Mystery amps up electricity of secret love in “The A≠air”
Joanne Ostrow, Denver Post TV Critic
On the simplest level, it’s possible to appreciate “The Affair” as a tense tale of extramarital romance. Two sexual beings at the beach, each looking for something they can’t find, lost or never had in their primary relationships, begin an affair.
Dig deeper and the psychological ramifications, the gender biases and distorted memories knit together an an involving multiplecharacter study.
Add a taut mystery underlying the romantic entanglement and the viewing experience becomes exponentially more involving.
“The Affair,” in a 10-episode first season premiering Sunday at 8 p.m. on Showtime, charts the psychological effects of infidelity, shifting between male and female perspectives and tiptoeing toward something criminal.
This is potentially the breakout drama of the year, but let’s not jinx it by saying so. (Only one hour was available for preview.)
The sensational cast keeps the viewer guessing while each character vies for sympathy. Dominic West (“TheWire”), RuthWilson (“Luther”), Maura Tierney (“ER”) and Joshua Jackson (“Fringe”) reveal what happens to a marriage, what happens to a family, what happens internally when an extramarital affair becomes part of the couple’s equation.
It all begins so prettily. The story opens with Helen (Tierney) and Noah (West) packing up their family inManhattan for a vacation in the Hamptons. Noah is a public school teacher and aspiring novelist, not too happy to be spending the summer at his wealthy inlaws’ estate on the island.
Even before they settle in, they run into awaitress at a local diner, Alison (Wilson), who, it turns out, is trying to regain her personal equilibrium after a tragedy. Her husband, Cole (Jackson), works at a financially struggling ranch on the island that has been in his family for generations. Their marriage is already strained by their shared grief.
When Alison and Noah begin an affair, things get complicated— both in the tale and in the telling.
The storytelling process intentionally offers miscues and misdirection, often relying on the faulty memories of characters. Distinct biases, particularly by gender, emerge in the shifting memories. As the characters are debriefed by a detective, they recall with varying degrees of accuracy how they behaved, how others reacted, who said what and how. It’s “Rashomon” inMontauk. Viewers will determine for themselves whom to believe, whom to pity, and what really happened.
Playwright and writer-producer Sarah Treem (“House of Cards,” “In Treatment”) wrote the original script from a story co-created with Hagai Levi (“In Treatment”). Treem has said the 10 episodes form a satisfying stand-alone, but that plenty of story is packed in for a possible continuation, should ratings support a second season. The perspectives could eventually shift.
“The first season will only be fromNoah and Alison’s perspective,” she said, “and thenwe’ll see.”
As was the case with the controversial “In Treatment,” those with no patience for self-analysis or a psychologically minded view of relationships may find “The Affair” slow going. But the mystery element should keep even impatient viewers guessing. And, unlike the static views of the therapist’s office in “In Treatment,” the visuals here range from city to beach, rowdy to quiet, past to present, family gatherings to adult flirtations, sex scenes to police interrogations.
If “In Treatment” was appointment viewing for the serious psychoanalytic observer, “The Affair” stands to draw a larger crowd with similarly complex characters and an even sexier story.