History Main / StepfordSuburbia

* The titular city of ''{{WebAnimation/Autodale}}'' is a totalitarian dystopia which resembles a stereotypical 1950s American suburb. Everyone is obsessed with being "pretty" (aka, mindless conformists who serve as useful cogs in Autodale's society); and anyone who is no longer useful or falls outside the norm is designated as "ugly", which leads to them being dragged to the edge of town to be killed by robots and then dumped in a mass grave.

* ''WebOriginal/TheAutodaleSeries'' takes place in a dystopian society that mirrors a 1950's suburb, straight out of the American Dream. Everyone is obsessed with being "pretty" (aka, useful cogs in Autodale's machine), and whoever is no longer useful or falls outside the norm, is designated "ugly", dragged to the edge of town, killed, and dumped in a mass grave.

* ''Film/{{Cypher}}'': After his interview with Digicorp, Morgan drives back home to his suburban residence. The cinematography puts emphasis on the uniform sterility of his neighborhood as to why he would want to seek out a more exciting existence as a corporate spy.

[[folder: Fan Works]]

[[folder: Films -- Animated]]

* ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'': What our world would be like without sufficient evil to balance it out -- sure, everybody would be friendly and nice, but parking your car in the wrong place is a capital offense and using your cellphone in a hospital gets your hand lopped off.

* The 2016 Marvel event ''ComicBook/AvengersStandoff'' is centered around "Pleasant Hills". This seemingly-idyllic suburb is hiding something so nasty it brings together multiple Avengers teams (who aren't on the best of terms) to contain it.

See also SuburbanGothic, which is less tight on the conformity but no less creepy. Can be an IndubitablyUninterestingIndividual is this if it applies to just one person, but not necessarily with a dark secret.

See also SuburbanGothic, which is less tight on the conformity but no less creepy.

See also SurburbanGothic, which is less tight on the conformity but no less creepy.

See also GothicSuburbia, which is less tight on the conformity but no less creepy.

This is a TownWithADarkSecret, with the added [[{{Foil}} twist]] that the Dark Secret is hidden in this "idyllic" neighborhood. The Trope Namer is, of course ''Literature/TheStepfordWives'', a thoroughly creepifying book about such a town. Stepford Suburbia is the sister-city to the UncannyVillage, and both are located in the CrapsaccharineWorld. Can also be part of an actual ComingOutStory.

Its residents typically include [[TeenDrama angsty teens]], FreeRangeChildren, TheBeautifulElite, and, of course, the StepfordSmiler.

* ''Series/TheBoys2019''. When she finally makes an appearance at the end of Season One, Rebecca Butcher is raising Homelander's son Ryan in what appears to be EverytownAmerica. Season 2 however reveals that she's living in a Vought facility surrounded by high walls, her house is monitored by hidden cameras, and the whole place is just a Potemkin Village to give Ryan a stable upbringing so he won't turn out [[BewareTheSuperman like his psychopathic father]]. Rebecca lampshades the trope by saying she coped with her GildedCage by pretending she was [[Series/TheBradyBunch Carol Brady]].

* ''WebVideo/TheAutodaleSeries'' takes place in a dystopian society that mirrors a 1950's suburb, straight out of the American Dream. Everyone is obsessed with being "pretty" (aka, useful cogs in Autodale's machine), and whoever is no longer useful or falls outside the norm, is designated "ugly", dragged to the edge of town, killed, and dumped in a mass grave.

* The hell dimension in the ''Series/{{Angel}}'' episode "Underneath" invoked this trope. Lindsey is condemned with no memory in a cheerful, happy suburban home with a loving wife and son. The cellar of the house is a medieval torture cell where a monstrous demon cuts out his heart every night. When they try to escape, the wife, son, and postman pull out submachine guns and start firing. Gunn later describes the worst of it being the buried knowledge that the happy facade concealed horrors without ever being able to know what they were. Angel, who had his son's memories wiped and placed him with a happy, suburban family to conceal the horrors of his past, is silently but noticeably troubled by the description.

* Episode 150, Cul De Sac, of ''Podcast/TheMagnusArchives'' features one of these in its statement. The neighborhood the protagonist gets trapped in a suburb that goes on forever, and in it, all the houses are completely identical ans all the street signs are only labeled things like "ROAD" or "STREET". He almost gets lost in it forever, only surviving through sheer luck. He finds a corpse in a house that suggest not everyone is so lucky.

* North Pole, UsefulNotes/{{Alaska}}, a town located about fifteen miles east of Fairbanks where it is literally Christmas every day. Every business is Christmas-themed (even the UsefulNotes/McDonalds!), and sixth-graders are enlisted to reply to all the letters to Santa that the US Postal Service delivers to the town. Jon Ronson visited the town to shoot a documentary called ''[[http://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/dec/23/usgunviolence.usa Death in Santaland]]'', about a foiled [[AxesAtSchool school shooting plot]] in 2006 by a group of 13-year-olds who, allegedly, had grown sick of/been driven mad by the CrapsaccharineWorld they lived in.

Ah, {{Suburbia}}: the sunny lanes, the friendly neighbors, the smiling children, the pastel color scheme, and [[BreadEggsMilkSquick the rotting skeletons hiding in everyone's closet]]. Can also be part of an actual ComingOutStory.

This is a TownWithADarkSecret, with the added [[{{Foil}} twist]] that the Dark Secret is hidden in this "idyllic" neighborhood. The Trope Namer is, of course ''Literature/TheStepfordWives'', a thoroughly creepifying book about such a town. Stepford Suburbia is the sister-city to the UncannyVillage, and both are located in the CrapsaccharineWorld.

Ah, {{Suburbia}}: the sunny lanes, the friendly neighbors, the smiling children, the pastel color scheme, and [[BreadEggsMilkSquick the rotting skeletons hiding in everyone's closet]]. Can also be apart of an actual ComingOutStory.

* ''Far From Heaven'', set in 1950s Connecticut. ''Everyone'' and ''everything'' in this film looks perfect--hair, clothes, houses, etc. Except the protagonist and her husband are in a deeply unhappy SexlessMarriage, thanks to him being gay, she's slowly but surely falling in love with her African-American gardener, and their supposedly liberal community is actually quite bigoted and narrow-minded.

* ''Film/AmericanBeauty''.

* Creator/NicholasRay provided two famous attacks on this concept, both made in TheFifties:
** ''Film/RebelWithoutACause'' was set in an idyllic American Dream suburbia filled with dysfunction and neuroses - and it was made ''during'' the Fifties.

* ''Over The Edge'' is about what happens when a bunch of suburban parents neglect their kids and their needs.