Monterey – IAMNOTASTALKER

August 19, 2019August 16, 2019

The Filming Locations of “Big Little Lies” Season 2 – “I Want to Know”

Season 2 of Big Little Lies comes to an end with “I Want to Know,” as does my episode-by-episode coverage of its locations. Hope you enjoyed reading through the posts as much as I enjoyed putting them together. So, without further ado . . . (Note – as was the case with my posts about the locales from “What Have They Done?,” ”Tell-Tale Hearts,” “The End of the World,” “She Knows,” “Kill Me,” and “The Bad Mother,” because I have already extensively detailed BLL’s inaugural season, I will not be covering flashbacks. And places that appear in multiple episodes will be noted as such, so expect some crossover.)

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1. Celeste’s House (40 Yankee Point Drive, Carmel) – Celeste Wright’s (Nicole Kidman) magnificent home, featured throughout Seasons 1 and 2, sits cliffside on an exclusive tree-lined street in Carmel Highlands. The pad’s exterior and interior appear frequently onscreen, though the master bedroom – where Celeste discovers a disturbing video shot by her sons in “I Want to Know” – and the twins’ room were just sets.

2. Madeline and Ed’s House (30760 Broad Beach Road, Malibu) – Madeline Martha (Reese Witherspoon) and Ed Mackenzie’s (Adam Scott) residence, my favorite on the series, is located a good 300 miles from the Central Coast. You can find it just north of Zuma Beach in Malibu. The fab Cape Cod, which I dedicated a post to here, is a vacation rental in real life, so you can live out your very own Big Little Lies fantasy by booking some time there! It doesn’t come cheap, though – rates start at $3,000 a night.

It is in the property’s beachfront backyard that Madeline and Ed renew their vows in “I Want to Know” – one of the episode’s only high points in my opinion.

3. Jane and Ziggy’s Beach Talk (Del Monte Beach, 653 Del Monte Avenue, Monterey) – Ziggy Chapman (Iain Armitage) has a heart-to-heart with his mom, Jane (Shailene Woodley), on Del Monte Beach, declaring her to be a “whole ‘nother person – your whole face and stuff has been different” when she’s with Corey Brockfield (Douglas Smith) – though I have to say that I didn’t really see any of that come across onscreen. I thought she seemed much happier with Blue Blues’ owner Tom (Joseph Cross) in Season 1. (#bringbacktom!) Del Monte Beach also pops up in “What Have They Done?”, “The End of the World,” “She Knows,” and “Kill Me.”

4. Renata and Mary Louise’s Starbucks Run-In (1 Kersting Court, Sierra Madre) – In one of my favorite scenes of the season (which you can watch here – warning, it’s NSFW!), Renata Klein (Laura Dern) gets into a huge kerfuffle with Mary Louise Wright (Meryl Streep) at a supposed Monterey-area Starbucks. The coffee house is actually located in Sierra Madre, though. It is the same spot where Tori Bachman (Sarah Sokolovic) hit on Ed in “The Bad Mother.” You can check out a post I wrote about it here.

5. Katie Richmond’s Office (7427 Beverly Boulevard, Fairfax) – Katie Richmond (Poorna Jagannathan) unsuccessfully tries to convince Celeste not to question Mary Louise herself at her upcoming custody hearing during a meeting at her law office, which can be found in a unique Tudor-style building located on the corner of Beverly Boulevard and North Vista Street in Los Angeles.

6. Ira Farber’s Office (Scheper Kim & Harris LLP, The CalEdison DTLA, 601 West 5th Street, 12 Floor, downtown Los Angeles) – At another Los Angeles law office, this one located on the 12th Floor of TheCalEdison, Ira Farber (Denis O’Hare) cautions the ever-unpredictable Mary Louise to only answer the questions she is asked when she takes the stand at her upcoming hearing.

7. Monterey Superior Court (Superior Court of California, Marina Division, 3180 Del Monte Boulevard, Marina) – The bulk of “I Want to Know” takes place at the Marina Division of the Superior Court of California, where Celeste and Mary Louise furiously face off for custody of Celeste’s twin boys. The courthouse’s unique exterior is featured in full view in the episode.

And the lobby appears, as well.

But the actual courtroom itself is, I believe, just a set.

8. Monterey Bay Aquarium (886 Cannery Row, Monterey) – Jane and Corey rekindle their relationship in front of the Open Sea display at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, where they both work. Per the aquatic museum’s website, the million-gallon tank is one of the “largest live marine community exhibits in the world.” The romantic segment was shot during off hours, which gave producers the opportunity to capture the two lovebirds in front of the “bubble curtain,” a mechanism that helps fish maneuver through dark waters which is only utilized at night. The aquarium offers Romance Tours when the facility is closed, so you, too, can re-enact Jane and Corey’s kiss if you feel so inclined.

9. Cypress Community Hospital (Lanterman Developmental Center, 3530 Pomona Boulevard, Pomona) – Bonnie Carlson (Zoë Kravitz) ultimately says goodbye to both her mother, Elizabeth Howard (Crystal Fox), and her husband, Nathan Carlson (James Tupper), at an abandoned medical facility in Pomona known as Lanterman Developmental Center. The vast property, which once housed the developmentally disabled, pops up as Cypress Community Hospital in almost every episode of Season 2. (Big THANK YOU to my friend Owen for IDing this location! Smile )

10. Renata and Gordon’s House (27326 Winding Way, Malibu) – Renata also says goodbye to her husband, Gordon Klein (Jeffrey Nordling), in “I Want to Know,” coming to blows with him at their sprawling home, which is located in Malibu in real life. Though both the interior and exterior are featured throughout Seasons 1 and 2 . . .

. . . I believe Gordon’s mancave, which Renata takes a bat to, might have been a set.

11. Jane’s Apartment (Ocean Harbor, 125 Surf Way, Monterey) – In Season 2, Jane calls a unit at Monterey’s Ocean Harbor home, though we only catch a quick glimpse of the interior, which I am fairly certain was a studio-built set, in “I Want to Know.”

12. Bonnie and Nathan’s House (636 Crater Camp Drive, Calabasas) – At the end of the episode, Bonnie sends out an SOS text to the Monterey 5 from the bucolic home she shares with Nathan. Their pad, which is really located in Calabasas, was used throughout Season 1 and 2.

13. Carmel by the Sea Police Department (Junipero Avenue & 4th Avenue, Carmel) – In one of the most unfulfilling closing scenes I’ve ever witnessed, the Monterey 5 meet up at Carmel by the Sea PD (which plays itself) and the screen fades out as they walk inside, presumably to turn themselves in for Perry Wright’s (Alexander Skarsgård) murder. It was a definite “Wait, that’s it?” moment. As my friend Nat said after watching, “I had to check the episode information to verify that ‘I Want to Know’ was actually the finale!” As disappointing as the episode and the entire season turned out to be, though, I still loved spending time with Madeline and the gang and am sincerely hoping for a Season 3.

And that’s a wrap for me on Big Little Lies Season 2. Well, until the DVD comes out with the deleted scenes, at least!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

August 16, 2019August 16, 2019

The Filming Locations of “Big Little Lies” Season 2 – “The Bad Mother”

Turmoil abounds in the sixth episode of Big Little Lies’ second season, “The Bad Mother.” Celeste Wright (Nicole Kidman) and Mary Louise Wright (Meryl Streep) face off in court, Tori Bachman (Sarah Sokolovic) propositions Ed Mackenzie (Adam Scott), Bonnie Carlson (Zoë Kravitz) has a deathbed confession with her mom, Elizabeth Howard (Crystal Fox), and Renata Klein (Laura Dern) finds out about husband Gordon’s (Jeffrey Nordling) affair with the nanny! Phew! Read on for a list of where it all happened. (Note – as was the case with my posts about the locales from “What Have They Done?,” ”Tell-Tale Hearts,” “The End of the World,” “She Knows,” and “Kill Me,” because I have already extensively detailed BLL’s inaugural season, I will not be covering flashbacks. And places that appear in multiple episodes will be noted as such, so some crossover should be expected.)

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1. Corey’s House (263 Old Ranch Road, Sierra Madre) – “The Bad Mother” opens with Jane Chapman (Shailene Woodley) storming over to Corey Brockfield’s (Douglas Smith) home to find out if he’s working with the police. A small Sierra Madre cottage was utilized in the short segment and both the exterior . . .

. . . and the interior were seen, albeit very briefly. (Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Peter for identifying this location for me! Smile )

2. The Monterey 5’s Beach Meet-Up (White Point Park Parking Lot, 1801 West Paseo Del Mar, San Pedro) – Madeline Martha Mackenzie (Reese Witherspoon) and the gang have yet another secret parking lot meeting, this time at White Point Park in San Pedro, during which the cracks in their armor start to show. This locale also appears in episode 5, “Kill Me.”

3. Cypress Community Hospital (Lanterman Developmental Center, 3530 Pomona Boulevard, Pomona) – Bonnie makes several startling bedside confessions to her mother while sitting vigil in her room at Monterey’s fictional Cypress Community Hospital. Filming actually took place at the shuttered Lanterman Developmental Center in Pomona, which also popped up in “The End of the World,” “She Knows” and “Kill Me.” The facility, closed since 2014, formerly provided housing for the developmentally disabled, but currently sits vacant, which means I need to stalk it for a Haunted Hollywood post! There’s even a carousel situated on the grounds of the abandoned property – can you think of anything more eerie? (Insert scream face emoji here!)

