What I’m Watching: The Affair

The Affair: Season 2, Episode 8 (B+)

I’m glad to see that this show is sticking with its new style of barely retelling the same events but instead mostly covering separate ground with its different perspectives. We didn’t see much of Alison in this episode, and the only check-in clued us in to the fact that she and Noah seem to be doing much better in nearly every way, save for that one small fact that he almost cheated on her with his extremely annoying publicist, who felt that it was appropriate to text him that she had FOMO, prompting a hilarious scene in the bar with Helen asking the millennials what it meant. It’s good to see that Helen and Noah are getting back to a better place of coexisting, and it makes sense that she would want her divorce lawyer to defend him when he faced the threat of going to prison. They did have a great time together, and the most compelling part was when she bluntly said that this wasn’t her job anymore, and that she didn’t have to listen to and come up with a solution for his problems. Unfortunately, he was downing plenty of alcohol, and made the very unwise decision to confront the college critic who showed up to heckle him and share the news that he didn’t get the prize he so wanted. I think many viewers of this show consider Noah to be despicable, and it’s hard not to agree with that sometimes. His drunken fumble might be excusable, but his latest unapologetic foray into infidelity with a pregnant fiancée at home is not.