The Boroughs Review: Netflix’s Stranger Things Clone Disappoints

Every streaming giant dreams of capturing lightning in a bottle twice. Netflix, having struck gold with the nostalgic, supernatural alchemy of ‘Stranger Things,’ has now greenlit ‘The Boroughs,’ a series that feels less like a spiritual successor and more like a corporate photocopy with the contrast turned down. Positioned as a similar blend of small-town mystery and otherworldly threat, but with a twist focusing on a group of senior citizens, the show arrives with a significant pedigree—starring Maya Harris, niece of Vice President Kamala Harris—and even greater expectations.

From the first frame, the homage is unmistakable: the synth score hums with familiar anxiety, the camera lingers on suburban landscapes hiding dark secrets, and a group of unlikely heroes bands together against an inexplicable force. Yet, as our review will detail, ‘The Boroughs’ struggles to define its own identity, constantly living in the shadow of its more illustrious predecessor. It’s a series that prompts the immediate question: is this a heartfelt tribute or a calculated algorithm play?

Story Summary (Spoiler-Free)

‘The Boroughs’ is set in a seemingly tranquil American suburb where a mysterious energy-sapping phenomenon begins targeting the elderly population. The story follows a retired engineer, a former journalist, a widowed bookkeeper, and other residents of a senior living community who discover they are at the epicenter of a strange occurrence. As their vitality is slowly drained, they must band together, using their lifetime of experience and forgotten skills, to investigate the source of this threat, which appears to be linked to a long-abandoned military facility on the town’s outskirts. The series positions itself as a story about resilience, community, and proving that heroes come in all ages.

Detailed Story Review

The fundamental flaw of ‘The Boroughs’ lies in its conception. While the premise of senior citizens confronting a paranormal threat is refreshing, the execution is frustratingly derivative. The story beats follow a paint-by-numbers template of the ‘kids on bikes’ genre, simply swapping the bicycles for mobility scooters. The mysterious government facility, the slowly spreading ‘blight’ affecting the town, and the gradual uncovering of a decades-old cover-up feel like narrative elements pulled from a checklist rather than organically developed.

The show wants to have it both ways: to be a quirky, character-driven piece about aging and a high-stakes sci-fi thriller. These two tones often clash, leaving neither thread fully satisfying. The character backstories—involving past regrets, lost loves, and familial estrangement—are introduced in clunky exposition dumps that halt the supernatural momentum. Conversely, when the otherworldly threat takes center stage, the logic behind it is murky at best, relying on vague pseudoscience that fails to build consistent rules for its universe. The pacing is uneven, with some episodes meandering through subplots that add little to the central mystery, while the final revelations feel rushed and underwhelming.

Warning: Minor Spoiler Ahead. The series’ attempt at a poignant twist—linking the phenomenon to the characters’ own fears of obsolescence and fading memory—is conceptually interesting but is undermined by a convoluted mythology involving energy harvesting and parallel dimensions that never coalesces into a coherent whole. The emotional payoff the story strives for in its finale feels unearned because the plot mechanics leading to it are so thinly sketched.

Acting Performances

Maya Harris, in her prominent leading role, brings a grounded, weary determination to her character. She convincingly portrays the frustration and grit of someone refusing to be sidelined. However, the material often lets her down, requiring her to deliver clunky explanatory dialogue that even a seasoned actor would struggle to sell. The supporting ensemble, comprised of veteran character actors, is the show’s true strength. They share an easy, believable chemistry that sells the idea of a community forged in the Sunset Acres retirement village. Their moments of quiet camaraderie, the shared jokes over bad cafeteria food, and the unspoken understanding of life’s later chapters feel authentic and are often the most compelling parts of the series. It’s a shame their talents are frequently deployed in service of a plot that doesn’t deserve them.

