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Post by sissa on Oct 20, 2015 20:58:20 GMT 10
“THE AFFAIR” RETURNS AND OPENS THINGS UP A BITPosted on October 05, 2015 Maura Tierney in Showtime’s “The Affair.” Last season, the show’s first, saw “The Affair” establish a conceit that fascinated us – and apparently the rest of the show’s audience: an extramarital affair as told by the two people who engaged in it, except each participant tells a slightly different version of the story, flattering themselves in the process and mostly blaming everyone but themselves for their actions. It was helped along by some tremendous performances, mostly by its four leads but also among the supporting cast. But by the end of the season, that conceit was showing some strain and we found ourselves frustrated by the idea that we can’t ever know a version of the story that makes sense because the two versions we got were deliberately contradictory. After a while, it becomes hard for an audience member to remain engaged if they feel like everything they’re being told is bullshit. It was the “unreliable narrator” concept doubled, which is a hard thing to maintain in a story that’s being told in one-hour increments for weeks at a time. Additionally, the story was saddled with very soapy “murder investigation” and “family drug ring” subplots that wound up taking the story in very conventional (i.e., cliched) directions by the end of the season. What started off as a fascinating rumination on the unreliability of memories and first-hand accounts was virtually indistinguishable from an episode of Knot’s Landing by the finale. All the subtlety of the first few episodes was nowhere to be found in the last few. But we were too invested in the idea of the show to write it off, and judging by this season’s premiere, we think we were right to keep the faith. We can’t make predictions that the show won’t go off the rails at some point very soon, but for this initial episode, it felt like there was a slight rejiggering of the concept and an attempt to scale things back down to believable and relatable exchanges. In other words, welcome to the party, Helen. You have no idea how happy we are to see you. The one thing it seemed that almost everyone agreed on at the end of last season was the need to open up the perspectives a bit and allow other characters to tell their stories. Viewers were practically begging to hear from the spouses, Helen and Cole, to offer their versions of events, because Alison and Noah’s version tended to paint them as one-dimensional villains or simply uninterested in the emotional well-being of their partners. Helen in particular was a very likable character who didn’t appear to deserve the pain Noah was putting her through. This was helped tremendously by Maura Tierney’s soulful, contemplative performance of Helen, which made her seem like a real person simply because it felt like everything that came out of her mouth was only a tiny fraction of what was going on inside her head. That “inner life” quality that Tierney does so well was brought to the forefront of this episode and the entire series benefits from it. The scene of her sitting on the edge of her bed and staring at a blank spot on the wall was so loaded with emotion and exhaustion that it almost seems impossible that it was entirely wordless. Helen is an interesting character because it would be so easy for her to be portrayed as a cold wife and a spoiled brat. And while the episode touched on these qualities – in both versions of her; her own and her ex-husband’s – it does her the service of treating her like a fully rounded person, which makes the show so much more interesting. We can understand why she’d turn to Max for comfort (God knows WE would) or vapes her way through a day filled with small humiliations and heavy silences. Her mother’s a monster (in both versions of the story) her children are displaying a range of psychological issues in response to the collapse of her marriage, her husband’s an adolescent, her friends are catty bitches and she feels completely adrift in her own life. It’s virtually impossible not to feel for her when Maura Tierney fixes her pursed lips and dead eyes on a scene, wandering through her life in a state of perpetual shock. On the flip side, it’s hard not to see Noah as an incredibly selfish man who clearly sees himself as a perpetual victim to everyone in his life; his wife, her mother, their children, and even his editor – but not the angelic and uncomplicated Alison, who says little this episode but is framed in a glowing dusky light while she waits on him and asks little of him, like a perfect doll of a woman. Everyone is mean to poor Noah except Allison, who understands his genius and strokes his ego. Of course