4. Madeline and Ed’s House (30760 Broad Beach Road, Malibu) – Madeline attempts to reconnect to the person she was on her wedding day by trying on her wedding dress (“It doesn’t fit, but we’re not talking about that!”) at her gorgeous home – which is just the magic wand Ed needs to repair their marriage. Both the interior and exterior of Madeline and Ed’s Cape Cod-style pad are featured extensively throughout Seasons 1 and 2. I dedicated a post to the house – which is actually located in Malibu and serves as a vacation rental in real life – back in 2017.

Interestingly, the front of the Mackenzie residence, the driveway of which appears briefly in “The Bad Mother,” is a different location entirely. That property can be found at 2830 14th Avenue in Carmel.

5. Celeste’s House (40 Yankee Point Drive, Carmel) – The gorgeous home where Celeste lives with her twin boys, Max (Nicholas Crovetti) and Josh (Cameron Crovetti), is one of the few Monterey 5 residences actually located on the Central Coast. The rear patio and kitchen of the Carmel Highlands property appear in “The Bad Mother,” as well as in most Seasons 1 and 2 episodes, but the boys’ room and master bedroom were just studio-built sets.

6. Renata’s House (27326 Winding Way, Malibu) – Renata and Gordon call a humongous mansion in Malibu home on the series, though due to their bankruptcy proceedings, it sits largely empty, much like their marriage. In “The Bad Mother,” the backyard and living room of the property are featured.

7. Monterey Bay Aquarium (886 Cannery Row, Monterey) – Jane brushes off Corey’s attempts at a reconciliation at the Rocky Shore touch pools exhibit at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, where they both work as educators.

8. Monterey Superior Court (Superior Court of California, Marina Division, 3180 Del Monte Boulevard, Marina) – Celeste and Mary Louise’s custody hearing gets underway at an actual Monterey courthouse – the Superior Court of California, Marina Division. The site’s unique exterior is only briefly shown in the episode, though we catch a better glimpse of it in “I Want to Know.”

The building’s real life lobby (where Renata has more trouble with a metal detector!), hallway and an anteroom are also featured in “The Bad Mother.”

But I am fairly certain that the courtroom itself was a studio-built set.

9. Jane and Ziggy’s Bodysurfing Beach (Del Monte Beach, 653 Del Monte Avenue, Monterey) – Corey interrupts Jane’s bodysurfing session with her son, Ziggy Chapman (Iain Armitage), at Del Monte Beach in order to tell her that he is not going to give up on their relationship easily.

10. Tori and Ed’s Starbucks Meet-Up (1 Kersting Court, Sierra Madre) – Tori makes a major pass at Ed – and tells him about a rather disturbing diary that she keeps – at a Starbucks outpost in downtown Sierra Madre. You can read a post about the locale, which also pops up in “I Want to Know,” here.

11. Mary Louise’s Apartment (Ocean Harbor, 125 Surf Way, Monterey) – The actual interior of a unit at Monterey’s picturesque Ocean Harbor portrays the new apartment of Mary Louise, where Jane goes to confront her about her custody war with Celeste in “The Bad Mother.” Jane also calls the complex home on the series.

12. Bankruptcy Hearing (Spring Street Courthouse, 312 North Spring Street, downtown Los Angeles) – I am fairly certain that the scene in which Renata and Gordon’s nanny, Juliette (Nelly Buchet), seeks $160,000 in restitution for “other services rendered” – ahem, “stress management” – during a bankruptcy hearing was shot in a room at the Spring Street Courthouse in downtown L.A. The same spot also portrayed Gordon’s jail in “Tell-Tale Hearts” and was the site of another of the couple’s bankruptcy hearings in “She Knows.”

Be sure to check back Monday for my post on Big Little Lies’ season 2 finale, “I Want to Know.”

August 14, 2019August 13, 2019

The Filming Locations of “Big Little Lies” Season 2 – “Kill Me”

The fifth episode of Big Little Lies’ second season may have lacked pizzazz (especially since the much-anticipated ice-cream-throwing scene was cut!), but it sure boasted a lot of locations. Read on to discover which spots the Monterey 5 frequented in “Kill Me.” (Note – as was the case with my posts about the locales from “What Have They Done?,” ”Tell-Tale Hearts,” “The End of the World” and “She Knows,” because I have already extensively detailed BLL’s inaugural season, I will not be covering flashbacks. And places that appear in multiple episodes will be noted as such, so some crossover should be expected.)

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1. Jane’s Apartment (Ocean Harbor, 125 Surf Way, Monterey) – “Kill Me” opens at the new seaside apartment Jane Chapman (Shailene Woodley) shares with her son, Ziggy (Iain Armitage), located at Monterey’s Ocean Harbor. Though the inside of Jane’s place is, I believe, just a set . . .

. . . the actual interior of a unit is used as the home of Mary Louise Wright (Meryl Streep), who lives in the same complex.

“Kill Me” also offers us a rare glimpse of the exterior of Ocean Harbor towards the end of the episode as Mary Louise sits alone on nearby Del Monte Beach.

2. Celeste’s House (40 Yankee Point Drive, Carmel) – A gorgeous pad in Carmel Highlands stands in for the residence of Celeste Wright (Nicole Kidman) and her children, Max (Nicholas Crovetti) and Josh (Cameron Crovetti), on the show. Used extensively throughout Seasons 1 and 2, the home, more specifically its dining room, only appears briefly in “Kill Me.” Celeste’s bedroom and the twins’ room, which are also shown in the episode, were just studio-built sets.

3. Nathan and Ed’s Argument (Monterey Bay Coastal Recreation Trail, near 459 Ocean View Boulevard, Pacific Grove) – Nathan Carlson (James Tupper) calls Ed Mackenzie (Adam Scott) a “nut-f*ck” – the planet is inhabited by them! – on Monterey Bay’s gorgeous Coastal Recreation Trail, which runs 18 miles from Castroville to Pacific Grove. In the scene, the two men argue near the Lovers Point Mural, about 0.2 miles east of Lovers Point Beach.

4. Monterey Superior Court (Superior Court of California, Marina Division, 3180 Del Monte Boulevard, Marina) – Celeste and Mary Louise attend the first part of their custody hearing at an actual Central Coast courthouse located in Marina, a small town just north of Monterey. Little of the unique building is shown in the scene, though we catch better views of it in the Season 2 finale, “I Want to Know.”

I believe the actual interior of the courthouse also made an appearance in the episode.

5. Cypress Community Hospital (Lanterman Developmental Center, 3530 Pomona Boulevard, Pomona) – Bonnie Carlson (Zoë Kravitz) sits vigil at her mother Elizabeth Howard’s (Crystal Fox) bedside at what is supposed to be Monterey’s local Cypress Community Hospital. Filming actually took place at an abandoned former health facility in Pomona known as Lanterman Developmental Center. The same spot is also where Amabella Klein (Ivy George) was taken after her anxiety attack in “The End of the World” and where Elizabeth was admitted following her stroke in “She Knows.” (Big THANK YOU to my friend Owen for IDing this location! Smile )

6. Ziggy and the Twins’ Fist Fight (Carmel River Elementary School, 2770 15th Avenue, Carmel) – Though Ziggy, Max and Josh are suspended for pummeling a bully on the Otter Bay Elementary playground, Kenter Canyon, which typically portrays the school of the Monterey 5’s children on the series, was not used in the scene. Filming instead took place at Carmel River Elementary, with the bungalows of the neighboring Mission Ranch Hotel clearly visible in the background.

7. Otter Bay Elementary (Kenter Canyon Elementary School, 645 North Kenter Avenue, Brentwood) – Kenter Canyon does make an appearance in “Kill Me,” though. It in the school’s principal’s office that Celeste and Jane are informed of their children’s three-day suspension and outside of the school that Jane asks Ziggy what caused the fight.

8. Madeline and Ed’s Marriage Retreat (Seven Coves, 157 Spindrift Road, Carmel) – A massive compound in Carmel which also cameoed in the 1992 thriller Basic Instinct stood in for the “healing institute” where Ed and his wife, Madeline Martha Mackenzie (Reese Witherspoon), try to repair their marriage. The sprawling property, known as Seven Coves in real life, boasts 5 separate homes, more than 4 acres of land, 1,000 feet of coastline, 17,000 square feet of living space, 12 bedrooms, and 17 bathrooms. If you have an extra $52 million lying around, the whole thing can be yours, as it is currently on the market.

It is in the property’s quaint, one-bedroom Writer’s Cottage that Ed and Madeline attend the retreat’s infamous hugging seminar in “Kill Me.”

9. Renata and Gordon’s House (27326 Winding Way, Malibu) – In the hopes of getting her to drop the custody battle against Celeste, Renata Klein (Laura Dern) invites Mary Louise for tea at her massive modern mansion, now virtually empty due to her bankruptcy – which, of course, does not go unnoticed by Mary Louise. The pad, featured in both Seasons 1 and 2, can be found on a private road in the hills of Malibu above Escondido Beach. Both the interior and exterior are utilized extensively on the series.

10. Madeline and Ed’s House (30760 Broad Beach Road, Malibu) – Chloe Mackenzie (Darby Camp) offers her father, Ed, some solace in the form of a hug in the kitchen of their idyllic Cape Cod-style home in “Kill Me.” Like Renata’s place, the Mackenzie residence is located in Malibu. The stunning property is a vacation rental in real life, which means you, too, can live like the Monterey 5 – well, temporarily, at least. You can check out a post I wrote about the dwelling here.

