Professional Development

Apparently Jason Segel plays a ‘disillusioned tech employee’ in the show he filmed in Philly all summer

The plot is loosely based on a real immersive game, called Nonchalance, that played out in San Francisco in the early 2010s.

Jason Segel in the "Dispatches from Elsewhere" trailer. (Screenshot via YouTube)

All summer, on the streets of Philadelphia and on social media, we were on Jason Segel watch.

A few lucky Philadelphians spotted the actor or his lovely costars Sally Field and André Benjamin filming a new drama coming to AMC, “Dispatches From Elsewhere,” around Rittenhouse Square, Washington Square Park or up in Fishtown.

The cast has also been known to roam the streets during their off time. Some lucky couples even got photobombed by the “How I Met Your Mother” star. (This reporter and her editor got a coveted head nod from Segel while having lunch right off Jeweler’s Row — we can confirm he is very tall.)

And in one of the first more detailed descriptions of the show we’ve seen so far, The Atlantic reports that Segel plays Peter, “a disillusioned tech employee in Philadelphia who chances upon a series of strange events happening around him.”

The plot is loosely based on a real immersive game, called Nonchalance, that played out in San Francisco in the early 2010s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaSsQ6pWH0U

It’s not clear if Segel’s character will be an engineer at a bigwig like Comcast or SAP, or if he’s more on the startup route, but he’ll apparently get recruited for an underground game that’ll take him across the city on various adventures.

AMC’s trailer shows flashes of the characters at different iconic Philly locations — in a booth at The Continental, convening in Rittenhouse Square Park or strolling down the Ben Franklin Parkway.

We likely won’t know more until the series premieres on March 1 at 10 p.m. as part of a two-night special on AMC.

In other fun Philly-tech-TV-crossover news, The Atlantic also reports that the folks behind “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” are debuting a “half-hour workplace satire about the development of a new video game, and the tortured egos and comical mishaps that make up its creation” on Apple TV+ in February.

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