@Ribrabrob Ooh lots to think about.
Sitcoms/TV: Friends is pure fantasy, but the attention to detail is really good - they get Pizza from the local Pizza shop etc. No way they could afford those apartments though. It's also so dated now, that it's difficult for me to know if it's accurate, but I will say that Rachel is a good representation of a spoiled girl from Long Island. I don't watch How I Met Your Mother.
In terms of accuracy - Russian Doll is really good. Taps into a lot of fears that New Yorkers have. Seinfeld, Girls and Mozart in the Jungle have the most realistic apartments. According to DH, who grew up in that world, the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is a very good representation of Jewish Upper Middle Class Life in the city. Odd Mom Out is hilarious and very accurate - the episode with the Doorman's strike was almost painful to watch.
I've seen Gossip Girl and it is and isn't accurate. I know a lot of people in that world through work and the lives of the parents are pretty spot on for that level of wealth i.e. moving into the Palace because you're having your apartment redecorated. However, the super rich teenagers are seriously hothoused and overprotected - no way they'd get away with half the stuff that goes on on Gossip Girl. Also all the episodes on College admissions are bollocks. As is the getting town cars everywhere part - even the Bloombergs ride the subway. Having a summer house is a thing too. Everyone above DH in the pecking order at his bank has one, and where you summer says a lot about you. I believe there's a bit where Blair Waldorf interrogates girls on where they summer and judged them on it.
(Sidenote - I am the bad finance wife who refuses to summer anywhere. I am a rebel who stays in the city and has to be coaxed out to Fire Island)
City that never sleeps? Yes. Is Bloomingdales open at 2am? No, but if you needed a t-shirt at 2am, you could get your hands on one. You can get food and booze delivered round the clock too, and there are plenty of 24 hour diners, bodegas and pharmacists.
I am partial to Junior's cheesecake.
Most people in Manhattan and the bits of Brooklyn and Queens near Manhattan don't have a car. It costs at least $400 a month at the very, very low end to park in a garage, or you have to park on the street and deal with all the byzantine parking rules. My friends who do have cars and choose to street park find that they get towed and bashed up on a regular basis. Cars are much more common in Staten Island, the Bronx and the more suburban parts of Brooklyn and Queens. Most people use their cars for getting out of the city, or driving to the suburban megastores. Almost everyone uses public transport to get around day-to-day. A lot of people do Zipcar when they need a car for a day or two. I haven't driven, or needed to drive since I've moved here.
I know the staff in my local coffee shop, and they remember my order. I don't know the other patrons except on sight. I also know the staff in my local nail-bar and Chinese take-away. The nail bar tell me off if I don't come in often enough, I'm a bit scared of the lady in charge. I also have a go-to brow girl, and a hairdresser, both of whom I tip lavishly so they don't jettison me as a client 
. In my old neighbourhood, I knew the people in the nearest dive bar (FREE SHOTS!) and nice bar (FREE CHEESEPLATE!), and also the pizza shop. The pizza shop used to let DH bring our late Cairn Terrier in on the grounds that she didn't self-identify as a dog.