Nearly 30 years ago, there was a somewhat successful dark comedy called The 'Burbs (1989), starring Tom Hanks. It was spoofing the seemingly ideal and safe nature of suburban life. At first, the film is about prejudice and discrimination, distrust by way of xenophobia. However, the film ends by essentially confirming the characters' bias. Celeste Hughey (Palm Royale and Dead to Me) adapts that film into this series and she doesn't seem to be taking that same dark or satirical tone. The 1989 film was directed by Joe Dante who had directed Gremlins (1984) and Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990). Critics compared the film to Beetlejuice (1988), which had come out the year before. Hughey doesn't embrace that kind of humor or comedy. The tone here feels more like Desperate Housewives (2004) or Only Murders in the Building (2021). Both are mystery comedies where we see a bunch of quirky characters trying to solve some kind of crime, usually bright and bubbly, and this isn't just in the cinematography but in how scenarios play out or how characters behave.
Keke Palmer (One of Them Days and Nope) stars as Samira Fisher, an attorney who does civil litigation, but she's currently on maternity leave because she just had a baby. She's married to a man who recently inherited a house in his home town, away from the city where they used to live. Samira moves with her husband and newborn to this home and a quaint, suburban neighborhood where she doesn't know anybody. She's also the only Black person. Even her husband is white. She's trying to take care of her baby, but she's also trying to get to know her neighbors. Through them, she's also learning new things about her husband.
Jack Whitehall (The Afterparty and Jungle Cruise) co-stars as Rob Fisher, a book editor who grew up in a suburban neighborhood called Hinkley Hills. A lot of the neighbors who he knew growing up are still there. One of them is his childhood best friend. They were both dorks when they were younger and perhaps still are, but both are sweet guys. However, it's revealed that Rob had two best friends when he was a teenager. The other is a girl who ended up disappearing. Some assume that the young girl was murdered. After some time, a rumor started going around that the people who lived across the street from Rob's home might have had something to do with it.
Just like the film, there's a Victorian-style, large house that looks a bit rundown and obviously old, and not well kept. Just like the film, that house gets some new inhabitants who seem weird or creepy. In the film, the protagonist suspects that those inhabitants have possibly murdered another neighbor who disappears without any word. Samira starts to suspect a similar thing. She thinks that the new neighbors might have had something to do with the missing young girl whom was Rob's best friend. She recruits other neighbors, neighbors whom she trusts, to help her solve the mystery. As a result, we get get to know these other neighbors and they bring their own quirk or silly aspect.
Kapil Talwalkar (Night Court and Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist) also co-stars as Naveen Varma, the aforementioned male best friend of Rob. Despite being the same age as Rob, probably in his mid 30's, Naveen very much still acts like a teenager. He might have inherited the house where he lives from his family like Rob or he could've purchased it himself. Yet, inside his house, it looks like a broke, college student's dorm room. He doesn't have furniture. He sleeps on a futon on the floor. He has garbage all over. He acts like an overgrown child. Mainly, it's because he's single. His child-like behavior is his quirk.
There are several other characters that have their own quirks as well. Veteran actress Julia Duffy (Palm Royale and Newhart) plays Lynn, a widow who learns some secrets about her dead husband. Paula Pell who worked as a writer for Saturday Night Live plays Dana Richards, a lesbian Marine veteran who is hiding the fact that she has an ankle monitor. Rounding out the cast is Mark Proksch (What We Do in the Shadows and The Office) who plays Tod Mann, the quirkiest of all the quirky characters. He barely speaks and when he does, he's terse and rather blunt. He's not one for small talk. He often just cuts straight to the point.
Samira is quirky in that if she thinks something isn't right, she'll want to investigate. It might be the lawyer in her that makes her that way. The show deals with her possible anxiety with being the only Black person in a predominantly white-people environment. Some racial issues briefly come up in that regard, but it's odd that those issues don't come up more. There's a Oscar-nominated documentary called The Perfect Neighbor (2025), which feels like a direction this series could've gone, and in some ways does. However, Keke Palmer is a delight to have in the series. Her presence more than anything keeps this thing afloat. I simply hope that the writers can continue to come up with interesting mysteries season after season.
Rated TV-MA.
Running Time: 30 mins. / 8 eps.
Available on Peacock.