this is far from the reality of the situation, but when you put those scenes in context, it’s hard not to come away thinking he’s just one big man-baby who thinks the world owes him something. In retrospect, it’s somewhat sadly hilarious that we’re supposed to believe his ten-year-old son gave him a bloody nose or that his children hate him not because he abandoned them but because of his mustache-twirling mother-in-law’s machinations. At the end of this episode we had two people; one who blames everyone in the world but himself for his problems and one who blames one person and one person only for hers. It’s easy to see how wrong and misguided Noah is in the retelling of his life, but it’ll be interesting going forward to see how Helen comes to terms with her version of events. Certainly that last scene, with her showing up to save Noah, in a development that almost brought tears to our eyes because it was so well set up, demonstrates that there’s a lot of nuance coming down the line. We weren’t sure we were going to be as interested in the story this time around, but it turns out, when you make the focus the characters and not all the salacious subplots, the experience of following along becomes much more rewarding. tomandlorenzo.com/2015/10/the-affair-returns-and-opens-things-up-a-bit/
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Post by sissa on Oct 20, 2015 21:07:54 GMT 10
1. The Affair Sunday, 10 p.m., Showtime Veteran actress Maura Tierney, 50, returns Sunday night for Season 2 of “The Affair” on Showtime. Part of Sunday’s opening episode is told from the point-of-view of Tierney’s character, Helen — who has a very steamy scene with a new lover as she deals with the fallout from her shattered marriage to cheating spouse Noah (Dominic West). “The Affair” is known for its frank portrayal of sex. Are these scenes difficult for you to shoot? No. They’re my most fave! I’m kidding. Yes, they’re awkward. I kind of have to throw my ego out the window. But on our show the writers try to have the sex scenes move the story forward in terms of how the characters are communicating (or not communicating) at that point in the relationship — so hopefully they are serving a purpose in terms of revealing something besides just the bodies. In the season opener, we see Helen paying for a (very expensive) attorney to defend Noah. How will her feelings for Noah evolve over the course of the season? Helen is trying throughout the season to figure out and resolve her feelings for Noah. I’m not sure if she actually gets to that place but that struggle is interesting to play.
“The Affair” received a lot of critical acclaim last season. Does this put additional pressure on the cast to “live up to expectations” in Season 2? Or do you not pay attention to that kind of “outside noise”? I don’t, really. I think maybe for the writers there’s always pressure for the second season of a show that’s done well but nobody talks about that. It doesn’t feel anxious on set in any way. You’ve been a regular presence on TV for quite a while now. Has the success of “The Affair” impacted our career in terms of opening up other doors? I guess it has. There’s some work I’ll be doing early next year [that] I’m excited about. But I feel that I’ve luckily gotten to work on great shows and each of them has led to the other in a certain way. — Michael Starrhttp://nypost.com/2015/10/04/maura-tierney-on-sex-scenes-i-kind-of-have-to-throw-my-ego-out-the-window/
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Post by sissa on Oct 21, 2015 21:33:53 GMT 10
Dominic West: Why would anyone have an affair?JULIE ELEY FOR TV GUIDE Last updated 05:00, October 11 2015 British actor Dominic West finds it difficult to pinpoint why so many of his fellow countrymen are being cast as leads in big-budget Hollywood productions. "There are an awful lot of British actors in American shows now," he says. "And I still don't really know the reason other than we're probably cheaper and probably so delighted to be here that we, you know, we don't complain very much." It's not an answer he intends should be taken too seriously but being an Englishman abroad does bring both problems and advantages, as he found while filming SoHo's marital drama The Affair. West, who plays cheating husband and aspiring writer Noah Solloway, says one of the disadvantages of being British is, "I think maybe there's a slight detachment from the character, so I always feel that I don't really know what makes my character tick like I would have if he was a Brit. I'd sort of know exactly where he was from or what he was doing." But the upside of that is, "I think that's quite useful with acting to have a certain detachment," he says. Maura Tierney who plays Noah's wronged wife Helen can see definite