<\/p>\n
What do we have here? Some of my very favorite actors \u2014 Alfred Molina, Alfre Woodard, Clarke Peters and Geena Davis<\/a> \u2014 starring in an eight-episode, B-grade sci-fi comedy-drama, \u201cThe Boroughs,\u201d now streaming on Netflix.<\/p>\n Molina plays Sam Cooper, a retired engineer \u2014 that will be important \u2014 being brought grumbling to the Boroughs, a posh, city-sized retirement community plopped down in the middle of the Southwestern desert. Sam\u2019s late wife, Lily (Jane Kaczmarek<\/a>, in flashbacks and dreams), had planned the move, but she died suddenly, while they were dancing to Bruce Springsteen\u2019s \u201cThunder Road,\u201d which will become a kind of trigger and motif going forth. Still, fate \u2014 in the form of daughter Claire (Jena Malone) and son-in-law Neil (Rafael Casal) \u2014 has pushed him solo to the Boroughs and a house on a cul-de-sac. (Seen from above, the town is laid out in a series of concentric circles, as EPCOT was meant to be when Walt Disney was alive and it stood for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. That has no relation to this show; I\u2019m just throwing it out to the fans.)<\/p>\n Before this happens, however, we get a preamble. Is that Dee Wallace, the mother from \u201cE.T.: The Extraterrestrial,\u201d as Grace, a former occupant of Sam\u2019s new home? (Why, yes it is.) Grabbed one night by something clearly not human, she\u2019ll leave the show before the first credit rolls; but we\u2019ll know from the start that there\u2019s a monster on the loose. And even before Sam has settled in, he\u2019ll be attacked by her now-widowed husband, Edward (Ed Begley Jr.), who has escaped to his old house from the Manor \u2014 a memory care unit more reminiscent of something out of \u201cSquid Game\u201d<\/a> than anywhere you\u2019d want to park a beloved fading parent \u2014 muttering \u201cThe key is in the light, the owl is in the wall,\u201d and thereby turning Sam detective.<\/p>\n The joint is run by young Blaine Shaw (Seth Numrich), who supposedly took it over from his father, who took it over from his father before him, with Hollywood-blond wife Anneliese (Alice Kremelberg) by his side. (It is perhaps no accident that we\u2019re also served a background clip from \u201cDouble Indemnity,\u201d<\/a> featuring a blond Barbara Stanwyck.) They radiate a kind of vampiric smoothness, and it will take you no longer to realize that something\u2019s up with these two than it takes to say \u201cSomething\u2019s up with these two.\u201d<\/p>\n Mired in grief, Sam is initially reluctant to interact with his new neighbors, until former weatherman Jack (Bill Pullman) breaks down his defenses. Judy Daniels (Woodard) used to be a reporter, her husband Art (Peters) is a pot-smoking old hippie who pretends to go golfing but heads off to a ghost town where he grows mushrooms, \u201csearching for proof that there\u2019s more to life than just knockin\u2019 about and hangin\u2019 out.\u201d Wally Baker (Denis O\u2019Hare) used to be a doctor, but now needs one. (It\u2019s cancer, and terminal, though it doesn\u2019t show.) They have complicated relationships, but there\u2019s nothing better for ironing things out than creeping together through dark tunnels by flashlight, hoping that nothing jumps out at you, engaging in weightless banter as you go.<\/p>\n Davis plays Renee Joyce, a former music manager who came to the Boroughs to stay with her mother after Renee\u2019s husband stole her money, and stuck around; I think she\u2019s meant to be younger than the rest, but if you want to look up Davis\u2019 age, I will wait here while you gasp in astonishment. She\u2019ll hook up with friendly young security guard Paz Navarro (Carlos Miranda); he played drums in a band once, and they were both at Glastonbury in 2010 and love Barbra Streisand. (What are the odds?) He\u2019ll have a lot to do when a Scooby Gang \u2014 that old, invaluable, incredibly satisfying trope \u2014 finally comes together.<\/p>\n The series was created by Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews, who were co-writers on the 2018 Henson Co. puppet epic \u201cThe Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance,\u201d<\/a> from which they have imported a central plot device regarding vital essences and a magical matriarchal figure. (Called \u201cMother\u201d there and here.) Their 2020 dying girlfriend film \u201cLife in a Year,\u201d directed by Mitja Okorn, has some thematic mirroring here, as well \u2014 death hovers over the story \u2014 and it seems probable that somewhere in the series\u2019 gestation, they discussed Ron Howard\u2019s 1985 science-fiction flick \u201cCocoon,<\/a>\u201d with its retirement home setting and senior-citizen heroes.<\/p>\n Sewn together from these and other scraps of previous paranormal adventure stories, \u201cThe Boroughs\u201d is almost entirely predictable \u2014 not a criticism, in this context, since surprises in such a story are liable to bring bad news, and our affection for its heroes ought not to be sacrificed in the name of dramatic effect. That is not the kind of sacrifice the age needs, and this is not that kind of series. Nor is B-grade a pejorative, but rather an honorable tradition, especially when it comes to sci-fi and horror. (We\u2019ll get a glimpse of Roger Corman\u2019s<\/a> original \u201cLittle Shop of Horrors\u201d playing on a TV \u2014 cathode ray, of course.) Once you get on its wavering wavelength \u2014 sentimental, sincere, sweet, a little silly, not overly concerned with making perfect sense \u2014 and realize the show is not out to hurt you, it\u2019s a very enjoyable watch.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.latimes.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What do we have here? Some of my very favorite actors \u2014 Alfred Molina, Alfre Woodard, Clarke Peters and Geena Davis \u2014 starring in an eight-episode, B-grade sci-fi comedy-drama, \u201cThe Boroughs,\u201d now streaming on Netflix. Molina plays Sam Cooper, a retired engineer \u2014 that will be important \u2014 being brought grumbling to the Boroughs, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2427006,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2427004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/The-Boroughs-review-Lively-group-of-seniors-lead-a-sci-fi.com2F222F4f2F71b369ef4e26be82df98fbc1.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2427004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2427004"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2427004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2427008,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2427004\/revisions\/2427008"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2427006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2427004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2427004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2427004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}