‘The Boroughs’ review: Stop what you’re doing and watch retirees battle monsters in this fantastic sci-fi series

“Welcome to the Boroughs, where you’ll have the time of your life.”

That’s the tagline for the famous retirement community in the new Netflix series Citiesbut it’s also how I’ve been recommending this sci-fi fare to anyone who will listen.

The series draws heavily from Ron Howard’s 1985 film Cocoaand Steven Spielberg’s Amblin films. That emphasis on ’80s nostalgia shouldn’t come as a shock, given that Cities is produced by Stranger Things creators of the Duffer Brothers. However, Cities creators Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews managed to shake things up from Stranger Things and Amblin formulas. With the help of a modern setting and a series of horror stories, Cities tells a meaningful story about aging and sadness, all wrapped up in an irresistible experience.

What Cities about?

Cities does not hesitate to pay its incentives. Its first scene introduces Grace, a Boroughs resident played by her ET star Dee Wallace. Unfortunately ET fans, Wallace’s character is not long in this world. As night falls in a seemingly idyllic New Mexico community, a creature with pink legs enters its home. Part spider, part human, everything scary, spoils Musa, never to be seen again.

A fittingly spooky opening sequence, or one that might just give it away Cities‘monsters, very quickly. (In all of Spielberg’s movies Cities drawing, Jaws (and its monster-hiding tactics don’t seem high on the list.) However, Grace’s death also frees up a new house in the Valley, prompting grieving widower Sam Cooper (Alfred Molina) to move in.

Sam was originally meant to move to the Boroughs with his late wife, Lilly (Jane Kaczmarek). Now, just a few months after his death, she wants nothing more than to live alone in the house where they will live for the rest of their lives. Despite what his uber-friendly neighbor Jack (Bill Pullman) might tell him, he doesn’t see the Boroughs as a new beginning, only a bad ending.

However, a shocking encounter with the creature that angered Grace may be the new beginning that Sam resists. He launches an investigation into what’s really lurking in the Boroughs, and manages to find an unexpected community along the way.

Cities introduces an instantly likable adventure team.

Clarke Peters, Alfre Woodard, Alfred Molina, Denis O’Hare, and Geena Davis in “The Boroughs.”
Credit: Netflix

Satisfactorily played only by Molina, Sam is one of the few retirees you’ll meet Cities. As a former engineer, he teams up with ex-doctor Wally (Denis O’Hare) on the science of identifying and possibly capturing the creature.

Married couple Judy (Alfre Woodard) and Art (Clarke Peters) have different approaches to the case. Once a reporter, Judy is ready to look into the suspicious scientific activity that appears at Sam’s end of their cul-de-sac. Meanwhile, yoga and weed-loving Art spends his time on a spiritual quest for life’s greater meaning, which he may find in the inexplicable desert beyond the walls of the Boroughs. Rounding out the group is Boroughs community center art teacher Renee (Geena Davis), who is confused as to why her quartz bags keep going missing.

In Stranger Things fashion, each group includes different pieces of a large and supernatural puzzle. It’s incredibly satisfying to finally watch them together, but even apart, these novice sleuths shine. Each player in these fictional games clearly has a voice, whether it’s hacking a weapon from old TVs or getting a chance to make their best Spielberg face of shock and awe. (The latter is accentuated by John Williams’ John Paesano-inspired score, which evokes whimsy and adventure in spades.)

The show has the same fun and its characters. Even in some of the scariest moments, there’s playfulness, such as in a suspenseful shadow play sequence involving a hidden monster. Elsewhere, Cities is happy to point out the previous work of its actors. At one point, the car goes off the cliff, Thelma and Louise-style, and yes, Davis is on the scene.

It’s also fun to see older actors take on the journeys reserved for younger actors. The Boroughs’ Residents certainly chat with groups like Stranger Things at the party, Elliott and his friends enter ETagain ITThe Losers Club. Yet there are deeper paths to their history, as Sam and his friends contemplate their imminent death, their deteriorating health, and the loss of their friends and family become commonplace.

Cities‘ talking frankly about getting old will leave you in tears.

Alfred Molina and Denis O’Hare in “The Boroughs.”
Credit: Netflix

It is rarely an episode of Cities it passed without bringing me to tears, mainly because of its focus on Sam’s grief.

Lilly may have died by then Cities he starts, but he is always there in the show. Sam is constantly haunted by memories of their last day together, and what I initially thought was a dead wife’s foreshadowing quickly turns into something else, at once scheming and devastating.

The emergence of Sam’s painful memories is one of many ways Cities takes aging and loss seriously. It combines these elements in its central mystery, right down to the agenda of its evil antagonists (and how the monsters play into it).

One of the Cities‘ Of particular concern is the Manor, a long-term care facility for residents who need extra attention. This includes terminally ill patients, whom the show treats with respect and compassion, even if their cruel caregivers don’t. However Cities filled with terrifying creatures and the occasional jump scare, its most unpleasant moments are those when older characters lose their abilities, or when their guardians or family members chase them away.

Between its examination of dementia and its myth of a collective retirement community, Cities sounds like a sci-fi version of another stellar Netflix offering: The Man Inside. Cities it may have 100 percent more monster attacks, but it also has The Man Insidethe same compassion when it comes to telling the stories of retired people living fulfilling, dangerous lives.

Yes, in terms of pure adventure, Cities sets himself up as a spiritual successor to the best parts of Stranger Things. But it’s the show’s embrace of its older cast, in all its joy and sorrow, that sets it apart and makes it truly worthy of the Spielberg style that its characters find so often.

Cities now streaming on Netflix.