It might have once been sacrilegious to disparage Stranger Things, but now that Netflix’s flagship sci-fi adventure has run its course, fans seem freer with their criticism. Its final season left a lot to be desired, the chief of which was nostalgia that didn’t feel quite so performative. Stranger Things was clearly a love letter to ‘80s sci-fi and Amblin/Stephen King storytelling from the very beginning, but as the series matured and reached for a more “epic” scope, those tributes and callbacks lost their charm and substance. By Season 5, that nostalgia was reduced to a slew of random needle drops, misguided fashion choices, and a total blind spot for the pop culture phenoms that actually were all the rage in 1989.
Maybe it was too much to expect the Duffer Brothers to follow through on the pastiche, but this specific brand of ‘80s nostalgia feels trite now, anyway. Instead, the Duffers are wisely throwing their weight behind a very different kind of ‘80s tribute, one that celebrates the actors who got their start in that era, and plants them smack in the midst of their own Stranger Things-esque adventure.
The heroes of The Boroughs, Netflix’s latest sci-fi romp, would have been in their prime in the 1980s. The series, however, is set in the present day, following a handful of Gen Xers as they migrate to an idyllic retirement community in New Mexico. While retirees like Wally (Denis O’Hare) and Judy (Alfre Woodard) are more than happy to wile away their final years with “cocktails and chaos,” the recently widowed Sam Cooper (Alfred Molina) eyes this greener pasture with a generous dose of skepticism. He’s not ready to give up the freedom he enjoyed in his past, or his past in general. The idea that his life might soon be over is a truth he can’t yet accept, and the strange, supernatural visions he’s been having since moving into the Boroughs are even harder to process.
The Boroughs looks a lot like Stranger Things set in a retirement home. Sam teams up with Wally and Judy to investigate the inner workings of their new community, while wildcards like Renee (Geena Davis) and Jack (Bill Pullman) provide suspicious intel about the growing conspiracy. It’s a refreshing perspective for this genre, which has spent the past two decades focused on young kids fighting aliens in the ‘80s.
The Boroughs’ creators, Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews, wisely recognize that the well has run dry — if not with classics like E.T., then surely after Super 8 (technically set in 1979, but still), Stranger Things, and all its copycats. The Duffer Brothers serve as producers, which suggests some connective tissue between their series and The Boroughs. The latter is shaping up to be a spiritual follow-up to Stranger Things, ideally just without the kind of nostalgia that’s run its course.
