While the HBO Max series “South Side” is set in Englewood, the characters often venture outside the confining walls of the Rent-T-Own and into the wider, stranger-than-fiction, joyful and complicated world that is Chicago.
This doesn’t mean they’re necessarily beloved or glamorous sights.
One episode in Season Three — out later this year on the streaming platform — will show what co-creator Bashir Salahuddin dubs “Chicago’s Mordor”: the Central Auto Pound on Lower Wacker.
Salahuddin and co-creator Diallo Riddle joke the underground facility was created to get unsuspecting victims lost in while trying to retrieve a towed car.
“You can’t find it,” Salahuddin laughs. “You gotta look at these magenta signs, and if you don’t you’re just going to be down on Lower Wacker forever.”
“The freeway is coded so that your phone won’t work down there,” Riddle chimes in.
An unpleasant experience attempting to get his car back led Salahuddin to a realization.
“I was like, ‘This place is really aesthetically kind of wild,’ ” he remembers. “We kind of push towards that and we shot a variety of scenes down there and it’s actually kind of hauntingly beautiful.”
Viewers can also expect an episode shot at this year’s Lollapalooza.
“I do think the biggest moment for the season ... is that we reached out to kind folks at a tiny little festival called Lollapalooza, and we were able to shoot an incredible piece there including [rapper] Cordae, who was performing,” Salahuddin says, who also writes, produces, directs and stars as seemingly uptight cop Officer Goodnight.
Details of why and how “South Side” characters end up at the main stage of the festival are being carefully guarded, but Riddle and Salahuddin promise even more surprises that a Chicago resident and obsessive will recognize.
The two co-creators let slip that a Kwanzaa holiday special will land characters at the beautiful and historic South Shore Cultural Center.
Despite a roster of both famous and infamous guest stars (yes, Chance the Rapper will be returning to stir up some trouble as Herb), the city remains the central focus for Season Three.
“I think we’re giving Chicago the spotlight,” Salahuddin teased. “That’s the most important character.”
