The only Netflix movie where seniors take the spotlight, like ‘The Boroughs’
If you’ve finished The Boroughs, you’re probably already rushing through the Netflix feed to find whether there’s something similar in its DNA available to scratch your itch. While there’s honestly plenty to recommend, for those struggling with a time crunch, swap those elaborate seasons-long series with a mystery movie where seniors take centre stage to leave viewers dumbfounded, The Thursday Murder Club.
The 2025 mystery thriller adapts Richard Osman’s acclaimed novel of the same name, and also serves as the perfect follow-up to The Boroughs to an extent, especially when it comes to its characters. However, the movie and the series take them on completely different genre rides.
Just like the supernatural mystery series, The Thursday Murder Club brilliantly subverts the stereotypical tropes of how older characters are treated in fiction. In both cases, viewers are introduced to a deeply charming group of retirees living in a specialised community who refuse to fade into the background.
So, rather than addressing age as a punchline or a tragedy, The Boroughs and The Thursday Murder Club treat their characters with immense dignity and wit, transforming them into unlikely heroes. As a result, the humour stems from the idea that society constantly underestimates them – a flaw to their absolute advantage. The Boroughs‘ characters are mostly overlooked by corporate and security forces because of their age, using memory loss or physical frailty to sweep strange events under the rug.
Subsequently, residents have to rely on their distinct skill sets for survival, which, again, is portrayed perfectly in The Thursday Murder Club, where those underappreciated characters are basically a specialised strike force hidden in plain sight, some being former MI6 spies and others, ex-militant trade union leaders.
While the characteristic parallel is too obvious, the stories also share minute tropes. Take, for instance, The Boroughs’ emotional anchor is Sam Cooper, a grieving widower who is dragged to the retirement village by his daughter and initially wants nothing to do with the community until friendship and a hard-to-overlook mystery get the best of his curiosity.
The Thursday Murder Club has a similar entry point, thanks to Joyce Meadowcroft, a recently widowed former nurse who arrives at Coopers Chase Village.
That said, the threats are widely distinct in both storylines. In what is described as Stranger Things for adults/grandparents, the villain is an actual monster, and the town looks plagued by otherworldly forces. Meanwhile, the movie adaptation of Osman’s book is a grounded, classic whodunit and a cosy crime story.
Say, you loved The Boroughs for its heartfelt exploration of friendship, grief, and ageing heroes proving they’ve still got it, there’s no doubt that you’ll fall in love with The Thursday Murder Club at first sight. But approach both with an open mind, and you might find several more reasons to keep loving them.