[Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for The Boroughs Season 1]
Key Insights
- Collider’s Steve Weintraub interviews the creators of Netflix’s The Boroughs, Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews.
- The creators discuss their collaboration with executive producers the Duffer Brothers, the potential for additional seasons, and Episode 8’s Stranger Things Easter egg.
- They elaborate on the show’s mythology, the logic behind the Mother’s blood, and tease future developments.
Netflix’s latest binge-worthy series from Upside Down Pictures is the eight-episode fantasy sci-fi The Boroughs, created by Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews (The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance). With Season 1 available to stream now, Collider had the opportunity to sit down with the duo to explore details and address lingering questions after the series finale.
At The Boroughs, a small retirement community in the New Mexico desert, life appears idyllic for its elderly residents. From an outsider’s perspective, it’s the perfect place to relax and enjoy one’s golden years. However, upon closer inspection, as Alfred Molina’s Sam Cooper inadvertently discovers, The Boroughs is not the paradise it seems, but rather a facade hiding something much more sinister. In addition to featuring charming characters and fantastical elements reminiscent of <em>Stranger Things</em>, The Boroughs boasts a remarkable cast including Geena Davis, Alfre Woodard, Bill Pullman, Jena Malone, Clarke Peters, and Denis O’Hare.
In conversation with Collider’s Steve Weintraub, Addiss and Matthews delve into various topics including the mysterious origins of Blaine (Seth Numrich) and Anneliesse Shaw (Alice Kremelberg), the intricacies of Mother and her children’s blood, and how they interrelate. They discuss the possibility of additional seasons, how their executive producers, the Duffer Brothers, influenced Season 1 while incorporating that Episode 8 Stranger Things Easter egg, and their “reset” theory. You can view the full conversation in the video above or read the transcript below.
How the Duffer Brothers Helped Shape ‘The Boroughs’
And yes, that final glitch scene was a direct nod to Stranger Things.
Image via Netflix
COLLIDER: When you guys went in to pitch this thing, how much did you pitch a three-year plan or a five-year plan, and how much was it, “This is our show, and we’ll see what happens?”
JEFFREY ADDISS: We pitched out pretty strongly the first season in terms of all the benchmarks. I would say probably we only said a few lines about what would happen after that because part of it is, you learn as you go. But we actually know the last shot of the last scene of the last episode of this show already. We know how this ends.
WILL MATTHEWS: Because we know what it’s about emotionally. So, what are the set pieces? What are the individual beats along the way? But if this is where the show opens, here’s where it closes because here’s what it’s about. So, we did know that.
So the Duffer Brothers are producers of this. Did they give any specific advice or notes that were incorporated into the show?
ADDISS: Oh, yeah. The first one that I can remember right at the beginning was that we were going to make it in a smaller retirement home or some much smaller community, and they encouraged us to open it up into something much bigger because they were like, “You might just run out of story here. You just need a bigger canvas for the amount of episodes of stories, of seasons that you’re going to make.” So that was one right off the bat.
MATTHEWS: Yeah. They had a really good note about the ending. When we first talked about how to end Season 1 to set up Season 2 in hopes, they said, “You never know what’s going to happen, so tell a full story and then crack a door but don’t marry yourself to anything in the future because you don’t know what it brings.” And that was why.
Episode 8 ends with Sam Cooper in the bathroom, and he glitches in the mirror. What do you want to tell people about that shot and what that glitch means?
ADDISS: It’s definitely a nod to where we want to go. It’s definitely well thought through. It’s not done for no reason. It is a very specific reason. We wanted to pay a little bit of homage to Stranger Things, is the truth. Because if you remember, the first season ends with Will in the mirror. So when Matt and Ross [Duffer] read that, they laughed. They knew what we were doing, and they were like…
MATTHEWS: “That’s fair.”
ADDISS: We were like, “Come on! We had to.” And we got away with it, which is crazy. It’s just how generous they are that they let us include that.
All Your ‘Stranger Things’ Series Finale Questions Answered By the Duffer Brothers [Exclusive]
Creators Matt and Ross Duffer address fan theories, “Byler,” deleted scenes, and answer our biggest questions after Season 5.
Every Drop of Blood Contains “Infinite Possibility,” Say Creators
They break down the relationship of Mother to her children.
Image via Netflix
The other thing is that the very last shot of Episode 8 is almost like the screen is collapsing into a black hole or something. I don’t know how to describe it. What do you want to say about that shot, and specifically why it’s included, and what its meaning is?
ADDISS: The Boroughs is about a community, and there’s this idea that there’s other stuff out there—a bigger world. We really looked at that closing as an old TV turning off. The concept of transmission is significant in this show.
Why does Mother’s blood cause healing while children’s blood does not?
ADDISS: We think of it like bees. We considered this extensively. When a bee collects pollen, it must return it to its hive to create honey. The blood represents honey while the creature serves as its delivery system. Thus it’s only after Mother’s processing that healing occurs because it’s Mother’s blood responsible for it—not merely the creature’s.
MATTHEWS: So you’ve got drones and their queen.
Certainly! So why does Mother decide to take her children with her? Can you explain your thought process behind that decision?
ADDISS: If you consider queens and drones conceptually—they might be more unified than distinct entities. There may not be a scenario where one exists without the other. In this context, she’s surrounded by herself.
MATTHEWS: Additionally, due to her unique relationship with time and death—it’s not quite analogous to human experiences—it’s more fluid for them.
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