advantages to being a foreign 'import'. "I think there's a tradition of – tell me if I'm wrong – acting actors over there (in the UK). It seems like you guys are more empowered to speak about stuff, which I think helps the show a lot. There is more of an, 'Oh great, I have a job' aspect to American actors."If she is right, the British approach seems to be working. The first season of The Affair, which tells the story of the emotional and psychological effects of an extramarital dalliance from the male and female perspective, picked up the Golden Globe for best drama this year. With season two, things are set to get even more complicated. In addition to showing Noah and waitress Alison's take on their affair, this season also tells the story from the point of view of their partners Helen and Cole. Tierney has had first-hand experience of two people seeing the same situation in a totally different light and points to a night out at a Hollywood party that was also attended by her ex-husband and his new love interest. While her friends saw her as partying up a storm with her showbiz colleagues, Tierney viewed it as a social occasion where she was abandoned by the people whose support she needed. "I felt very un-taken care of," she says. "And the perspective from my friends who were there was like, 'You were over there talking to Lena Dunham, and whoever runs Girls, and talking with your showbiz friends. We thought you were fine.' Well, both versions were true, I guess. But in my perception, no one was noticing or caring." But while having a different view of the same set of circumstances is one thing, what no one can turn a blind eye to in season two is that there is still a murder to be solved and that Noah is a suspect. West, an Old Etonian married to the New Zealand-born daughter of an Irish aristocrat, finds Noah's affair difficult to understand. "I just think, why would anyone do that, you know, for a waitress you meet in a bar in a restaurant? And so almost everything he did last season, I thought, 'What's he doing that for? It's crackers'. But the writers said, 'Look, people do stupid things. They leave text messages'. I'm not sure they quite leave bras and pants in the marital bed, but Noah did. I do think he can be really stupid but that's part – that's why I like him." But he knows many viewers don't feel the same way. "Most people have said that the most unsympathetic character in the show is Noah," says West. "He's the one who is, you know, least forgivable because, I suppose, preconceptions you're a man, you are supposed to look after your wife and family and you're not supposed to abandon them." www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv-radio/tv-guide/72871749/dominic-west-why-would-anyone-have-an-affair
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Post by sissa on Oct 22, 2015 0:02:18 GMT 10
THE AFFAIR OCTOBER 18, 2015 11:01 PM The Affair’s Co-creator on Noah’s Entitlement, Sunday’s Big Surprise, and Awkward Sex ScenesBy Mark Schafer/SHOWTIME. Spoilers ahead if you haven’t yet seen Season 2, Episode 3 of The Affair. BY JULIE MILLER And you thought Noah had made his last irresponsibly hasty life decision that would cause irreparable harm to his family. Ha! On Sunday night’s episode of The Affair the show’s flawed protagonist, played by Dominic West, surprised both Alison (Ruth Wilson) and the entire television audience by popping the question to his beloved. The proposal came so suddenly, so nonsensically—shouldn’t he be putting his book advance towards a home so that he can regularly see his four children?—that we reached out to The Affair co-creator Sarah Treem to ask her our most burning questions. Among them: There’s a reason why Noah seems so unlikeable, right? What was with the random shooting-the-dog subplot? And when did Maura Tierney’s character, Helen, start smoking marijuana? Read ahead for Treem’s answers, insightful character explanations, and clues about the upcoming episodes that will make you even more eager to see how the rest of the second season unfolds. VF.com: It felt like Noah was operating in crisis mode during tonight’s episode. He made one huge life decision—proposing to Alison—without thinking it through even though he has four children, is in the process of a divorce, and doesn’t have a house. Can you talk about your thoughts behind having him propose to Alison so suddenly? Sarah Treem: I think for Noah, it’s very important for him to believe that he made this choice [to leave his family for Alison] because this is true love. If he were to admit that the choice was rash, or perhaps even selfish, or maybe it had nothing to do with Alison, it was just him trying to blow up his own life because he was unhappy . . . For him to get to a place where he understands