11. Liberation Yoga (124 South La Brea Avenue, Hancock Park) – Bonnie hosts a “singing for sleep apnea” class and is confronted by her father, Martin Howard (Martin Donovan), at a real yoga studio in Hancock Park. Or at least it was. Sadly, Liberation Yoga, formerly located on La Brea Avenue, has since moved and the storefront that once housed it sits vacant, so you can no longer get your namaste on there. The site also popped up a couple of times in Season 1 and was where Elizabeth surprised Bonnie in Season 2’s “Tell-Tale Hearts.”

12. Ira Farber’s Office (Scheper Kim & Harris LLP, The CalEdison DTLA, 601 West 5th Street, 12th Floor, downtown Los Angeles) – Mary Louise’s lawyer, Ira Farber (Denis O’Hare), unsuccessfully tries to broker a joint custody deal between his client and Celeste at Scheper Kim & Harris, located on the 12th floor of The CalEdison in downtown L.A. The firm’s offices also showed up in episode 4, “She Knows.”

The building’s 12th floor elevator bay was utilized in “Kill Me,” as well.

13. The Monterey 5’s Parking Lot Meet-Up (White Point Park, 1801 West Paseo Del Mar, San Pedro) – Celeste calls for a late-night secret meeting in the parking lot of San Pedro’s White Point Park (quite a long way from Monterey!) to discuss the latest in Perry’s (Alexander Skarsgård) case and to inform the group that she might be required to take the stand in her custody hearing, which would put them all in jeopardy. The same lot also makes an appearance in “The Bad Mother.”

14. Bonnie and Nathan’s House (636 Crater Camp Drive, Calabasas) – Nathan tries to make a grand gesture to show his love for Bonnie by surprising her with a treadmill and running book at their bohemian-style residence, actually located in Calabasas. It is in the living room of the bucolic home, used in both Seasons 1 and 2, that Bonnie has a heart-to-heart with her dad about her childhood abuse in the episode.

15. Madeline and Mary Louise’s Ice Cream Run-In (Kersting Court, Sierra Madre) – In what proved to be the most disappointing scene of the season, Madeline and her daughter Abigail Carlson (Kathryn Newton) run into Mary Louise on a downtown Sierra Madre street after getting ice cream. Though the cone-tossing element of the segment never made it to the screen, the trio is shown having a terse conversation in front of Savor the Flavor gift store at 11 Kersting Court.

16. Corey’s Kayaking Beach (Whaler’s Cove, Point Lobos, Carmel) – Instead of keeping Max, Josh and Ziggy home during their suspension, Celeste and Jane decide to take them kayaking with Corey Brockfield (Douglas Smith) at Monterey’s famed Whaler’s Cove at Point Lobos State Natural Reserve. The pristine oasis, a popular kayaking destination in real life, is part of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

Prior to heading out on the water, Corey engages in some horseplay with the boys in the Cove’s parking lot area, which also made appearances in “The End of the World.”

17. Tori Hits on Ed (City Tavern, 9739 Culver Boulevard, Culver City) – Tori Bachman (Sarah Sokolovic) rather awkwardly hits on Ed (though things are about to get a lot more awkward in the episodes to come!), at City Tavern, the very same bar where Celeste and Jane had cocktails in “She Knows.”

18. Carmel by the Sea Police Department (Junipero Avenue & 4th Avenue, Carmel) – Carmel by the Sea PD plays itself in several episodes of Big Little Lies’ second season. In “Kill Me,” Bonnie heads there on a late-night walk and makes the shocking discovery that Corey might be working with the police.

Don’t forget to tune in Friday for my post about episode 6, “The Bad Mother.”

August 12, 2019August 11, 2019

The Filming Locations of “Big Little Lies” Season 2 – “She Knows”

The fourth episode of Big Little Lies’ second season is pretty much when the show jumped the shark for me. Though there were some captivating moments – a pumpkin carving party, a disco soiree and that slap! – the majority of “She Knows” was just meh. Nevertheless, I proudly present to you its locations! (Note – as was the case with my posts about the locales from “What Have They Done?”, ”Tell-Tale Hearts” and “The End of the World,” because I have already extensively detailed BLL’s inaugural season, I will not be covering flashbacks. And places that appear in multiple episodes will be noted as such, so expect some crossover.)

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1. Madeline and Ed’s House (30760 Broad Beach Road, Malibu) – At the top of “She Knows,” the Monterey 5 and their children enjoy a brief respite from the drama surrounding them thanks to a pumpkin carving party hosted by Madeline Martha Mackenzie (Reese Witherspoon) at the gorgeous home she shares with her husband, Ed (Adam Scott). An unexpected visit from Mary Louise Wright (Meryl Streep) cuts the festivities short, though– and results in a slap in the face from Celeste (Nicole Kidman). Don’t go looking for the idyllic beachside pad where filming took place in Monterey as Madeline and Ed’s residence (my favorite of the series) can actually be found in Malibu. And it’s a vacation rental in real life! You can read a post I wrote about the dwelling, which appears throughout Seasons 1 and 2, here.

Interestingly, when the front of the Mackenzie home is shown later in the episode, a different spot is used. That pad, which is also seen a couple of times in Season 1, is actually on the Central Coast. It’s at 2830 14th Avenue in Carmel.

2. Jane and Corey’s Surfing Beach (Del Monte Beach, 653 Del Monte Avenue, Monterey) – During a surf session at Del Monte Beach, Jane Chapman (Shailene Woodley) invites her new love interest, Corey Brockfield (Douglas Smith), to Amabella Klein’s (Ivy George) disco-themed birthday party. Though he accepts, he is not especially enthused about the costume aspect of the event because of the huge “opportunity for embarrassment.” A man who doesn’t like costume parties? Jane, you can do better! This locale is also where Jane and Corey run into each other in “What Have They Done?” and where Corey gives Ziggy (Iain Armitage) surf lessons in “The End of the World.”

3. Blissful Drip Café (Lovers Point Park, 631 Ocean View Boulevard, Pacific Grove) – Mary Louise and Celeste discuss the respective ways they deal with grief at Monterey’s newest hot spot, Blissful Drip Café. As I detail in this post, the eatery is not a real place, but was a set constructed solely for the Big Little Lies shoot in Pacific Grove’s Lovers Point Park. Though featured religiously throughout episodes 1 through 4, “She Knows” marks the coffee shop’s last Season 2 appearance.

4. Bankruptcy Court (Spring Street Courthouse, 312 North Spring Street, downtown Los Angeles) – Renata Klein (Laura Dern) attends a bankruptcy hearing with husband Gordon (Jeffrey Nordling) at downtown L.A.’s Spring Street Courthouse where she gets into more trouble with a metal detector and is forced to relinquish her wedding ring. The same spot also served as Gordon’s jail in “Tell-Tale Hearts.”

As was the case in that episode, signage reading “Los Angeles” is visible in the background giving away the courthouse’s true location as a non-Central Coast site.

5. Renata and Gordon’s House (27326 Winding Way, Malibu) – Despite their financial woes, Renata and Gordon throw a lavish, over-the-top disco-themed costume party (headlined by Earl Young and The Trammps!) for their daughter Amabella’s 8th birthday at their massive home, which, like Madeline’s, can be found in Malibu.

6. Ira Farber’s Law Office (Scheper Kim & Harris LLP, The CalEdison, 601 West 5th Street, 12th Floor, downtown Los Angeles) – An actual law firm housed on the 12th floor of DTLA’s CalEdison building serves as the office of Mary Louise’s cutthroat custody lawyer, Ira Farber (Denis O’Hare). You can check out some interior photos of the space, which also pops up in “Kill Me,” here.

7. Cypress Community Hospital (Lanterman Developmental Center, 3530 Pomona Boulevard, Pomona) – Pomona’s Lanterman Developmental Center portrays the Monterey-area hospital where Elizabeth Howard (Crystal Fox) is admitted following the stroke she suffers at Amabella’s party. The massive 309-acre facility, closed since 2014, housed the developmentally disabled while in operation, but currently sits vacant. This is the same spot Amabella was taken post anxiety attack in “The End of the World” and it makes additional appearances throughout the rest of Season 2. (Big THANK YOU to my friend Owen for identifying this location! Smile )

8. Jane and Celeste Grab Cocktails (City Tavern, 9739 Culver Boulevard, Culver City) – After Amabella’s party, Jane and Celeste head to City Tavern to debrief. The cozy Culver City bar is also seen in episode 5, “Kill Me.”

9. Pizza Parlor (Bean Town, 45 North Baldwin Avenue, Sierra Madre) – Mary Louise takes the twins, Josh (Cameron Crovetti) and Max (Nicholas Crovetti), for the “best pizza in the woooooooorld” at Bean Town, a popular Sierra Madre coffee house. Because the eatery was heavily dressed to appear like an upscale Italian restaurant, not to mention barely shown, it is, unfortunately, not very recognizable in the scene. You can read a more in-depth post on the locale, and see photos of it decked out for the shoot, here.

10. Celeste’s House (40 Yankee Point Drive, Carmel) – While dropping the twins off at their gorgeous oceanside home, Mary Louise catches Celeste with a one-night stand and promptly slaps her with a custody suit. Celeste’s residence, which is featured in both Season 1 and 2, is one of the few Monterey 5 pads that can actually be found on the Central Coast. In real life, it sits perched atop a rocky cliff in Carmel.

11. Café Descanso (Descanso Gardens, 1414 Descanso Drive, La Cañada Flintridge) – Madeline and Renata have a terse run-in with Detective Adrienne Quinlan (Merrin Dungey) at their regular Season 2 hangout, Café Descanso. Like Blissful Drip, the eatery, which pops up repeatedly in episodes 1 through 4, makes its last Season 2 appearance in “She Knows.” Unlike Blissful Drip, this spot is a real place, located on the grounds of Descanso Gardens. I wrote about it here.

