A few months ago, I asked my best friend, a loyal fan of Stranger Things, what it was about that series that made so many people follow it obsessively for years. Surprisingly, he had a ready answer up his sleeve: he told me he quickly grew fond of it because it brought back that kind of (slightly childlike) excitement in which monsters hide behind doors, and a group of outsiders is the only one that understands that something much bigger is happening beneath the surface of everyday life. Although I was not one from the very beginning, I too became a fan of the Duffer universe. After watching the series Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen, I caught myself paying closer and closer attention to what is coming next and what might end up on my watchlist.

The Boroughs, the new series from the Duffer brothers, and also their final collaboration with Netflix before moving to Prime, takes us to an idyllic retirement community in New Mexico. In this place, peaceful life, with its golf courses, pools and neighborhood barbecues, very quickly turns into a sci-fi mystery. The main character is Sam Cooper, played by Alfred Molina, a retired engineer and widower who arrives in The Boroughs after the death of his wife Lily. His entry into this, at first glance, perfect community begins with grief, anger and a refusal to accept loss, and soon turns into a much stranger experience when he realizes that the previous tenant of his house was not merely paranoid when he spoke about a creature hiding in the walls.

Photo: Netflix

Sam is joined by Jack, played by Bill Pullman, Renee, played by Geena Davis, Judy, played by Alfre Woodard, Art, played by Clarke Peters, and Wally, played by Denis O’Hare. In Stranger Things, children were at the center of the story. In The Boroughs, it is older people, a generation society often pushes aside, precisely at the moment when it turns out that their experience, stubbornness and mutual connection can be an important and useful weapon.

The series somehow manages to combine a supernatural mystery, horror, comedy and an emotional drama about aging, loss and belonging. Creators Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews have said they were interested in a story about heroes whom others do not notice or take seriously, emphasizing that life does not stop being exciting when society decides you are no longer in the foreground.

Photo: Netflix

It also has all the elements that made us love the Duffer universe, filled with unusual hints, suspicious people in positions of power, secrets hidden beneath perfectly arranged facades and wrapped in so-called creature horror, with retro pop culture references and a soundtrack that deserves its own moment. The series is filled with hits by Bruce Springsteen and Bill Withers, references to The Golden Girls, and the entire atmosphere of the seventies and eighties that comes from the memories and habits of its characters.

Alongside all the sci-fi elements of the story, The Boroughs also deals with the fear of death, loneliness, grief after the loss of a partner, a body that no longer functions as it once did, and with how important friendship can be when we think the greatest stories are already behind us.

What reminded me most of Stranger Things, and at the same time why I think its fans will adore it, is the message the series offers: the most interesting stories often begin when the people no one listens to are the first to notice that something is wrong. And if you thought fighting monsters was reserved for teenagers in Hawkins, The Boroughs is a series that will very quickly prove you wrong.