Sumith Prasad
Apple TV+’s science fiction series ‘Severance’ takes place in the town of Kier, PE, which is named after Kier Eagan, the founder of Lumon Industries. The mysterious company heavily subsidizes the town, and many landmarks or establishments within the region are named after or built in honor of the descendants of the Eagan patriarch. The ambiance in Kier is not drastically different from the ambiance on the severed floor of Lumon Industries. The isolated and cold neighborhoods and streets in the town can be paralleled with the long, lonely hallways within the Lumon headquarters. While Kier is guaranteed to leave an impression on viewers’ minds, its existence cannot be easily explained!
Kier is a Fictional Town With No Ties to Reality
Kier is a town that exists only in ‘Severance.’ In addition to the town, the state where it is located, “PE,” is fictional. Dan Erickson, the creator and showrunner, and Ben Stiller, the head director, intentionally wanted to present Kier without any ties to the real world. “It was really important that we didn’t have any sort of relationship to our current culture or world. It could be anywhere,” Stiller told TheWrap. “We were always trying to find ways to show the contrast between the two realities that Innie Mark and Outie Mark are living in, but also have each one be weird and off-putting in its own way,” the filmmaker added about the creation of the town.
Kier was seemingly conceived and developed with two goals. First of all, the town establishes Lumon Industries’ far-reaching influence within the surrounding region of the headquarters. Even when the company employees leave the building, they are stepping out into a world that their bosses control in a different way. In other words, nobody working at Lumon can really escape the surveilling eyes of the Eagans as long as they are in Kier. Secondly, the town symbolically represents the isolation Mark Scout, the protagonist, experiences after the apparent demise of his wife, Gemma. “From the beginning in the first season, we felt that the outside world had to be its own kind of weird, stark, lonely place,” Stiller said in the same TheWrap interview.
Various Filming Locations in New York and New Jersey Doubles For Kier in Severance
‘Severance’ is primarily shot in the states of New York and New Jersey, and several locales in these states stand in for the landmarks in Kier, PE. The Bell Labs Holmdel Complex in Monmouth County, New Jersey, doubles as the Lumon Industries headquarters, the most significant establishment in the town of Kier. The housing complex that comprises Mark Scout and Mrs. Selvig’s houses is, in reality, The Village Gate Townhouses in the village of Nyack in New York. Devon and Ricken’s house can be found in the hamlet of Thornwood, New York. Pip’s Bar and Grille, the diner where Mark and Devon meet, is actually Phoenicia Diner in Phoenicia in the Catskills.
Similarly, the eatery where Mark goes on a date with Alexa is Hudson House of Nyack. The scene featuring two protestors giving pamphlets about Lumon in the first season was shot in Downtown Beacon in New York. The city of Kingston in Ulster County, New York, is another important region that stands in for Kier. The Kingston–Port Ewen Suspension Bridge can be seen when Mark drives to his home from the Lumon Headquarters, and the Waterfront at the Strand Apartments doubles as Leonora Lake, the apartment complex of Irving Bailiff.
Ben Stiller and his team of directors brought Kier to life by relying on filming locations that are far away from city centers and sites that boast serenity, calmness, and isolation. These often-overlooked production destinations help the science fiction series present the town of Kier with the utmost freshness and authenticity.
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