Where Was The Boroughs Filmed?

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Inside Netflix’s new retirement community

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Last summer, Netflix’s hit adaptation of Richard Osman’s bestselling novel The Thursday Murder Club taught us how wondrous retirement homes – sorry, later living communities – can truly be. Forget stuffy, slow-paced, neutrally-toned, transient homes where residents while away their final days as inactively as possible: the 21st century response to the gripes of older age (loneliness, inactivity, lack of mental stimulation, general inertia) are conquered with visually pleasing estates more akin to villages than individual homes, brimming with clubs, activities and shared interests.

The Boroughs, dropping in full on Netflix tomorrow, takes a similar starting point. Set in the titular seemingly idyllic retirement community nestled in the New Mexico desert, the eight-part series sees an unlikely group of elderly residents unite to fight an unexpected evil. In The Thursday Murder Club, our golden oldies unpick a convoluted murder plot; in The Boroughs, they are threatened by a monstrous, supernatural threat.

So it’s safe to say the stakes are a tad higher in The Boroughs, which is produced by the brains behind Stranger Things, The Duffer Brothers, but created and written by a less-familiar duo, Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews. And while Osman’s Coopers Chase is not a real retirement village, the more cosy crime saga was inspired by his mother’s own retirement community in Sussex. As such, in the film, Berkshire’s Grade II* listed Elizabethan country estate Englefield House stands in for the later living community.

Is the same true of The Boroughs? Here’s what we know.

Is The Boroughs A Real Place?

While The Boroughs is not based on one retirement community in particular, it does bear a resemblance to many such later-life villages dotted across the US – and the world. This rising trend can be traced back to the West’s rapidly ageing population, which leaves Baby Boomers demanding an active, wellness-focused lifestyle even in their later years. Think fitness suites packed with state-of-the-art machinery, swimming pools, yoga studios, on-site cafes and restaurants, as well as landscaped gardens and communal lounges.

According to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), this is a $490 billion business, with more than 3.2 million senior living units scattered across the US. However, with the population continuing to grow and age, it is forecasted that this will need to increase by at least 35,000 units by 2045 to meet demand.

Just as Richard Osman took inspiration from his mother’s mental acuity in later life, as well as that of her peers, Addis and Matthews ‘were adamant,’ the Duffer Brothers say, ‘[The Boroughs] wouldn’t treat aging as a punchline. Instead, it would treat its characters as real people facing real challenges… along with a few supernatural ones.’

Our key residents include retired engineer and grieving widower Sam (Alfred Molina), former music manager Renee (Geena Davis), sharp-witted former journalist Judy (Alfre Woodard), retired doctor Wally (Denis O’Hare), soulful spiritual seeker Art (Clarke Peters) and life-of-the-party Jack (Bill Pullman). ‘So many of the actors of this age, even legends, aren’t given an opportunity to shine like action heroes,’ Ross Duffer says in an interview with Tudum. ‘They’re often cast as grandparents. To see them all interact together – it was definitely a pinch me moment when we went to that first table read, because these are all legends and they’re still at the top of their game, and they just love being there. You just saw the joy.’

‘The fact that they are older is not a joke. It is part of why they are our heroes,’ Addiss adds. ‘When we meet them, their lives are already pretty full. And then they go on this adventure that changes them.’

Sunny facade, indeed: the eight-part series was filmed in New Mexico from September 2024 to February 2025 – and this is where the drama is set, too. Set in the Southwestern region of the US, New Mexico is an arid state in the Rocky Mountains, bordering Utah, Colorado, Arizona and Texas, and sharing an international border with Mexico. The Boroughs reportedly employed 2,000 New Mexicans for the shoot: 275 crew members, 32 principal actors and 1,934 extras.

Albuquerque, the state’s largest city, served as the main filming location, with its mixture of dusty deserts backdropped by craggy mountains and pockmarked by suburban streets, especially around the Sandia Foothills. The Boroughs joins a long-line of dramas filmed here, with recent hits including Eddington, Honey Don’t, Love Lies Bleeding, Better Call Saul and, of course, Stranger Things.

Old Town Albuquerque – with its narrow streets and terracotta adobe architecture – also features, as does the state capital Santa Fe, especially Canyon Road and Los Cerrillos.