Watching ‘The Affair’

“The Affair,” a cable television series mostly set in and around Montauk, has been back in town lately, shooting scenes for its fifth season. For the most part, the filming has drawn little notice. 

The exception, so far, occurred last week, when the town police shut down a roughly mile-long section of Cranberry Hole Road in Amagansett at the behest of the production company for an entire day. Tempers flared, including, we heard, that of one police officer, who was fed up with irritated residents and others, among them a UPS driver delivering frozen soup, who needed to reach houses down that way. 

Credit is due to East Hampton Town Police Chief Michael Sarlo for responding as soon as he got word. Similarly, Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell was frustrated that the TV crew had pushed things as far as it did. 

Celebrity buzz aside, film and television productions don’t really do much for the East Hampton economy. And the bigger they are, the more they have to bring in supplies from elsewhere. We were amused this week when a trucker hauling food for those taping “The Affair” came into our Main Street office, lost, confused, and asking for directions to the American Legion in Amagansett, only he thought it was a Knights of Columbus hall.

Given that filming brings only an incidental financial gain to the area, officials are correct to keep disruptions — especially road closures — to a minimum.