12. Mary Louise’s New Apartment (Ocean Harbor, 125 Surf Way, Monterey) – Jane confronts Mary Louise about her custody battle with Celeste at her new apartment in Monterey’s Ocean Harbor, the same beachside complex where Jane also lives.

While Jane’s apartment was a studio-built set, the actual interior of an Ocean Harbor unit was utilized as Mary Louise’s. Little of the space can be seen in “She Knows,” but you can check out some behind-the-scenes imagery of it here.

Be sure to check back Wednesday for a look at episode 5, “Kill Me.”

August 9, 2019August 14, 2019

The Filming Locations of “Big Little Lies” Season 2 – “The End of the World”

Not much changes with the women of Monterey in the third episode of Big Little Lies’ second season, “The End of the World.” Renata Klein (Laura Dern) is still on a tear, Bonnie Carlson (Zoë Kravitz) continues to “mope-a-dope” around, and Mary Louise Wright (Meryl Streep) just refuses to let anything go. And I’ve compiled a list of where it all happens! Read on for the complete locations guide to “The End of the World.” (Note – as was the case with my posts about the locales from episode 1 and episode 2, since I have already extensively detailed BLL’s inaugural season, I will not be covering flashbacks. And places that appear in multiple episodes will be mentioned as such, so some crossover should be expected.)

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1. Bonnie and Nathan’s House (636 Crater Camp Drive, Calabasas) – In “The End of the World,” Bonnie continues to make do with her mother Elizabeth Howard’s (Crystal Ryan) unwelcome visit to the secluded “Central Coast” home she shares with husband, Nathan (James Tupper). In reality, the pad, which also appeared in Season 1, cannot be found in Monterey, but on a sleepy street in Calabasas. Both the interior and exterior are featured fairly extensively on the show.

2. Bonnie’s Beach Walk (Carmel River State Beach, Carmelo Street and Scenic Road, Carmel) – A tormented Bonnie strolls along Carmel River State Beach – and straight into the water, fully clothed – while reminiscing about the childhood abuse she suffered at the hands of her mother. The beach’s parking lot was also used in an establishing shot of the spot where the Monterey 5 discuss Perry Wright’s (Alexander Skarsgård) murder case in “What Have They Done?”

3. Bonnie’s Childhood Pool (Maple Hill Family YMCA, 1673 Maple Hill Road, Diamond Bar) – During her walk, Bonnie flashes back to a traumatic swimming experience from her youth. The brief segment, in which a young Elizabeth (Khalilah Joi) dunks childhood Bonnie (Mykal-Michelle Harris) underwater, was shot at the Maple Hill Family YMCA in Diamond Bar.

4. Madeline and Celeste’s Beach Talk (Point Lobos State Reserve Parking, Cannery Point, Carmel) – I never thought I’d describe a parking lot as “gorgeous,” but that word perfectly encapsulates the oceanfront spot where Madeline Martha Mackenzie (Reese Witherspoon) tells Celeste Wright (Nicole Kidman) about her father’s affair. It is so arresting, in fact, that it was the number one spot I wanted to find upon first viewing the episode. Filming of the scene took place in the parking area of Whaler’s Cove at Point Lobos State Reserve. Madeline also apologizes to Celeste for not recognizing the signs of her abuse in the same parking lot later in the episode.

5. Monterey Bay Aquarium Skyway (886 Cannery Row, Monterey) – Mary Louise confronts Jane Chapman (Shailene Woodley) on a skyway connecting two buildings at the Monterey Bay Aquarium and asks her to submit her son, Ziggy (Iain Armitage), to a paternity test. As a surprise to no one, Jane’s answer is a hard no. I do not believe the footbridge used in the scene, which runs over Cannery Row, is publicly accessible in real life, so how Mary Louise gained access to it is one of the show’s many mysteries.

6. Otter Bay Elementary School (Kenter Canyon Elementary School, 645 North Kenter Avenue, Brentwood) – Kenter Canyon, the Brentwood site that stands in for the elementary school attended by the Monterey 5’s kids, is the real star of “The End of the World.” It is there that all of the shenanigans from episode 3 take place. Mr. Perkins (Mo McRae) teaches his second grade students that Charlotte’s Web is about sustainability in one of Kenter Canyon’s classrooms, sending little Amabella Klein (Ivy George) straight to the ER with an anxiety attack.

The school’s office is where Renata – the “f*cking Medusa of Monterey” – has an epic meltdown at Mr. Perkins and Principal Warren Nippal (P.J. Byrne), which you can watch here (warning, as is the case with most of Renata’s rants, this one is most definitely NSFW!).

And Madeline gives her heartbreaking Rainbow Connection speech in Kenter Canyon’s auditorium.

7. Cypress Community Hospital (Lanterman Developmental Center, 3530 Pomona Boulevard, Pomona) – The former Lanterman Developmental Center, which closed in 2014 and currently sits vacant, serves as the hospital where Amabella is taken post anxiety attack. The sprawling 309-acre site also pops up several times in the episodes that follow. (Big THANK YOU to my friend Owen for identifying this location! Smile )

8. Madeline and Ed’s House (30760 Broad Beach Road, Malibu) – The charming Cape Cod belonging to Madeline and her husband, Ed Mackenzie (Adam Scott), on the show is located in Malibu. You can check out an in-depth post I wrote on the home, my favorite from the series, here. (Bonus – it’s a vacation rental in real life!) Both the interior and exterior of the sprawling pad are featured in “The End of the World,” as well as in pretty much every other episode of the series.

9. Renata and Gordon’s House (27326 Winding Way, Malibu) – “Dr. Peep” (Kerri Kenney) – a children’s therapist who dresses as Little Bo Peep – meets with Amabella at the palatial home she shares with her parents to discuss her anxiety over climate change. Like Madeline’s, this residence can be found in Malibu. While the actual interior of the dwelling is utilized in the segment, as well as in countless other scenes from both Season 1 and 2, I believe Gordon’s (Jeffrey Nordling) mancave was just a set.

10. Jane and Corey’s Date (The Stage, 546 South San Fernando Boulevard, Burbank) – It is at Burbank’s gorgeous The Stage California Fusion Restaurant and Café that Corey Brockfield (Douglas Smith) finally takes Jane on a date – and teaches her all about land-based vs. net-pen raised seafood. The rather awkward rendezvous was shot in the eatery’s idyllic main courtyard. Though easily one of L.A.’s prettiest spots, oddly very little of it can be seen in the episode. But don’t worry – I took plenty of pics when I stalked it earlier this year.

11. Jane and Corey’s Non-Kiss (600 Block of Lighthouse Avenue, Monterey) – Following dinner, Jane and Corey’s date continues – a good 300 miles away from where it started – with a walk along Lighthouse Avenue in Monterey. It is in front of the Cat’s Meow clothing store (601 Lighthouse Avenue) that Corey unsuccessfully attempts to kiss Jane, causing her to caution him that she’s “gotta idle in neutral for a little bit.”

12. Celeste’s House (40 Yankee Point Drive, Carmel) – Celeste’s gorgeous cliffside estate, featured in both Seasons 1 and 2, is actually located on the Central Coast – in Carmel, to be exact. The home’s real living room and back patio appear in “The End of the World,” though the twins’ room, I believe, was just a studio-built set.

13. Jane’s New Apartment (Ocean Harbor, 125 Surf Way, Monterey) – Mary Louise creeps on Jane and Ziggy in the parking lot of their new apartment complex, Ocean Harbor. Though the interior of their place is shown in previous episodes, “The End of the World” gives us our first look at the exterior. The parking lot is also where Jane and Corey share an impromptu slow dance at the end of the episode.

14. Blissful Drip Café (Lovers Point Park, 631 Ocean View Boulevard, Pacific Grove) – Mary Louise tells Jane that she wants to be in Ziggy’s life – and then shoots herself in the foot by calling Perry, her son/Jane’s rapist, “gentle” and “tender” – at Blissful Drip Café, one of the gang’s regular Season 2 hangouts. Sadly, the bohemian-style eatery is not real, but was a set constructed for the Big Little Lies shoot in Monterey’s Lovers Point Park. Not much of the space is shown in “The End of the World,” but other episodes from the season afford us a better look at it. You can check out a post I wrote about the fictional coffee shop here.

15. Café Descanso (Descanso Gardens, 1418 Descanso Drive, La Canada Flintridge) – Madeline happens upon Ed having coffee with Bonnie at Café Descanso, the ladies’ other Season 2 hangout. Unlike Blissful Drip, this spot is a real place, located on the grounds of Descanso Gardens. Situated outside of the entrance gates, admittance tickets are not required to dine there.

16. Madeline’s Real Estate Office (Deasy Penner Podley, 30 North Baldwin Avenue, Sierra Madre) – Renata heads to Madeline’s “Monterey” real estate office to vent about Principal Nippal and winds up having an awkward encounter with Mary Louise. Filming of the scene took place at the Sierra Madre outpost of Deasy Penner Podley, which also made a cameo in “What Have They Done?” You can check out a post I dedicated to the site here.

17. Ziggy’s Surf Lesson (Del Monte Beach, 653 Del Monte Avenue, Monterey) – Corey gives Ziggy a surf lesson while Jane and Bonnie watch at Monterey’s scenic Del Monte Beach. This is the same spot where Jane runs into Corey in “What Have They Done?”

Be sure to check back Monday for a round-up of sites from episode 4, “She Knows.”

