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The final season of ShowtimesThe Affairhas been an unusual one so far.
And would shoreline towns across the country really have to make do without basic municipal services?
But Montauk became a character on the show itself a long time ago.
We started to think about not just these characters but what would have happened in Montauk at this point.
My grandparents had a house there.
I grew up going out there, going to Lobster Roll.
I have a real institutional memory of that town, and the town has changed a lot.
Its a little unrecognizable.
Everything is in motion all the time, including places.
Our memories of places are just that.
It all depends on how much effort you put in.
And its the same thing for a place, for the land, for the earth.
If you keep abusing something, it wont stick around.
Over the course of the series, the ocean did seem vengeful at times.Yes, thats right.
And the sea levels are rising.
Theres a real possibility that, flash forward billions of years, well be underwater again.
And thats what Fiona Apples [opening-titles] song is about.
I think a lot of the song has ended up influencing the course the show took.
Have you discussed that withFionaas the show has gone on?I have, yeah.
Its been really nice.
I feel like she understood the show better than I did at the very beginning.
[Laughs] Every single year.
Ive gotten used to that, to be honest.
The show means different things to different people.
Its so much in the DNA of the show itself.
But I understand people watch it moment to moment.
Theyre not necessarily thinking about the future or the past.
That is the point.
Were not trying to undermine the narrative of these characters.
We were working with this idea of a confirmation bias.
Why did everyone just accept that Alison killed herself?
Her daughter has suffered her whole life because of this confirmation bias.
That Joanie understands that the story they told her wouldnt be possible?
Ive been reading some criticism, and its like, Its too disparate.
Too many different arcs, and I dont see how they all come together.
[Laughs] Its halfway through the season.
Give us a sec.
It will become clear.
In terms of the writers, people were excited about it.
We got to talk to a lot of supercool people: futurists, epigeneticists, climate-change scientists.
The internet, I think they were open.
For sure, the VFX budget went up, so we had to find that money in other places.
But everybody was jazzed on it.
We actually shot this whole scene with people telecommuting with holograms.
Theoretically, thats not an impossible idea in the next 30 years, but its too weird onscreen.
Some of whats depicted feels like it has familiar touchstones.
But obviously, we dont all look the same now.
We thought about future communication devices.
Theres a kind of Sarah Connorascoastal-engineer stoicism about Joanie, down to her wardrobe.Right.
And it felt like a beautiful metaphor for our show.
Everything is a wave.
Everything is either coming or going.
Climate change felt very much a part of that.
