HBO's "Divorce" may be depressing, but it'll at least make you glad you don't live in the suburbs

By Virginia K. Smith | October 13, 2016 - 3:59PM

Sarah Jessica Parker has been making the media rounds for weeks to warn viewers that her new HBO show, Divorce, isn't just Sex and the City transplanted to the suburbs, and she's not kidding: As you might guess from its name, Divorce is kind of a downer, following the wildly unhappy relationships of a bunch of middle-class, middle-aged suburbanites.

The first episode, which premiered over the weekend, finds Parker's character Frances realizing she wants a divorce from her husband, Robert (Thomas Haden Church), and also sneaking off to the city for an affair with a younger man, Julian (Jemaine Clement from Flight of the Conchords). Based on what we learned from Unfaithful, we have our suspicions about how well that plan will go, but for now, Robert hasn't killed anyone, but merely locked Frances out of the house. Harsh, but at least they have that huge wraparound porch for her to hang out on.

And about the house: It was shot on location in White Plains, and the interiors as they're depicted on the show are pretty true to real life, which we know thanks to listing photos from when the home was sold last spring, for $950,000. The show is strictly tri-state-suburb-centric, having also shot on location in Tarrytown and and Tuckahoe.

The first episode also sees Frances making a brief trip to the city to see Julian at this apartment, though we never find out where it is:

While we've heard that Robert is a struggling real estate entrepreneur—which may well become a plotline later on in the show—so far, the only other notable real estate detail comes thanks to France's friend Diane (Molly Shannon), who lives with her hedge-funder husband in a massive, window-filled dream house:

Seems like a nice setup, right? Not so much: Diane's so unhappy with her husband that she gets drunk and points a gun at him, prompting him to have a heart attack, and breaking at least one of those immaculate windows. It's enough to make you grateful for your fourth-floor walk-up, or loft that you share with three roommates.

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