Brief Story Line
Sam Cooper (Alfred Molina - DC League of Super Pets, Message from the King etc) had just lost his wife due to illness and moved to a house in the retirement community called The Boroughs which was remotely located in the desert. Though very reluctant, Sam agreed to the suggestion from his daughter Claire (Jena Malone - Stepmom, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire etc) to move as it was also the wish from his late wife. The Boroughs itself was managed by its CEO Blaine Shaw (Seth Numric - Under the Banner of Heaven mini series etc) and his wife Anneliese (Alice Kremelberg - Renegade Nell TV series etc).
Sam later met with his new neighbors, the couple Art (Clarke Peters - The Irregulars TV series, Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody etc) and Judy (Alfre Woodard - The Gray Man, The Last Frontier TV series etc), the retired music manager Renee (Geena Davis - Ava, A League of Their Own etc), the Doctor Wally (Denis O'Hare - True Blood TV series, Dallas Buyers Club etc) and the charming & kind Jack (Bill Pullman - Dark Waters, The Sinner TV series etc). After a difficult start, Sam finally began to accept his new condition. Unfortunately for Sam, there were some eerily disturbing occurences in his house and he also found something shocking in one of his neighbor's house which he realized would endanger his friends and people in The Boroughs.
So what would happen to Sam and his friends? You could find out in this series.
End of Brief Story Line
You know I am glad that I decided to give this series a try cause apparently I really enjoyed it. The series began with something horrifying that made me felt it was like a horror series. Then when the opening credit started, I noticed the Duffer brothers names as co-executive producers which would explain the sci-fi and a bit of horror element. During the introduction of the main characters, I felt similarities with A Man on the Inside series with its lead protagonist an elderly widow who just lost his wife having an only daughter who was married with teenage children and he later moved to a retirement home making new friends along the way. However, while that one was light and comedic, this one was heavy and dark, plus it was of completely different genre.
Anyway, the first episode ended with something shocking that got me excited. Subsequently the story focused more on the struggle of most of the characters with occassional mysterious things investigated by Sam. As the story progressed, more information were revealed though personally to me, they were not so surprising (including the twist on one of the lead characters). Half way through the series, I could already guess where it was going, nevertheless I still had fun watching it. I also liked the ending (though there was a scene that I thought was the end which I did not appreciate. Luckily it was not the real end). But prior to the final scene, there was something which seemed to hint the story was not finished yet. It might be the series writers/creators way of teasing another season if it's successful enough and renewed by Netflix.
The series itself was created by Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews who were writers of The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim and creators of The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance TV series. It was pretty obvious that the series strength was on the ensemble cast that consisted of experienced and pretty well known names. Aside from the names I mentioned above, there was another person who was part of the main cast, i.e. Carlos Miranda (Station 19 TV series etc) as security guard for The Boroughs, Paz Navarro. Aside from them, the support cast included Rafael Casal (Blindspotting etc) as Claire's husband Neil, Eric Edelstein (We Bare Bears TV series etc) as Hank Willimas head of security for the Boroughs and brief appearances of people like Dee Wallace (Cujo, The New Lassie TV series etc) as one of the resident Grace, her dementia husband Edward (Ed Begley Jr - Bless This Mess TV series etc), Mary McDonnell (Dances With Wolves, Battlestar Galactica TV series etc) as another resident Duchess and several others.
This series only had 8 episodes and the duration ranged between 40-55 minutes (the first was the longest). That's why it would not take a lot of effort to finish the whole season. I am not sure if it's going to be renewed as it might be too early to tell. However even if it was not, I still think it was worth to give a try. Its ending was not such a cliffhanger, though the potential to continue was already teased. Of course if they do renew it, it would have been nice. And looks like both critics and audience were very receptive too which bode well for its fate (though it was not that popular in Indonesia as it did not make it to the Top 10).
Overall this was an enjoyable sci-fi with a bit of horror series. It has pretty well written story albeit not so original, and a cool sci-fi element plus likable characters. Their chemistry was good and the acting were great as well which should not be surprising considering the experience most of them had. Btw, there were quite a lot of jump scare scenes too which gave me quite a shock. Though the pace was quite steady, it was not the slow burn type. In the end, it is an interesting series that you could enjoy if you are looking for something with those attributes, especially if you are also someone who relied heavily on critics views. As for me, I did have good time watching this and I believe you would like it too.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.75 out of 5 stars
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