The first trailer for an upcoming CBS legal drama called “Cupertino” is leaving actual residents of the California town scratching their heads. Scheduled to premiere on October 8, the show claims to focus on high-stakes courtroom battles involving massive tech companies. However, the preview footage shows a heavily fictionalized version of the city that completely misses its actual geography, culture, and population.
The new show ignores real town landmarks and residents
While it might share a name with the famous Silicon Valley hub, the on-screen version looks nothing like the real place. The production is actually filmed in New York and New Jersey, and the creators did not even include basic background footage of the real California area. You will not see famous structures like the massive campus owned by Apple, nor will you spot the countless boba shops that outnumber coffee houses in the real city.
More importantly, the casting fails to reflect the people who actually live there. The real town has a 70 percent Asian population, a demographic reality completely ignored by the trailer. For a show that leans so heavily on the name of a specific, recognizable location, erasing the majority of its population feels like a significant oversight rather than just creative license.
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The series does name-drop the tech giant and features characters using MacBooks, but it seems doubtful the plot will actually take on the company directly in its legal battles. Instead of offering a grounded look at the tensions between tech workers and corporate employers, the show treats the location like a completely made-up backdrop.
For locals hoping to see their unique community represented on television, this procedural looks like a generic courtroom story that borrowed a famous zip code for clout.
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