Best TV Series Made in Atlanta

The Georgia film and television tax credit has brought many a production within our borders, but the novelty of watching Hollywood largesse in action has yet to wear off. Case in point: As Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues filmed around Atlanta, we watched as whole businesses were transformed overnight into giant set-piece jokes, Peachtree Center became Rockefeller Center (sort of), violent news teams battled in Piedmont Park, and whole blocks of Downtown were retooled to resemble 1980s Manhattan. Who even cares if the movie is good when it comes out in December? We already got to see the fun parts. www.anchormanmovie.com. less...

It's great that Atlanta has become a regional hub for television and film production and we get to play spot-the-landmark in Hollywood movies. It's even better when local filmmakers draw national attention without compromising their ideas, which is the case with V/H/S. A hit at this year's Sundance Film Festival, the found-footage horror anthology film features a chapter from Atlanta's David Bruckner of the Studio Outpost filmmaking collective. Co-written with Nick Tecosky and filmed at local venues such as Star Bar, V/H/S puts local terror talent alongside work from the likes of House of the Devil's Ti West. An entry at this year's Atlanta Film Festival, V/H/S opens in theaters in October, so miss it at your own risk. www.magnetreleasing.com/vhs. less...

Say what you will about Bravo's "THE REAL HOUSEWIVES OF ATLANTA" — they've kept the city (or more specifically, Duluth) in the national media spotlight. The housewives — former Xscape singer Kandi Burruss, obligatory-wife-of-an-athlete Lisa Wu Hartwell, socialite NeNe Leakes, divorcee and would-be designer Sheree Whitfield, and "country singer"/wig lover Kim Zolciak — ferry themselves to parties, charity events and restaurants while offering up varying degrees of fabulosity, vanity and over-the-top interpersonal relations. (Burruss, a new addition to the cast and a Grammy-winning songwriter who co-wrote "No Scrubs" for TLC, seems egregiously grounded. Here's hoping she catfights someone in a fountain by season's end.) The franchise is founded on two principles: Shiny things are better when they're expensive, and oblivious people make wonderful television. www.bravotv.com/the-real-housewives-of-atlanta. less...

ATL appreciated Atlanta’s color and geographic divides. First-timer Chris Robinson’s sweet coming-of-age movie also featured a bevy of local flavor, including Eddie’s Gold Teeth, Value Village, Wayfield Foods, UrbanMedium’s Chetrooper street art, the Krog Street Tunnel, and the Southside-vs.-Northside extremes of ghetto authenticity and Sandy Springs mega-mansion surrealism. less...

HBO can't hold a candle to People TV, Atlanta's public access channel. Sure, HBO produces a fleet of Emmy-winning shows, but it doesn't have anything as bizarre or engrossing as "WHAT'S REALLY GOING ON." Hosted by a guy named the Big Bad Wolf (basically a guy dressed in a cheap werewolf costume), the show includes interviews with celebrities like Big Boi from OutKast and original music videos starring the Wolf himself - and a crew of strippers dressed as pigs. Oh, and each episode ends with the Wolf being shot to death. Now that's TV! "Atlanta's People TV, Channel 24, Tues. at 11 p.m. www.peopletv.org." less...