The Boroughs Reviews: Critics Praise Stranger Things Producers’ New Netflix Series

From the producers of Stranger Things comes The Boroughs, a new Netflix sci-fi series that follows supernatural goings on in the unlikeliest of spots.

Led by an all-star cast that includes Alfred Molina, Bill Pullman and Clarke Peters, The Boroughs has already been described as a mix of The Goonies, A Man On The Inside and The Thursday Murder Club.

The show follows a group of pensioners in a luxury retirement village, as they try to hunt down the creature living underneath their homes, after mysterious goings-on threaten them and their loved ones.

Critics have mostly praised The Boroughs, although some have said it doesn’t live up to the earlier series of Stranger Things.

Here’s what critics are saying about The Boroughs so far…

“Like the best hokum, The Boroughs speaks, via monsters and electroplasm, to eternal human fears. Death is one, but The Boroughs parses it further – the fear of dying alone and friendless, after all one’s loved ones have gone, or after years of living in a terrifying, memory-less present – and then gives us comfort, that together most monsters can be defeated.”

“Part Thursday Murder Club, part Stranger Things, The Boroughs is an unexpectedly entertaining mix of adventure and wonder, drama and humour. Age is just a number – and it doesn’t matter what that number is when you’ve got a monster in your front room.”

“Like Stranger Things, The Boroughs is hard to pigeon-hole. There are elements of family drama, shades of comedy and moments of schlocky horror, but it’s just as intriguing as the Netflix hit’s early years.”

“The monster stuff really drags. But I liked the underlying message that you write off older people at your peril.

“It doesn’t take a psychoanalyst to spot that the monsters stalking these retirees represent mortality. Molina plays a man still hit by waves of despair over losing the woman he loved. There are scenes in which he grieves for her, sound-tracked by Bruce Springsteen, which will bring a tear to your eye.”

“Flipping the premise of executive producers the Duffer Brothers’ breakthrough series Stranger Things, where resourceful kids triumphed against monsters from the Upside Down, this series pits characters who could easily be their grandparents against a sinister otherworldly force.

“Setting the mayhem in an otherwise placid retirement community abutting the New Mexico desert (though Roswell oddly is never mentioned) is a stroke of creative genius. The elderly are an especially vulnerable demographic, often robbed of their agency and independence by well-meaning family, patronised as delusional or worse if they confess to seeing things that couldn’t possibly be true. Or could they?”

“Boasting a fantastic cast that brings this ensemble of intricate characters to life, The Boroughs turns a familiar genre on its head, allowing audiences to consider from a different vantage point the constraints of the human experience, what it means to be fearless and the finality of death.

“Fascinating and intense, with The Boroughs, viewers will indeed have the time of their lives.”

“Between its examination of dementia and its tale of a reclusive retiree finding community, The Boroughs feels like a sci-fi version of another stellar Netflix offering: A Man On The Inside.

“The Boroughs may have 100 percent more monster attacks, but it also has A Man On The Inside’s same compassion when it comes to telling stories of retirees living fulfilling, adventurous lives.”

“In between the missteps and monsters, The Boroughs is ultimately a heartfelt and charming series that poses a fair few questions about life, ageing and death – and asks just how far you’ll go for the ones you love.”

“In the final third of the story […] what first seems like simple horror starts to connect to The Boroughs’ bigger questions about the cost of extending life beyond its natural limits, and this sometimes diverts attention away from the main quest.

“The story moves away from a clear good-versus-evil setup, and a simpler version with a hero and villain might have felt more satisfying, even if it meant losing some of the deeper ideas and ambiguity the series deliberately leans into.”

“Davis, Molina, O’Hare, Peters, and Woodard make the show a blast, particularly the terrific middle stretch of the eight-episode first season.

“Too bad about the rest of the ensemble, whose one-note performances are a drag on The Boroughs’ momentum and scares. With leads this strong, you’d expect supporting players who can make lines like ‘The Boroughs is a fortress, a citadel blazing in the dark’ sound spooky, not goofy and uninspiring.

“Fortunately, a few weak links and a slow start don’t diminish The Boroughs’ delightful punch.”

“When conflict arises, the threat of being mistreated by people far younger and stronger than they are is a sobering reminder of the potential for cruelty that comes from organisations that are, in fact, positioned to help.

“It’s a dark mirror to how the kids of Stranger Things bemoan they won’t be believed by the adults in their lives, but unlike the kids, the retirees’ very lives are put under threat that, at times, feels far more frightening than even the menacing presence hiding within the retirement village.”

“Netflix’s The Boroughs gets off to a promising start, with Alfred Molina leading one hell of a great cast of veteran actors as the residents of a retirement community dealing with a monstrous, otherworldly threat.

“The set-up is intriguing and fun, with the first episode establishing an appealingly quirky tone that’s hopefully backed up by a worthy story across the eight episodes that will fully make proper use of these actors.”

“While the sci-fi thriller proves a fine enough way to while away a few hours, with a plot that boils down to ‘Stranger Things but old people’ and an A-list cast that’d turn the grey hairs of A Man On The Inside green with envy, I left thinking too much of its eight 45-minute episodes had been spent on the former, at the expense of the latter.”

“I doubt The Boroughs is about to set Netflix alight on the epic scale that Stranger Things did. It might have an old-timey vintage feel, but it is nowhere near the nostalgia bomb that first got so many in on Hawkins.”

The Boroughs is available to stream on Netflix now.