Sumith Prasad
The Lux is a New York City nightclub that gets placed in the center of not one but two disappearances in Netflix’s crime drama series ‘Eric.’ Detective Michael Ledroit’s investigations into the disappearances of Edgar Anderson and Marlon Rochelle lead him to The Lux, run by Alexander Gator, who turned his attention to the nightclub after shutting down The Sierra. Considering the show’s historical setting and emphasis on New York City as a character, The Lux and The Sierra may appear as real nightclubs that existed in or around the place in the 1980s. However, that isn’t the case in reality! SPOILERS AHEAD.
The Lux and The Sierra: Two Non-Existent Nightclubs
The Lux and The Sierra are two fictional nightclubs creator Abi Morgan conceived specifically for ‘Eric.’ The two establishments never existed in or around New York City in real life. However, their roots can be traced back to the 1980s, a period during which Morgan was living in the city. At the time, the nightclub scene of NYC was extremely vibrant and unignorable. The clash of cultures and classes that happened in these nightclubs can be seen in The Lux as well. But why exactly are these nightclubs significant as far as the narrative of the crime drama is concerned? Well, the answer can be found in one of the central mysteries in the series.
Throughout the show, Detective Michael Ledroit tries to find out what happened to Marlon Rochelle. When he ultimately discovers that Marlon was murdered by two cops and disposed of by a wealthy businessman for his influential politician brother-in-law, Ledroit understands that the Black boy lost his life to men of privilege. Nokes uses his badge to cover up the crime, while Bruno di Bari and Richard Costello take advantage of their upper-class background to disappear from the eyes of the law. The revelation concerning Marlon’s fate makes it clear that class division is prevalent in New York City.
Clubs like The Lux and The Sierra host people from different classes night after night. That’s how the life of Marlon, an underprivileged boy from a Black family, crossed with the path of Costello, the deputy mayor of New York City. The storyline of Marlon is best set in a nightclub where people from diverse backgrounds interact in a wide variety of ways, justifying the creation of The Lux. The prominence of The Lux and The Sierra can be a nod to New York’s decades-long history of nightclubs. Over the years, several similar real-life establishments have been raided, only for the authorities to uncover shocking crimes.
Even though The Lux is situated in New York City in the series, the scenes set in the nightclub were actually shot in Budapest, Hungary. The production department made use of Korda Studios in Etyek, around thirty kilometers away from Budapest, to shoot these sequences. The production facility had a backlot that appears as New York City, created originally for Guillermo del Toro’s ‘Hellboy II: The Golden Army,’ to shoot the crime drama.
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