Monday, January 9, 2017

What I’m Watching: The Affair


The Affair: Season 3, Episode 6 (B+)

I mentioned last week that we hadn’t seen Helen and that I wanted to, and it was well worth it in this hour as we saw an extremely vulnerable and masterfully compelling side of her. All the actors on this show are great, particularly Dominic West who plays a character who in the first two seasons could have been the most detestable person on TV, but there’s a reason that Maura Tierney earned an Emmy nomination for her performance. Her reactions to everything, including the idea of her parents getting back together, are incredible, and her visit to Max’s apartment shows that she’s just as addicted to the allure of an affair as her ex-husband. It reminds me of a great quote from “Six Feet Under” – “You’re not addicted to sex, you’re addicted to betrayal!” For Helen, it’s that she’s addicted to attention and to being wanted, and the fact that Noah doesn’t give her a second thought is what’s really eating at her and making her push Vic away. Her blowout with Nina was fantastic, and I’m so glad that we got to see Jennifer Esposito lose it as Nina, lashing out at Helen for not knowing what happened between Noah and his father. Noah did share more of that with Martin after he nearly took him out with his baseball bat, and now it appears that someone, not Martin, has waded into the water and might be approaching his own death. Like Helen, Noah’s not doing himself any favors by not even pretending to be into Juliette, and the two of them aren’t going to have anyone but each other left soon enough.

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