Lavish accommodations set the scene of many of this year’s best TV series, from “Succession” to “The White Lotus”
9 min
British royalty, billionaire media moguls and wealthy vacationers filled the screens of this year’s Emmy-nominated TV shows.
We may not covet the characters’ tangled, twisted relationships in “Succession,” which swept the nominations, or the backstabbing (and actual stabbing) in “Only Murders in the Building,” up for best comedy. But their lavish penthouses, castles and beach resorts could certainly stoke some house envy.
Here, Mansion Global highlights some of the real-life lavish homes that set the backdrop to some of this year’s fictional favourites.
“Succession” — 27 Nominations, Including Outstanding Drama Series
If “Succession,” the HBO series that’s high on drama and high-net-worth characters, exudes anything, it’s luxury—and that goes for its filming locations as much as anything else.
Take this uber-contemporary waterfront home in the Hamptons, the exclusive pocket of New York’s Long Island favoured by wealthy New Yorkers, which is on the market for $55 million. The angular and glass-covered house was featured in Season 3 of the award-winning series, starring as the beachfront mansion owned by billionaire investor Josh Aaronson, played by Adrien Brody, and visited by Kendall and Logan Roy.
Built in 2018 in the hamlet of Wainscott, the property has a giant open-plan living, dining and kitchen space, where the home’s jaunty inverted roofline translates inside to an upside-down teak pyramid in the centre of room.
The custom kitchen occupies one end of the space with a statement marble backsplash—which made an appearance in the show. At the other end is a towering stone fireplace—you’ll spot that during the episode, too.
In fact, there were a number of real-life trophy homes the TV series used as sets. They include multiple units at the Upper East Side new development 180 East 88th Street on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. The show even took over the building’s crown jewel—a triplex penthouse with a dramatic covered terrace—to film as Kendall Roy’s New York home.
The airy, contemporary apartment was designed around soaring ceiling heights, floor-to-ceiling views and an imposing, sculptural spiral staircase. The five-bedroom condo has its own private elevator connecting the three levels, which culminate in an outdoor roof landing soaring nearly 470 feet over Manhattan. The developer of the building sold the penthouse in June for $24.7 million, according to property records. Meanwhile, another, smaller penthouse in the building that was also featured in “Succession” is still on the market for $14.85 million.
“Wednesday” — Two Nominations, Including Outstanding Comedy Series
“Wednesday,” Netflix’s supernatural comedy centred around Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega) of “The Addams Family” fame, is nominated for best comedy, and Ortega is nominated for best actress in a comedy.
In the show’s inaugural season, Addams is expelled after dumping live piranhas into the school’s pool to exact revenge on the water polo team, and is sent to Nevermore Academy, a private school for supernatural outcasts, including witches, werewolves and vampires.
The show headed to Romania for much of filming, with the suitably gothic and foreboding Cantacuzino Castle, in the small mountain town of Bușteni, serving as the exterior setting for Nevermore. The former royal summer residence was built in 1911 at the request of the late Romanian Prince Gheorghe Grigore Cantacuzino, and today is open to the public.
“Shrinking” — Two Nominations, Including Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series
Apple TV+’s “Shrinking,” follows therapist Jimmy (played by Jason Segel) as he deals with the grief of his wife’s death. His next-door neighbour Liz (Christa Miller) is a close friend, becoming somewhat of a surrogate mother to Jimmy’s teenage daughter, Alice (Lukita Maxwell). The proximity of their Southern California homes make for blurry boundaries, especially as Jimmy struggles as a newly single parent.
The show—nominated for two Emmys, including a best actor in a comedy for Segel—actually filmed parts at two neighbouring homes in Pasadena, California. The real-life home used as Jimmy’s was built in 1913 and is designated as a Historic Highlands Craftsman home. The Arts and Crafts-style house spans just under 3,500 square feet with five bedrooms, four bathrooms and a pool, according to its most recent listing. It last sold in 2016 for $1.6 million. The neighbouring home, used for Liz and her husband, Derek, is a bit smaller, at about 1,600 square feet. Built in 1922, it has two bedrooms and two bathrooms.
“The Crown” — Six Nominations, Including Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
Several U.K. estates were featured in “The Crown,” a Netflix original that garnered six Emmy nominations this year, including nods for Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for Elizabeth Debicki’s portrayal of Princess Diana. Burghley House—a 16th-century manse in Lincolnshire, England, about 130 miles north of London—is one of the largest surviving houses of the era, as well as an example of the great Elizabethan “prodigy” houses, built to honor Queen Elizabeth I. Indeed, it was her Lord High Treasurer, William Cecil, who helmed the project, built between 1555 and 1587.
