Culture | TV When the first season of Selling Sunset aired in 2019, it was perfect escapist TV. “They could NEVER do something like this in London!” I muttered, enthralled by the sunshine-filled LA mansions and the fashion-forward cast swishing their hair extensions as they held plastic surgery-themed parties for fellow brokers. London’s estate agents, by contrast, are a fairly tame bunch with their M&S suits and receding hairlines, and the weather decidedly un-Californian.
How wrong I was. Buying London shows the Netflix formula can indeed translate across the pond. Instead of the Oppenheim Group, we have DDRE Global, while London’s prime property neighbourhoods (Kensington and Chelsea, Belgravia, Mayfair in the centre, with St John’s Wood and Highgate to the north) go toe-to-toe with the Hollywood Hills and the Sunset Strip.
It’s trite to call London a character, but as backdrop she’s looking fabulous in the B-roll. We might not have McMansions but London still has mega-mansions that can stage a good tracking shot. Each marble-clad surface and chandelier sparkles under the lights and cameras of the high production values of a Netflix-backed team.
I was furiously noting the details for each property displayed on the chyron before my eyes popped at the opulence of it all. Yes, there is a crushing housing and rental crisis in London, but I could feel the socialism temporarily leaving my body with every shot of a lavish walk-in wardrobe. It helps that Daggers had .
