Netflix's new sci-fi series has debuted at the top of the streamer's viewership charts, following positive reviews and the support of the Duffer Brothers as executive producers.
As expected, Netflix 's new sci-fi series has debuted at the top of the streamer's viewership charts. The eight-episode show premiered on May 21 to positive reviews, which will no doubt extend its run at the top of the leaderboard.
Created by Jeffrey Adiss and Will Matthews, the series has been executive-produced by the Duffer Brothers. Following the conclusion of the Duffers' platform-defining series Stranger Things in 2025, they've been lending their support to new creators on a trio of shows released in three consecutive months. They began the year with the horror series Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen, created by Haley Z. Boston and released in March.
In April, the Duffers executive-produced the spin-off animated series Stranger Things: Tales from '85, created by Eric Robles and Jennifer Muro. The new show is more in line with the Spielbergian sci-fi tone of Stranger Things, although it very pointedly doesn't feature teenagers. Instead, the show's protagonists are retirees living peacefully in a peaceful community that is upended by a mysterious otherworldly threat.
The show stars Alfred Molina, Bill Pullman, Geena Davis, Alfre Woodard, Clarke Peters, and others, with episodes directed by Augustine Frizzell and Kyle Patrick Alvarez. According to FlixPatrol, the new sci-fi series was among the most-watched titles on Netflix both domestically and worldwide following its midweek debut. COLLIDER Collider · Quiz Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz Which Sci-Fi World Would You Survive? The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars Five universes.
Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you'd actually make it out of alive. 💊The Matrix 🔥Mad Max 🌧️Blade Runner 🏜️Dune 🚀Star Wars TEST YOUR SURVIVAL → QUESTION 1 / 8INSTINCT 01 You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you.
What do you do? The first instinct is often the truest one. APull on every thread until I understand the system — then figure out how to break it. BStop asking questions and start stockpiling — food, fuel, weapons.
Questions don't keep you alive. CKeep my head down, observe carefully, and trust no one until I know who's pulling the strings. DStudy the patterns. Every system has a rhythm — learn it, and you learn how to survive it.
EFind the people fighting back and join them. You can't fix a broken galaxy alone.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 2 / 8RESOURCE 02 In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires. AKnowledge. If you understand the system, you don't need resources — you can generate them.
BFuel. Everything else — movement, power, escape — runs on it. CTrust. In a world of fakes and informants, a truly reliable ally is rarer than any commodity.
DWater. And after water, information — the two things empires are truly built on. EShips and credits. The galaxy is big — you survive it by being able to move through it freely.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 3 / 8THREAT 03 What kind of threat keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you're honest about what you're actually afraid of. AThat reality itself is a lie — that everything I experience has been constructed to keep me compliant. BA raid.
No warning, no mercy — just the roar of engines and then nothing left. CBeing identified. Once someone with power decides you're a problem, you're already out of time. DBeing outmanoeuvred — losing a political game I didn't even know I was playing.
EThe Empire tightening its grip until there's nowhere left to run. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 4 / 8AUTHORITY 04 How do you deal with authority you don't trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything.
ASubvert it from the inside — learn its rules well enough to weaponise them against it. BIgnore it and stay out of its reach. The further from any power structure, the better. CAppear to comply while doing exactly what I need to do.
Visibility is the enemy. DManoeuvre within it carefully. You can't beat a system you refuse to understand. EResist openly when I have to.
Some things are worth the risk of being seen. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 5 / 8ENVIRONMENT 05 Which environment could you actually endure long-term? Survival isn't just tactical — it's physical, psychological, and very much about where you are. AUnderground bunkers and server rooms — cramped, artificial, but with access to everything that matters.
BOpen wasteland — brutal sun, no shelter, constant movement. At least the threat is honest. CA dense, rain-soaked city where you can disappear into the crowd and nobody asks questions. DMerciless desert — extreme heat, no water, and something enormous living beneath the sand.
EThe fringe — backwater planets and busy spaceports where the Empire's attention rarely reaches. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 6 / 8ALLIANCE 06 Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart? The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are. AA tight crew of believers who've seen behind the curtain and have nothing left to lose.
BOne or two people I'd trust with my life. Any more than that and someone talks. CNobody, ideally. Alliances are liabilities.
I work alone unless I have no choice. DA community bound by shared hardship and mutual survival — people who need each other to last. EA ragtag team with wildly different skills and total commitment when it counts.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 7 / 8MORALITY 07 Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all? Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they're actually made of. AI won't harm the innocent — even the ones who'd report me without hesitation. BI do what I have to to protect the people I've chosen.
Everything else is negotiable. CThe line shifts depending on who's asking and what's at stake. DI draw a long-term line — nothing that compromises my people's future, even if it'd help now. ESome lines, once crossed, can't be uncrossed.
I know which ones they are. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 8 / 8PURPOSE 08 What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another.
AWaking others up — dismantling the illusion so no one else has to live inside it. BFinding somewhere — or someone — worth protecting. A reason to keep moving. CAnswers.
Understanding what I am, what any of this means, before time runs out. DLegacy — shaping the future in a way that outlasts me by generations. EFreedom — for myself, for others, for every world still living under someone else's boot. REVEAL MY WORLD → Your Fate Has Been Calculated You'd Survive In… Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for.
This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for. The Resistance, Zion The Matrix You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You're a systems thinker who can't help but notice the seams in things. The Wasteland Mad Max The wasteland doesn't reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break.
That's you. Los Angeles, 2049 Blade Runner You'd survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely. Arrakis Dune Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards. A Galaxy Far, Far Away Star Wars The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn't have it any other way.
↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ Here's Your New Sci-Fi Binge on Netflix We're talking, of course, about The Boroughs. The show has received positive reviews from critics and currently has a 94% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Many compared it to Stranger Things, both favorably and unfavorably.
In her review, Collider's Greer Riddell wrote that the new show continues the Stranger Things tradition"of honoring elements of sci-fi stories that came before," but she stressed that it"deserves more than to be discussed as a copy" of the Duffers' original. The brothers are now headed to Paramount to begin a new creative partnership that'll give them the opportunity to make theatrical feature films as well as continue their television and streaming work.
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You can watch The Boroughs on Netflix now, and stay tuned to Collider for more streaming updates. 7 10 The Boroughs Like Follow Followed Drama Mystery Supernatural Sci-Fi Release Date May 21, 2026 Network Netflix Showrunner Jeffrey Addiss, Will Matthews Directors Augustine Frizzell, Kyle Patrick Alvarez, Ben Taylor Cast See All In the retirement community of The Boroughs, newcomer Sam Cooper uncovers a terrifying secret hidden beneath its tranquil desert setting. Ignored by those in charge, he teams up with a group of underestimated residents to investigate a deadly force stalking the neighborhood. Main Genre Mystery Powered by Expand Collapse
Netflix Sci-Fi Series Viewership Duffer Brothers Jeffrey Adiss Will Matthews Haley Z. Boston Eric Robles Jennifer Muro Geena Davis Bill Pullman Alfre Woodard Clarke Peters Alice Waterson Kilmer Morris Walks Like A Man
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