking husband (Clarke Peters). Soon, shadowy creatures start lunging from dark tunnels, and the influence of the show’s executive producers becomes clearer: the Duffer Brothers created “Stranger Things”.

Don’t be put off by the connection, said Lucy Mangan in The Guardian. The show, which takes time to establish itself, has an intelligent, witty script; the plot “nods to all the most entertaining monster tropes” but is not “slavishly devoted to them”; the “hokum” is fun, and also speaks to “eternal human fears”, including loneliness and death.

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It is a warm-hearted show, said Anita Singh in The Telegraph, and some scenes are moving. But if the supernatural is just not your thing, the silliness may have you reaching for the off switch quite soon. I found that the monster stuff dragged but “I liked the underlying message that you write off older people at your peril”.