They fight on the home front

COME FOR THE BIG NAMES ON AUSTRALIA’S NEWEST STREAMING SERVICE BINGE, AND STAY FOR THE DROP-DEAD GORGEOUS HOMES. THE TEAM AT REALESTATE.COM.AU HAS ROUNDED UP SOME OF THE DREAM HOMES WHERE SMALL-SCREEN DRAMA PLAYS OUT

WE’RE not sure what we love more about

Big Little Lies – the high-stakes drama playing out on screen by the likes of Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman and Laura Dern, or the fantastically opulent homes it all happens in.

Once you start dwelling on the dwellings in our favourite dramas it can be hard to stop. And of course, the US is often home to the biggest of them all. Here’s just a few of the most eye-catching.

BIG LITTLE LIES – BEACH

HOUSES

Set in upper-crust Monterey California, where houses regularly sell for tens of millions because of its proximity to Silicon Valley, the homes the central characters inhabit - all except Shailene Woodley’s Jane, who lives far more modestly - are some of America’s most sensational and expensive.

On that note it’s worth remembering that Big Little Lies was created by Australia’s Liane Moriarty. The mansions in leafy North Shore Sydney suburb Pymble, where the author lives and where she is widely believed to have found her inspiration for the novel, are themselves real estate knockouts worthy of a driveby or virtual trawl.

In real life, most of the homes used in the show are actually in Malibu, not Monterey, with only one actually set on the Peninsula. Take Reese Witherspoon’s character’s house with its enormous kitchen and 360-degree views of the coastline – it’s worth a staggering $US14.8million in real life, but is actually on the coastline in Malibu. Oh, and you can rent it for a cool $US5000 a night.

The only residence actually on the Monterey Peninsula is Perry and Celeste Wright’s house in the series. The home, which played host to Nicole Kidman’s character and her cruel husband, is worth a cool $US6 million in real life and boasts breathtaking views across the coast.

“The first time I walked through it, I had one of those epiphany moments,” series’ producer and locations manager, Gregory Alpert told Vulture of his love for the opulent home.

Celeste’s incredible bedroom with its views of the sea, where much of the drama takes place, was actually recreated on a soundstage as views from the room weren’t as sensational in real life.

Still, we’d happily live there.

MRS AMERICA – OLD MONEY MOODINESS AND MID-CENTURY CHIC

Mrs America is about the movement to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in the United States, and the one woman,

Phyllis Schlafey, played by the ever-amazing Cate Blanchett, who is on a mission to stop it from happening. You can say a lot of things about Phyllis, but one thing’s for certain – the founder of the modern anti-feminist movement kept a tidy home, or more accurately, her legions of maids did.

Not since Betty Draper first invited us over in Mad Men – incidentally, Dahvi Waller, the creator, worked on both series – have we coveted TV houses to quite an extent – especially the one used as home-base for the Schlafly family in the show. The brickwork is to die for.

In reality, the American home of the political crusader was actually filmed using ‘‘Listlehurst’’ – the principal’s residence on the University of

Toronto’s Mississauga campus, which was built in 1885 and renovated in 1928. The series filmed last year in Canada.

There are plenty of fabulous retro backdrops elsewhere in the series, too – we’re absolutely obsessed with the old-fashioned beauty parlour used by Phyllis and her housewife friends to plot their anti-feminist agenda in early episodes. In real life, the salon is owned by a 90-year-old woman who still cuts hair there once a week.

“It’s like a time capsule,” the show’s Location Manager, Scott Alexander told The Star.

“There were packages of hair combs from the 1960s, still in the original packaging. It was a great find,” he said.

The groovy New York City pads playing host to Rose Byrne’s