that, it takes a level of maturity and introspect that he doesn’t have access to at this point. He wants to feel like this is absolutely right so much so that they should get married in order to quell his own anxieties about the fact that he doesn’t really know Alison very well, and he’s not sure he can trust her. And for the first time, right before, we see Noah and Alison have an entirely different sexual experience than they did during the first season. This time around it isn’t all about passion but about not connecting. That was quite deliberate—that we start the episode off with this ambiguous sex scene. The idea behind it was that Noah wasn’t sure if Alison faked an orgasm or not. That’s kind of a theme for that entire episode for both Alison and Noah—whether either of them can actually trust each other. They react to it differently. He reacts to the anxiety about the fact that he doesn’t trust her by overdoing it. She reacts by withdrawing. Ruth Wilson (who plays Alison) did a great job with both the love and proposal scene, showing that her character is going through a series of different conflicting emotions without any dialogue. Sex scenes on our show are always really difficult because they’re always very charged. Half the time, especially this season, we’re not trying to shoot a particularly erotic sex scene. We’re trying to shoot an awkward sex scene, but we always want our sex scenes to tell some kind of stories that we can’t tell with words. We want the sex scenes to articulate something that the characters can’t say to each other yet—or ever. I think, for Dom, it was important that he came into the scene with almost a mania that was the result of the vision that he had just seen in the pool. Then he carries that crazy energy through the proposal, so it really does feel like a character who is perhaps fraying a little bit at his edges. That is what influences his decision to try to lock it down. That is part of the reason that the scene is shot somewhat fluidly, so it all feels like one intention from beginning to end. Practical question: Where did Noah get the money to buy the ring? It’s very small, the ring. It was not very expensive . . . it’s not as if he spent $40,000 on it. I think he had some money because of his book advance, and he spent it. It perhaps was not the wisest use of his funds though [laughs]. To me, Noah seemed especially unlikeable in this episode—he proposed without thinking it through, selfishly burned through his book advance, and then he asked his teenage daughter to keep a major secret for him. But it’s interesting because he seems so unlikeable in his memory . . . so should we be reading into that, perhaps thinking that Noah eventually realizes that he has made a series of stupid mistakes with Alison and this is him remembering them as such? Yeah, I think you should be reading into that. I think that Noah has an incredible arc this year. I think he’s got, in terms of a character that changes . . . I would say that his change is the most epic. I do think he’s looking back at these early days with this relationship and trying to understand some of the decisions that he made. The first season had plenty of fantasy and romance for Noah and Alison, but you’re really presenting a realistic look at two characters after they’ve fallen in love as they really get to know who the other person is. This season, at least for me, is really about these characters getting to know themselves in a very honest way. I think that everybody has a fantasy of who they are. We all tell ourselves stories, even about our own identities, that we can live with, that we can be proud of. Then, every so often, life hands us a situation wherein we see ourselves acting the opposite way of who we think we are. Either we recognize it in ourselves, or somebody else calls us on it, but we have to face that we are not as noble, or as kind, or as intelligent as we like to think of ourselves as . . . I hope that these characters end the season with a much greater understanding of who they are, in all ways, than they started. Maura has said in interviews that she believes Alison and Noah are soul mates. Do you believe that? In a way, yes. I think there’s something that connects them that they weren’t getting from their spouses. I think that even if people are soul mates though, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re good life partners. That’s what we’re going to be looking at. There’s a mysterious element to Alison this season. Was that a conscious decision made by you? Does she have a secret that we don’t know yet? There is a mysterious element to Alison, and that’s deliberate. I think of her character as somebody who, because of her grief, but actually even before her child died, kind of