Is the Town in Grosse Pointe Garden Society Real? Creating an Affluent Michigan Suburb
NBC's new murder mystery, Grosse Pointe Garden Society, is based in a wealthy community that actually exists.
Now, what drives four friends to bury a dead body underneath their suburban communities vibrant, thriving garden? NBC's new murder mystery Grosse Pointe Garden Society — written and produced by Jenna Bans and Bill Krebs — will certainly try to answer that question.
Viewers will meet Birdie (Melissa Fumero), Catherine (Aja Naomi King), Brett (Ben Rappaport), and Alice (AnnaSophia Robb) during the series premiere as we're introduced to the garden club members, their world, and the potential red flags that may have led to a murder. And it all takes place in their idyllic town of Grosse Pointe, Michigan.
Is Grosse Pointe, Michigan a real place?
Yes, Grosse Pointe is an actual city in the state of Michigan and one of the wealthiest suburbs of Detroit. In fact, series co-showrunner Bill Krebs is from Grosse Pointe himself.
Production designer Adam Davis wasn't able to visit the real community, but was tasked with transforming the show's Assembly Studios set — located just outside of Atlanta, Georgia — into the affluent suburb. Davis conducted extensive research and used his experience as an architect to create his own version of the town.
"I've done this for many shows where I have to make one city look like another. I look at everything, from Google searches to realtor's listings, so I can actually get a sense of, like, where do people really live?" he tells NBC Insider. "And then trying to kind of get an insider's peek into what the society looks like."
So, the answer? Money. For Davis, a key goal in the set design was to communicate "expensive taste" and that the characters we see on screen live a life of privilege.
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"I was always looking for locations that had a certain level of detail to it. I mean, that's how I expressed money in the show. It's like well-appointed, well-detailed out, something that's, like, got expensive moldings. That screams of money in my opinion," he says.
He also consulted Krebs for his perspective as a Grosse Pointe native when it came to the authenticity of certain sets.
"He would say, 'Nope,' or 'Yep, you nailed it,' right? So, you know, that kind of thing," he says. "Each one of the character sets that I built on stage is rooted in a certain architectural type that you would find typical in Grosse Pointe, right? Whether it's a Tudor mansion — it seems like everybody in Grosse Point has a Tudor mansion, according to Bill Krebs, all the architecture is still intact. People live in these stately places."
Is the show's garden real?
Yes... and no. The garden at the heart of the series — and central to the mysterious murder plot line — turned out to be production's most unexpected obstacle.
When filming the "Pilot" episode in March and April of 2024, the Grosse Pointe team used an Atlanta wedding venue that already had a lush garden, but Davis explains they still brought in about a thousand more plants. Then, once the show was green lit, the practical effects department and a specially created greens department were tasked with conceptualizing, building, and maintaining a garden just outside the gates of Assembly Studios. The colorful green space is an actual true-to-scale courtyard made up of a combination of real plants and faux silk flowers.
However, keeping a production schedule and staying true to the script, all while being at the whim of mother nature is incredibly complicated. The show takes place across all four seasons, while the crew has been filming in Atlanta's incredibly fickle fall and winter season. During the city's two-and-a-half weeks of snow in January, filming a summer scene had its obvious limitations. And If it rained or leaves and petals became frosted, the greens team revived the real (and fake) plants, while also planting and re-planting others to ensure their survival and appearance. Then fast-forward to filming the the series' eighth episode at the beginning of February, when temperatures reached the mid-70s.
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In addition, there's the small detail of Birdie, Catherine, Alice, and Brett burying a body in the garden, meaning changes to the landscaping are frequent as filming progresses and the story evolves.
"The garden is a way for us to kind of look and see how time progresses," Davis says. "Like, as the garden grows, we pass time as well. So, it's kind of like almost a clock for us in a way. And then, we also do something interesting where all the flash forwards are shot with a blue filter. And they're cooler palettes. So, that's something I have to be mindful of, too."
He continues, "I mean, the garden — that was a trip, trying to keep track of that thing. Honestly, in the course of one episode, we have these garden meetings that go on for an hour, because nobody can keep track of it. We are planting, but then, they die off, and then it goes to marigolds, and then it goes to daffodils... So we're having to, as the art department, really keep up with that so that everything looks cohesive."
