Postcard from Kierville

On the surreality of living in the increasingly popular filming location that is Kingston, New York.

Three years ago, I initially bailed on Severance, Ben Stiller’s surreal workplace series on Apple TV, after watching just the first two episodes. I struggled to grasp what it was about, or where the story was headed. It seemed too weird for me, so I stopped watching.

Then a local friend started posting screenshots from the series and noting where in our city of Kingston, New York (or elsewhere in Ulster County) they were filmed. Oh, yes, I thought, that scene where Mark S. drives anxiously along a river did look alot like it was shot on Abeel Street. Pip’s, the diner where Mark S. is confronted by his former colleague Petey, sure did resemble the Phoenicia Diner. The birthing center Mark’s sister stays in shares a fancy gate with a particular entrance to the Monhonk Preserve in nearby New Paltz. A donut shop in Kingston’s Strand neighborhood—where John Turturo’s character Irv lives—put a sign outside bearing the words, “We’re Walken Here,” and an image of Christopher Walken, who plays Bert, Irv’s love interest.

It got me rewatching Severance, mainly to glimpse a different version of life in the area where I’ve now lived for 20 years. It’s weirdly alluring, watching screen stars playact against a backdrop of your own small city.

I was glad I gave the show a second chance, quickly becoming hooked on it. Yes, it was weird, but it felt like a dark comedy, and it hit on some existential themes I thought a lot about: work/life balance, and managing different selves that emerge in particular situations. It felt like a bonus that as the season continued, I recognized even more familiar locations.

Wasn’t that Cornell Park, where Irv sits on a bench with his dog, Radar? The Wurts Street Bridge, where Mark is confronted by Petey? Come to think of it the same Wurts Street Bridge where the final scene of The Undoing, with Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant was filmed?

I feel as if I’ve spotted the Wurts Street Bridge in other shows and movies recently, and I probably have. In recent years Ulster County has been offering tax breaks to the film and TV industries, and so a lot is being filmed here. It’s always a thrill to spy a local haunt on the screen. And sometimes it’s consolation for watching something that’s not so great.

Between the Temples

For instance, I recently cringed through Between the Temples, a badly made sort of homage to Harold and Maude starring Jason Schwartzman and Carole Kane in a May-December flirtation. On its surface that movie seemed so perfectly Sari-coded. I love both stars, and, get this, Schwartzman plays a cantor, sharing a profession with my dad. I grew up in synagogues, attending services, Hebrew school, and choir rehearsals—often doing my homework in the pews as my dad rehearsed Friday night’s hymns with his organist and singers.

I should have at least been interested in the portrayal of temple culture, something I’ve always been fascinated with, and keyed into. Unfortunately, though, everything about this movie was off, especially the writing, which didn’t give a couple of my favorite actors much to work with.

But I felt a little thrill when I recognized the actual synagogue they shot in. It was Congregation Emanuel of Kingston—literally down the block from my house. Oh, and wasn’t that Le Canard Enchainé, the French restaurant where they have dinner? Doesn’t that bar scene take place at Tubby’s?

It didn’t make the movie any better, but catching glimpses of establishments in my city up on the big screen (well, a screen in my living room) made it bearable.

***

Two years ago the thrill factor was ratcheted up a notch when, on a walk, I stumbled upon a scene of Severance season 2 being filmed at Eng’s Chinese restaurant (called “Zufu” on the show) on Broadway, in my neighborhood of midtown Kingston. I spotted a few of the actors, including Michael Chernus, who plays Ricken, or, more formally, “Dr. Ricken Lazlo Hale, PhD,” author of a cult pop psychology book called The You You Are. Next door to Eng’s, they’d dressed an empty storefront as “Keir Uniforms.”

It was fun standing across the street and watching with other locals who’d congregated. It was also surreal watching Apple’s most popular show being shot around the block from my house. In a way it created a kind severance of my city; there was outie Kingston, the one I lived in, and there was innie Kingston, the one inside people’s televisions, where none of the people or situations mirrored those in outie Kingston.

I’m hardly alone in my excitement over seeing Kingston and environs in Severance. Tonight there’s a free finale watch party at Assembly, a great new venue here, along with a “waffle party,” a “dance experience,” and Lumon-themed cocktails. I’m told over 400 people RSVPed. Brian and I are on the waiting list and probably won’t get in. But it’s okay—we couldn’t wait, and watched the finale last night.

Here’s hoping we don’t have to wait until 2028 for the third act to drop. And that maybe we’ll get to witness some of it being filmed here in the interim.