Direction

The direction is competent but uninspired, heavily borrowing the visual language of similar shows. There’s a clear attempt to create a distinct aesthetic for the seniors’ world—warmer lighting in their community spaces, slower, more deliberate camera movements—which contrasts with the cold, blue-tinged and shaky-cam sequences inside the mysterious facility. This visual dichotomy is a good idea in theory, but in practice, it feels like two different shows awkwardly spliced together. The director seems hesitant to fully commit to either the intimate drama or the genre thriller, resulting in a tonal seesaw that prevents the series from finding a confident, unique voice. The set-pieces, particularly those involving the supernatural threat, lack creativity and tension, often resorting to predictable jump scares and vague, shadowy figures.

Screenplay Analysis

The screenplay is the show’s Achilles’ heel. The dialogue oscillates between overly expositional (‘As you know, back in ’82, the military built…’) and attempts at quippy, generational humor that frequently falls flat. The structure is episodic in the worst way, with each hour often resolving a minor problem while barely advancing the core mystery, making the eight-episode season feel both padded and rushed. Character motivations shift to serve the plot needs rather than feeling like natural progressions. The most interesting ideas—like using skills from their past careers (engineering, journalism, accounting) to solve problems—are underutilized, mentioned once and then forgotten in favor of more generic chase sequences.

Music Review

The soundtrack leans heavily into the now-clichéd ’80s synthwave revival popularized by its obvious influence. While the pulsating electronic score is professionally composed, it feels like a directorial note—’make it sound like Stranger Things’—rather than an artistic choice serving this specific story. The needle drops featuring classic rock songs from the characters’ youth are occasionally effective but often feel like a cheap shortcut to evoke nostalgia and signal the time period the seniors hail from. There’s no original musical theme or motif that resonates or defines the show.

Background Score

The background score is omnipresent and manipulative, constantly telling the audience how to feel with swelling strings for sentimental moments and dissonant synth stings for scares. It lacks subtlety and becomes overbearing, often doing the heavy lifting for scenes where the writing and direction fail to generate genuine emotion or suspense on their own. A more restrained and idiosyncratic approach could have better served the unique premise.

Cinematography

Cinematographically, the show is polished but generic. The suburban landscapes are shot with a clear, crisp digital sheen that lacks the filmic texture or distinctive color grading that might set it apart. The visual effects for the supernatural elements are serviceable but unremarkable, consisting largely of energy glows and distortion fields that have been seen countless times before. There are few memorable shots or visual compositions that linger in the mind.

Editing Quality

The editing is functional but contributes to the pacing issues. Scenes often run too long, lingering on reaction shots or dialogue exchanges that don’t reveal new information. The transitions between the slow-burn character scenes and the thriller sequences are jarring, lacking a rhythmic flow. The season’s climax, which should be a crescendo of cross-cutting and tension, is instead confusingly assembled, muddying the action and the stakes.

Visual Effects (VFX)

The visual effects are adequate for a streaming series but lack imagination. The central phenomenon—the energy draining effect—is visualized as a simple, rippling heat haze and a generic neon glow. It never feels like a tangible or uniquely terrifying threat. The effects work does the job without ever wowing or feeling integral to the storytelling.

Comedy

The comedic elements, meant to provide levity, are largely sitcom-level gags about aging—forgetting names, complaining about joints, misunderstandings with technology. While the cast delivers these lines with charm, the humor feels dated and pandering, rarely arising organically from the characters or the bizarre situation they’re in. It misses the opportunity for sharper, character-driven wit.

Emotional Moments

The emotional core of the show—the friendships, the late-in-life regrets, the defiance against being made to feel useless—has genuine potential. In its quieter moments, when the plot machinery pauses, the actors manage to convey a poignant sense of shared history and vulnerability. These flashes of real emotion are what make the series occasionally engaging, but they are too often interrupted by the demands of the undercooked supernatural plot, preventing a deeper connection from forming.

Dialogues

The dialogue quality is inconsistent. At its worst, it’s laden with exposition and on-the-nose declarations (‘We’re not just old folks waiting to die!’). At its best, it captures the shorthand and gentle ribbing of long-term friendships. A memorable, authentic line might be a retired mechanic dryly noting, ‘I spent forty years listening to engines tell me their secrets. This… this just sounds like bad static.’ Unfortunately, such moments of lyrical simplicity are rare amidst more clunky scripting.