{"id":460583,"date":"2026-05-21T19:58:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T19:58:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/460583\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T19:58:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T19:58:14","slug":"the-boroughs-on-netflix-stranger-things-creators-hit-up-the-pensioners-in-this-pacy-murder-mystery-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/460583\/","title":{"rendered":"The Boroughs on Netflix: Stranger Things creators hit up the pensioners in this pacy murder mystery \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stranger Things<\/a> has plunged humanity into a nuclear winter of never-ending 1980s nostalgia \u2013 see the forthcoming Masters of the Universe film and Madonna\u2019s latest comeback<\/a>. The world\u2019s politicians are even working hard at reviving the Cold War. So it is fitting that for their new post-Stranger Things project, the show\u2019s creators, the Duffer brothers, should give prime billing to a cast with first-hand memories of the decade of big hair and huge mobile phones.<\/p>\n

Geena Davis<\/a>, Bill Pullman and Alfred Molina are the Boomer bigwigs topping the bill in this agreeably pacy supernatural murder mystery set in a haunted retirement home. Molina is the star, playing grumpy retired engineer Sam, who has been dumped in a care facility following the death of his wife. As castings go, it ranks as a retro cherry on top of the Duffer\u2019s television universe, given that Molina played the cowardly jungle guide who tried to steal the golden idol from Indiana Jones in the Raiders of the Lost Ark. The Duffers finally have a line straight to Steven Spielberg.<\/p>\n

There is, however, one big departure from Stranger Things. Instead of a warm glow of 1980s pop culture, the vibe is creeping dread among the over-70s, to which is added a sprinkling of the Thursday Murder Club<\/a> and pensioners-on-the-warpath derring-do.<\/p>\n

The source of the dread is a monstrous entity hunting the citizens of the Boroughs, an outwardly halcyon retirement community where something awful is going bump in the night. Yes \u2013 as if growing old wasn\u2019t enough of an endurance, these oldies have to factor in the possibility of a beastie under the bed grabbing them when they go to make another mug of Ovaltine.<\/p>\n

But the monster may have met its match in new kid on the old block Sam Cooper (Molina), a one-time tech hotshot reeling after his wife\u2019s fatal stroke. Moving to the Boroughs was her idea and now Sam can\u2019t get out of the contract. His wife\u2019s dream of heaven on Earth has become his own private purgatory, with complimentary golf lessons and Pilates classes.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Rivals: The Irish Times Trust has told me to stop being sexy. So here it goes…Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

He\u2019s a suspicious type and cannot warm to the fake charm of the Borough\u2019s owner, Blaine Shaw (Seth Numrich). And that\u2019s despite the assurances from his party-crazy new neighbour, Jack (a suave Pullman), that all is well. Jack is wrong, however, as Sam discovers when he digs deeper, with help from his new partners-in-sleuthing. <\/p>\n

They include eternal hippie and former band manager Renee (Davis), ex-journalist Judy (Alfre Woodard) and retired doctor Wally (Denis O\u2019Hare) \u2013 phlegmatic about his cancer and disgruntled about being banned from the community centre following a recent \u201corgy\u201d. Sam also makes the acquaintance of Edward (Ed Begley Jr), the apparently mentally incapacitated former resident of his chalet who rambles about an \u201cowl\u201d in the walls. What a hoot.<\/p>\n

Grumpy old people are the new heroes of the whodunnit \u2013 see Richard Osman\u2019s Murder Club books, a cosy crime steamroller that has opened people\u2019s eyes to the idea of the over-70s being capable of forming coherent thoughts and getting out of bed every now and then.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Tradfluencer \u2013 The Sharon Shannon Story review: A folk superstar never cut out for celebrityOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Those who enjoy silver-haired amateur detectives stirring the pot will get a kick out of this murderous affair, especially as the body count piles up. That said, it does show its Stranger Things lineage by leaning into the supernatural, which won\u2019t be for everyone. For those open to the idea of monsters under the bed, however, there\u2019s a lot to love. And unlike Stranger Things, it doesn\u2019t try to club us senseless with no<\/p>\n

stalgia.<\/p>\n

You can tell the cast have bought into it too: at an age when Hollywood is happy to chuck them on the scrapheap, they\u2019re making the most of their second opportunity. Their infectious joy gives the show a youthful zing that Stranger Things could only dream of matching.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stranger Things has plunged humanity into a nuclear winter of never-ending 1980s nostalgia \u2013 see the forthcoming Masters…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460584,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[93,143294,61,60,664,1868],"class_list":["post-460583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-geena-davis","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-madonna","tag-netflix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}