Infidelity narratives way too lazy

The Show: Ray Donovan, Season 5, Episode 3 (Crave/TMN); Doctor Foster, Season 2, Episode 3 (Netflix) The Moment: The “I can’t help it” sex Ray’s wife Abby (Paula Malcomson), hair sparse from chemo, asks him to play cards with her “and forget about everything.”

“I can’t,” Ray (Liev Schreiber) replies.

He takes his dog for a walk. He runs into Natalie (Lili Simmons), the movie star he’s a fixer for. She invites him in. “You seem sad,” she says.

“I should go,” he says. Next thing you know, they’re having sex.

Meanwhile, in her kitchen, Dr. Gemma Foster (Suranne Jones) presses herself against her ex-husband Simon (Bertie Carvel). She’s recording the seduction on her phone to ruin his second marriage.

He notices her phone. He calls her insane. “We’ve started,” she says, “Might as well finish.” Next thing you know, they’re having sex.

Separately, these scenes are lazy. Collectively, they’re dangerous. They create a culture in which men are not deemed responsible for their actions. A wicked temptress — that is, any woman — hikes up her skirt and the magnet in her vagina pulls in her innocent victims. They are powerless to resist.

Like Harvey Weinstein’s excuse — “I came of age in the 1970s, the culture was different then” — it’s pathetic. Ray Donovan airs on TMN and streams on Crave; Doctor Foster streams on Netflix. Johanna Schneller is a media connoisseur who zeroes in on popculture moments. She usually appears Monday through Thursday.