How Well Do Your Favorite Shows Capture Real Life In NYC?

Unless you’ve lived in New York City, your idea of life in the Big Apple likely stems from watching TV, and it’s almost certainly wrong. Or, maybe “incomplete” is the better word. That’s because for all the series that have been set in NYC — goofy sitcoms, gritty cop dramas, reality shows where Heidi Klum and Donald Trump gleefully crush people’s dreams — no single one gets it quite right. But, some fare better than others. Most recently, HBO's drama The Deuce, set in '70s-era Times Square, captures the grit and hustle of that iconic era.

So, we decided to explore some of our favorite shows based on how accurately they portray NYC living. We did so by looking at three categories — where the characters live, what they do for fun, and how their adventures capture the strangeness of existing in the “New York Bubble”—and scoring each show on a scale from one to ten apples. Spoiler alert: No one actually lives like Carrie Bradshaw.