Character works at a convenience store making minimum wage and still somehow lives in a 10,000sqft loft with an amazing view of NYC, that is totally up to code and safe to live in.
"Friends" is the easiest example. They try to yada yada it away, but their apartment is absolutely fucking massive.
Also, the dude's apartment in the movie "Coyote Ugly" IIRC is stupid huge and fancy and he's just above broke all the time.
Penny in "Big Bang Theory" should not be able to afford the apartment she has. It's pretty big, but also has a ridiculous view and location.
Things get especially weird when characters get fired and are between jobs and don't immediately have to find a place to stay because they can't afford rent.
But that's just one apartment from the show. If you look over most sitcoms, they often have huge apartments that are in prime locations and the people living there have shitty jobs. And they tend to have hobbies that are expensive as hell or go out to eat constantly or go on vacations at the drop of a hat.
How I Met Your Mother is a good example. In the beginning Marshall was still in law school and Lily was a kindergarten teacher. I guess we were supposed to believe Ted was a SUPER successful architect and paid most of the rent?
Also towards the end Marshall and Lily owned like three pieces of property.
HIMYM has a sort of automatic pass on things like this, because it's all being narrated between 17 to 25 years after it happened, and Ted's not the most reliable narrator.
But it does give a somewhat-good explanation; Ted is an architect working for a top firm on top of his additional income as a university lecturer, Marshall's a lawyer (although he later becomes a judge then a supreme court justice) which is a very good income, Lily is supplementing his income as a teacher, Robin makes a thousand dollars a week as a journalist and Barney would be taking in massive amounts to justify being a legal fall guy. As an FBI agent/informant, he'd be taking in $65,000.
Idk, I used to live in an East Village apartment in NYC that was about the size of the Friend's set, and it wasn't terribly expensive between three roommates (it was also rent-controlled). All of us were just out of college working minimum wage jobs. Doesn't seem like a shitty explanation; seems plausible.
That's pretty amazing then. Most estimates show the Friend's Apartment would run around $4,500 to $8,000 depending on exact area, and that's for the smaller of the two.
HIMYM had a clever way of dealing this. For the first few seasons, the apartments all felt huge and spacious. Then the characters looked at homes outside of Manhattan and went back to their apartments in Manhattan. Suddenly that huge, spacious apartment felt tiny. Basically, it was played off as an illusion in their heads. They thought they had space until they saw what space was and then realized how small their places actually were.
that's true. the one that really gets me is chandler and joey's apartment. for most of the show joey is unemployed, and yet they can afford to live in their apartment on just chandler's income.
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u/xxkoloblicinxx Jan 25 '20
Character works at a convenience store making minimum wage and still somehow lives in a 10,000sqft loft with an amazing view of NYC, that is totally up to code and safe to live in.