Zócalo's Connecting California
How Oceanside Became the Crime Capital of California
Hollywood's heading to the edges of California urban areas for a grittier slice of life in the Golden State. Joe Mathews says the latest example is Animal Kingdom, a new TV show starring Ellen Barkin as the matriarch of a mob family that takes place in the San Diego exurbs.
Los Angeles is played out. San Francisco, too. Hollywood is looking toward unfamiliar, grittier California locales for its crime dramas and other shows. Modesto got its close up in the first season of ABC's American Crime, and West Covina is the setting for the CW musical comedy Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. Now comes Hollywood's latest foray into California's exurbs, TNT's Animal Kingdom, starring a very scary Ellen Barkin as the head of a violent crime family in Oceanside. Joe Mathews says it's all part of drift to the state's urban edges.