Thursday, September 15, 2011

Thursday Top Threes: Local Color

B: which three TV shows do the best job of featuring their setting, to the point that the show wouldn't work if it were set anywhere else, and you'd feel like you already knew the place if you were to visit there based on the show?

Burkie:
1.  Friday Night Lights:  so texas, so perfect.  dillon, texas doesn't really exist, but it's as real as any texas town i've ever lived in, and so are the characters.
2.  Memphis Beat:  no suprise here, i suppose.  this show captures the best of memphis (and, thankfully, leaves out the worst) and highlights what a truly unique city it is, including the music.
3.  Gilmore Girls:  while Stars Hollow, CT isn't a real town, it certainly came to life for fans of this show and, for me, was as much a star of the show as lorelei or rory or luke.  i'd like to think that there are quirky new england towns like this with their goofy town hall meetings and colorful characters.  the show certainly would not have worked had it been set in new mexico.

Jennifer:
1. Gossip Girl: Definitely not the New York City world that I grew up in so I can't speak to whether there are people who actually live like Blair and Serena but I love that the show actually films in the city. I can't stand the fake NYC of studio lot shows.
2. Wonderfalls: So many shows are set in California or big cities so I liked that this show was centered around the somewhat random but real location of Niagara Falls, NY. Again, not sure about accuracy but they seemed to feature some local mythology and such about the falls.
3. Roswell: Obvious choice but having a show about aliens in Roswell, New Mexico was definitely fitting.

3 comments:

Jennifer said...

Note to self: update blog layout

Ryan said...

90210...the original.
Melrose Place.
Fresh Prince of Bel Air

mira said...

this is a lot easier to answer for movies, than for tv shows for me; i dunno why! but here are my 3:

1. Sex and the City: The theme of this week's Thursday Top Three seems to be "start with your hometown." In a different way from Gossip Girl, I think that they perfectly portray the glamour and snobbery of being a New Yorker that's more fun and accessible.
2. The OC: It probably wasn't until watching Laguna Beach, the Real OC and visiting my friend at Seal Beach then Huntington Beach (also the OC) that I realized that people really do live that California, super rich, super spoiled, staring at the ocean lifestyle. I really thought it was only a thing of TV shows (90210 included)...
3. Glee: I think it's so perfectly fitting that this supposedly stereotypical American high school is set in middle of nowhere, U.S.A. (Lima, Ohio). Of course there are so many middle of nowhere places they could have chosen, but I like that it is Ohio. :)