Spoiler Alert! Recap and Review: THE AFFAIR is All Kinds of Cliche and Annoyance
By: Matt Tamanini Oct. 12, 2014
NOTE TO READER: This is not a traditional recap, instead my Spoiler Alert! columns will serve as a more in depth critical review of specific episodes and shows as a whole. That being typed, I will discuss what happened in the most recent episode, so be forewarned; the name of the column is "Spoiler Alert!" after all. I always invite your participation in the discussion, so please feel free to leave comments below, or to reach out on Twitter @BWWMatt, just do me a favor and keep it civil, ok? Pacey would want it that way.
When I first heard about Showtime's new drama THE AFFAIR, I was a bit confused. The majority of the premium channel's new shows boast a major star in the lead; William H. Macy in SHAMELESS, Don Cheadle in HOUSE OF LIES, Liev Schreiber in RAY DONOVAN, Matt LeBlanc in EPISODES... ok maybe they don't all have a big star. However, the most well-known actor in THE AFFAIR is Charlie Conway, Pacey Witter, Peter Bishop, Joshua Jackson, and he's not even one of the main stars. That dubious honor belongs to THE WIRE's Dominic West and LUTHER's Ruth Wilson. Also rounding out the main characters is the always delightful, but hardly a household name, Maura Tierney.
The show is from Sarah Treem, who wrote the recent Off-Broadway drama WHEN WE WERE YOUNG AND UNAFRAID, as well as HBO's IN TREATMENT and Netflix's HOUSE OF CARDS. As the title makes quite apparent, the show centers on an extra-marital affair, but to be honest, the pilot episode doesn't explicitly make it clear who is actually involved (although season previews do). The entire series premiere is that obnoxious mix of on-the-nose preciousness, and frustrating confusion. It is inferred that the titular affair is between West and Wilson's characters, but as with many of the basic plot points in the show, this is left annoyingly vague.
Every turn, every bit of exposition feels like an elaborate exercise in manipulation. I am all for shows maintaining mystery and unreliable narrators, but tonight's entire episode was built around a traumatic event that results in a police investigation, and yet we never learn what that event was, let alone which characters were even involved. There is a fine line between delayed gratification and being jerked around.
The other annoying trait of the premiere is that everything about it is so cliché. From longing, shared glances, to West's Noah and Wilson's Alison turning a corner and accidentally bumping into each other, to the ridiculously soapy dialogue. The pilot generates nothing new, in fact the entire enterprise just feels trite.
Even when Treem attempts to spice up the storytelling, she does so in one of the most formulaic ways possible. After suffering through the first half an hour from Noah's point of view, the whole episode resets, thanks to a disappointing use of the Rashomon Effect (which is effectively used in, well, RASHOMON, VANTAGE POINT, and even HOODWINKED!). Now, we see the same events from Alison's viewpoint, and needless to say, the accounts are quite different.
After losing a child, are Alison and husband Cole (Jackson) in a loveless marriage, or struggling to regain normalcy? After walking her home from the beach, does Noah peep on an intimate moment between Cole and Alison, or does he witness a sexual assault? Is Noah or Alison the one pushing the illicit relationship? I don't have the answers to these questions, and nothing about the first episode makes me all that interested in finding out.
The creators think that all of the subterfuge in the pilot is allowing them to dive deeper into the psyches of the show's central characters; in an effort to explore what leads people to break their marriage vows, and how relationships of all kinds evolve over time. This is an extremely worthwhile endeavor, but it is going to take a lot more than this one episode to convince me that THE AFFAIR is going to be able to even approach achieving it.
I will probably end up checking back in with the show at some point simply because of some of its supporting stars. Noah and wife Helen's oldest daughter is played by Julia Goldani Telles, who was the sassiest of the titular BUNHEADS on the ill-fated Sutton Foster show. Broadway stud-muffin, and frequent Foster leading man, Colin Donnell appears as Cole's brother Scotty, and Mare Winningham, most recently seen on Broadway in CASA VALENTINA, plays Cole and Scotty's mother.
Despite the hackneyed setup, every member of the cast gives it everything they have. Each delivers a sincere, earnest performance whichever version of reality they are currently in. I'm hopeful that the sloppy opening episode will coalesce into a more compelling narrative, because Treem and company have amassed an interesting collection of parts that, thus far, are far more than their sum.
So, what do you think? Did I completely miss the point of THE AFFAIR? Is this the revelatory premiere that the creators think it is? Let me know what you think in the comments below, or on Twitter @BWWMatt. Also, don't forget to follow @BWWTVWorld on Twitter and Like us on Facebook for all of the latest TV news, reviews, and recaps.
Photo Credit:
1) Wilson and West: Craig Blankenhorn | SHOWTIME
2) West, Wilson, and Tierney: Craig Blankenhorn | SHOWTIME
3) Jackson and Wilson: Craig Blankenhorn | SHOWTIME
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