August 7, 2019August 8, 2019

The Filming Locations of “Big Little Lies” Season 2 – “Tell-Tale Hearts”

“Tell-Tale Hearts,” the second episode of Big Little Lies’ second season, boasts some of the series’ most quotable, meme-worthy moments, largely thanks to the inimitable Renata Klein (Laura Dern) – “Will somebody give a woman a moment??” It also features some of the show’s most memorable locales [the forest where Bonnie Carlson (Zoë Kravitz) hikes with her mom, amirite?], the majority of which are detailed below. (I am still missing a few, which I will add in as they are found.) As was the case with Monday’s post about sites from episode 1, “What Have They Done?”, since I have already chronicled filming of BLL’s inaugural season extensively, I will not be covering flashbacks. And places that appear in multiple episodes will be mentioned as such, so expect some crossover.

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1. Celeste’s Accident (Skyline Drive, just west of Mar Vista Drive, Monterey) – In the episode’s opener, Celeste Wright (Nicole Kidman) gets into an Ambien- induced accident on a tree-lined span of Skyline Drive in Monterey and has to be rescued by Madeline Martha Mackenzie (Reese Witherspoon).

As they drive away from the accident, Celeste and Madeline run into Bonnie, out for an early morning hike, on Skyline Road, a bit north of where it intersects with Shepherds Place.

2. Gordon’s Arrest (Malibu Country Mart, 3835 Cross Creek Road, Malibu) – Life starts to fall apart for Renata and her husband, Gordon Klein (Jeffrey Nordling), at the top of “Tell-Tale Hearts,” shortly after the two grab a beverage at SunLife Organics juice bar in the Malibu Country Mart.

While walking to their car, drinks in hand, Gordon is approached by the FBI and arrested for securities fraud outside of Kron Chocolatier. Both shops featured in the segment are situated in the center of the plaza, on Cross Creek Road in between Civic Center Way and the Pacific Coast Highway – though it took me a beat to figure that out. The Country Mart bears such an uncanny resemblance to Monterey’s Del Monte Shopping Center that at first blush I was convinced the shoot had taken place on the Central Coast. It was not until I took a closer look that I realized filming actually occurred in the ‘Bu.

3. Celeste’s House (40 Yankee Point Drive, Carmel) – The gorgeous home where Celeste lives, featured throughout both Seasons 1 and 2, is an actual Monterey residence. In “Tell-Tale Hearts,” the front of the property, garage, driveway, kitchen, dining room, rear patio and living room all appear.

4. Monterey Bay Aquarium (886 Cannery Row, Monterey) – While on their lunch break at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Corey Brockfield (Douglas Smith) asks Jane Chapman (Shailene Woodley) out on a “practice date.” Spoiler – she shuts him down due to the fact that he is “very strange.” [Couldn’t agree more, Jane! Bring back Tom (Joseph Cross)!] Per the aquatic museum’s website, one of the facility’s actual employee lounges was used for the scene.

5. Gordon’s Jail (Spring Street Courthouse, 312 North Spring Street, downtown Los Angeles) – Renata visits Gordon in jail, gets held up by a metal detector, spews some choice epithets at a security guard, and famously proclaims “I will not NOT be rich!” at downtown L.A.’s Spring Street Courthouse.

Comically, while the scene was supposed to take place in Monterey, a sign reading “Los A . . . “ (I can only assume the rest of it spells out “ngeles”), is visible in the background, giving away the site’s true location.

Gordon’s hearing is also held at the Spring Street Courthouse later in the episode.

6. Liberation Yoga (124 South La Brea Avenue, Hancock Park) – Bonnie receives a surprise – and unwelcome – visit from her mother, Elizabeth Howard (Crystal Fox), at the supposed Monterey-area yoga studio she owns. Filming actually took place in Hancock Park, at Liberation Yoga, the same spot used as Bonnie’s studio in Season 1.

7. Bonnie and Nathan’s House (636 Crater Camp Drive, Calabasas) – Bonnie and Nathan Carlson (James Tupper) argue about Elizabeth’s stay in the backyard of their supposed Central Coast home, which, in reality, can be found a good 300 miles south of Monterey in Calabasas. The same idyllic spot also portrayed the couple’s residence in Season 1.

8. Café Descanso (Descanso Gardens, 1418 Descanso Drive, La Cañada Flintridge – Renata spills the tea about her money troubles to Madeline at Café Descanso, the women’s regular Season 2 hangout.

Nathan also challenges Ed Mackenzie (Adam Scott) to a fight at the eatery, which is located on the grounds of Descanso Gardens, later in the episode. You can read an in-depth post I wrote on the location here.

9. Otter Bay Elementary School (Kenter Canyon Elementary School, 645 North Kenter Avenue, Brentwood) – Kenter Canyon Elementary pops up as Otter Bay, the school attended by the Monterey 5’s children, in virtually every episode of Season 1 and 2. In “Tell-Tale Hearts,” the facility’s front entrance, a classroom and main quad all appear.

10. Bonnie and Elizabeth’s Hike (Old Coast Road, south of Bixby Creek Bridge, Big Sur) – Elizabeth attempts to have a heart-to-heart with Bonnie on a majestic wooded stretch of Old Coast Road in Big Sur. The absolutely magical spot is also where Bonnie runs in episode 1, “What Have They Done?”

11. Celeste and Perry’s Date Flashback (Melrose Umbrella Co., 7465 Melrose Avenue, Fairfax) – In “Tell-Tale Hearts,” a grieving Celeste reminisces about happier times with Perry Wright (Alexander Skarsgård), more specifically one of their early dates in which they discuss their families. Though virtually none of the date restaurant can be seen, the tiered booth edge visible behind Celeste is a giveaway that the segment was shot at Melrose Umbrella Co.

12. Madeline and Ed’s House (30760 Broad Beach Road, Malibu) – The Cape Cod-style residence where Madeline and Ed live makes its first Season 2 appearance in “Tell-Tale Hearts.” Interestingly, the locale is a mash-up of a couple different places. The interior and backyard are part of a sprawling Malibu retreat, which you, too, can call home! Well, for a night or two, at least – the property operates as a vacation rental in real life. (I wrote a full-length post on it here.) The front of the house (seen in “She Knows,” as well as a few S1 episodes) is on the Central Coast at 2830 14th Avenue in Carmel.

13. Jane’s Apartment (Ocean Harbor, 125 Surf Way, Monterey) – Jane tells Ziggy Chapman (Iain Armitage) the truth about his father and later invites Celeste and the twins, Josh (Cameron Crovetti) and Max (Nicholas Crovetti), over for a family gettogether at her new Ocean Harbor apartment in “Tell-Tale Hearts.” Only the interior of the space (which I believe was a set) appears in the episode. The exterior of the complex is not shown until episode 3, “The End of the World.”

14. Blissful Drip Café (Lovers Point Park, 631 Ocean View Boulevard, Pacific Grove) – Jane and Celeste meet to discuss the newfound complications of their children’s relationship at Blissful Drip Café, which, along with Café Descanso, serves as a regular hangout in Season 2. As I documented here, the open air coffee shop is not a real place, but was a temporary set constructed solely for the series at Lovers Point Park.

15. Renata Ditches Gordon (General Jim Moore Boulevard, Seaside) – In what has to be my favorite scene from the season, Renata blows her top at Gordon while driving him home from prison and winds up leaving him by the side of a hilly, lush road, her hand lifted through the sunroof in a not-so-subtle gesture. The hilarious segment (which you can watch here – warning, it is definitely NSFW!) was lensed on General Jim Moore Boulevard, slightly north of Hilby Road, in Seaside.

Be sure to check back Friday for locales from episode 3, “The End of the World.”

August 5, 2019August 7, 2019

The Filming Locations of “Big Little Lies” Season 2 – “What Have They Done”

I’ve made no secret of my apathy for the second season of Big Little Lies. But I was, of course, still entranced by its locations, which I’ve been obsessively IDing ever since episode 1 aired in early June. So I figure it is only appropriate to follow up my complete guide to the locales from Season 1 by doing the same for S2. Because a great deal more sites were featured this time around (S1 utilized 25 spots total, while S2 boasted 18 in its premiere alone!), an episode-by-episode breakdown seems to make the most sense here. I apologize in advance to the non-Big Little Lies fans out there! (A couple of notes – since I have already covered Season 1 extensively, I will not be including any flashback scenes. Places that appear in multiple episodes will be mentioned as such, so there will be some crossover and repetition in the various posts. And I am also missing a few locales, but will add them in as they are found.)

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And now, without further ado, I present all of the locations from Big Little Lies’ Season 2 premiere, “What Have They Done?”, in order of appearance.

1. Celeste’s House (40 Yankee Point Drive, Carmel) – All of the women’s Season 1 residences, aside from Jane Chapman’s (Shailene Woodley), are re-used in Season 2, including the modern cliffside manse where Celeste Wright (Nicole Kidman) lives with her boys, Josh (Cameron Crovetti) and Max (Nicholas Crovetti). In “What Have They Done?,” the pad’s actual front entrance, rear patio, living and dining rooms are featured (the latter is the site of that infamous scream!), but, as was the case with Season 1, the enormous master suite was just a soundstage-built set.

2. Jane’s New Apartment (Ocean Harbor, 125 Surf Way, Monterey) – Season 2 finds Jane and her son, Ziggy Chapman (Iain Armitage), living in an apartment in Ocean Harbor, the same waterfront complex where Celeste leased a unit at the end of S1. Though the inside of their new place (which I believe was a set) is featured in “What Have They Done?” . . .

. . . the exterior is not seen until episode 3, “The End of the World.”

