The Affair

:

Season 2
  • Network: SHOWTIME
  • Series Premiere Date: Oct 12, 2014
Season #: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
User Score
7.5

Generally favorable reviews- based on 71 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 57 out of 71
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 71
  3. Negative: 12 out of 71
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User Reviews

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  1. dierregi
    Oct 5, 2016
    8
    What makes this show brilliant is the attempt to show how memories are flawed and self-serving. There is no such thing as objectivity. Adulteres Noah and Alison are looking for different things, and that is why in Noah's narrative Alison is sexier and dressed in skimpier clothes, while Alison thinks of herself as restrained.

    In the second series with get more of the story told from the    What makes this show brilliant is the attempt to show how memories are flawed and self-serving. There is no such thing as objectivity. Adulteres Noah and Alison are looking for different things, and that is why in Noah's narrative Alison is sexier and dressed in skimpier clothes, while Alison thinks of herself as restrained.

    In the second series with get more of the story told from the additional point of view of Cole and Helen, the betrayed spouses. The four voices are actually complementing each other. Individual narrative often starts where the previous one ended and this allows the story to move more fluidly than in the previous series, where the same event was told from Noah and Alison's point of view.

    Neither main character is particularly attractive, and the more we get to know them, the more we realize they were better paired off with their previous partner. Helen (Noah's wife) is not pleasant herself, a rich, spoiled woman who despite being a Newyorker and well over 40, apparently never considered the fact that her husband may stray. I find it hard to believe that a mother of 4 could not perceive her husband's boredom and frustration with what seems a very stressful family life.

    However, bewildered Helen is going through a crisis herself (no surprisingly) and Cole is not doing much better. He is perhaps the only sympathetic character in the show, a forlon, taciturn guy who lost everything and uncapable of moving forward. There is something touching in hs quiet dignity, although one can also see how Alison felt lonely with him.

    Really intriguing show. Hope it will develop in an interesting way.    … Expand
  2. jgzeger
    May 1, 2016
    8
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The Affair is a very well done and well acted drama series which I thoroughly enjoyed. Having said that, I want to add that it isn't without its flaws. The major one, as far as I was concerned, is that with all of its plot twists and turns, it stretches credulity pretty thin at points and breaks it in the final episode of Season 2. I'm talking about the scene where Scotty dies with every major character in the show there playing a role in his death except brother Cole. Noah and Helen were in a car together with Helen driving, while Scotty and Alison were each walking home although not together. They just all happened to converge at the same place at the same time for Scotty's demise. That would be as likely as three bullets from three different guns fired separately all striking one another in mid-air. Give me a break! Still, I'm planning on watching Season 3 to see some more great acting.… Expand
  3. EPMD
    Jun 7, 2016
    6
    Production values and acting seem spot on, but the writing and plot contrivances continually drag the show down. There are enough coincidences here that you'll be screaming out, "Oh, come on!" a few times. But it's an easy watch, even if it's sometimes a bit of a hate watch.
  4. Winterflower
    Oct 14, 2017
    9
    In this season, everything works (Or almost, but I'm not getting into spoilers), all the main characters are likeable and have good storylines. The episodic format makes it feels more like the A Song of Ice and Fire books and it warms my heart.

Awards & Rankings

41
#41 Best TV Season of 2015
91
#91 Most Shared TV Season of 2015

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
78

Generally favorable reviews - based on 15 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 15
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 15
  3. Negative: 0 out of 15
  1. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Matthew Gilbert
    Oct 12, 2015
    80
    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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  2. The Wrap
    Reviewed by: Mark Peikert
    Oct 5, 2015
    90
    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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  3. Salon
    Reviewed by: Sonia Saraiya
    Oct 5, 2015
    60
    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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