occupied a space between the natural world and a world of people. Alison has always been a character who’s much more comfortable being alone, who finds a lot of peace and solace in a kind of elemental landscape, and in her own thoughts. Her backstory is that her mother left her. She doesn’t know who her father is, and her mother left her with her grandparents when she was a baby. She was raised by older people, and she was pretty lonely. She basically got used to being alone. I think there’s always an element for her that is always skirting the edge between trusting people and feeling like she has to retreat into her own isolation in order to feel secure. She’s definitely a character who struggles with relationships with people in general and with her ability to keep them up. I think they’re hard for her, and confusing and challenging in a way that they’re really not for someone like Helen, who is so easy in the world, and especially with people. That makes so much sense, especially considering how she’s strangely drawn to Robert. In tonight’s episode, we see them kind of go on this adventure together—almost like its own little bottle episode or bottle plot involving his dog. Where did that idea come from? That was from a writer named Sharr White, who’s a brilliant, brilliant writer on staff and who came up with the story. I don’t remember quite what the original pitch was, but we went ’round and ’round on the dog story. We spent so much time on that damn dog story, trying to understand what the dog represented and what the indications were. For a while, we had this whole idea that the dog represented Robert’s feral nature and his desire not to be domesticated in his own relationship. I remember once, just looking at the writers for a minute, like, “Guys . . . Who is this dog?” I remember saying to Anya Epstein, an executive producer from the show, “Are we crazy? Are we really going to do a whole episode about this dog?” Then, somehow it kind of worked. Looking back to the season premiere, where did Helen’s weed habit come from? I just know a bunch of women who are mothers and professionals who have secret weed habits. It seems to be something that people sometimes just don’t give up, because it does really help them cope. It sort of felt right for Helen, as a drug of choice. I didn’t feel like she would become an alcoholic, and I didn’t want her to be popping pills, because I thought that was a cliché. It did seem like she was going to have to develop some kind of coping mechanism. I think she’s trying to keep calm, because she feels this intense sadness that wells up in her all the time. She can’t show it to anybody because she’s got to keep functional, because she has four children, her life doesn’t stop. She’s sedating herself to get through. Did you know in the first season that Helen would wind up with Max? Yeah, I did . . . There’s this backstory where Max is basically in love with Helen, and has been since they were all in school together. . . . It just felt inevitable. I think that the idea that you can have a friend who is in love with your wife was really interesting to me and complicated. There’s a great scene that comes up toward the end of the season, when Noah finally finds out [that Helen and Max are dating], and he and Max have this big fight about it. Noah says, ‘How could you do this? This isn’t friendship.’ Max argues back, ‘Yes, it is. I love you. I care about you.’ Noah’s like, ‘That doesn’t make any sense to me.’ Max basically has to explain that in friendship, there does exist jealousy, and those two things are not mutually exclusive—you can love your friend, and also want what your friend has. It felt like a complicated relationship for us to establish for so many different reasons. We thrive on complicated relationships. What does it say about Noah that he kept Max as a best friend even though it was clear Max was in love with Helen during the first season? I think that Noah has an idea of himself as gifted. When good things happen for Noah, he believes he deserves them. He believes he deserves anything, and that‘s what keeps him always wanting more. Max is a very different character. Max doesn’t think he deserves anything. Max is actually quite an insecure character, who thinks that everybody hates him, and that he has to buy people’s affection. They’re just different archetypes. Some people are really susceptible to what others think of them. Some people are not. I think, for Noah, a lot of what happens in the second season is a surprise, because he doesn’t see a lot of things coming, because he’s not paying very close attention. His mind is occupied elsewhere. credits twitter.com/mauratierneyfanwww.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2015/10/the-affair-season-2-episode-3?mbid=social_twitter