3. Otter Bay Elementary School (Kenter Canyon Elementary School, 645 North Kenter Avenue, Brentwood) – At the outset of Season 2, the children of the Monterey 5 embark upon their second-grade year at Otter Bay, once again portrayed by Kenter Canyon Elementary School in Brentwood. In “What Have They Done?”, the front of the school, exterior hallways, parking lot, quad, and auditorium are all featured.

The park at the southern end of the school is also where the kids dance in the opening credits.

4. Madeline Gets Cut Off (Intersection of Esplanade Street and Ocean View Drive, Pacific Grove) – In a nod to the Season 1 premiere, while heading to grab coffee with Celeste, Madeline Martha Mackenzie (Reese Witherspoon) gets cut off by a fellow driver and then aggressively lays on her horn (because, as she explains, “Once I lean in, you know how I am!”) in the very same spot where she fell and rolled her ankle in “Somebody’s Dead.”

5. Blissful Drip Café (Lovers Point Park, 631 Ocean View Boulevard, Pacific Grove) – After dropping their kids off for their first day of school, Madeline and Celeste hit up their new java hangout, Blissful Drip Café, where Madeline has an unfortunate tête-à-tête with Mary Louise Wright (Meryl Streep). The bohemian outdoor eatery is not a real place, but was a temporary set constructed solely for the show in a grassy expanse of Lovers Point Park, as I documented in this post.

In the scene, the women park in front of the former Lattitudes at Lovers Point restaurant (631 Ocean View Drive), which currently sits vacant.

6. Ed and Tori’s Grocery Store Encounter (Whole Foods Market, 331 North Glendale Avenue, Glendale) – Ed Mackenzie (Adam Scott) runs into Tori Bachman (Sarah Sokolovic) – and her new, ahem, assets – at the Glendale outpost of Whole Foods Market. (Big THANK YOU to my friend/Brady Bunch aficionado Michael for IDing this location.)

7. Bonnie’s Run (Old Coast Road, south of Bixby Creek Bridge, Big Sur) – The bucolic forested path where Bonnie (Zoë Kravitz) runs – and relives Season 1’s murder – can be found on Old Coast Road in Big Sur. The same trail is also where Bonnie and her mom, Elizabeth Howard (Crystal Fox), hike in “Tell-Tale Hearts.”

8. Bonnie and Nathan’s House (636 Crater Camp Drive, Calabasas) – The same gorgeous Calabasas bungalow from Season 1 serves as the home of Bonnie and Nathan Carlson (James Tupper) in Season 2.

9. Monterey Bay Aquarium (886 Cannery Row, Monterey) – Jane inexplicably goes from being an accountant in Season 1 to a Monterey Bay Aquarium educator in Season 2. The popular aquatic museum plays itself in “What Have They Done?” (as well as in several other episodes), with Jane and her new co-worker/love interest Corey Brockfield (Douglas Smith) leading a class in one of the site’s Discovery Labs.

10. Café Descanso (Descanso Gardens, 1418 Descanso Drive, La Cañada Flintridge) – Unlike Blissful Drip, Season 2’s other new coffee shop hangout, Café Descanso, is a real place. It is at the picturesque site, located on the grounds of Descanso Gardens, that Nathan begs Ed to take Bonnie to lunch in “What Have They Done?” The eatery also pops up in “Tell-Tale Hearts,” “The End of the World,” and “She Knows.” You can read a more in-depth post on it here.

11. Renata’s House (27326 Winding Way, Malibu) – Renata Klein (Laura Dern) poses for a “Women in Power” photoshoot at the same palatial mansion that served as her residence in Season 1. While the exterior and interior are both seen in the premiere episode (as well as throughout the rest of S2), I am fairly certain that Gordon’s (Jeffrey Nordling) beloved man cave was just a set.

12. Madeline’s House Showing (98 Yankee Point Drive, Carmel) – In Monterey, selling houses is “like printing money,” at least according to Madeline who has made the change from working in community theatre to peddling real estate. She is not very good at her job, though, as evidenced by the personal call she makes to Renata during a showing. The gorgeous seaside pad where she ignores her clients can be found right down the street from Celeste’s. A former real estate listing describes the place as being of “such innovative design, of such sheer drama that it vies for attention with the pounding Pacific Ocean itself.” You can see images of its interior here.

13. Sea Cliff High School (Ramona Convent Secondary School, 1701 West Ramona Road, Alhambra) – Abigail Carlson (Kathryn Newton) announces to Madeline and Nathan that she is not planning on attending college (which somehow results in a shoving match) during a parent/teacher conference at the fictional Sea Cliff High School. Filming took place at Ramona Convent Secondary, an all-girls Catholic preparatory in Alhambra.

14. Madeline’s Real Estate Office (Deasy Penner Podley, 30 North Baldwin Avenue, Sierra Madre) – The “Monterey” Sotheby’s office where Madeline works – and where she runs into Mary Louise in “What Have They Done?” – is the Sierra Madre branch of Deasy Penner Podley. I further detail the brokerage, which also appears in “The End of the World,” here.

15. Del Monte Beach (653 Del Monte Avenue, Monterey) – Jane’s solo shoreline dance is interrupted by Corey, who brashly asks about her involvement with the Monterey 5, at the Central Coast’s secluded Del Monte Beach. This spot is, coincidentally, just down the street from Jane’s new apartment.

16. Carmel River State Beach (Carmelo Street and Scenic Road, Carmel) – An establishing shot of the parking lot at Carmel River State Beach is shown in the scene in which the ladies discuss the latest developments in Perry Wright’s (Alexander Skarsgård) murder case.

I am fairly certain, though, that actual filming of the segment took place on Ocean View Boulevard near Lovers Point Park.

17. Side Door Café (Happy Trails Garden, 207 South Fair Oaks Avenue, Pasadena) – An oft-used locale from Season 1, Side Door Café only pops up once this time around. In “What Have They Done?” Celeste and Jane have a late-night meet-up there to discuss Perry’s estate. The striking space, formerly known as Happy Trails Garden, was sadly shuttered in early 2018 and currently sits vacant. You can read my 2017 post on it here.

18. Carmel-By-The-Sea Police Department (Junipero Avenue & 4th Avenue, Carmel) – In what becomes a regular occurrence throughout Season 2, Bonnie ventures over to the Carmel-By-The-Sea Police Department, which plays itself, at the end of “What Have They Done?”

Be sure to check out my look at episode 2, “Tell-Tale Hearts.”

June 21, 2019July 16, 2019

Blue Blues Café from “Big Little Lies”

Two episodes in to the latest season of Big Little Lies and I am still missing Blue Blues, the café that figured so prominently in Season 1. As the Huffington Post recently stated, the loss has left a “Venti cappuccino-sized hole” in my heart. So I figured it was only proper to devote a blog to the seaside coffee shop – or at least to the eatery that inspired it. Those who have read my other posts on the hit HBO series (which you can check out here, here and here) know that Blue Blues was not a real place. Though countless online sources claim that Big Little Lies’ café scenes were shot at Paluca Trattoria, a popular restaurant on Monterey’s Old Fisherman’s Wharf, that is not true. Sadly, Blue Blues was nothing more than a set constructed on a soundstage at The Culver Studios, where the show’s inaugural season was lensed. Paluca did serve as the model for the charming space, though, so when my friend Nat informed me that she was heading to Monterey a few weeks back, I recruited her to stalk it for me.

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Paluca Trattoria was originally established in 2000 by Sicilian-born chef Sal Tedesco and his wife, Ashley. The duo opened the eatery, named after their two sons Paolo and Luca, in a picturesque corner spot on Old Fisherman’s Wharf that formerly housed Captain’s Gig, a landmark restaurant that had been in operation since the early 1970s. You can check out some photos of the site during the Captain’s Gig days here.

Per a reader named Barbara who commented on my 2017 A Round-Up of Big Little Lies Filming Locations post, Captain’s Gig used to feature a basket that ran between the eatery’s first and second floors which the cook would put orders into and then lift to the top level for patrons to retrieve.

Today, the upscale restaurant, which serves Italian-inspired seafood dishes, is the definition of farmhouse chic, sporting shiplap walls, hardwood flooring, floor to ceiling windows, a large patio area, and stunning views of the bay.

Paluca’s use on Big Little Lies came about in a rather organic way. While scouting Central Coast locales for Season 1, director Jean-Marc Vallée patronized the establishment and, in doing so, quickly befriended Sal. As Ashley tells the Huffington Post, “The director would come over to our place and just hang out in the mornings and have coffee and come and have lunch and he just sort of chatted with my husband. He’s there every day. They sort of hit it off and that’s how it came to be, just on the fly.” Per Eater, the Trattoria had the exact aesthetic Vallée was seeking – “a snug hideaway that’s just a bit rough around the edges.” For a plethora of reasons, mainly having to do with the ever-present fog that plagues Monterey, it was decided that instead of filming on the premises, the eatery would be re-envisioned onstage in Los Angeles. Eater explains, “The production team took measurements of the Paluca space, filmed the surrounding area, and re-created the restaurant at a studio using a green screen so that they could fill in plate shots of the harbor in post-production.”

Though a sign outside of Paluca Trattoria misleadingly proclaims, “Our little gem by the Bay was selected as one of the filming locations for the HBO series Big Little Lies,” no scenes were actually lensed there. All filming took place on set. As you can see in my images as compared to screen captures from the show above and below, though Blue Blues does greatly resemble Paluca, there are enough differences to know that the two places are not one and the same.

That is especially true when you take a look at the two interiors.

