Tuesday, November 29, 2016

What I’m Watching: The Affair


The Affair: Season 3, Episode 1 (B+)

I’ve always found this show to be really good, and I’m glad to see that it’s continuing well past its original premise. It’s strange to see just one perspective for this whole hour and only a brief scene or two featuring another of the main four characters, but it’s not as if Noah’s version of events suggests that he’s in a particularly good place. He looks very different with his beard, and he seemed so far from invested in his father’s funeral. Someone asking him if he was married to Jennifer Esposito’s Nina, who is his sister, showed just how much he’s been relying on her, and her husband expressed some unfiltered anger about Noah getting his father’s house. Helen is way back being vindictive and just wants Noah to be in their children’s lives, but he’s too distracted by his own loneliness. I recognized Sarah Ramos from her role as Haddie on “Parenthood” when her eager student was eviscerated by a distant Noah in class, and she got an excellent opportunity to air her grievances and accuse his book of apologizing for rape at a dinner party. As soon as we met Irene Jacob’s Juliette, it was obvious that Noah was going to sleep with her, but apparently Alison is so out of the picture that she told him not to call her anymore. It’s hard to know what’s real and what’s not with Noah’s paranoia about being followed and to figure out how to interpret that final scene. What’s clear is that his time in prison really messed with his head, and we’ll see how that plays out in subsequent episodes. I’m interested to see where the other half of this show’s main players are.

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