‘The ‘Burbs’ remakes a cult classic with an anxious new mom and secretive husband

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New York — Keke Palmer can make Jack Whitehall blush.

Keke Palmer and her co-star, Stephen Whitehall, are backstage at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan, preparing to record a live episode of Palmer’s podcast, “Baby, This Is Keke Palmer.” They’re getting ready just before the premiere of their new Peacock series, “The ‘Burbs,” which is happening this Sunday.

The series follows Samira and Rob, a new couple with a baby, as they relocate to Rob’s idyllic hometown of Hinkley Hills. Samira quickly feels that not everything is as perfect as it seems.

Palmer has taken off her heels and settled onto the couch with her feet tucked underneath her, sitting beside Whitehall, as I begin to ask them about how their initial chemistry read went.

Review

With a dose of paranoia and a charming cast, ‘The ‘Burbs’ draws you into its mystery

Peacock’s horror-comedy mystery, starring Keke Palmer and Jack Whitehall alongside a fun group of characters, isn’t very scary, but it’s still enjoyable to watch.

She recalls that he was hilarious – not just to her, but to everyone around. “It’s easy to see how someone could fall for him,” she said. “He was genuinely funny and incredibly kind. That’s exactly what Jack was like.”

Whitehall’s face flushed, and I noticed it. He sheepishly admitted it with a laugh. Palmer then playfully said, “He understands me – he’s my sweetheart.”

“The ‘Burbs” is a fresh take on the 1989 film starring Tom Hanks. The original movie follows Hanks’ character as he becomes convinced his new neighbors are dangerous criminals, leading him down a path of paranoia.

This adaptation of Palmer focuses on Samira, a lawyer who’s currently on maternity leave. She finds herself feeling out of place amongst the perfectly kept homes in her new neighborhood, but quickly bonds with a lively group of wine-loving neighbors (played by Julia Duffy, Paula Pell, and Mark Proksch). When a suspicious man (Justin Kirk) moves into the rundown Victorian house across the street, Samira begins to investigate a years-old missing person case, and starts to suspect her husband, Rob, might be connected. Is she just overthinking things due to the stress of being a new mother, or is something genuinely wrong beneath the surface of this seemingly perfect community?

Brian Grazer’s Imagine Entertainment, the company behind the original film, and Seth MacFarlane’s Fuzzy Door Productions initially planned to remake “The ‘Burbs” as a movie. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, MacFarlane realized the title fit the unsettling and darkly comedic feeling of fear within neighborhoods, according to Erica Huggins, president of Fuzzy Door. When they decided to turn it into a series instead, they brought in writer Naomi Hughey.

Hughey wanted to tell a story from the perspective of someone who doesn’t quite fit in. Growing up as a biracial person in a predominantly white area of Boston, she envisioned a story about a Black woman navigating the challenges of being a new mother and wife while adjusting to a new and unfamiliar neighborhood, and seeing the world through her eyes.

Palmer was always who Hughey wanted to play Samira, and Grazer had the same idea.

I’ve always been struck by her range as an actress. Ron Howard – Grazer, actually – put it perfectly: she can be hilarious, incredibly beautiful, or just completely relatable, like someone you’d know. That’s what makes her so captivating. It reminds me of Tom Hanks – you genuinely feel like you’re experiencing the story with him, and that’s a rare gift.

Everything lined up perfectly. Palmer didn’t know the 1989 film well, but she connected with Hughey’s ideas, particularly because she had a young son, Leo, who was about one year old then.

She says the idea of portraying a mother, combined with her own experience as a new mom, and the opportunity to explore the joys and challenges of motherhood through horror and comedy, was incredibly appealing.

When Sarah Paulson signed on to the project, we knew the team needed to find someone who could really bounce off her energy. The creator, Paris Barclay, told me she pictured Rob as this really supportive husband, but haunted by something from his past that was causing problems in his marriage. They ended up casting Jack Whitehall, who I knew from ‘Jungle Cruise’ – he’s a hilarious British comedian and a perfect fit!

Whitehall traveled from the U.K. to Atlanta to audition with Palmer for Boots Riley’s new film, “I Love Boosters.” He shared that past auditions in the U.S. had been stressful, but Palmer quickly made him feel comfortable.

She explained she was simply trying to connect with him, as they’d be spending a lot of time together and becoming intimate. She wondered if he was the one for her, questioning if their connection could lead to marriage – if he was her perfect match, her ‘Desi’ to her ‘Lucy’.

Whitehall also related to the situation because he has a young child. His daughter, Elsie, is currently two and a half years old, and my son, Leo, is about to turn three.

As a film fan, I was really struck by how relatable the script was. The character of Rob felt so real, especially his quiet guilt about returning to work while his wife feels stuck and wants to help, but isn’t quite sure how. It’s that feeling of wanting to be supportive and useful, but not knowing where you fit in, that really resonated with me.

Palmer didn’t just want to show how disconnected Samira felt from Rob; she also wanted to capture the unique anxieties many women experience after giving birth.

She explained that he often feels anxious, and while she doesn’t want to minimize his feelings, she believes his anxiety is sometimes excessive. He’s constantly questioning whether a threat is genuine, almost to the point of doubting his own perceptions and experiences.

The eight-episode season of “The ‘Burbs” keeps viewers guessing about what’s truly happening, especially concerning Rob and the many secrets he’s hiding – secrets that may or may not be dangerous. Actor Whitehall was drawn to this element of the character, but points out that, at one point, suspicion falls on every single person in the cast.

The movie ‘The ‘Burbs’ intentionally challenges what viewers expect, and this extends to how it portrays Samira’s ethnicity.

As a film fan, one thing I really wanted to avoid with this project was falling into predictable tropes. Everyone assumed we’d lean heavily into comparisons with ‘Get Out,’ and honestly, acknowledging that connection was important – it’s part of the reality the story lives in. But ultimately, I was more interested in exploring the universal feeling of being completely out of your element, that ‘fish out of water’ experience. That’s what the story is really about.

Samira connects with a group of quirky neighbors, mirroring Palmer’s own upbringing in Robbins, Illinois, near Chicago. Whitehall describes his childhood in Putney, a suburb of London, as similar to growing up in the small, unusual town of Hinkley Hills.

He describes it as a neighborhood of outwardly respectable people who were actually quite critical and quick to judge others, and he says everyone had something to hide. There was a lot of gossip and hidden wrongdoing, too.

It’s immediately clear during their conversation that Palmer and Whitehall have a comfortable and playful connection. They easily veer off on tangents, like when Palmer introduced Whitehall to the movie “Soul Food” in 1997 – a film Whitehall then kept mentioning while filming. Palmer and Whitehall are physically affectionate, with Palmer often enthusiastically grabbing his co-star while they talk. Although their comedic deliveries differ, Palmer notes they share a similar sense of humor, and they quickly learned how to work together to create great chemistry in the show.

Palmer explained that they and their partner developed a strong sense of timing and instinctively knew when to take the lead. It felt almost like they could read each other’s minds, understanding when it was the right moment for a comedic beat. They simply have great chemistry and work well as a team.

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2026-02-08 14:02