The estate was featured in the most recent season of the show, but it’s no stranger to the screen, having also been seen in films like “Pride & Prejudice” (2005) and “The Flash” (2023), and even had a turn on “Antiques Roadshow.” The Cecil family put the home in a trust some years ago, and the property is now open to the public, who can tour its extensive gardens and art collection, and is still the site of the Burghley Horse Trials, set to begin this year on Aug. 31. “The Crown” has received 69 Emmy nominations since its first season in 2016, winning 21 times.
“House of the Dragon” — Eight Nominations, Including Outstanding Drama Series
In “House of the Dragon,” HBO’s blockbuster prequel series to “Game of Thrones,” Driftmark is an island in Blackwater Bay and the ancestral seat of House Velaryon who rule from the castle High Tide.
Away from Westeros, the rugged and rocky outcropping, and the historic castle that stands on top of it, is St. Michael’s Mount, found in the sea off the coast of Marazion in Cornwall, in South West England.
The awe-inspiring spot is currently home to the St. Aubyn family, who have a 999-year lease to live in the castle and run the visitor business. And unsurprisingly, given its grandeur, the mount has been used as a filming location for the 1979 film “Dracula,” the 1983 James Bond film “Never Say Never Again,” the 2003 film “Johnny English,” and in the 2012 adventure movie “Mariah Mundi and the Midas Box.”
“The White Lotus” — 23 Nominations, Including Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series
Season 2 of HBO’s “The White Lotus” took both its cast and viewers to the scenic Sicilian town of Taormina. While the White Lotus—where the show’s affluent, eccentric guests are seen dining, lounging and creating chaos—is a fictional resort, the season was filmed at the real San Domenico Palace, which is a Four Seasons hotel.
Formerly a 14th-century convent, the historic building has been reimagined into a five-star resort offering a cliff top infinity pool, Italian gardens and Michelin-starred dining. Though, much of the monastery’s structure has been preserved, including the original frescoes. With views of the Ionian Sea, Mount Etna and the ancient Greek theatre Teatro Antico di Taormina, the hotel provides for an idyllic Italian getaway, with hopefully less theft and death than that of “The White Lotus.”
“Beef” — 13 Nominations, Including Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series
An extravagant mansion that happens to be one of Los Angeles’s most popular shooting locations made a cameo in the fifth episode of “Beef,” when main characters Amy (played by Ali Wong) and her husband, George (Joseph Lee), book a luxury rental.
In their everyday life, the main characters of this revenge-filled black comedy from Netflix live in a suitably dark house filled with concrete and dim lighting—a stark contrast to the sun-drenched vacation home lined in window walls overlooking the Santa Monica and San Gabriel mountains. In real life, the mansion is located in the San Fernando Valley and once belonged to Frank Sinatra. The characters and their daughter, June, lounge in the pool, with the airy, white Mid-Century Modern home in the backdrop.
Besides “Beef,” Miley Cyrus made the striking home and cinematic views the backdrop of her latest album “Endless Summer Vacation,” which dropped earlier this year. The six-bedroom mansion was also featured in “Mad Men” and “Dreamgirls” (2006).
“Only Murders in the Building” — 11 Nominations, Including Outstanding Comedy Series
The Selena Gomez, Steve Martin and Martin Short comic murder mystery “Only Murders in the Building” takes place almost entirely within the fictional Arconia and the surrounding Upper West Side neighborhood. In reality, filming took place at the Belnord. Completed in 1908, the luxury residence occupies a full block at Broadway and West 86th Street.
The building has a starring role, showcasing apartments within its 213 units, as well as its famous inner courtyard (one of the largest in the city) and its facade. Originally designed by Hiss and Weekes in the Italian Renaissance Revival style, it was reimagined in 2018 by Robert A.M. Stern, who updated and opened up the apartments while preserving the public spaces. There are currently 13 active listings at the Belnord, listed by Douglas Elliman Development Marketing and priced up to $13.85 million for a four-bedroom on the 11th floor of the 13-storey building.
—V.L. Hendrickson, Liz Lucking, Casey Farmer and Beckie Strum contributed reporting
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A growing number of employers say Gen Z job seekers are bringing their parents into the hiring process, from attending interviews and negotiating offers to questioning performance reviews. Recruiters warn the trend may raise concerns about independence, even as some families see it as support in a challenging job market.
