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Netflix’s Simulated East Village Explosion Is Kinda Tasteless


July 8, 2015 | Liam Mathews

On the evening of July 7, a simulated explosion rocked Avenue B between 6th and 7th Streets during filming for the Netflix series Jessica Jones, which is based on a Marvel comic. This is fine. Filming stuff on location in New York City earns tax revenue and lends credibility to productions and gives any ordinary person the opportunity to steal craft services from the set of Girls. Even simulated explosions are fine. New York gets blown up in movies every couple of months. Whatever. But in this particular case, they could reconsidered pretending to blow up this particular area, because it’s just three blocks away from where two buildings actually blew up three months ago. Two people died when 119 and 121 2nd Avenue exploded due to a gas leak on March 26. Businesses in that area are still trying to recover. People are still a little raw; a commenter on EV Grieve wrote “this is such a great idea, set off fake explosions in a neighborhood still rattled by gas leaks and exploding buildings, pure genius.”

Bedford + Bowery has video of the explosion:

There are plenty of streets in New York City where they could have simulated an explosion. Why not do this in Long Island City or Greenpoint or Sunset Park? Or literally anywhere else. They even could have said it was still the East Village, because as Daredevil showed, these productions have no problem subbing in other neighborhoods stand for Hell’s Kitchen. Just show a little consideration, Netflix, you know?

Shoutout to Jessica Jones star Krysten Ritter, though. She was great on Breaking Bad. I really liked Don’t Trust The B In Apartment 23, too. That show deserved better than it got. I’m glad things are going well for her.

(Photo: Google Maps)