The Boroughs Tackles Ageism Under the Guise of Sci-Fi

Over the last couple of weeks, I have been recommending The Boroughs to anyone who will stand still for more than five seconds to hear it. You just stood still too long.

The Boroughs is a new limited series on Netflix starring Alfred Molina, Alfre Woodard, and Geena Davis as part of a group of older adults living in a retirement community where strange things are afoot. It’s a comedic sci-fi mystery with compelling characters and a bizarre, but entertaining plot.

That’s not why I recommend it.

The main characters are all retired adults—an engineer, a doctor, a journalist, an artist—seeking meaning in a new phase of their lives. They’ve experienced loss and love and family and careers. They drink, take drugs (and I don’t mean heart medicine), and are sexually active. They are three-dimensional, interesting people who are just as powerful and brilliant as ever—albeit with a few more scars and joint replacements.

That’s still not why I recommend it.

I don’t recommend it for the romantic relationship between the sexy seventy-year-old Geena Davis and a much younger, equally sexy security guard. I don’t recommend it to watch Alfred Molina being quintessential Alfred Molina, or Alfre Woodard being absolutely gorgeous. I don’t recommend it for the depiction of older adults as something other than dependent, decrepit, objects of derision.

Well, I do recommend it for those reasons. But not merely for those reasons.

The premise of The Boroughs is that there are nefarious, possibly alien things happening in this community. Our protagonists discover pieces of the puzzle when their good friend dies under mysterious circumstances. And then their concerns are dismissed by everyone in power.

I found this series to be one of the most realistic depictions of life as an older adult or person with a disability. We see how potent these characters are. We know the monsters are real. And yet our protagonists are easily silenced by ageist assumptions.

Throughout the show, even well-meaning family members and potential allies are more likely to listen to professionals over the older adult themselves. Our fear of aging and dementia feeds into our predisposition to believe that any unusual behavior on the part of a senior must be an indication of confusion, memory loss, and dementia.

Working in the disability field, we see this dynamic with people of all ages who have cognitive or speech limitations. The word of a professional automatically trumps the disabled person’s own experiences.

In the real world, as in the series, the stakes are high. A person’s freedom, well-being, and even life may be taken when society suspects their judgement is impaired.

So, do me a favor. Watch The Boroughs and pretend that you aren’t seeing the creepy things the protagonists are experiencing. Would you believe them? Or would you believe the even creepier facility owner assuring you that your dad would be better off in the memory ward?

The answer, like the show, may disturb you.