Well it took a little while but I now have a favorite new TV show this fall season. The Affair, which airs Sundays on Showtime at 10/9c, is just that good. The show snuck up on me. I didn’t know about it until the day it premiered. I blame that on my not having watched the creator, Hagai Levi’s, previous series In Treatment. I’ll have to do that now though. If you like meticulous and detailed storytelling and terrific performances with a brooding underlying mystery then this is a show you need to watch. It reminds one a little of True Detective, because the show is framed with a separate interrogation of the two main characters by the police after the events of what the series is showing us. But it really reminds me of Akira Kurosawa’s 1950 classic Rashomon because of the use of telling the same series of events from different character’s contradictory viewpoints. I love Kurosawa. He made 30 films in a 57 year career and half of those can probably considered among the greatest films ever made. Worth checking out among those are Seven Samurai (considered by many to be the best film ever), Yojimbo (which was remade into A Fistful of Dollars and then ultimately The Good, The Bad and The Ugly), and The Hidden Fortress (which was one of the primary influences for Star Wars). So if you’re going to use the Rashomon effect you better nail it because you’re inviting very lofty comparisons. Luckily they nailed it in The Affair.
The Affair tells the tale of public school teacher and new author Noah Solloway, played by Dominic West (from other great TV shows The Wire and The Hour) as he and his wife, played by Maura Tierney, and children go on a summer long vacation to Montauk on Long Island to visit her extremely wealthy parents. His path crosses with a local waitress, Alison, played by Ruth Wilson and a dangerous liaison begins. Also featured is Joshua Jackson (Dawson’s Creek, Fringe, and most importantly the Mighty Ducks trilogy) as Alison’s husband. With the type of narrative structure employed sometimes performances can get overblown, but not here. The acting is just as nuanced as the storytelling is careful and precise. The structure is the first half the episode is spent with Noah recounting the summer, followed by Alison’s version of the events. And it could turn out that neither of the versions are true. The memory biases included as well as the different perspective of each gender are front and center. Rashomon had four separate versions of its story so it’s not out of the question that Maura Tierney and Joshua Jackson may get their time in the sun as well.
So far the series has left several tiny clues that could take it in many different directions. And that’s the best part, you never really know what kind of show this might turn out to be. It could be a murder mystery or a family drama or both or neither. The differences in each characters retellings make for some shocking moments, but perhaps its the similarities that are more telling and interesting to watch. It also sprinkles in enough social commentary to make it relevant today and not just about marital infidelities. This could be the show of the fall that inspires online theories and message board postings in the way Lost did, and this show doesn’t have the benefit of an overarching mythology which makes it even more impressive. Do yourself a gigantic favor and watch the first two episodes that are out so far (the first is available without a Showtime subscription, plus just steal someones password for their cable account if they have Showtime to watch the rest. Thanks Dad!) The 10 episode first season will wrap up late this December.
Also the main title sequence song is by Fiona Apple. When is the last time you heard that name?
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