Of Blue Blues’ cozy, inviting inside, production designer John Paino told Eater, “I’ve done a lot of shows in Atlanta, and I’ve looked at a lot of cafés there that were run by women that had a lot of those silly knick-knacks that say, like, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’ I loved that aesthetic, that reclaimed farmhouse look, but in our case it would be reclaimed marine.” Paino truly nailed the style he was going for. Blue Blues was quaint, charming and warm – much more so than I find Blissful Drip this season.

The inside of Paluca, while pretty, is much less homey and much more sleek than its onscreen counterpart.

Nevertheless, many fans still contend that filming took place there. I am here to assure you that none actually did. Both the interior and exterior of Blue Blues were part of a large set that existed only on a soundstage. Still don’t believe me? I’ve got the receipts to prove it thanks to a couple of videos (which you can check out here and here) put together by REAL by FAKE, the Montreal-based production company that handled Big Little Lies’ digital effects.

As you can see above and below, I’ve compiled a bunch of screen grabs from the two reels as well as comparison shots from the series that show the whole café was studio-built and situated in front of a huge green screen.

The massive screen wrapped around the entire Blue Blues set so as to be visible from inside the café, as well.

During post-production, REAL by FAKE digitally swapped in a background showing views of Monterey Harbor that matched those of Paluca Trattoria.

The company also added faux sunshine and shadows to make the women appear to be outside while sitting on Blue Blues’ deck.

Of the process (which you can see take shape in this fascinating video), Big Little Lies visual effects coordinator Marc Côté says, “We did 1,428 visual effects for the entire series, about 220 per episode. I hope you were not able to see them.” Amazingly, that goal was achieved – the effects are perfectly seamless. Green screen magic at its finest!

Despite the fact that Paluca Trattoria never actually appeared on Big Little Lies – or more correctly, because of the misinformation floating around about its supposed cameo – fans stalk the restaurant in droves. I can’t tell you the number of Instagram photos I’ve come across of people posing at “Madeline’s regular table,” as evidenced here, here and here. The place has become such a draw that Sal told Eater, “I had to go buy a bigger espresso machine because I couldn’t keep up with the coffee sales.” Of their newfound fame, Ashley says, “We are shocked. We cannot believe how many people come because of the show, still. They found us. We didn’t push it out there. We didn’t push it out there at all. We didn’t advertise it on our social media. We were just really low key about it, but people sought us out. We didn’t know it’d be such a big deal. It’s been a nice little gift. Things [like that] don’t happen often in life, and then when they announced the second season we thought, ‘Oh my gosh. It’s like the bonus round.’ Even though we’re not in it, people are still coming because they’re excited about the show.” Ah, the power of filming locations!

Big THANK YOU to my friend Nat for stalking this location for me!

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Blue Blues Café, from the first season of Big Little Lies, is not a real place, but a studio-built set based upon the Italian restaurant Paluca Trattoria located at 6D Old Fisherman’s Wharf in Monterey. You can visit the eatery’s official website here.

June 17, 2019July 16, 2019

Blissful Drip Café from “Big Little Lies”

Big Little Lies producers sure like their fake coffee shops! In the hit HBO series’ first season, Madeline Martha Mackenzie (Reese Witherspoon), Celeste Wright (Nicole Kidman) and Jane Chapman (Shailene Woodley) regularly hung out at Blue Blues, a supposed Old Fisherman’s Wharf restaurant that, as I mentioned here and here, was actually a studio-built set situated in front of a green screen. This season, the trio frequents Blissful Drip Café, another faux spot that was installed, not on a soundstage, but on location at Lovers Point Park in Pacific Grove. I learned about the prop coffee bar thanks to several articles written about its construction back in April 2018 (you can read one here and one here) and I, of course, made note of it. So when my friend Nat headed out to Monterey a couple of weekends ago and asked if I needed anything stalked, Lovers Point Park was the first thing I mentioned!

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Lovers Point Park and Beach is an area I am very familiar with. Growing up in nearby San Francisco, Monterey was a favorite vacation spot for my family. Countless hours were spent at the Pacific Grove retreat, namely at the snack bar overlooking the water where my dad and I would always order an extra helping of fries to feed the seagulls that would inevitably join us.

The bucolic 4.4-acre site, which regularly plays host to sunbathers, scuba divers, windsurfers, swimmers, bicyclists, runners, and fishermen, boasts a large beach surrounded by a rocky cove, a pier, a children’s swimming pool, a volleyball court, picnic areas, a restaurant, the aforementioned snack bar, and a large park situated on a grassy bluff fronting Monterey Bay.

It is the park area that serves as the home of Blissful Drip Café on Big Little Lies. In the Season 2 premiere titled “What Have They Done?”, Madeline and Celeste pop by the funky seaside coffee shop (which per Madeline “smells like weed”) after dropping their kids off for their first day of school.

While there, Madeline runs into Mary Louise Wright (Meryl Streep), who curtly informs her that she finds “little people to be untrustworthy.”

Celeste and Jane also meet up at Blissful Drip in “Tell-Tale Hearts.”

In “The End of the World,” Jane and Mary Louise have coffee and discuss Perry (Alexander Skarsgård) there, though not much of the place can be seen.

And in “She Knows,” Celeste and Mary Louise have a tense tête-à-tête at Blissful Drip.

Though the café is charming and boasts stellar views, I can’t help but miss Blue Blues while watching – not to mention Tom (Joseph Cross), the eatery’s cutie owner who struck up a romance with Jane toward the end of Season 1. Why Tom isn’t making an appearance this time around, I am unsure. (Yes, I do know that Cross landed a leading role in the upcoming Netflix series Medal of Honor, but Iain Armitage, who plays Jane’s son, Ziggy Chapman, somehow made S2 of Big Little Lies work despite being the star of Young Sheldon and I feel Joseph could have done the same.) I do have an answer for Blue Blues’ absence, though. Per a Monterey County Now article, current director Andrea Arnold, who was brought on to replace Jean-Marc Vallée, wanted to showcase more outdoor locations than were featured in Season 1. Blue Blues, therefore, was scrapped and replaced with Blissful Drip. The fake café stood at Lovers Point Park for a total of 12 days (including installation and dismantling) and cost the production $44,077.50 in park use fees. (You can check out a breakdown of those costs here and here.) According to Monterey County Now, Madeline and the gang will be hanging out at the coffee bar throughout Season 2. In fact, HBO donated the café set to Pacific Grove after filming wrapped with the understanding that the company would have access to it if the show gets picked up for a third season. What the city will end up doing with it, I don’t know, but how cool would it be if it became a real coffee shop?

In reality, the area where Blissful Drip was installed (denoted with a pink arrow below) is nothing but an empty (albeit very picturesque) patch of grass.

The exact spot where the café was built is denoted in the aerial view below, with the pentagon representing the eatery’s gazebo and the attached rectangle its trellised patio.

The very same area of Lovers Point Park was featured in Big Little Lies’ Season 1 finale titled “You Get What You Need,” in the scene in which Jane tells Celeste that it is her son, Max (Nicholas Crovetti), who has been bullying Amabella Klein (Ivy George).

The spot where Blissful Drip was constructed (denoted with a pink arrow below) was visible behind Celeste in the segment.

As I detailed in my comprehensive list of locales from the series’ first season, Lovers Point Park and Beach popped up in additional episodes of Big Little Lies, as well.

Ed Mackenzie (Adam Scott) and Nathan Carlson (James Tupper) almost go to blows on the northern edge of Lovers Point Park, just due north of where Blissful Drip was built, in “Serious Mothering.”

Jane and Ziggy hang out at Lovers Point Beach in “Push Comes to Shove” . . .

. . . and in the area just south of the beach in “Living the Dream.”

Big THANK YOU to my friend Nat for stalking this location for me!

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Lovers Point Park, where the Blissful Drip Café set was built for the second season of Big Little Lies, is located at 631 Ocean View Boulevard in Pacific Grove.

April 15, 2019August 5, 2019

The Complete Guide to the Season 1 Filming Locations of “Big Little Lies”

As longtime readers know, I watch a LOT of TV. Only a handful of shows have ever become full-fledged obsessions, though, Beverly Hills, 90210, The Hills, and Big Littles Lies among them. The second season of the latter will finally be debuting in June and I am beyond excited! I cannot wait to revisit the women of Monterey! Can we just fast-forward to summer already? To stave off my anticipation, I recently did some more digging into locations from the show’s inaugural season and figured I should update my 2017 round-up of spots featured on the series accordingly. So here goes! As was the case with that post, because I have not visited the majority of these sites in person, I am relying on screen captures instead of photos for imagery. And be forewarned – there are spoilers galore ahead! If you haven’t seen Big Little Lies and are planning to, I’d hold off on scrolling any further.

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1. Madeline’s House (30760 Broad Beach Road, Malibu) – Easily my favorite locale of the entire series, the Cape Cod-style pad where Madeline Martha Mackenzie (Reese Witherspoon) and husband Ed (Adam Scott) live can be found in Malibu. The beachfront property, which serves as a vacation rental IRL, is no stranger to the screen boasting countless cameos in such productions as Models Inc., Diagnosis Murder, and Hannah Montana. You can read a more in-depth post on it here.

Interestingly, a different spot was utilized as the front of Madeline’s home in a few episodes. And that pad can actually be found in Monterey. It’s at 2830 14th Avenue in Carmel-By-The-Sea.

2. Renata’s House (27326 Winding Way, Malibu) – Renata (Laura Dern) and Gordon Klein’s (Jeffrey Nordling) massive modern home can also be found in The ‘Bu. And it’s an oft-filmed spot, as well, with roles in everything from 90210 to Brothers & Sisters to Revenge.

