TV HOTSPOTS
AUSSIES ARE
FLOCKING TO
SEE THE REAL-
LIFE SITES OF
THEIR FAVOURITE
SHOWS. HERE’S
WHERE TO GO
While Albuquerque wasn’t the first
location choice for hit series
Breaking Bad, once filming started
the show’s creator, Vince Gilligan,
knew he’d made the right choice.
New Mexico’s largest city is both
picturesque and otherworldly with
brilliant, cloud-dotted blue skies and
Mexican and Native-American
influences in its architecture. Dotted
around the city are various filming
locations from the show. Twisters is
the restaurant known in the show
as Los Pollos Hermanos, the centre
of Gustavo Fring’s (Giancarlo
Esposito) drug distribution network.
If you go, try the green chilli burger.
Other locations around town that
have been used in Breaking Bad
include the Dog House Drive In,
the Crossroads Motel, Kimo Theatre
and Burt’s Tiki Lounge.BREAKING
BAD’S LANDSEXPLORE
ATLANTA
Hit show Atlanta – devised by
Donald Glover, better known to
many under his stage name
Childish Gambino – features its city
namesake and her landmarks
heavily. It’s often centred around
the Bankhead area west of
downtown that’s known for housing
projects and aspiring hip-hop stars.By Andrea Black Fans of the show will recognise
SEE BIG LITTLE
LIES’ COASTAlthough Big Little Lies is based
on a book by Liane Moriarty set
in Australia, the TV adaptation is
filmed in California’s Monterey
County. Those dramatic ocean and
cliffs can be explored by driving up
Highway 1 from Los Angeles (or
down from San Francisco). The
Monterey County Visitors Bureau
has put together a handy self-guided
road trip map for anyone wanting to
see the filming locations.
Make the first stop Old
Fishermans Wharf and sit down
at Paluca Trattoria, the inspiration
for Blue Blues Cafe where Jane(Shailene Woodley), Madeline
(Reese Witherspoon) and Celeste
(Nicole Kidman) like to meet up.
Next, head to the Monterey Bay
Aquarium, which is housed in a
former sardine cannery on Cannery
Row. In Big Little Lies, Jane and her
son spend
a day there marvelling at the sealife
including sharks and turtles.
Of course, the main attraction
is that spectacular coastline. The
driving scenes in the opening credits
were filmed at Bixby Bridge in Big
Sur, 30-minutes’ south of Monterey.
And the beach scenes were filmed
at Del Monte Beach in Monterey. In
Season 2, Carmel River State Beach
also features.As for seeing those gorgeous
houses the characters live in? Most
of the internal shots were filmed
in and around Los Angeles,
including Malibu, Pasadena and
Calabasas. Only one of the
spectacular featured houses is
actually on the Monterey Peninsula- Celeste’s mansion, worth about
US$6 million (A$8.7 million).
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