'The 'Burbs' is cozy, charming, and MAGA's worst nightmare

Thankfully, the new TV adaptation of The ’Burbs, which arrives on Peacock today, preserves all the cozy humor and camp of the original film but flips the anti-immigrant elements on their head. The result is one of the coziest and most charming series we’ve seen in a while, and it’s here just in time.

This new iteration, which is helmed by series creator Celeste Hughey (Palm Royale, Dead to Me, High Fidelity), who loved Dante’s film, saw this as a way of reinventing while still celebrating what makes the original film so special.

“The original movie, while it is a commentary on suburbs, is about a group of neighbors ganging up on their foreign neighbors and questioning everything about them. It's very of the time, and it's not something—a story—I wanted to tell,” Hughey tells PRIDE. “I wanted to tell the perspective of the outsider moving in and feeling like these are the weird people. That's the line of the movie. It's like, ‘it's not them, it's us.’ And so I wanted to show the other version of that and really dive into that as their entry point for the world.”

The other entry point into the series is its incredible cast, led by the always charismatic out actress Keke Palmer, who makes up half of the new couple moving onto the block alongside Jack Whitehall. They play Samira and Rob Fisher (the last name is an homage to the late, great, Carrie Fisher).

The casting of Palmer is an absolute coup, as much like Hanks before her, she has the comedic timing and sheer lovability that allows you to follow along with her as she becomes increasingly obsessed with a new mysterious neighbor.

“It was always Keke,” confesses Hughey. “She really is kind of the modern torchbearer of Tom Hanks. She can do everything from comedy to drama. She is so charismatic. She's so beloved. And I think, you know, you can watch her eat a sandwich and read a menu, and you're just absolutely charmed. And so I felt she was the perfect person to embody the new version of this character.”

Samira, at first an outsider in the neighborhood and only the second person of color to live there, quickly finds herself embraced by the well-meaning, if occasionally awkward, neighborhood friend group, made up of Lynn (Julia Duffy), a recent widow who hosts nightly wine nights on her front porch; Tod (Mark Proksch), who is, well, an absolute weirdo and scene-stealer who rides around on his recumbent bike; and Dana (Paula Pell), an out lesbian and former military servicemember.

Again, the casting is pitch-perfect for Dana, who is an amalgamation of both the characters of Mark (Dern) and Art (Rick Ducommun) from the original film. Although here she’s an out lesbian and jokes about how that makes her an outsider in suburbia, which was something Pell could relate to.

“I'm in my sixties. I'm married to a wonderful woman, and I can speak about it to my family. I'm not closeted anymore in my life, and there's something very normal about my life,” she tells PRIDE. “So, I like that Dana is in the most normal—in very big quotes—American neighborhood, [with] the cul-de-sac and the little pristine yards and everything. And yet she's aware [of] her own vulnerability once this becomes a murderous place. It's like nobody's safe.”

However, she stresses how the show depicts the way we as people—and queer people—are bolstered by the connections we find in community.

“She finds, just like I did back when I didn't live as loud and open a gay life, people that might not be gay people, but they're — you know, they're almost as good,” she jokes while nudging Duffy, seated beside her. “No, I'm kidding. They’re friends that understand and accept you... I find Dana to be a little bit lost, but also she's found her people.”

“Having Dana be a lesbian, be military [is] kind of just a new version that we probably haven't seen in suburbia,” adds Hughey, explaining how this makes her a fish out of water in the neighborhood—as are all of the core characters. “That's the thing that all of these characters share, is that they all have their own secrets. They're all kind of a group of outsiders who find community with each other.”

While there was a subtextually queer character on the block in the original film—Walter Seznick, the stereoptyically effete, wig-wearing bachelor with the little dog—the series makes queer identity textual and endearing.

But the most obvious improvement is the inclusion and centering of people of color in this new iteration. Palmer, our central character, is a woman of color, and her identity plays an important role in the dynamic of the neighborhood. While she finds friendship with her neighbors, her ethnicity isn’t glossed over and creates moments of both micro- and macroaggression. And it becomes a topic of conversation both with her family and with the other neighbor of color, Naveen (Kapil Talwalkar), who lives next door and is her husband’s childhood best friend.

For Talwalkar, the way the show approaches diversity and discussions around identity was something he’s proud to have contributed to. “I was grateful that I was involved in some of those conversations about that dialogue that was in it, which was awesome—really, really awesome,” he tells PRIDE.

What makes the show feel like a living, breathing (if very quirky) community is that everyone, to some degree, is in the same boat. They each have secrets, hopes, and motivations that make them come across as relatably human but also compelling. Duffy’s character, Lynn, is a great example of the complexity the characters possess. When we’re first introduced to her, she presents as the consummate Karen, tapping on a car window to find out who the Black woman listening to loud music in her car is and what she’s doing in the neighborhood.

It’s not a great look—but it is a sadly realistic one. Ultimately, she becomes a friend and ally to Samira, although the process isn’t without some awkward moments and hurdles. “I see her as somebody who's lonely, and I identify with the empty nest, and on top of that, her husband is gone, so she really needs her neighbors,” Duffy tells PRIDE.

The ‘Burbs is the kind of charming and cozy program we can never get enough of. The streets are packed with idiosyncratic and lovable characters played by equally enjoyable comedic actors who you find yourself wanting to spend time with. It also features a central mystery that drives the action. But it’s also more than that. It’s an (albeit rose-colored) look at the complicated dynamics of race in America, but with an emphasis on human connection; it’s a reminder of what makes a community—that it’s not othering, it’s embracing.

In a world that feels increasingly driven by a sense of chaos, separation, distrust of our neighbors, tribalism, and unkindness, it’s both a salve and a welcome vision of hope. Hope that we can become a community, that we can be people first, without assimilating or washing away our diversity, or othering anyone because of our differences. MAGA could never, but The ’Burbs can and did.

The Burbs premieres on Peacock today. Check out the trailer below.