Alfred Molina

In The Boroughs (2026), Alfred Molina makes an older man's need to feel useful more involving than the monster mystery. As Sam Cooper, he gives the series a reason to slow down and attend to loneliness and grief. Alfre Woodard's Judy Daniels is just as important to that warmth, and we want to spend time with these people before the next question arrives. We were moved by their loneliness because both performances make the wish to be useful to someone else so persuasive.

His film work began with Satipo in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), followed by the breakthroughs of Letter to Brezhnev (1985) and Prick Up Your Ears (1987). Kenneth Halliwell in the latter helped establish him as a serious dramatic actor. By the mid-1990s he was becoming a regular Hollywood supporting player. Authority figures, antagonists and ordinary men in ensembles became familiar assignments. That history helps explain why a leading ensemble part in The Boroughs feels like a welcome change of emphasis: we get to follow someone who might otherwise have been asked to help another character along.

As Diego Rivera in Frida (2002), opposite Salma Hayek, he committed himself physically and emotionally to a larger-than-life figure. Doctor Octopus in Spider-Man 2 (2004) brought wider recognition and showed how much humanity Molina could give an antagonist. The useful connection with Sam Cooper is his ability to keep a person's needs interesting inside a story with other demands. We value that more than the sheer number of different parts an actor can play.

The Boroughs is worth recommending for its humour and affection, but the monster mystery becomes a chore, and his presence does not change that. Anyone coming chiefly for intricate plotting or frightening creatures has reason to be cautious. We would happily watch him lead another ensemble, preferably one that did not keep interrupting its people to check on the creatures.