What to stream this week: Bill Pullman’s retiree thriller, plus five more picks

This week’s picks in include a supernatural series from the creators of Stranger Things, a For All Mankind spin-off, a delightful documentary about comedian Martin Short and a fitting end to a true-crime documentary.

The Boroughs ★★★½ (Netflix)

The boomers are more than OK in The Boroughs, an enjoyably upbeat supernatural adventure where the ageing residents of an American retirement village have to band together to fight off their various adversaries. Whether it’s a society that wants to park them out of the way or spindly creatures that make nocturnal brain fluid raids, these retirees are up against it. Let’s be clear: nobody puts nanna in the corner.

Recently widowed and still grieving, Sam (Alfred Molina) arrives at the town-sized desert retirement community that is The Boroughs as an afterthought. His late wife signed them up and now Sam is unpacking their shared life alone. But he’s barely met cul-de-sac neighbours such as Jack (Bill Pullman), Renee (Geena Davis), or married couple Judy and Art (Alfre Woodard and Clarke Peters) before the wildness kicks in.

The show is upfront about its scares. From the opening scene it’s ready to reveal the creepy intruders stalking the residents. It’s more interested in how the ageing collective respond, and what that does for their self-belief. They know no one will believe them – too much talk of monsters just gets you sent to “the Manor”, a secure ward for those with cognitive decline – and they have to remember just what they’re capable of.

The Boroughs was created by Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews (The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance), but the most prominent credit is Stranger Things creators the Duffer Brothers as executive producers. The two shows share some DNA, including improvised monster hunts, ominous authority figures, and just-in-time escapes, albeit with golf carts for Sam and his pals instead of BMX bikes. John Paesano’s score is an uplifting homage to John Williams; negative fearing has no chance.

There may be some unlikely heroics, but the ageing characters are never just cliches. They have ongoing needs and tangled emotional lives. Judy and Art are at the painful end of a long-time open marriage, while Renee has caught the eye of a younger security guard, and Sam is wrestling with unresolved anger. They’re not just conservative or curmudgeonly. Ageing, naturally or otherwise, is a bittersweet reality and telling metaphor.

It’s a pleasure to see Molina, so long a gifted addition to supporting casts, have his way with a leading role. But the entire cast captures a dynamic of renewal and self-recognition, with True Blood maverick Denis O’Hare adding a sad, sardonic edge as the ailing Wally. As sturdily plot-driven as the eight episodes are, The Boroughs works as a great hang. It’s fun watching these characters traverse the unexpected. That matters.

Star City ★★★½ (Apple TV)

Star City is the rare spin-off that executes such a complete pivot that you don’t need to have seen the original series. Now in its fifth season, For All Mankind is an alternate history told through a space race where the Soviet Union puts a man on the moon before the Americans in 1969. The narrative follows the super-charged response of NASA and its astronauts across multiple decades, intertwining personal struggle and institutional crises.

Star City has the same startling 1969 starting point, but it tells the story from the Soviet viewpoint. The space program run by the unnamed Chief Designer (Rhys Ifans) answers to a totalitarian communist regime. Cosmonauts such as Valya Markelova (Adam Nagaitis) and Anastasia Belikova (Alice Englert) not only risk their lives in primitive capsules, but are under constant scrutiny from a vast KGB operation marshalled by Lyudmilla Raskova (Anna Maxwell Martin). Propaganda and paranoia are the norm.

With a mostly British cast, the show nods to menacing predecessors: the warped state priorities of Chernobyl, the mole hunt tension of a John le Carre thriller, and the intimacy of surveillance from The Lives of Others – no one knows the cosmonauts and their partners better, or perhaps worries about them more, than the junior KGB officers, such as Irina Morozova (Agnes O’Casey), who monitor them daily. The show is science fiction as adult Cold War drama. Freedom is always fleeting.

The Yoghurt Shop Murders ★★★★½ (HBO Max)

Released last August, this true crime docuseries is one of the genre’s most profound works. It explores the anguish and loss that followed the horrific 1991 murder of four teenage girls in the Texan city of Austin.

But just a few months later, this perplexing cold case was solved, bringing closure to the likes of Sonora Thomas, sister of 17-year-old victim Eliza. The new, conclusive episode from director Margaret Brown has the same approach as the existing quartet: deep empathy, procedural care and a close questioning of the ramifications. It’s a fitting, welcome addition.

Marty, Life is Short ★★★½ (Netflix)

Directed by his long-time friend Lawrence Kasdan (The Big Chill), this affectionate biographical documentary confirms what we’d always suspected about Canadian comic Martin Short: he’s hugely funny, whether on or off the screen, a wonderful pal and deeply committed, no matter the difficulties, to those he loves. His up-and-down career – very much up now, thanks to Only Murders in the Building – gets recapped, but the choice material is from the Hollywood private archives. A scene of Tom Hanks and Short riffing on Forrest Gump at a casual 1990s family get-together is inspired.

Alias ★★★ (Disney+)

In between Felicity and Lost, J.J. Abrams created this 2001 espionage thriller, which provided a breakthrough role for Jennifer Garner (and an early sighting of Bradley Cooper). A quarter-century on it feels ripe for rediscovery, with 105 episodes that start with double identities and outrageous disguises as Garner’s Sydney Bristow comes to realise that the covert organisation she works for might not be the good guys. The show became steadily more labyrinthine and conspiratorial – get ready to obsess over medieval artefacts with prophetic powers – but there’s usually a sleek mission of the week, too.

My Farewell (Craig Mathieson)

After four very busy years trying to keep you all informed of what was – and was not – worth watching, I’m stepping aside as your weekly critic. Along with my wonderful editors past and present, I’d like to thank readers for your support and feedback. Every time one of you told me I’d turned you on to a worthy new show, I felt a wonderful sense of vindication. Don’t worry, my byline will remain part of our extensive television coverage. I’ve got a few more recommendations in me yet.

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