The Come Up is ready to show you a new side of New York City. The reality docuseries follows a group of friends as they take on post-pandemic New York and embrace friendships, careers, and love lives. The cast spoke EXCLUSIVELY with HollywoodLife about the new series and why it isn’t your typical run-of-the-mill reality show.
“Well, the show isn’t really reality. It’s more a docu-series because we’re not like a friend group that they attach to and just like follow us along,” Fernando Casablancas (he/they) told HollywoodLife. “We’re six individuals that happen to intermingle in different ways. I just never even approached it as a reality [show] because it was always a docuseries. It was always going to show our reality, but I always thought that it was like curated reality because it’s shot so beautifully. I don’t even get the feeling that it’s reality. It’s very raw.”
Sophia Wilson (she/her) noted that The Come Up definitely has “a Gen Z perspective” on New York City. “You’re definitely seeing the younger parts of New York City,” she said. Claude Shwartz (she/her) added that “young people always have their own culture. I think that it’s just sort of youth culture. We can’t capture everything about New York, but we’ve got our little downtown worlds and Brooklyn neighborhoods that correspond.”
The series will showcase New York City in a post-pandemic world. The cast revealed how Gen Z approaches the Big Apple versus past generations. “The best way to answer that is seeing the reaction of post lockdown,” Taofeek Abijako (he/him) said. “I would say in terms of our generation, there’s way more of a communal feel. There’s a stereotype around Gen Z. Like, you’re being too individualistic. I feel like in a way post lockdown, we all came together, There’s way more subculture [that] emerged out of New York.”
Fernando pointed out that a “huge outflux of people” left New York City during lockdown, which gave the impression that New York was dead. “But when the kids started coming back to the city — and newer kids — it filled the city with this energy of just excitement and potentiality,” Fernando told HollywoodLife.
Ebon Trower (she/her) added, “From post-pandemic just watching this show, you’ll be able to tell we brought New York back to life. In each borough, you would think we were living in like 2030 the way we were just painting the town. I think after the pandemic, it kind of really just woke everyone up. We have to do this. We need to show people this now, or it’s just not going to be important anymore.” The Come Up premieres September 13 on Hulu.