It’s a cheat, but one of my biggest applause lines these days while moderating an industry panel is when I point out that a show shoots in Los Angeles. It’s an easy way to get a cheer from a Hollywood crowd looking for any good news.
So here’s some positive spin. Despite the very real concerns about runaway production and the scarcity of Hollywood shoots, there actually have been quite a few right now on the comedy side: “Hacks,” “Shrinking,” “The Studio,” “Nobody Wants This,” “Platonic,” “I Love L.A.,” “Running Point” and others.
Not only have those series chosen to film in Los Angeles, but they’ve done an amazing job showcasing cool pockets in and around the city. L.A. used to almost always play itself, but lately it feels like Vancouver or Atlanta is scrubbing in as the City of Angels. Los Angeles is having a rough go of it, but at least on TV, it’s still looking shiny and vibrant.
But is that too much of a disconnect from the malaise we’re actually feeling here? I knew the right person to ask: TV writer-producer Hayes Davenport, who is also an activist, has worked in L.A. city government and recently co-founded the local news site L.A. Material.
“I think the tension in some of these shows is that, by definition, a TV show is about people doing things,” he tells me. “And one of the biggest concerns that people have in L.A. right now is a reduction in the amount of activity in the city. Vacant businesses, population decline, affordability issues sending people out of the city and state, the loss of entire neighborhoods from the fires — all of it has led to, I think, a sense in the last few years of just a less vibrant city.”
But the creators of the series mentioned above live and set their shows in Los Angeles neighborhoods that still feel dynamic: Highland Park, Eagle Rock, Atwater Village, Silver Lake. “These neighborhoods that they’re showing are neighborhoods that have retained their activity,” Davenport notes. “These are not shows that are necessarily reflecting the drawdown in activity that we’re seeing across the city.”
Other parts of the city haven’t been so lucky. The disastrous ICE raids have turned portions of downtown, like the Flower District or Santee Alley, into ghost towns. The fires, the housing crisis … why isn’t any of that depicted in TV’s L.A. stories? That’s partly due to the time it takes to get shows made in the streaming era, Davenport notes.
“They’re trying to do things that are a bit more evergreen, stories about people that live in the city, but maybe not stories about the city itself as much,” he says. “Because the city is changing so rapidly, you risk making an outdated show if you’re trying to reflect the city as it exists right now.”
It cuts both ways: Neighborhoods like Pacific Palisades and Altadena are chilling to see right now, unrecognizable after last year’s fires. But on the flip side, areas around Wilshire and Fairfax are gaining new life as the Metro’s D line starts service and the new LACMA building opens.
“You have activity increasing here in ways that it hasn’t for decades, and like the nodes of activity in the city are shifting around pretty quickly,” he says. “It’s hard to anticipate how that movement is going to happen.”
Davenport says shows about the entertainment biz, like “Hacks,” “The Comeback” and “The Studio,” are perhaps the most authentic in portraying Los Angeles at the moment, since they’re tackling some of the real issues that come with the industry’s downturn and how L.A. is changing because of it.
Also missing in Hollywood’s depiction of Los Angeles is a nonwhite perspective. A decade ago, shows like “Insecure,” “Black-ish” and “Vida” celebrated a diverse city — and that representation is strikingly missing from the current crop of L.A.-set series. Davenport blames it on the business’s contraction.
“If you have fewer people making shows and movies now, you are going to see fewer experiences reflected,” he says. “That applies to neighborhoods too. The coverage is going to shift to the places where people working in the entertainment industry live — and there are fewer people working in entertainment than there were just a few years ago.” No applause there.
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