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CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
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Positive:
53
Mixed:
5
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews
Sep 30, 2015
Season 2 Review:
The moment we glimpse Helen’s inner life, she becomes the most fascinating character on a show that’s full of them.... When a friend asks if she knew that Noah was cheating, there are unspoken questions there: How would I know if it happened to me? And if I didn’t know, how could I move on? The fact that viewers are asking the same questions only makes this season more compelling to watch.
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Oct 5, 2015
Season 2 Review:
That we never really know the people whom we love is a powerful, popular theme that fits snugly into the thriller and horror genres (think of “Rosemary’s Baby” and all those early ’90s erotic thrillers) but to see it rendered so artfully and crisply and unsentimentally as a weekly drama is to understand why we are so often informed that we live in a golden age of TV.
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Oct 1, 2015
Season 2 Review:
Whatever reservations I had about Season 1 were eliminated after watching the first two of the new episodes, which add the perspectives of Helen and Cole.... Adding Helen and Cole also lifts The Affair to a new level by showcasing Tierney’s and Jackson’s considerable talents. Both deliver exquisite variations on heartbreak.
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Nov 11, 2016
Season 3 Review:
Maura Tierney's Helen continues to hold the emotional center, while Ruth Wilson's Alison is as haunting as ever. [18 Nov 2016, p.52]
Sep 19, 2014
Season 1 Review:
The pilot (the only episode made available to critics at press time) has some difficult scenes, including an act of marital rape (or something like it), yet the acting is strong and the story is compulsively intriguing. The first thing you want from The Affair is to see where it leads.
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Aug 23, 2019
Season 5 Review:
The first three episodes, made available for this review, are fine as they are, even if the loss of two of the show’s best characters and cast members (Ruth Wilson as Alison Bailey and Joshua Jackson as Cole Lockhart) is difficult to overcome. ... Yet, to be entirely honest, I’d probably follow these characters (even Whitney) for an indefinite number of seasons — partly because of the sucker that I am, but also because “The Affair” can never be completely considered down for the count.
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Aug 21, 2019
Season 5 Review:
Paquin’s performance fits perfectly into the show’s emotionally raw vibe. ... The only true thing this show believes in: there is no such thing as the truth. It’s an undercurrent which can sweep you away into an ocean of uncertainty; hopefully, this final season of The Affair finds a way to remain true to that ethos, while also delivering an ending that may not reveal all, but still proves satisfying. Based on the first three episodes, that possibility is real.
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Jun 14, 2018
Season 4 Review:
The story lines are still on the histrionic side. ... But through six (of 10) episodes, the characters’ behavior is, for the most part, recognizably human. You could see that as a loss of nerve, but at the same time it allows the show’s other strengths--its excellent cast and its solid indie-movie-style production values--to come through.
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Jun 14, 2018
Season 4 Review:
Season 4 turns out to be an unexpected treat. The new episodes capably reignite the show’s original allure, discarding some unnecessary bloat and focusing once more on The Affair’s basic premise, which is that no two people will ever view the same occurrences and facts the same way.
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Oct 12, 2015
Season 2 Review:
The Affair is still going to be a melodrama with pretty people having big feelings, but the potential to transcend that genre is happily in play. The first two episodes of Season 2 are rich, as series creators Sarah Treem and Hagai Levi expand the points of view to include those of Alison’s ex, Cole (Joshua Jackson), and Noah’s ex, Helen (Maura Tierney).
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Oct 1, 2015
Season 2 Review:
Season 2 improves on Season 1 by broadening the story to give us the points of view of the wronged spouses, Noah's wife, Helen (Maura Tierney,) and Alison's husband, Cole (Joshua Jackson.) Tierney and Jackson are both so good, they left us wanting more in Season 1, and it's great to see their characters do some well-justified venting.
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RogerEbert.comOct 10, 2014
Season 1 Review:
It’s a lot to ask, and I worry that the show’s structure will define the program more than the characters within it or the themes explored by it. Having said that, there’s just as much reason for hope that this will be the next great cable drama. Most notably, the cast clicks.
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Oct 10, 2014
Season 1 Review:
The script by Sarah Treem, the show’s co-creator with Hagai Levi, can be murky. Then again, Noah and Alison are telling their stories to a detective, apparently in the aftermath of a major event or crime. It will be a jaded viewer indeed who can resist coming back for more after the first episode ends.
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Aug 22, 2019
Season 5 Review:
Tierney’s performance as Helen is what really anchors this season and makes it as watchable as it is. ... Paquin’s portrayal of Joanie is enigmatic, but that seems deliberate. ... What purpose does she serve within the broader context of this series? What exactly does she know about her parents and, specifically, about how her mother died? It’s unclear after three episodes.
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Nov 18, 2016
Season 3 Review:
The Affair, co-created by Sarah Treem, who writes many of the episodes, and Hagai Levy (In Treatment), remains absorbing and maddening, illuminating and frustratingly opaque, all in equal measure. It is a very good drama that, at times, also makes me roll my eyes hard enough to propel myself backward in time.
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Oct 2, 2015Oct 2, 2015
Season 2 Review:
The change in structure [expanding to four POVs] certainly helps the series, which though one of TV’s more ambitious writing experiments was beginning to seem limited by its own gimmick.... True, the consequences of the affair that set the series in motion are substantial and never-ending, but it’s all coated in an idyllic sheen.
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RogerEbert.comSep 29, 2015
Season 2 Review:
Tierney and West do their best, but the script for The Affair 2.1 is too deeply flawed to ignore. Alison’s arc, which doesn’t come into play until episode two, is far more engaging. In fact, the entirety of episode two makes up for a lot of the mistakes of episode one.
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Sep 28, 2015
Season 2 Review:
On the plus side, The Affair is ambitious and meticulously executed, a grown-up series that allows its characters to be flawed and unhappy in a very real, sometime profound way. Even so, those late-season speed bumps and this opening salvo don’t elicit quite the same level of passion that the show initially provoked.
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Oct 5, 2015
Season 2 Review:
Helen now has a perspective, which adds a lot of necessary depth (and gives us the added benefit of seeing Tierney do more things on-screen, which is never a bad thing). But the show is paralyzed by its own vision, at times; the problem with making a show about singular perspectives is that those people are necessarily self-absorbed.
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Oct 6, 2014
Season 1 Review:
The “Rashomon”-style storytelling elevates the series from being just another conventional story about a middle-aged affair. But, that can't completely make up for overwrought moments in the opening episode.... But the biggest problem for The Affair is that neither Noah nor Alison is particularly appealing.
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Oct 10, 2014
Season 1 Review:
It is hard to find a suitable middle ground, when neither protagonist wants to implicate him/herself. That--this puzzle of what really happened--might be the genius of the show, but it's also frequently its great frustration. If audiences aren't fully engaged while watching Noah's point of view, then having to rewatch everything a second time around from Alison's perspective will be painful.
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