12) The Affair
When The Affair first began, viewers were given a pretty standard melodrama set-up. A man goes on vacation with his family and meets a woman who he soon starts sleeping with. We have seen it before, and we will see it again. For thirty minutes, things played out exactly as expected. That is, until the screen went black and the words “Part Two: Alison” appeared. What follow are the events of the same day, from the woman’s perspective.
Noah Solloway (Dominic West of The Wire) is a teacher who has successfully published a novel. Enough time has past since his literary debut and he is beginning to doubt whether or not he has another novel in him. Noah takes his wife and kids to stay with his in-laws for the summer in Montauk, New York, providing him with the perfect landscape to work on his dreaded sophomore effort. Upon arriving, the Solloways stop off at The Lobster Roll for a quick lunch. It is there that Noah encounters Alison (Ruth Wilson), a quiet waitress who watches as he saves his choking daughter.
When the Alison’s half of the show begins, viewers are able to view previously seen events from entirely different perspectives. The differences between the two versions can be as minute as Alison wearing her hair differently, or as grand as Alison saving Noah’s choking daughter, rather than Noah. This he said/she said approach is not entirely unique. In fact, we saw it just a few months ago in the Him and Her versions of The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby.
The biggest difference between the two works is that Eleanor Rigby shows events exactly as they happened, whereas The Affair shows us how events unfold through each character’s perspective. This allows viewers to side with different versions of the same story.
The Affair was renewed only a few episodes into the first season. The “gimmick” certainly worked this time around, but can the magic spark once again?