In the first episode of The ‘Burbs, someone says, “Hear the thing about cul-de-sacs? There’s only one way out.” And I feel like that line perfectly encapsulates this show: part funny and corny, part ominous and mysterious. Which frankly, is my ideal combination, so I’m not surprised to report that I had a great time watching it.
The general premise is this: Samira (Keke Palmer) and Rob (Jack Whitehall) are new parents who have moved out of the Big City to the suburb where Rob grew up because his parents have decided to live on a cruise ship. While home alone with the baby on maternity leave, Samira starts to go a little stir crazy and becomes obsessed with finding out more about the abandoned Victorian house across the street that everyone seems a bit dodgy about every time she mentions it. The house itself is spooky, and then, not too long after they move in, after 20 years of being untouched, someone buys it, giving Samira and her new oddball cul-de-sac neighbor friends more access to dig into this mystery.
Why am I writing about this show here on Autostraddle dot com, you ask? Good question! Because while Keke Palmer is queer in real life, there was no indication she was on the show. HOWEVER, one of the aforementioned neighbors is Dana, played by the iconic lesbian actor Paula Pell. Dana’s wife Julia is only mentioned, never seen, but she does talk about how they met (it involves a flamethrower) and Dana has plenty of hilarious lesbian jokes like, “No dog dies on my watch, that is a lesbian oath.” Dana is there to assure Samira that, though they’re not the SAME, she has felt relatively welcome as a lesbian, in an attempt to reassure her that the town of Hinkley Hills isn’t entirely an ass-backwards suburb. (Side note: the first time they said the name of the town I had to rewind and put my captions on because I 100% thought they said Hinky Hills and I was like well that’s a bit on the nose.) Dana is often the comedic relief, and a hilarious addition to the hijinks she gets into with Samira, plus their other strange friends Lynn (Julia Duffy) and Tod (Mark Proksch). She also finds plenty of excuses to do the quintessential Paula Pell high kick. That woman sure loves to show off that she can still throw her ankles above her midline, as she should.
The unlikely band of friends decide that instead of just swapping the Victorian House rumors that have swirled around the neighborhood for years (the house is haunted, a girl died in the house and her parents buried her in the basement, etc), they decide to get to the bottom of it, with varying degrees of success. All while hiding plenty of secrets of their own.
At first the vibes are a little “Get Out” with Samira being one of the very few people of color in the neighborhood and therefore getting hit with microaggressions and occasionally blatant racism left and right. And to its credit, as silly and goofy as this show could be at times, it does not shy away from calling it out. For example, when the newest neighbor calls the cops on Samira for “skulking” around his property when in reality she just dropped off brownies to welcome him to the cul-de-sac, her new friends gather around to support her and it is never downplayed how fucked up that is.
The ‘Burbs is a modern take on the common trope of “suburbia isn’t as utopian as it seems”, reminiscent of (but much more grounded than) The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window; similar in premise but more serious (and less supernatural) than Shining Vale. And while some of the drama is heightened, some of it feels very realistic; in fact, there is a Rihanna needle drop that made me laugh out loud because I thought I was the only one who occasionally finds herself singing “Suburbia” to the tune of “Disturbia” when I’m visiting my parents in their new neighborhood, which is very different than the city I grew up in. Because on the surface everything seems so nice – everyone’s grass cut to the same length, cookie cutter houses lining the street – but there’s only so many smiles from a stranger a city mouse can endure before it starts to feel a little too Stepford Wives, you know? I’m not about to get trapped in Pleasantville if I can help it.
Overall, this was a really fun watch. Keke Palmer is, as always, a master of her craft, and really balanced the drama and comedy of it all with ease and expertise. Paula Pell is hilarious and made me miss Girls5eva even more, but made me grateful to have her back on my TV. The show really laid out the mystery (well, mysteries) in a compelling way, and every episode revealed some answers, all while posing more questions, keeping me hooked for the next one. I had my Nancy Drew hat on the whole time, pulling red strings from clues to suspects on my mental murder board, which is my favorite way to watch TV. Plus, it ends on a cliffhanger, which is going to have me praying to the TV gods that this show gets a second season.
There are a few subtle references to the movie it’s based on of the same name, from guest stars to the dog’s name, and much like said movie, it has some satirical things to say about life in the suburbs. Including how places who claim things like being the “safest place in the country” are often hiding the darkest secrets of all.