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Post by sissa on Oct 27, 2015 10:26:25 GMT 10
TV RECAPS | THE AFFAIR She changed the locks and got locked upHelen takes partying for one a little too seriously. BY SARA VILKOMERSON • @vilkomerson The Affair Season 2, Ep. 4 | Aired Oct 25 Posted October 25 2015 — 11:00 PM EDT It’s a Helen-versus-Noah split. And if you, like me, were excited to see Maura Tierney strip down to her lingerie and drunkenly sing along to “Changed the Locks” by Lucinda Williams, then you are in luck. Not so much luck for Helen, but I’m getting ahead of myself. We open with Helen’s point-of-view of court, where her lawyer argues (rather effectively) all the crimes against marriage Noah has committed. You know the drill: the cheating, the gun incident, the love shack, and the general trauma inflicted upon Helen and the kids. Not one of these things are untrue. Hilariously, expensive-lawyer Jon keeps using the word “paramour” to describe Alison, and each time he does, you see Helen die a little bit more. It is an annoying word. Unfortunately, as he revs up to the big climax pointing out how Noah can’t figure out how to get his kids a place to live when the children are already living in a perfectly nice brownstone, the judge’s ears perk up. The judge is all, “A whole brownstone?!?” And you see this whole thing getting away from Helen as it’s detailed that they live in tony Park Slope and the building is worth $3 million. (Uh, that number is a little low these days for Brooklyn real estate but okay.) Afterwards, the admits that this is bad and calls the judge a committed Bolshevik, which is pretty funny except not at all to Helen. This custody battle is obviously going to get ugly, and assets are going to be counted. Helen is all, “Whatever just stop saying paramour.” She prefers a much harsher C-word. “I hate him so much,” she says. Back at home, Margaret has a fancy new hairdo in red and is la-la-la-la-ing about Bryn Mawr, which is apparently where she and Whitney are headed for Margaret’s 50th reunion. (She bribed Whitney into going, naturally.) Helen is irritated her mother didn’t ask about the court day and worries at the possibility that Noah wants money. She goes for some white wine, which I can’t really fault her for. Margaret seems unconcerned, but when Helen presses her to sit down with Bruce and the lawyer, Margaret confesses that she doesn’t know where Bruce is and that he’s left her for that chippie in Tulsa. Rough times for the Butler women. Max decides to pop by with some pretty pink flowers. He was worried about how her day went, which is nice, though it’s hard to take anything Max says sincerely. He tells her they have enough time for her receive her present and for a roll in the hay. (He doesn’t say it like that.) She seems less enthused and becomes even quieter when her present is revealed to be tickets for a romantic getaway to Argentina. Poor Max. He’s so eager. She offers some lame excuses about the kids. Max is like, “Hey I gave him 50 grand; he should be just fine!” If he thought Helen would be psyched about that, he thought wrong. Helen starts to spin out as she thinks about how complicated this has all gotten and tells him that she’s pulling the plug here. I wonder if she’s wondering if Noah spent that money on an engagement ring? I sure am. Anyway, dead-boyfriend-walking tries to take it manfully. He still can’t get over the college thing, and that is rough. He starts to get just a little bit mean about how no one is good enough for Helen and no one can make her happy. She points out that Noah left her. Max! This is not the way to play this! And now we get to the best part of this episode. Helen undresses and drinks wine and sings along to great breakup anthem “Changed the Locks” by Lucinda Williams. Man, Maura Tierney crushes this scene — my favorite part is when she sort of falls over while trying to take of her tights, because yes. It’s super sad and super relatable. (We all do this kind of thing, right? RIGHT?!!?) She keeps getting drunker, and her empowerment surge gets sort of dampened when she looks at some gray roots growing in her hair. And that’s when she has the great idea to take the edible pot drop. She dances her decision out. Now drunk and most-definitely high she goes to her store and gets nuts and totally scares a customer. Next up, the hair salon, where she gets some foils put in (highlights, I’m guessing?). She totally over-shares with her stylist about her divorce and her friends being scared of her and how she’s high. All of this seems remarkably un-Helen, but she is spinning out into outer space, and there is no stopping it. Especially when she tells her stylist about some of her bodily functions. (Just imagine what this