The Creators of the Duffer Bros.-Produced Series THE BOROUGHS Talk About Their 80s Movie Inspirations For the Show

The Duffer Brothers recently released a new TV show for Netflix, and just like their mega-hit series Stranger Things, The Boroughs, written and created by Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews, draws inspiration from some great 80s pop culture.

The series is set in a seemingly perfect retirement community, where a group of unlikely heroes discovers a harrowing threat, and realizes that they have no choice but to come together in hopes of stopping an otherworldly threat from stealing the one thing they don’t have—time.

The creators are talking about some of their inspirations, especially what prompted them to focus on an older demographic as their group of unlikely heroes. According to them, they wanted to know - “What’s it like to be 70 and to be a hero?”

Talking to Empire about the inspiration behind the series, Matthews explained, “Films like Ron Howard’s Cocoon and TV hits like The Golden Girls were touchstones. But the Golden Girls were like, what, 55?

“So we wanted to ask, ‘What’s it like to be 70 and to be a hero?’” Addiss went on to add, “It’s an adventure show. There’s a mystery. It’s not gory, but there are real scares and real danger, with a dangerous puzzle at its heart that these characters are going to unlock.”

“There were some parts when we were filming that I couldn’t watch,” says Matthews, saying that the show leans heavily into fears surrounding “what time we have left.” But there’s more to it, according to both showrunners, as it also focuses on a demographic often dismissed.

The incredible cast features Alfred Molina, Alfre Woodard, Geena Davis, Bill Pullman and Jena Malone. The Boroughs and is now playing on Netflix.