The Filming Locations of “Big Little Lies” Season 2 – “What Have They Done”

I’ve made no secret of my apathy for the second season of Big Little Lies.  But I was, of course, still entranced by its locations, which I’ve been obsessively IDing ever since episode 1 aired in early June.  So I figure it is only appropriate to follow up my complete guide to the locales from Season 1 by doing the same for S2.  Because a great deal more sites were featured this time around (S1 utilized 25 spots total, while S2 boasted 18 in its premiere alone!), an episode-by-episode breakdown seems to make the most sense here.  I apologize in advance to the non-Big Little Lies fans out there!  (A couple of notes – since I have already covered Season 1 extensively, I will not be including any flashback scenes.  Places that appear in multiple episodes will be mentioned as such, so there will be some crossover and repetition in the various posts.  And I am also missing a few locales, but will add them in as they are found.)

And now, without further ado, I present all of the locations from Big Little Lies’ Season 2 premiere, “What Have They Done?”, in order of appearance.

1. Celeste’s House (40 Yankee Point Drive, Carmel) – All of the women’s Season 1 residences, aside from Jane Chapman’s (Shailene Woodley), are re-used in Season 2, including the modern cliffside manse where Celeste Wright (Nicole Kidman) lives with her boys, Josh (Cameron Crovetti) and Max (Nicholas Crovetti).  In “What Have They Done?,” the pad’s actual front entrance, rear patio, living and dining rooms are featured (the latter is the site of that infamous scream!), but, as was the case with Season 1, the enormous master suite was just a soundstage-built set.

2. Jane’s New Apartment (Ocean Harbor, 125 Surf Way, Monterey) – Season 2 finds Jane and her son, Ziggy Chapman (Iain Armitage), living in an apartment in Ocean Harbor, the same waterfront complex where Celeste leased a unit at the end of S1.  Though the inside of their new place (which I believe was a set) is featured in “What Have They Done?” . . . 

. . . the exterior is not seen until episode 3, “The End of the World.”

3. Otter Bay Elementary School (Kenter Canyon Elementary School, 645 North Kenter Avenue, Brentwood) – At the outset of Season 2, the children of the Monterey 5 embark upon their second-grade year at Otter Bay, once again portrayed by Kenter Canyon Elementary School in Brentwood.  In “What Have They Done?”, the front of the school, exterior hallways, parking lot, quad, and auditorium are all featured.

The park at the southern end of the school is also where the kids dance in the opening credits.

4. Madeline Gets Cut Off (Intersection of Esplanade Street and Ocean View Drive, Pacific Grove) – In a nod to the Season 1 premiere, while heading to grab coffee with Celeste, Madeline Martha Mackenzie (Reese Witherspoon) gets cut off by a fellow driver and then aggressively lays on her horn (because, as she explains, “Once I lean in, you know how I am!”) in the very same spot where she fell and rolled her ankle in “Somebody’s Dead.”

5. Blissful Drip Café (Lovers Point Park, 631 Ocean View Boulevard, Pacific Grove) – After dropping their kids off for their first day of school, Madeline and Celeste hit up their new java hangout, Blissful Drip Café, where Madeline has an unfortunate tête-à-tête with Mary Louise Wright (Meryl Streep).  The bohemian outdoor eatery is not a real place, but was a temporary set constructed solely for the show in a grassy expanse of Lovers Point Park, as I documented in this post.

In the scene, the women park in front of the former Lattitudes at Lovers Point restaurant (631 Ocean View Drive), which currently sits vacant.

6. Ed and Tori’s Grocery Store Encounter (Whole Foods Market, 331 North Glendale Avenue, Glendale) – Ed Mackenzie (Adam Scott) runs into Tori Bachman (Sarah Sokolovic)  – and her new, ahem, assets – at the Glendale outpost of Whole Foods Market.  (Big THANK YOU to my friend/Brady Bunch aficionado Michael for IDing this location.)

7. Bonnie'”‘”‘s Run (Old Coast Road, south of Bixby Creek Bridge, Big Sur)  – The bucolic forested path where Bonnie (Zoë Kravitz) runs – and relives Season 1′”‘”‘s murder – can be found on Old Coast Road in Big Sur.  The same trail is also where Bonnie and her mom, Elizabeth Howard (Crystal Fox), hike in “Tell-Tale Hearts.”

