Over eight episodes, dropping on May 21, in this series produced by Stranger Things‘ Duffer Brothers, the action unfolds through the eyes of grumpy engineer Sam Cooper (an endearing Alfred Molina), who is contractually obligated to move into his tidy New Mexico home, even after his wife Lilly (Malcolm in the Middle‘s Jane Kaczmarek, in flashbacks) dies. “She was the one really pushing [their move to the Boroughs], so that they could be nearer to their daughter Claire [Jena Malone],” co-creator Jeffrey Addiss tells us. “And then Lilly passed away, but the contracts were signed and the house was bought. Sam ends up in this place that he didn’t really want to be, and would never want to be without her.”
But the Boroughs might just be the place he needs, which he slowly learns as he meets his fellow quirky retirees, like bold bachelor Jack (Bill Pullman). He’s Sam’s “first friend,” says Addiss, who calls him “the welcome wagon.” (“I think this is a version of Bill Pullman, you’ve never quite seen,” the exec adds.)
Then, there’s nosy Judy (Alfre Woodard), who co-creator Will Matthews says “is interested in what everyone’s doing.” He continues: “She looks everybody up online when they’re not looking. Judy really presents as someone who’s got it all figured out, and then it turns out, she’s keeping secrets of her own.”
Courtesy of Netflix
Judy’s husband Art (Clarke Peters) is also a knowledge-seeker. “He is always looking for truth in some very interesting and strange places — and maybe places he shouldn’t be looking,” notes Matthews. “He ends up getting some answers that surprise even him, about the world, but also his wife, that’s going to throw him for a loop.”
Doctor Wally (Denis O’Hare), Sam’s neighbor, “is dealing with the fact that he’s running out of time,” says Matthews. The exec is quick to note, however, that Wally has “a sort of joy about him,” and that his character “goes to very unexpected places.”
And finally, the “mighty” Renee (Geena Davis), says Matthews, is “living her best, fullest life,” in the fake paradise as an art instructor. “Some curveballs get thrown her way that she’s not looking for, and her life changes. [Her character’s question becomes], how is she going to change with them?”
And of course, the main perpetrator of much of the change in the community is a mysterious creature, lurking in the darkness, and snatching up residents. “We really wanted the creature to be part of the show,” says Addiss. “Not an addition, and not an extra thing thrown on top. The characters are all facing a certain time in their life, [asking,] ‘How are they going to make the most of the time they have left?’ And we wanted the creature to be a part of that, not separate from it. What’s the creature going do with the time it has left? How old is the creature, really? How is the creature facing its own aging, its own relationship to the Boroughs?” The idea really puts a spin on the idiom, “twilight years.”
With sci-fi, drama, horror and comedy in the mix, “there’s a lot happening in the Boroughs, and we really stretch how many different tones you can get in one show,” says Matthews. Add in the Boroughs’ suspicious leader Blaine (Seth Numrich, Turn: Washington’s Spies), and other beguiling threads set up in the first episode, and you’ve got a full meal of modern-day mystery on your plate more reminiscent of Steven Spielberg‘s 1980s ensemble-driven films than Stranger Things.
And the co-creating duo both admit that the show’s legendary cast almost made their job too easy when it came to onscreen chemistry. “They all either knew each other or knew somebody who knew the other,” Addiss says. “They’ve just been [acting] so long, they had at most one degree of separation, if not zero.”
Welcome to the neighborhood.
The Boroughs Series Premiere Thursday, May 21, Netflix
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