3. Jane’s House (161 North Chester Avenue, Pasadena) – The modest cottage where Jane Chapman (Shailene Woodley) resides with son Ziggy (Iain Armitage), which I wrote about here, can be found on a sleepy, tree-lined street in Pasadena.

4. Bonnie’s House (636 Crater Camp Drive, Calabasas) – The bucolic bohemian bungalow belonging to Bonnie Carlson (Zoë Kravitz) and her husband, Nathan (James Tupper), sits tucked away in a wooded area of Calabasas.

5. Celeste’s House (40 Yankee Point Drive, Carmel) – Celeste Wright (Nicole Kidman) and husband Perry’s (Alexander Skarsgård) stunning cliffside estate, another of my favorites from the series, is the sole residence that can actually be found on the Central Coast (not counting the front of Madeline’s). Only the exterior (both front and back) and lower floor of the property appeared on Big Little Lies. All of the other portions of the Wright home were studio-built sets.

6. Otter Bay Elementary School (Kenter Canyon Elementary School, 645 North Kenter Avenue, Brentwood) – Otter Bay, the elementary school attended by all of the children on the series, is actually Kenter Canyon Elementary in Brentwood. The site’s exterior and interior, including the principal’s office, library and auditorium, appear on the show.

7. Blue Blues Restaurant (The Culver Studios, 9336 Washington Boulevard, Culver City) – Though the actual Old Fisherman’s Wharf in Monterey (101 Washington Street) is shown as the ladies walk up to Blue Blues, their regular hangout owned by Tom (Joseph Cross), in “Somebody’s Dead” . . .

. . . . the actual café can’t be found there. As I covered in this post, the coffee shop was just a set built entirely inside of a soundstage at The Culver Studios, where the series is lensed. Fans can still get their Blue Blues fix by visiting Paluca Trattoria (6D Old Fisherman’s Wharf, Monterey), which served as the inspiration for the bayside eatery.

The pathway leading to Old Fisherman’s Wharf is also where Jane and the girls run in “Once Bitten” . . .

. . . and the adjacent parking lot is where Madeline and Joseph Bachman (Santiago Cabrera) get into an accident in the same episode.

The same parking lot is also where Joseph confronts and kisses Madeline in “Push Comes to Shove.”

8. Side Door Café (Happy Trails Garden, 207 South Fair Oaks Avenue, Pasadena) – Side Door, the ladies’ other regular hangout, is an actual restaurant. Or, at least, it was. Pasadena’s Happy Trails Garden, which was very reminiscent of Carmel’s popular Hog’s Breath Inn, shuttered much to my dismay in 2018 and now sits vacant. The bucolic site, which was outfitted with a plethora of firepits for the shoot and is said to have been modeled after Monterey’s Restaurant 1833, popped up three times on the series – once in “Serious Mothering” and twice in “Push Comes to Shove.” You can read my 2017 post on it here.

9. Madeline’s Fall (Intersection of Esplanade Street and Ocean View Drive, Pacific Grove) – The spot where Madeline “rolls her ankle” in “Somebody’s Dead,” thereby setting off the entire storyline, can be found on Ocean View Drive in Pacific Grove. A stop sign was installed for the scene just north of where Madeline falls, at the intersection of Ocean View Drive and the north end of Esplanade Street. In real life there is a parking sign standing in that spot.

10. Liberation Yoga (124 South La Brea Avenue, Hancock Park) – The yoga studio that Bonnie owns, which pops up in both “Everybody’s Dead” and “Push Comes to Shove,” is actually Liberation Yoga in Hancock Park.

11. Wanderlust Hollywood (1357 North Highland Avenue, Hollywood) – The above is not to be confused with the other yoga studio shown on the series. In “Serious Mothering,” Madeline and Celeste run into Bonnie and Nathan while taking a class at Wanderlust Hollywood.

12. Lovers Point Park & Beach (631 Ocean View Boulevard, Pacific Grove) – The popular shoreline retreat Lovers Point makes several appearances in Big Little Lies. In “Serious Mothering,” Nathan and Ed have a rather terse tête-à-tête in the park area situated above the beach.

Jane and Ziggy visit Lovers Point in both “Living the Dream” and “Push Come to Shove.”

And it is at Lovers Point that Jane tells Celeste that her son Max (Nicholas Crovetti) is the one who has been bullying Amabella Klein (Ivy George) in “You Get What You Need.”

13. Gordon Klein’s Office (1999 AOS, 1999 Avenue of the Stars, Century City) – In “Living the Dream,” Renata heads to Century City office building 1999 AOS for a mid-day visit with her husband. Only the exterior and lobby of the property were utilized for the scene, though.

Gordon’s actual office can be found on the 26th floor of nearby Century Park Plaza (1801 Century Park East, Century City).

14. Monterey Bay High School (Ulysses S. Grant High School, 13000 Oxnard Street, Van Nuys) – Screen favorite Grant High School in Van Nuys portrays Monterey Bay High, the school attended by Madeline’s eldest daughter, Abigail Carlson (Kathryn Newton), which pops up in “Living the Dream.” Areas used in the episode include the principal’s office, a hallway and the main quad. You may recognize Grant from its myriad of cameos in such productions as Saved by the Bell, Clueless, The Office, Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy” music video, and Crazy. Stupid. Love. You can check out an in-depth post I wrote about the place for Los Angeles magazine here.

15. Studio City Recreation Center (12621 Rye Street, Studio City) – In “Living the Dream,” Ziggy hits a home run during his first Tee-ball game at Studio City Recreation Center, aka Beeman Park. The site is also very briefly featured via flashback in “Push Comes to Shove.” You can check out an in-depth post I wrote about the park, detailing its appearances in Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Scrubs and Role Models, here.

16. Colton Hall Museum (570 Pacific Street, Monterey) – Another Central Coast location, Colton Hall Museum masks as Monterey City Hall, where Celeste acts as Madeline’s lawyer in “Push Comes to Shove.”

The interior of the museum, which you can see a photo of here, was also used in the episode.

17. Bixby Creek Bridge (CA-1, Big Sur) – In “Once Bitten,” Madeline has a bad dream that takes place at Bixby Bridge, the same span shown in the series’ opening credits. The picturesque structure, one of the most photographed bridges in California, can be found in Big Sur, about twenty miles south of Monterey.

18. Saxon Baker’s Interior Design Office (1035 East Green Street, Pasadena) – In “Once Bitten,” Jane heads to a supposed San Louis Obispo interior design office to confront her possible rapist, Saxon Baker (Stephen Graybill). In reality, filming took place at a quaint brick building on Green Street in Pasadena where Albert Einstein once worked.

19. Celeste and Perry’s Therapist’s Office (130 Fountain Avenue, Pacific Grove) – Perry and Celeste start seeing marriage counselor Dr. Amanda Reisman (Robin Weigert) in “Living the Dream,” but the exterior of her charming office, another of the show’s Monterey locales, isn’t shown until “Once Bitten.”

20. Cypress Community Hospital (Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, 23625 Holzman Highway, Monterey) – After their car accident in “Once Bitten,” Madeline and Joseph are taken to “Cypress Community Hospital,” which is actually the Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula. Only the exterior of the facility was featured on the series.

I believe that interiors were shot at Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital (333 North Prairie Avenue, Inglewood), which was, sadly, razed in late 2017.

21. Monterey Regional Airport (200 Fred Kane Drive, Monterey) – This spot, where Celeste and her boys surprise Perry when he returns home from a business trip in “Once Bitten,” plays itself.

The airport’s interior appeared in the scene, as well.

22. Celeste’s New Apartment (1 Surf Way, Monterey) – In “Burning Love,” Celeste attempts to break away from Perry by renting an oceanside apartment. Her new place is another of the series’ Monterey locations. Known as Ocean Harbor House in real life, the picturesque complex, which is made up of condos, sits overlooking Del Monte Beach.

23. Madeline’s Community Theatre/Trivia Night Costume Gala – Barnsdall Art Park (4800 Hollywood Boulevard, East Hollywood) – Easily the series’ most memorable locale, Barnsdall Art Park serves as two notable spots on Big Little Lies. In virtually every episode it pops up as the community theatre where Madeline works. The constantly broken stairs she is regularly forced to walk up can be found on the eastern side of the park, adjacent to the Junior Art Center.

The theatre itself is a mash-up of two Barnsdall spots – interiors were shot at the Barnsdall Gallery Theatre (which you can see photos of here) . . .

. . . while exteriors were filmed at the adjacent Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery.

Most notably, though, Barnsdall Art Park is where the Audrey and Elvis Trivia Night costume gala is held in “You Get What You Need.”

The community theatre’s broken stairs are the very same ones that figure so heavily in the episode’s climax.

Barnsdall also appears in Big Little Lie’s opening credits. You can read an in-depth post on the park here.

24. Mountain View Cemetery (2400 North Fair Oaks Avenue, Altadena) – Toward the end of “You Get What You Need,” Perry is laid to rest at one of L.A.’s most oft-used locations, Mountain View Cemetery in Altadena, which has appeared in everything from The Office to Seinfeld to A Lot Like Love. You can read a post I wrote on it here.

25. Garrapata State Park Beach (CA-1, Carmel-By-The-Sea) – The series comes to an end with the women and their children frolicking on the picturesque beach at Garrapata State Park (which is also where Jane, Celeste and Madeline run in “Once Bitten”). The scene was such a perfect closing to the show, I am almost fearful to have the story opened up again for Season 2. Though I truly can’t wait to revisit the women of Monterey, in some ways I would like to just be able to picture them forever standing together on that beach, bittersweetly frozen in time.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile