New Duffer Bros. Series The Boroughs’ Parallels To Stranger Things Detailed By Stars & Creators: “Golf Carts Instead Of Bicycles”

The Boroughs cast and creators break down the parallels with Stranger Things.

The science-fiction series has already drawn many comparisons to Stranger Things due to the overlap between the premises and creative team. Matt and Ross Duffer are executive producers on The Boroughs, which follows a group of older adults who investigate a dangerous and mysterious supernatural threat in their retirement community.

In an interview with ScreenRant‘s Ash Crossan for The Boroughs, the cast and creators were asked if the comparisons to Stranger Things are fair. Geena Davis agrees with it, but with the core characters riding golf carts instead of bicycles. Denis O’Hare also sees similarities when it comes to the style of music, the set production design, and the type of fictional universe. Check out Davis and O’Hare’s comments below:

Geena Davis: Well, I think it is fair to look at that. I mean, it’s a band of sort of misfits that have to get together and save people. So that’s the same. The Duffer Brothers themselves said, “Yes, it’s kind of like it, but instead of bicycles, it’s golf carts.” And I think that’s pretty good.

Denis O’Hare: I think it also shares a sensibility with the mélange of pop music from a certain era being put in, a certain kind of set production design that references a certain kind of iconic furniture. I mean, look, we’re sitting in the set right now. It’s a throwback while it’s modern. So it has the same feel, maybe even the same color palette. I don’t know, but it definitely has the same kind of universe.

Davis and O’Hare’s co-star Alfred Molina argues that the parallels are “superficial surface similarities.” He explains that the stories are actually quite different, especially when it comes to the scope, as Stranger Things‘ characters travel across the globe and to alternate dimensions, while The Boroughs‘ characters stay mostly inside their community. Molina also details how calling the new series “Stranger Things for old people” does it a disservice.

Alfred Molina: I think they are superficially accurate in the same sense that it’s about a gang and a group of people chasing a monster and the fact that the Duffer brothers are involved and there’s a great soundtrack, but that’s about as far as it goes. And those are all kind of superficial surface similarities.

When you get into the story, it’s very, very different. Stranger Things broke boundaries. It broke borders. The story stretched out into other countries, other realities, whereas our story is much more domestic. It’s all contained within this community, within this retirement community. And it very rarely breaks out anywhere else. I mean, it does. It breaks out into the desert a little bit, but that’s about it. So it’s a very different kind of story. It’s much more focused, I think. But I can see why people might… In fact, I’ve done it myself.

People have been asking me what’s the show about? And for want of a better answer, I’ve said things like, “Well, it’s Stranger Things for old people.” Which, in a way, I stopped saying that when I realized it was actually doing a disservice to the show. It wasn’t really accurate or even correct. Audiences are going to project onto it what they will. We can’t prescribe what audiences should get out. I mean, if people are sitting there enjoying it and going, “You know what? This is just like Stranger Things, but it’s a bunch of old people. It’s great. I love it. ” That’s fine with me.

The Boroughs co-creator and co-showrunner Jeffrey Addiss believes the parallels partly come from growing up at the same time as the Duffers and enjoying much of the same media. He also discusses how both shows are coming-of-age adventures featuring unlikely heroes, byt with the age of the characters being a significant difference. Addiss’ fellow creator and showrunner Will Matthews expands on this by talking about how The Boroughs and Stranger Things are genuine rather than ironic.

Jeffrey Addiss: I think we just like a lot of the same stuff. I think we’re jamming on a lot of the same things, we’re close in age, that we grew up watching and just sort of love. I think that we did think of our show as an adventure, and that show’s an adventure, and unlikely heroes. If a kid comes to you, Stranger Things age, and says they saw a monster, you don’t believe. If an older person comes to you and says they saw a monster, you don’t believe. This is a coming-of-age story, it’s just a different age.

Will Matthews: I also think Stranger Things is genuine. It’s not an ironic show. It’s sort of one of the great things about setting it in the ’80s, it’s sort of before everything became ironic all the time. It’s genuine, and The Boroughs is genuine, too.

Another difference from Stranger Things season 1 is that while all the kid characters were already in Hawkins, Indiana, The Boroughs opens with Sam Cooper (Molina) moving into the retirement community after the death of his wife Lily (Jane Kaczmarek). Additionally, the circumstances of his arrival mean that the story will be dealing with grief from the very beginning, something that Stranger Things does not deal with as much until later on.

Davis and O’Hare play the respective roles of the residents Renee and Wally Baker. Their group that goes on to contend with the supernatural threat also includes Judy Daniels (Alfred Woodard), Jack Willard (Bill Pullman), and Art Daniels (Clarke Peters). Other key characters are Sam’s daughter, Claire (Jena Malone), the retirement community’s CEO Blaine Shaw (Seth Numrich), his wife Anneliese (Alice Kremelberg), the community’s head of security, Hank Williams (Eric Edelstein), and Paz Navarro (Carlos Miranda), who is a security guard.

Since Stranger Things ended, the Duffers have also been executive producers on the Netflix shows Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen and the animated spinoff Stranger Things: Tales from ’85. The Boroughs creators and showrunners, Addiss and Matthews, previously created, wrote, and produced The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. Despite going on to be canceled after one season, it won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Children’s Program and has a “Certified Fresh” 89% critics’ score and a 94% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.

All episodes of The Boroughs come to Netflix on May 21.