8. Bonnie and Nathan’s House (636 Crater Camp Drive, Calabasas) – The same gorgeous Calabasas bungalow from Season 1 serves as the home of Bonnie and Nathan Carlson (James Tupper) in Season 2.

9. Monterey Bay Aquarium (886 Cannery Row, Monterey) – Jane inexplicably goes from being an accountant in Season 1 to a Monterey Bay Aquarium educator in Season 2.  The popular aquatic museum plays itself in “What Have They Done?” (as well as in several other episodes), with Jane and her new co-worker/love interest Corey Brockfield (Douglas Smith) leading a class in one of the site'”‘”‘s Discovery Labs.

10. Café Descanso (Descanso Gardens, 1418 Descanso Drive, La Cañada Flintridge) – Unlike Blissful Drip, Season 2′”‘”‘s other new coffee shop hangout, Café Descanso, is a real place.  It is at the picturesque site, located on the grounds of Descanso Gardens, that Nathan begs Ed to take Bonnie to lunch in “What Have They Done?”  The eatery also pops up in “Tell-Tale Hearts,” “The End of the World,” and “She Knows.”  You can read a more in-depth post on it here.

11. Renata’s House (27326 Winding Way, Malibu) – Renata Klein (Laura Dern) poses for a “Women in Power” photoshoot at the same palatial mansion that served as her residence in Season 1.  While the exterior and interior are both seen in the premiere episode (as well as throughout the rest of S2), I am fairly certain that Gordon'”‘”‘s (Jeffrey Nordling) beloved man cave was just a set.

12. Madeline’s House Showing (98 Yankee Point Drive, Carmel) – In Monterey, selling houses is “like printing money,” at least according to Madeline who has made the change from working in community theatre to peddling real estate.  She is not very good at her job, though, as evidenced by the personal call she makes to Renata during a showing.  The gorgeous seaside pad where she ignores her clients can be found right down the street from Celeste’s.  A former real estate listing describes the place as being of “such innovative design, of such sheer drama that it vies for attention with the pounding Pacific Ocean itself.”  You can see images of its interior here.

13. Sea Cliff High School (Ramona Convent Secondary School, 1701 West Ramona Road, Alhambra) – Abigail Carlson (Kathryn Newton) announces to Madeline and Nathan that she is not planning on attending college (which somehow results in a shoving match) during a parent/teacher conference at the fictional Sea Cliff High School.  Filming took place at Ramona Convent Secondary, an all-girls Catholic preparatory in Alhambra.

14. Madeline’s Real Estate Office (Deasy Penner Podley, 30 North Baldwin Avenue, Sierra Madre) – The “Monterey” Sotheby'”‘”‘s office where Madeline works – and where she runs into Mary Louise in “What Have They Done?” – is the Sierra Madre branch of Deasy Penner Podley.  I further detail the brokerage, which also appears in “The End of the World,” here.

15. Del Monte Beach (653 Del Monte Avenue, Monterey) – Jane’s solo shoreline dance is interrupted by Corey, who brashly asks about her involvement with the Monterey 5, at the Central Coast’s secluded Del Monte Beach.  This spot is, coincidentally, just down the street from Jane’s new apartment.

16. Carmel River State Beach (Carmelo Street and Scenic Road, Carmel) – An establishing shot of the parking lot at Carmel River State Beach is shown in the scene in which the ladies discuss the latest developments in Perry Wright’s (Alexander Skarsgård) murder case.       

I am fairly certain, though, that actual filming of the segment took place on Ocean View Boulevard near Lovers Point Park.

17. Side Door Café (Happy Trails Garden, 207 South Fair Oaks Avenue, Pasadena) – An oft-used locale from Season 1, Side Door Café only pops up once this time around.  In “What Have They Done?” Celeste and Jane have a late-night meet-up there to discuss Perry’s estate.  The striking space, formerly known as Happy Trails Garden, was sadly shuttered in early 2018 and currently sits vacant.  You can read my 2017 post on it here.

18. Carmel-By-The-Sea Police Department (Junipero Avenue & 4th Avenue, Carmel) – In what becomes a regular occurrence throughout Season 2, Bonnie ventures over to the Carmel-By-The-Sea Police Department, which plays itself, at the end of “What Have They Done?”

Be sure to check out my look at episode 2, “Tell-Tale Hearts.”

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