4 min
Steven Clark had the unpleasant task of firing a 24-year-old—twice. Once was in a brief conversation with the new hire, who’d showed up late or not at all four times in his first week at a construction job.
Then Clark had to do it all over again, this time with the guy’s mother.
She called him a few hours later, pleading to give her son another chance. When Clark told her no, things got heated before he ended the call.
“I said, ‘Look, you know, this is between us and your son. He’s the employee,’” says Clark, who is chief operating officer of a Fairbanks, Alaska-based staffing firm.
Gen Zers make up nearly one-fifth of the adult workforce, and bosses and recruiters say it often feels like the nervous parents who hovered over them through childhood and college are right alongside them. What began as the occasional parent ride-along to a job interview coming out of the Covid era is now full-on career “co-piloting,” said Jasmine Escalera, head career coach at résumé templates service Zety.
More parents are calling up hiring managers, applying for jobs on their adult child’s behalf, and even showing up—or lurking just off-screen—on Zoom calls to help navigate difficult conversations or go over benefits packages.
“The first time it happened, I was appalled,” says Clark, who has fielded calls from parents asking why their child didn’t get a job. “Since then it’s become more of a here-we-go-again reaction.”
Human resource professionals have expressed outrage on social media.
“Parents should not be calling employers to check on their application status or ask questions on behalf of their child,” says Lynne Alba, a director of talent acquisition and physician recruitment at a large health system on Long Island, who vented about the phenomenon in a Tik Tok video she reposted on LinkedIn.
At a recent job fair, a mother approached Alba with her daughter’s résumé, explaining that she wanted to work as a nurse. “While I appreciated that she was trying to help, I intentionally shifted my attention to her daughter. No matter what Mom said, I wanted to hear directly from the candidate,” says Alba.
Some parents who step in say it’s a challenging job market for young people, and that they would only intervene in extreme circumstances—social anxiety, a toxic boss, unfair treatment. There’s also a gray area of intervention that some see as an extension of the parental advice and networking help that’s been happening for generations.
Rick Wainschel last year published a post on LinkedIn asking his network to help his daughter, a recent college graduate, find a corporate entry-level position.
Wainschel, a vice president at an automotive marketing technology company, says he doesn’t think his outreach qualifies as helicoptering. “Well, maybe a little,” he said, before quickly adding he was being half tongue-in-cheek. “It was really merely just to help her get a network established. I just think the work world is a challenging place.”
Wainschel’s post, which was OK’d by his daughter on the condition he didn’t embarrass her, didn’t lead to a job but did result in productive conversations, he said. She found a job with a credit union on her own shortly after.
Recruiters and other HR types say aggressive parental involvement signals a lack of independence and raises fears that mom and dad will be checking in regularly if their kid gets hired.
What’s more, they say, such interference rarely, if ever, works.
The phenomenon is becoming so commonplace it made the agenda of human resources organization SHRM’s national conference in June. When James Harrell asked a room of 250 professionals if they ever had a parent calling on behalf of a young employee or coming to an interview, more than half raised their hands.
“The first time it happened to me, I got high up on my soapbox and I shook my fist,” Harrell says. “The 15th time I said, ‘OK, well, I gotta figure out how to do something differently.’”
Harrell helped run an apprenticeship program for high-school students while he was the human capital management chief for the San Antonio Independent School District. To run interference, the district introduced a “signing day” when parents could come and ask questions.
After a Gen Z employee at Nation’s Best Holdings, a chain of hardware and home goods stores, didn’t get an “exceeds expectations” designation on his performance review last year, HR chief Amber Little got a call asking why.
It was one of a number of calls from parents her office has picked up recently about issues ranging from negative feedback to understanding which health insurance plan to choose. Little has even noticed parents are now calling in sick for their adult kids.
“Instead of coaching them, they do it for them,” Little says. When it happens, she adds, “we encourage them to tell their child to come talk to us and we will walk them through it.”
A Zety survey of more than 1,000 Gen Zers found 20% had a parent attend a job interview with them.
“You get a sense it’s all hands on deck for some families,” says Keith Wolf, managing partner of recruiting firm Murray Resources in Houston. His office has received emails from parents seeking jobs for their children, and Wolf says he’s always wondered if the kids even knew.
Paul “PB” Branson, who graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia in May, bristles at the thought. The 22-year-old says while he understands their anxiety, parents shouldn’t be joining their children’s job interviews or contacting employees on their behalf.
“That trend,” he says, “has really hurt my generation by creating this kind of stereotype that we need our hands held.”
