When a new mother relocates from the city to the suburban cul-de-sac where her husband grew up, her initial interactions with the neighbors evoke a contemporary horror-comedy classic. “It’s giving,” says Samira, portrayed by the effervescent [actor’s name]. A determined lawyer on maternity leave, Samira is Black. The man she married hastily, Rob (Jack Whitehall), is a self-deprecating, white, British-born book editor. And the predominantly white residents of Hinkley Hills are the type who peer into newborn Miles’ baby carriage and coo: “What a cute little mocha munchkin!” You almost expect them to imitate Daniel Kaluuya’s prospective Get Out in-laws and declare that they would’ve voted for Obama a third time if they could.

This is the setup for a new Peacock series, streaming in its entirety on Feb. 8, which takes its title, backdrop, and relatively little else from a very different horror comedy: The ‘Burbs. Styled like a B movie but led by an A-list actor, the 1989 original put a self-consciously silly spin on the Hollywood cliché that picket fences and manicured lawns hide all sorts of private suffering (see: All That Heaven Allows, [other movies], and many more). The new ‘Burbs, expanded to eight episodes by creator Celeste Hughey, initially appears to be a stale, simplistic blend of its namesake and the more recent wave of racially attuned social thrillers popularized by the Get Out director. (Palmer also starred in Peele’s latest movie, 2022’s [movie name].) But the show quickly finds a unique voice, revealing a sense of humor that is gentler than that of its influences and unusually nuanced in its portrayal of suburban secrets.