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In the quirky world of The ‘Burbs, every neighbor seems to hold onto a secret, and the air is thick with mystery. Peacock’s latest comedy series takes viewers on a journey into the hidden depths of suburbia, with Samira, played by Keke Palmer, at the helm. She stumbles upon a long-buried mystery, aided by a motley crew of neighbors including Lynn (Julia Duffy), Dana (Paula Pell), Tod (Mark Proskch), and her husband’s childhood friend Naveen (Kapil Talwalkar). Despite being a collection of oddballs, they are all Samira has in this secluded neighborhood.
In an interview with DECIDER, cast members Pell, Talwalkar, and Duffy shared their excitement about portraying what they called a “symphony of weirdos” in this new series. Duffy and Pell humorously noted that while Samira believes they are helping her out of goodwill and altruism, the reality is that they are simply “bored as hell.”
The series, inspired by Joe Dante’s 1989 comedy featuring Tom Hanks, flips the original premise. Instead of the community scrutinizing an outsider, as creator Celeste Hughey explains, the show revolves around an outsider examining the insular world of a Hinkley Hills cul-de-sac.
Lynn, Dana, and Tod eagerly assist Samira in probing the eerie happenings at the ominous “murder house” next door. Their sleuthing adventures range from exploring the surrounding woods to babysitting Samira’s newborn. Yet, beneath their helpful façades, these neighbors conceal their own secrets. Dana confesses to Tod that her reluctance to leave the cul-de-sac stems from being under house arrest after liberating beagles from a testing lab. Meanwhile, the seemingly innocent Lynn harbors a darker secret, keeping her deceased husband’s body in her walk-in fridge. Tod, for all his quirks, might be the only one without a hidden agenda this season.
Lynn, Dana and Tod are more than happy to help Samira investigate what might be going on with the “murder house” next door, whether that mean venturing into the woods to investigate or babysitting her newborn baby. But these neighbors all have something to hide. Dana later reveals to Tod that she hasn’t left the cul-de-sac because she’s on house arrest after she was caught freeing beagles from a testing facility. And sweet little Lynn has secretly been hiding her late husband’s body in her walk-in fridge. On the other hand, Tod, despite his oddities, doesn’t seem to be hiding anything this season.
“Everybody brings something to the team,” Pell said about their unusual posse. “It’s a really fun little symphony of weirdos that are not always good at what they do.” She later noted that their characters may “bring our tools” but “they’re not sharp,” Talkwalkar commented.
Keep reading to learn more about how these these stars relate to their characters and their experiences starring together in Peacock’s hilarious new murder mystery, The ‘Burbs.
DECIDER: Part of what I loved about the show was getting to see all your different characters team up with each other. Can you tell me about what it was like getting to play sleuths in a murder mystery like this, and getting to play off of each other?
PAULA PELL: Keke said earlier that we went full Scooby Doo. It feels so much like, ‘Let’s get in the van and let’s go solve this.’
KAPIL TALWALKAR: It’s like adult Nancy Drew, just like the novels you used to read and listen to. Now, I’m in it.
JULIA DUFFY: Yeah, it worked so well, the way they made Keke’s character, that she’s a lawyer who is sidetracked by having a baby younger than she thought so she’s not working, but she still really wants to solve things and use her brain. And that just such an excellent way to start. And then she’s got all these willing people who would just love to help solve a mystery and got nothing else to do.
PELL: Everybody brings something to the team, to the solving team. So it’s a really fun little symphony of weirdos that are not always good at what they do, by the way. We bring our tools but…
TALWALKAR: They’re not sharp.
Everybody definitely brings something different, but everyone’s a delight on screen on this show. Paula, can you tell me a little bit about how you approach Dana’s character? I feel like she has her own quirks, but she was also ride or die till the end.
PELL: I’m a serial caretaker and kind of a recovering codependent caretaker. And so I really relate to the part of her that wants to always know, ‘Are you okay? What do you need?’ You know, in the pilot, when we come running in after Keke’s character has that traumatic thing in front of her house, each one of us, one by one, comes in. And it’s funny that we keep all showing up, but there’s something that was very moving to me in the pilot is that each one of us comes in and shows her who we really are. It’s like, do you need wine? I’m like, do you need a drink? What do you need? And all of us are looking to her and the way they shoot it is like, ‘Oh, I have a new family here, I can relax. I can live here. This isn’t all strangers who don’t know me and don’t want to know me.’
DUFFY: Keke’s character doesn’t know that also, we’re just thrilled to have a drama to take part in.
PELL: Yes, yes, we’re hungry for it.
DUFFY: She thinks we’re doing it out of the goodness of our hearts and have better things to do.
PELL: Yes. But we’re bored as hell.
Julia, I was very surprised by your character’s twist as well. Could you tell me about what you think was going through her mind, keeping this secret from her friends?
DUFFY: Well, when I do tell them everything, it’s that I was stunned, I couldn’t move. Hours passed.
PELL: [laughs] Days passed.
DUFFY: And it didn’t start out as a decision. […] I had to think about this a little more than I wanted to. And I thought, at what point would I let them take my husband away? You’re just working on raw, primal emotions then. And I would want to be in charge of that. You can’t do it until I’m ready. I mean, I hated to have to go to that place, but of course I did and thought about it a lot. I just, I don’t know if this makes me weird. It just started to make perfect sense to me. That’s all I can tell you.
Kapil, could you tell me a little bit about what you think Naveen might have learned about himself while investigating this mystery with his friends? This is one character that kept surprising me, the more that you learned about him. It seems like he had an interesting arc. What do you think?
TALKWALKAR: Yeah, I think he returns to who he was as a child, but matures more as an adult. I think that happens through leaning on Samira and Rob. Rob, you know, [his] childhood best friend coming to live next door as an adult. Honestly, like me just talking about that, thinking of my childhood best friend coming to live next to me. I would be so over the moon. Just to be able to have that experience happen in some of the darkest times in your life kind of helps you mature in ways and also find who you are in your core.
DUFFY: Yeah, but also, neither of you had ever processed it because you were only 18 years old.
TALWALKAR: 15 [years old]!
PELL: And all of the adults didn’t want to talk about it, so.
DUFFY: You never processed it at all. It just keeps you from maturing. I’m sure you can’t go any further. So it was very good for both of them. You had to do this. I love those flashback scenes.
TALKWALKAR: Yeah, that was great.
DUFFY: They did such a good job of casting.
The ‘Burbs is streaming now on Peacock.