It is not often a police procedural can be described as light-hearted and cheerful, but such is the case with “Instinct,” the short-lived series that debuted on CBS in 2018. Based on best-selling author James Patterson’s 2017 book “Murder Games,” the show (which is currently available to stream via Paramount Plus) chronicles the work and home lives of CIA-operative-turned-NYPD-consultant Dr. Dylan Reinhart (Alan Cumming), aka “Professor Psychopath,” and his partner, Det. Lizzie Needham (Bojana Novakovic). While the episodes deal with murder, kidnapping and serial killers, the overall arc of the storylines are poignant, warm and full of heart. And the locations aren’t too bad to look at either!
Though the show was canceled after only 24 episodes, two seasons and less than a year and a half on the air, it managed to showcase a number of interesting New York sites. Lizzie and Dylan report to work each day at the city’s 11th Precinct, which in reality is the 41 Cooper Square building on the Cooper Union campus. The ultra-modern structure, which features a stainless steel façade that appears to undulate across its nine stories, was designed in 2009 by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Thom Mayne, FAIA, of Morphosis Architecture, who was also behind the oft-filmed Emerson College Los Angeles and Al Pacino’s infamous “dead tech, post-modernistic bullshit house” from “Heat.”
The fictional The Rafters bar, owned by Dylan’s husband, lawyer-turned-proprietor Andy Wilson (Daniel Ings), is really Trestle at 34-02 Broadway in Astoria. Another design marvel featuring ceilings fashioned to look like the underside of a bridge (or elevated subway tracks, depending on which website you happen to be reading), walls cloaked with massive black and white photographs of local bridges, cobblestone flooring dotted with manhole covers and a bathroom circulating with MTA announcement broadcasts, the space is unique, to say the least.
“Instinct’s” most captivating spot, though, is easily the highly singular structure where Dylan and Andy make their home. Clad in vibrant orange brick and terra cotta paneling and capped with a handsome slate mansard roof, the property is nothing short of arresting and immediately caught my eye the moment it was first shown on the series’ pilot episode.