Showtime To Offer Early Look At `The Affair’

The Golden Globe-winning drama, created by Sarah Treem, explores what happens when married Montauk waitress Alison Lockhart (Wilson) falls for Brooklyn novelist and father of three Noah Solloway (West). Each episode cut back and forth from his and her perspectives, replete with telling differences-while a third, present-day narrative found them both recounting their stories to a suspicious police officer investigating a hit and run. Margaret explains everything else has to be appraised, and he’ll get a check in the mail when someone is able to determine what everything is worth. (Lovely!) Later, his younger son Trevor bursts into tears when he finds out that Noah has fallen in love with another woman, prompting Trevor to slap his dad across the face. Helen wakes up in a swanky hotel, where it seems she’s now dating Max, the wealthy-yet-unstable college friend of her and Noah’s. Hmm, if I didn’t know better, I’d say that’s an important plot point…

Whereas Noah perceived the mediator as a happy-go-lucky dude, Helen’s viewpoint paints the man as cold, standoffish and completely resentful of his job. Noah is no longer living with Helen and his family, and is instead staying at a cabin in upstate New York. First, she picks up her daughter from ballet class, where she overhears two moms talking very unkindly about Helen and Noah’s separation. In Noah’s point of view, his meeting with the editor was before the divorce mediation. Meanwhile, Helen attempts to piece her life together while navigating divorce proceedings, care for her children, and her parents’ noxious influence, as Cole struggles to overcome past heartbreak and start a promising new life. It’s sweet, if you think those stalker vibes are romantic. (This was particularly true last season, when Tierney and Jackson slayed it week after week as alternately saintly and distant without caricaturing either.) In Noah’s memory, he’s a cheerful, good-natured man who spares Allison the details of a bad day; in her version, Noah comes home in a sulk and immediately unloads the frustrations of his day on her. We can see both men at any given moment in West’s performance; which we choose to believe in more is entirely dependent on us. So be sure to tune in for our live coverage of Showtimes’ The Affair Season 2 Premiere- tonight at 10PM EST!