Reviewing “The Boroughs”

Seth Sandronsky
May 29, 2026



Logo for the television series The Boroughs – Fair Use

Set in New Mexico, “The Boroughs” is a sci-fi miniseries. The cast members are Baby Boomers who live in a spotless retirement community. All is not peaceful though. A monster hunts the Boomers, as they confront their mortality with a mix of humor, grief and regret. Why motivates the hunt? Time is one answer.

On a related note, the setting for “The Boroughs” is New Mexico, the U.S. state that hosted perhaps the biggest monstrosity in human history: nuclear weapons production beginning in 1943, via the Manhattan Project. New Mexico is now in part a nuclear stockpile site. But I digress.

The stellar cast of “The Boroughs” features Al Molina, Alfre Woodard, Clarke Peters, Geena Davis, Bill Pullman, Jena Malone, Carlos Miranda, Seth Numrich, Dee Wallace, Jane Kaczmarek, Rafael Casal, Denis O’Hare and Eric Edelstein. They bring decades of acting experience to their craft. Woodard, Molina, Peters and Davis shine especially bright, delivering authenticity and sincerity.

The writing is sharp and witty. Special effects add to the story line. The production sets with cathode ray tube televisions with their heft took me back to that time before the digital age.

As the episodes, eight in total, unfold in “The Boroughs,” characters perish, hardly an unusual occurrence, given their ages. On further inspection, questions involving the demise of characters emerge. Despite or because of what caused death, it shapes the lives of the living, a dialectical process that infuses this sci-fi miniseries, streaming on Netflix now.

In the case of the characters who Pullman and Woodard portray, marital infidelity is the particular lens that amplifies a survivor’s curiosity. That and Woodard’s character is a retired reporter put out to pasture before she’s ready, a not uncommon fate for experienced journalists.

Spoiler alert: the monster withdraws a vital bodily fluid from residents of “The Buroughs,” a metaphor for capitalism’s laws of motion: constant extraction and exploitation. These extractions in “The “Boroughs” reveal one way the system monetizes human bodies.

Meanwhile, a Fountain of Youth motive propels the story line. This is a New Age take on the legend of Spanish colonist Ponce de Leon and his quest for eternal life six centuries ago in what is Florida today.



Don’t hate the players, hate the game. Speaking of haters, I fingered the unctuous CEO of “The Buroughs” as a bad actor early on in the miniseries. How? His hairdo and surface charm gave him away. Plus, the CEO character’s wife drips with danger, giving off a femme fatale aura.

The soundtrack of “The Boroughs “ is a hit parade of tunes from the 1970s and 1980s. “Thunder Road” & “Born to Run” – Bruce Springsteen; “Shining Star” – Earth, Wind & Fire; “Night Moves” – Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band; “Ex-Factor” – Ms. Lauryn Hill; “Lovely Day” – Bill Withers; “I Can’t Stand the Rain” – Tina Turner; and “Barracuda” – Heart.

There’s a certain kind of narrative power derived from the Scooby Doo animated movies and series propelling “The Boroughs.” It’s a device that strengthens a new twist on an old story. That’s mortal beings facing time’s limits, pushing some of them to seek immortality. It’s a mortal temptation, and coming to grips with mortality isn’t easy, a conceit that animates “The Boroughs.”


Seth Sandronsky is a Sacramento journalist and member of the freelancers unit of the Pacific Media Workers Guild. Email sethsandronsky@gmail.com