This review contains spoilers.
If you’re looking for a cheesy whodunnit mystery to turn your brain off to on a Saturday night, “The ’Burbs,” starring Keke Palmer and Jack Whitehall, is not a bad choice.
The adaptation of the 1989 film of the same name is a decently entertaining timekiller that is predictably unimaginative. However, that’s not to say it doesn’t have its fair share of twists.
Our protagonists, newlyweds and recent parents Samira (Palmer) and Rob Fisher (Whitehall), have just moved into Rob’s childhood home in a suburban cul-de-sac. The area, Hinkley Hills, is deemed the “safest town in America,” though Samira suspects something sinister is afoot in the pink Victorian across the street.
Her fears are only exacerbated when she hears a rumor that a young girl named Alison Grant was murdered in the Victorian 20 years ago. She worries that the shady owner of the Victorian, Gary (Justin Kirk), may have had a hand in Alison’s disappearance.
As Samira uncovers more about Gary and his suspiciously reclusive wife Betsy (Erica Dasher), she finds new friends in her neighbors, faces challenges due to her identity as a Black woman with a mixed-race infant in white suburbia and begins to suspect that her husband knows more about Alison’s disappearance than he lets on.
The major plot twist comes in the fifth episode, where we learn that Rob and his friend Naveen (Kapil Talwalkar) were close with Alison growing up, and that they had covered for her when she went to meet a stranger she met online.
She was kidnapped, but managed to escape, and has returned to Hinkley Hills after 20 years under the assumed identity of — gasp! — Betsy!
The reveal of Betsy actually being Alison isn’t really shocking. “The ’Burbs” tries to make the audience as suspicious of everyone as possible over the course of the series. In doing so, it loses a lot of its “wow” factor when the real twist is unveiled.
The show also fails to meaningfully explore Samira’s identity as a Black mother in a primarily-white American neighborhood. Outside of a handful of encounters with the police, this adaptation doesn’t feel like an exploration of the classic film through a new perspective.
Its attempts to discuss microaggressions and racism at large in American suburbs feel shoehorned in as an afterthought. I wish these themes could’ve been given the attention they deserve without being pushed aside in favor of Alison’s storyline.
Another gripe I have with “The ’Burbs”: Every line delivery seems forced. While the awkward acting could be partially attributed to an exposition-heavy script that tries too hard to appeal to a Gen Z audience, Palmer and Whitehall’s complete lack of chemistry is also at fault.
The show’s main couple has less chemistry than its two elderly side characters, Lynn (Julia Duffy) and Bill (Randy Oglesby), who flirt via garden maintenance.
However, despite the show’s faults, I still enjoyed trying to figure out the mystery of Hinkley Hills. If you like Palmer’s somewhat eccentric sense of humor and other mysteries like the “Knives Out” franchise, you might enjoy “The ‘Burbs.”
Don’t go in with high expectations, though — like the American suburbs, “The ’Burbs” is sweet, but cookie-cutter.
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