We're jealous of the dingy—but spacious!—apartment on Jessica Jones
When a movie or TV show is set in New York City—and if the people making it are savvy—real estate becomes part of the story itself. In Reel Estate, we look at some of the more memorable domiciles to grace the screen.
Marvel's Jessica Jones is many things—superhero, private investigator, budding alcoholic. Still, she's a god-awful tenant. The window on her apartment door is smashed early on the in the first episode; the place is trashed beyond repair by the end of the season; and (spoilers ahead) her association with villainous mind-reader Kilgrave inadvertently causes massive, sometimes fatal, problems for her neighbors. (That last one's not her fault, but still—would you want to live next door to her?)
Not that it seems the landlord cares much: the place looks like classic slumlord territory, a rundown prewar with plenty of water damage and no cleaning staff or super on site:
That said? It seems like a pretty ideal setup. For Jessica, sure—she can have tons of space and zero accountability here, it would seem—but also, for anyone who recognizes the potential of a massive Manhattan apartment big enough for an eat-in kitchen, large living room, bedroom, and home office, complete with decorative mantel (pictured above):
Of course, even in its run down condition—and with the tax breaks she likely gets if she deducts her home office as an expense—the obvious question here is how a struggling private detective could afford such a huge space in pricey Hell's Kitchen. (The address is given as 485 West 46th Street, but the exteriors were filmed at 217 West 101st Street, according to Untapped Cities, where Padmapper currently has a three-bedroom asking $4,450/month.) A quick search of Hell's Kitchen prewar rentals on StreetEasy turned up similar options asking $3,750/month and $2,850/month, respectively, a pretty steep ask for a struggling freelancer.
On episode 11 of Jessica Jones. I think this one is titled "AKA Jessica Isn't Getting Her Security Deposit Back"
— brokenhalo (@brokenhalo) December 29, 2015That said, as Forbes points out, the series takes place in the Marvel Universe after the so-called Battle of New York, which damaged this area of the city so massively that prices on an apartment this size could be depressed to as low as $1,900/month. Fair enough.
As for Jessica's best friend Trish, a successful radio host, her place makes a little bit more sense. Untapped Cities clocks her neighborhood as Tribeca, and given the massive upgrades she's done to her apartment (steel reinforced door, panic room, bulletproof windows, turning the second bedroom into a Krav Maga studio), we're guessing Trish owns the place:
A reasonably similar apartment in the area currently costs $2.59 million, per StreetEasy, which makes us wonder about her lazy doorman, who she mentions has a drinking problem and apparently will let up anyone who asks, in spite of her clear need for heightened security. In any case, if local radio jobs really pay this well, maybe we're in the wrong business.
Related:
It's time we talked about that insane apartment on Master of None
Reel Estate: Kimmy Schmidt actually has a pretty great apartment
Reel Estate: Unfaithful is a case study in why you should never move to the suburbs
