‘Owning Manhattan’ Is Not a Reality for Real-Estate Agents

Ryan Serhant is no stranger to selling million dollar properties on reality TV. Shortly after the actor-turned-agent got his real-estate license, Serhant was cast for the Bravo series, Million Dollar Listing: New York, ultimately spending a decade on the series. But that wasn’t Serhant’s first introduction to reality TV; in 2006, his first real job in New York was when he was cast in an internet competition reality series, InTurn, to find the next actor to be featured on the soap opera. As The World Turns. Keeping in line with his goal-oriented approach to leading a life that is anything but ordinary, he, of course, won the competition. The expert agent has a talent for spinning a negative into a positive, and a habit of creating a personal mythology around the lessons he has learned over the years in the city that he loves.

After his decade on Bravo, Serhant has now launched a new Netflix series, Owning Manhattan, to showcase his company, SERHANT., as he and his team of agents attempt to rise from the number six real-estate company in New York to number one. Although the series is similar in many ways to other Netflix ventures like Selling Sunset or Buying Beverly Hills, Serhant is the first to claim that his series is a new format for real-estate reality TV. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, the mogul characterizes what sets his series apart as a “concept of elevated reality.”

Serhant’s formulation of “elevated reality” makes for great television. The drama is cultivated, there is luxury voyeurism, and by the end of the season, viewers are left wanting more. Orchestral scores, quality editing, impressive graphics, and drone footage all add a certain polish to the series, though if the expectation with real-estate reality TV is that viewers will be invited into the reality of what it’s like for real-estate agents making deals in New York, there is a catch. Serhant’s new format leaves viewers with the sense that while they’re watching great reality TV, what they are really seeing is far from the “reality” of typical New York City real-estate agents.

Ryan Serhant Had a Plan for ‘Owning Manhattan’

The series opened with what would become a staple feature: a Ferris Bueller-inspired first-person narration where Serhant tells (what feels like) a well-worn story so that viewers learn that his grandfather was the inspiration for him to lead a life that wasn’t ordinary. The narrative style and flare for dramatics sets the series up to be as much about the big personalities featured on the show as it is about luxury real-estate sales. In an interview with The LA Times, Serhant juxtaposed his series to the typical real-estate reality series featured on more traditional networks, like Bravo. He credited Netflix for the ability to get creative with the format, nothing that the series “scratches the itch” of viewing a gorgeous $250-million penthouse while also offering a workplace drama “à la Vanderpump Rules.”

In the series, Serhant claimed that becoming the number one brokerage in New York City—and even the world—is the goal for SERHANT., but crafting a dramatic narrative was also the goal for Owning Manhattan, which was achieved by ending the season intentionally on a cliffhanger and attempting to create a workplace drama to the scale of Vanderpump Rules. A key difference is that on the Bravo series, much of the drama arose organically among a group of friends who had known each other for years. On Serhant’s Netflix show, the team of agents he assembled consisted of many individuals who are new to selling real-estate—mostly new to each other. These “new gen” agents come to the series with an interesting fame-seeking quality that makes for great reality TV, even if it doesn’t necessarily speak to the typical reality of selling real-estate in New York.

Drama Is Built Into the Format of ‘Owning Manhattan’

Serhant’s first-person narration is different from the spontaneous talking-head interviews that the cast go through with producers. Perhaps owing to his background as an actor or his career in reality TV, Serhant’s narration was less off the cuff than a typical confessional interview. In fact, the narrative was so controlled that it runs the risk of coming across as scripted. Applying his salesperson spin to the season, every ugly moment was a lesson learned, and Serhant did a solid job keeping himself out of the mess, just as the founder of the company should. However, he was certainly happy to have his ex-assistant turned real-estate agent, Jordan Hurt, report back on the drama later.

The veteran real-estate agents who are dedicated to their career and reputations tend to keep in the background when it comes to sharing personal narratives. Instead, they show up to company events, report their successful transactions, and watch the unprofessional behavior of their new peers from a distance. The heightened dramatic moments in the series often occur through storylines of the agents most comfortable sharing their big personalities on camera—those who arose through social media or come from the world of acting.

Structured Drama Is Not Reality, but It Sure Makes Great TV

While Serhant presented a convincing pitch about how he has transformed a genre, there are many shared elements with other Netflix reality TV shows that are centered around drama as much as real-estate transactions. With agents showing up to each other’s events in neon outfits and full glam, the series is similar in ambition to Selling Sunset, while Serhant dealing with young agents expecting handouts just because they’ve bought into their own “fake it ’til you make it” narratives seems taken straight from Buying Beverly Hills. Pitting new agents against seasoned veterans is another slick guarantee that emotions will escalate and allow drama to unfold, but such structured moments of drama lead to more of the same.

The cameras capture Serhant’s world as he builds his company towards further success, but that world now also turns around the creation of a reality TV series. The “elevated” drama that’s featured in the series is so over the top that it’s natural to assume that much of it is manufactured, either by the producers or by the cast themselves. Selling high-end luxury real-estate seems like a part-time job for individuals who are seemingly more concerned about becoming full-time reality TV stars.

With the combination of Serhant’s personable demeanor as narrator, his dramatic team, the stylistic choices in filming and editing, and his penchant for a cliffhanger, the broker-turned-producer may have built something unique enough to stand out among other similar shows featured on the streaming giant. But as the popular Selling Sunset franchise will soon be branching into New York, time will tell if Serhant’s new “elevated” reality series has done enough to set itself apart from the other real-estate series on Netflix.

Owning Manhattan is available to stream on Netflix in the U.S.

Watch on Netflix