The Affair -- new show on Showtime

Yes, you're right, forgot about that.

 

I think you're spot on with your issues regarding the show. Here's a good article that also points out some frustrations with the show:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articl...ffair-about-season-one-s-baffling-finale.html

 

Good analysis there. This line from the review really struck a chord:

I love this show, but it is showing signs of becoming a tortuous, domestic Lost, where truth is forever foggy, and storytelling itself becomes the show’s subject, rather than the vehicle by which we enjoy the program.

 

I questioned, some time ago in this thread, how certain aspects of the individual narratives could be playing out, if what we were seeing was limited to what the characters were presenting to the detective. Assuredly, some of this material was too detailed or too irrelevant to be part of a whatever they told him.

However, I think it has become increasingly clear that while PORTIONS of the he/she stories are as told to the detective, those narratives are not limited to what they've told the detective. (For example, Noah's bribe is not possibly part of his narrative to the detective, so that's simply POV).

The two narrators we've so far been treated to are unreliable, and deviations from truth can be either due to faulty memory OR due to a desire to mislead. Or both. The ONLY thing we can be absolutely sure about so far is that at least one of the narratives is NOT 100% accurate. (Since the narratives don't match when they describe the same event).

I'm not problemed by this, and I don't think we are going down the path to Lost territory. There's no reason we can't have different narratives going forward, either from the POV of additional characters, or else an omniscient narrative.

Those who like linear storytelling and fast answers are going to be complaining just now. But if you can deal with alinear narratives and a slower approach, I think things are just peachy so far...

 

Ho hum. Another "I want answers, and I want my TV linear and not TOO challenging, and at the end of the season, I need to get closure" tirade. See The Killing, Season 1.

And in terms of relationships, this guy just does not get it. For example, he write:

If you've lived enough, and been through relation hell, you would actually recognize that whole scene as incredibly well written and realistic. Not something that always happens, but something that sometimes does. But the guy who's writing that looks like he's about 30. So for him, I guess, from his perspective, relationships are cut, dried, and linear. He has some living left to do.

He also didn't mention how, a few scenes later, Helen changes in the bathroom, not in front of Noah--she's taken him back, but she didn't just reform all her bonds of trust. Again, this is real life.

 

Yep. As someone who lived through 28 years of marriage with a serial cheater and as someone who had had enough and eventually had his own affair. Those scenes rang VERY true for me. In fact the 2nd to last episode of the season had my gut churning throughout as it hit close to home about 100 times.

 

I've loved this series and I have no problem with how series one has ended.

Some scenes have "rung true" with my life. Yikes!

As long as it's all wrapped up at the end of series 2 I'll be happy.

 

The show runners have said they see this as a three season show.

 

I am, because it essentially means you can put any old nonsense into either narrative and it doesn't have to be self-consistent or make logical sense because, you know, faulty memory or lying. It's a cheat. It means that (potentially) anything goes at any time to service the plot (ie, Lost).

 

Poor Lost. It's the TV equivalent to Gene Simmons on this board.

 

I just finished bingeing the S1 DVD, and was thinking how it'd be interesting to get Helen and Cole's points of view. Now, I see the below link over at TVTattle. I must be psychic...

http://www.ew.com/article/2015/08/11/affair-season-2-four-perspectives?

 

Anyone catch the season 2 opener? It doesn't officially air until next week, but Showtime have made it available online through multiple sources.

It continues where it left off, as you'd expect, keeping the same two perspective narrative device. In fact, I think I read somewhere that they're going add another two perspectives! This could be dangerous especially if the perspectives don't materially add to the story as a whole, but just serve as a gimmick.

This was one of my criticisms of season 1. The differing POVs were fascinating to begin with, but I felt later in the season, they didn't really add anything to the central story.

With those reservations in mind, I still found the season 2 opener to be quite good and interesting. Hope they can keep it up.

 

As much as I enjoyed last season, I'm out. On one level, I think that enough was done in season 1 and they don't need a second season. On another level I'm now living with my wonderful fiancee and watching a show called "The Affair" is dangerous. . . . She won't like it and I can respect that, and really I'd watch it because Ruth Wilson fascnates me, and it's probably better she doesn't.

 

I watched the new episode. Not sure I'll stick with the show. I enjoyed it for the most part, but its not so intiuging I feel like putting a lot of effort into keeping everything straight on the timeline and different perspectives. Is the arrest that we saw at the end of S1 in the future from most of what we saw in this episode? Obviously the scene with the cop and the lawyer at the end are after the arrest, but I can't remember, was he arrested from a house where he was living with Alison?

What was Helen smoking? Was that some sort of e-cigarette thing? What was she putting in it?

 

I would think that any details about the first episode of season 2 would be classed as spoilers since it doesn't officially air for another week.

 

But it's been officially released and advertised as such on many online platforms - it's the way of the 21st century, so...

 

Then I'll stay away from this thread for a week. Problem solved, discuss away.

 

That's a sensible thing to do. I do it all the time for threads about shows/movies that I haven't seen yet, but wish to do so in the near future. It's common sense.

 

Looked to me like weed but I didn't think actual weed worked very well in the vaporizers. I know you can get an add-on thing for weed (so I've heard) but I thought it was more for oils.

 

I forced myself to finish season one.

Major Rawls and McNulty could be doing much better things.

 

I think they're doing very well, especially 'McNulty'. Season 2 started pretty tightly with excellent character performances.

 

I still remember the WTF moment of seeing Major Rawls at the men's nightclub in The Wire.

 

There are vapo pens for bud, e.g. https://budvape.com/?age-verified=2123dcf4bb

 

In the first season, the segments were what Noah and Allison told to the detective. Does anyone know if what we are seeing now is still in the context of what is being said to the police, or in a deposition or trial? Who are the characters telling their story too at this point?

 

I was wondering that, too. In the first season, we didn't know if variations in the narrative reflected differences in the (unreliable) narrator's remembrences, or whether they were intentionally false to mislead the detective. Here it doesn't seem that the latter is a possibility.