From its very first beat, “Nobody Wants This” spoke to me. The series opens with a quick montage of Los Angeles sights — palm treelined avenues, Echo Park Lake — as Haim’s “Summer Girl” (with its lyric “L.A. on my mind”) plays. From there, we see stars Kristen Bell and Justine Lupe as they stroll on a Los Feliz side street, just off Vermont Avenue.
“Nobody Wants This” isn’t the only Emmy comedy contender with L.A. on its mind. “Hacks,” “Shrinking,” “The Studio” and even portions of last season’s “Only Murders in the Building” shone a spotlight on the City of Angels. Other series in recent years that have done a great job showcasing the joy of living in Los Angeles include “Platonic,” “Running Point,” “Forever” and “No Good Deed.”
All of these shows pride themselves — justifiably — on heading outdoors and finding some of the more unique and hidden corners of Los Angeles. It’s something I strive to do every year (self-serving plug alert!) with the Great Los Angeles Walk, which I created in 2006 as a way to find fellow Angelenos as passionate as I am for exploring our city on foot. Every year we walk the length of an avenue across Los Angeles, from downtown to the ocean, always discovering new attractions, landmarks, architecture and restaurants along the way. (The 20th annual Great Los Angeles Walk will travel across Wilshire Boulevard on Nov. 22 — come join us and read more about it here!)
Los Angeles comprises 502 square miles, while Los Angeles County is 4,753 square miles — so it’s understandable that even most lifelong Angelenos have only explored a fraction of their own backyard. Part of my goal with the Great Los Angeles Walk is to expose people to a new side of their hometown, and that’s also what shows like “Nobody Wants This” are doing. Creator Erin Foster was born and raised here, but spent most of her life on the West Side — so shooting in places like Eagle Rock (where the character of Noah, played by Adam Brody, lives) gave her a new perspective on the city.
“That’s a part of L.A. that I really haven’t spent a lot of time in,” she says. “And so it was interesting, getting a feel for the neighborhoods. It’s got a real, sweet, small-town feel.”
Foster says she pushed for shooting on location the entire time, and did a character study on where the show’s couple, Joanne and Noah, would hang. “I really tried to ask, where would these people spend their time? And then, weaving in what places would be interesting to see. It was a really fun part of making the show, figuring out all these locations and getting them walking and moving and just having it feel natural. It’s been even more fun when a local would say, ‘That really feels like where they would be having lunch.’”
Why is all of this so important in 2025? It’s been a really rough year for the Los Angeles area. That started with the fires that destroyed most of Pacific Palisades and Altadena. The city is still struggling to recover from COVID, and homelessness remains a serious concern, while iconic businesses and restaurants are shutting down and prices soar. And then there’s the invading ICE force, crippling the region with fear as it tears families apart and incarcerates law-abiding residents (including many legal citizens) without due process.
“Listen, L.A. is not perfect by any means,” Foster says. “We have a lot of room to grow, for sure, and it has been a tough time. I hope it gets a lot better, because it is not in its best form right now. But I do also think that the show helped me fall in love with L.A. a little bit more than I had before. I think when you grow up somewhere, you’re easily critical of it. But things like COVID, the fires, all the different political things that have happened with ICE raids … it really does bring communities together to band together and try to fight to protect our city.”
This, I want.
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