THE AFFAIR

October, 2014 - Present

1 Season

10 Episodes

Every now and then television gives us little gems worth watching so I’m going to talk about the recent Golden Globes winner TV Drama ‘The Affair’. Written by the talented Sarah Treem, it has become one of my top favorite TV Shows as, in my opinion, it’s an incredibly clever show imposible to remain indifferent to. 

The Series, according to the title, is (obviously) about an affair that takes place in Montauk (Long Island) during the summer. Noah Solloway (Dominic West) meets Alison Lockhart (Ruth Wilson) while he’s on vacation there. They both are happily married to Helen (Maura Tierney) and Cole (Joshua Jackson) but find in each other something they are lacking at that moment. Nothing new, right?

The word ‘affair’, however, has a double meaning here as there’s also a crime element in the Series. Someone died, apparently by accident, but years later a detective re-opens an investigation because he suspects it was a murder, and he starts interrogating everyone who knew the victim, although we only get to see Noah and Alison in the interrogation room. 

What is really interesting and clever about this show is the way the story is told as we can see the two points of view of the two main characters. The episodes are split in two: in the first half we see Noah's version of the story and in the second half we see Alison's version. Amazingly the versions don’t match!. As they’re in the interrogation room talking to the detective years later, the first thought you have is that one of them is lying. However I don’t think so, they’re both telling their own truth, it’s only that memories are so influenced by different meanings and different feelings that we can remember a completely different story from the same event, especially when it happened years ago.

The two-points-of-view thing is not as easy as it may seem. You really need to pay attention to tiny details in order to reconstruct the story and run your own theories. As well, everything is different in the two perspectives: lighting, clothes, make-up and even the rest of the characters. Remember that everything you see here are memories, so in that respect, you’ll see different versions of the same characters too which I find ingenious. Then, surprise! Sometimes the versions match! Pay attention to that too.

Ultimately the show, in my opinion, is about memory: how we remember people, events and things; how unreliable our memories can be, how we’d like to be remembered and how we show ourselves for that. In the end, how many different versions of ourselves exist? As many as people we know, maybe?

I’d like to emphasize the outstanding acting of the four main actors, especially Ruth Wilson (Alison) who got a well-deserved Golden Globe award. I think it’s worth watching just because of her. 

If you love shows full of little details and making connections that keep your brain busy for the rest of the week until the next episode, this show is definitely the one for you. They have been renewed for a second season starting next fall, so you have a whole season to catch up on before the new starts!

Here is a video for you to check it out: