HBO Max’s Wild New Series is a Streaming Hit (& It’s Blowing Everyone’s Minds)

A new late-night series is taking HBO Max by storm; as soon as it hit the platform, it rocketed up to the #5 spot on the Top 10 Streaming list, proving that other people’s drama will never not be entertaining. And while the series is billed as a comedy, don’t let that fuel you—it runs the gamut from funny to tense and then straight to terrifying. 

Neighbors, produced by A24 and HBO Max, with prolific filmmaker Josh Safdie executive producing, blends reality TV with a mockumentary-type feel (though it is confirmed that each confrontation they record is, in fact, authentic). The series’ official synopsis is simple: “Neighbors examines stories of absurd, outrageous, and dramatic real-life residential conflicts from a wide range of larger-than-life characters across the United States, opening a verité portal into the lives of contemporary Americans.” The show hands out no concrete answers, demanding that the audience side with their emotions, as opposed to having the right or wrong party handed to them on a silver platter—a fact that left some viewers dismayed.

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Neighbors is Not What Anyone Expected

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Like the majority of Safdie’s projects, Neighbors puts the spotlight on characters most would consider on the fringes of society—psychic healers, former strippers, a nudist college student hoping to break into a career in music. But beneath the chaos of the characters, it becomes clear that the series highlights the fact that in a post-COVID world, people forgotten how to share space, and in rejecting the obligation to do just that, they also reject the things that make us a society.

Reddit posts about the show are popping up like weeds, with viewers dissecting each different element that makes it up. “I feel like Tim Robinson went through social media and picked out the stupidest, most pointless neighbor fights, and this was the result. I don’t think you’re supposed to root for anyone; they’re all crazy and right/wrong in certain ways. It’s like the ‘It’s Florida, Man’ show. Just marvel at the insanity and be kind to your neighbors,” said one viewer. The creator of the original post highlighted the lack of guidance provided by the series, saying, “My problem with the show is that neither case dug into any actual laws or ordinances to explain any legalities, and simply gave all parties a platform to complain about the others. So as a viewer, there’s no way to know what is right or wrong, just side with your emotions.”

When asked about the inspiration behind the series, director Dylan Redford (Robert Redford’s grandson) said to the New York Times that is came from a need to have a clearer picture surrounding so much of the insanity that they were seeing online. “I think we were both sort of overwhelmed by the intensity of that conflict. And then these fascinating stories started coming out, like, ‘Well, you guys didn’t see what happened 10 seconds before that video.’”

In all, Neighbors proves itself worth the time it would take to binge its six episodes. It’s quirky, it’s tense, it’s filmed with a strange fish-eye lens that you will either love or hate, and it’s a very interesting commentary on where we’re at as a society, told in a way that feels totally unique. 

Do you have a favorite moment from Neighbors? Let us know in the comments. And don’t forget to check out the ComicBook forum to keep the conversation going.