Where are Keke Palmer’s girlfriends in ‘The Burbs’?

Keke Palmer stars in ‘The Burbs’ as a new mom and housewife growing suspicious about her neighbors on Peacock.

The new series “The Burbs” just dropped on Peacock, starring Keke Palmer as a desperate housewife navigating postpartum, being stuck in suburbia, and a growing suspicion that something is afoot on her new cul-de-sac. 

In this modern reimagining of the 1989 cult comedy film starring Tom Hanks, Samira Fisher (Palmer) and her British husband, Rob (Jack Whitehall), relocate from the city to his idyllic childhood neighborhood of Hinkley Hills with their newborn son, only for Samira to become increasingly convinced that the dilapidated Victorian across the street and its new owner hold dark secrets. 

The show really leans into its campy “Get Out” meets “Nancy Drew” mystery with a quirky ensemble of neighbors that includes Lynn (Julia Duffy), a nosy “Karen-esque” woman, Dana (Paula Pell), a queer veteran, Tod (Mark Proksch), an introvert who rides a recumbent bike down the block,  and Naveen (Kapil Talwalkar), Rob’s childhood best friend. 

But there’s one thing that kept pulling me out of the story: why on Earth does Samira not have any girlfriends she ever calls about any of this?

Samira arrives in suburbia with zero confidantes outside her new neighbors. There’s no text to a bestie group chat to debate whether that creepy Victorian might be a murder house, no call to a girlfriend to complain about “baby brain,” no late-night texts to her mom about the micro-aggressions she’s constantly gritting her teeth through, and not a single friend to consult when she begins to suspect Rob might be hiding something. 

She does have a small Black contingent that includes her brother Langston (RJ Cyler) and Rory (Kyrie McAlpin), a young, witty Black tween in town who begins babysitting for her. For as quickly as Samira rallies a crew among her neighbors, it’s hard to believe she doesn’t have even one woman to phone home to. Meanwhile, her husband’s friend, who lives next door, is always up in the mix. While a small hiccup, it just feels slightly unlikely coming from a Black woman navigating a big life change in a strange town. 

And yet, as implausible as that part of the premise feels, the show itself is undeniably fun. Samira’s instincts push the narrative forward with humor and suspense. At one point, she actually entrusts her baby with Lynn, who gives very little reason to be trusted. After Samira offers her a key to her and Rob’s house “just in case,” the woman stiffens and closes the door at the request to do the same. Girl… what?! Of course, while babysitting, Lynn snoops around and finds explosive information about Rob’s past, and then, in a wild twist, we learn why she refused to share her key in the first place. 

Behind the mystery and the laughs, there’s a surprising amount of heart in these eight episodes. We meet neighbors who are painfully lonely, secretly grieving, bored, or generally just trying to survive their own suburban dramas. Lynn is mourning her husband, Dana is an ex-Marine trying to fill her days, and Naveen’s return to town brings its own complicated baggage.

By the season finale, the mystery’s threads are left dangling, the community has been forever altered, and you’re left with the sort of cliffhanger that could buy the show another season. 

In the end, “The Burbs” is satisfying Saturday night streaming for when you want something that’s funny, a little silly, and just compelling enough to keep you hitting next episode. But for all its charm, it is still a little wild to imagine this Samira has zero women in her life — a missed opportunity in a show that otherwise feels so socially aware and entertaining.

All eight episodes of “The Burbs” are currently streaming on Peacock.