It seems like any show you turn on television nowadays is based in the big cities. This is not backed by any science or statistic whatsoever, but I feel like it would be safe to say that 80% of TV shows are based in New York City.
And don’t even get me started on the NBC shows that are all, for some reason, based in the city of Chicago.
Chicago Fire. Chicago PD. Chicago Med… there have apparently been talks of adding Chicago Law. They even planned to have all three of their Chicago shows to come together in an epic three-show crossover event, but it was yet another plan thwarted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Man, I hate we missed out on that (who is watching all of those Chicago shows?)
But, through it all, two shows have managed to break away from the city life and showcase the great mountain landscapes that this world has to offer.
One being the cult-hit Yellowstone, and the other being HBO’s newest drama The Last of Us.
And I guess you can count all of the Yellowstone spinoffs as well.
With Yellowstone being based in Montana, it is only natural that you would see some majestic mountain ranges in the background of the Kevin Costner led show.
Fans have been in awe of the acting within the hit series on Paramount, but the scenic, cascading landscapes have also managed to take viewers’ breath away.
The family drama has definitely made its mark on TV Show history, and it certainly cannot hurt to have such beautiful backdrops for scenes. I think a lot of the show’s success can be attributed to shooting scenes on location rather than CGI, which most modern shows and movies have opted to move towards.
However, it is hard to beat a view like this one with a computer generated image. Get back to me when computers can rise to the level of beauty that Mother Nature already presents to us at no cost… other than getting there.
And I also mentioned HBO’s newest hit show The Last of Us, which if you haven’t checked in on, it is great. It seemed as though TV fans were tiring of the zombie genre, but the video game adaptation on HBO has taken the world by storm.
Led by Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey (both former Game of Thrones stars), the show somewhat starts out in a post-apocalyptic Boston, Massachusetts. The stars of the show (for reasons I will leave out so I don’t spoil anything) begin to move away from the East Coast and head out to the safe, sprawling land of Wyoming.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention this geographic blunder, where the show tried to pass a scene as “10 Miles West of Boston” when they have actually been shooting in rural area of Canada.
The internet had fun with that one:
But once they get out to Wyoming, where there are actual mountains (unlike 10 miles west of Boston), viewers are rewarded with beautiful, snow capped mountain scenes.
So at least we have some shows that are not based in the typical, urban city life.
Heck, with views like these, people might even be moving out into the great, rural country in search of the elegant natural scenery that have been gracing the screens of TV’s biggest shows.
