Netflix's 8-Episode 'The Boroughs' Wins Praise for Elder-Led Sci-Fi Horror

7 articles · Updated · Variety · May 21

Netflix’s “The Boroughs” is hailed as a heartbreaking, funny and intriguing sci-fi horror dramedy that centers older residents of a retirement community rather than the genre’s usual younger heroes.
Sam Cooper—played by Alfred Molina—arrives grieving at the upscale New Mexico community and becomes the audience’s entry point when he witnesses something horrific lurking beneath its golf-course calm.
Monsters, shootings, crows and a mysterious liquid drive the plot, but the review says the show’s real strength is how grief, aging and society’s dismissal of retirees anchor the suspense.
The first season runs 8 episodes and features an ensemble including Bill Pullman, Alfre Woodard, Clarke Peters, Geena Davis, Denis O’Hare, Dee Wallace and Ed Begley Jr.
Created by Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews with the Duffer brothers as executive producers, the series is praised for flipping familiar genre conventions and is now streaming on Netflix.

Does 'The Boroughs' truly challenge ageism, or does its sci-fi plot turn the elderly into another genre gimmick?

With Spielberg and 'Cocoon' as influences, does the series capture 80s movie magic or just feel like a 'Stranger Things' retread?