There are monsters in The Boroughs, the new Netflix series executive produced by Stranger Things creators the Duffer Brothers. But the most pressing concern on the show isn’t a physical menace. Instead, it’s time. As in, not having enough time—but also having too much time to kill. That’s probably not a surprise considering the setting for The Boroughs, which comes from showrunners, creators, and executive producers Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews. The series is named for a retirement community whose residents live in a carefully curated environment while facing the last chapters of their lives. A brief opening scene featuring genre legend Dee Wallace lets us know there’s freaky danger lurking in this midcentury-modern enclave, which is in the middle of nowhere and yet still has a gatehouse monitoring who goes in or out. (io9 watched the full eight-episode season ahead of this spoiler-free review.)
© Netflix Retired engineer Sam (Alfred Molina) enters the Boroughs very reluctantly. He’s prodded along by his daughter, Claire (Jena Malone), who’s loving and supportive but also losing patience with him. They’re both sharply feeling the recent loss of family matriarch Lilly (Jane Kaczmarek), a charismatic presence in flashbacks, but Sam is stubbornly reluctant to open up about his grief. Sam and Lilly were supposed to move to the Boroughs together, making Sam’s relocation to this strange place even more painful.