hair stylist will be talking about with her friends tonight!) It’s just at the terrible moment where she sees her own mother’s face looking back at her from the mirror when she gets a call that she’s gotten her dates wrong and she needs to go pick up the kids. Ruh-roh. She dashes out, foils still in her hair (this continually stressed me out for the rest of the episode), and like a full-on crazy person tries to get a cab, fails, and she gets in her car. This is all sorts of bad, and she most definitely should not be driving. And it just gets worse. She makes it to the school, she talks crazy to the counselor, and a series of unfortunate events leads to her backing out and hitting a car while little Stacey isn’t buckled in. Ugh. The awfulness of this just keeps ratcheting up when a cop approaches. The cop sees that Helen has weed in her bag and that Trevor is disgusted by her, and when it all spirals, she accidently assaults the officer and is quickly handcuffed. “I need to call my husband,” she says. Noah arrives in a cab, a hero to the kiddos. He comes over to Helen and starts yelling at her about Stacey not wearing a seat belt and whether she’s lost her mind. Helen looks at him and asks in an even voice, “Why are you doing this to us?” Ugh. Noah certainly doesn’t have an answer to that. She sits in a cell, picking at the same nail polish she was wearing that morning in court, and what a day it is has been. She finally realizes it’s time to take those foils out (I sighed heavily), and her hair has been bleached white. Next: Noah takes a not-so-fun trip to New Jersey We’re back in custody court, but with Noah remembering things, it all goes quite differently. This time the judge seems awfully concerned with whether Noah will be living with Alison or not. He tells Noah he hasn’t been thinking of his children’s needs and gives an order that prevents contact between Alison and the children. Dang. That seems rather rough! The judge also suggests Noah and Helen taking a walk through Prospect Park and search their hearts to try and find a reasonable solution. He points out that custody battles are simply garbage for children. Noah and Helen share a complicated look across the court. Noah meets Alison at a cute cafe. Alison is all excited and happy because she’s been looking at apartments and thinks she found a perfect one. (Neighborhood, for you people keeping track, is Crown Heights.) Noah is looking more and more crestfallen, and he realizes he’s going to have to burst this bubble. They can’t live together. He tells her this is only temporary and she can stay in Cold Spring for the time being. Alison, understandably, looks less than thrilled, and I can’t really blame her. Of course, this could be a Noah-perspective thing: The Alison I think *I* understand is not nearly so needy. She suggests giving Helen what she wants, a.k.a. custody. Noah’s horrified by the suggestion but is interrupted by a call from Helen. Her drunken antics need attending to. If possible, things are even more messed up than in Helen’s mind. Stacey’s injury is a little worse, Trevor is more of a narc, and Helen is much more messed up. God, Maura Tierney is a national treasure. She asks why he gets to screw up but she doesn’t. On that note, she passes out. Noah takes the kids home and sees the remnants of Helen’s drunken revelry. He also sees the flowers from Max on the table. (Interestingly, he sees red roses. I chalk this up to dudes not knowing the difference.) He, I think, draws the wrong conclusion about what was going on in the house before the accident (two wine glasses, a bra on the steps) and makes a split decision to take the kids to New Jersey. Look, it’s Noah’s secret middle class family! His brother-in-law seems super nice and warns that Noah’s dad is visiting. Sister Nina turns out to be (drumroll) Jennifer Esposito, straight from Mistresses! Noah drinks a beer and broods a bit and comes in to talk to his father and Martin, who are bonding hard over baseball. Noah tries to join in, lamely mistaking the Marlins for the Dolphins, and Martin eye rolls so hard he almost turns inside out. Noah tells his dad that Martin makes him nervous. His father responds with an excellent noncommittal “mmmm.” The father is a tough dude of few words, the very opposite of Bruce Butler, and he clearly makes Noah rather nervous, too. His dad, who is unsure of Noah’s age, tells him the story about when he was 50 and his wife, Noah’s mom, wanted to give him a present. Keep in mind, Noah’s mother was already in a bad state and had met a young woman that she wanted him to meet. Ugh, this is a sad story already, and Noah doesn’t want to hear it either. Noah’s dad explains he said no because he loved his wife. Martin comes back and is all, “You’re blocking the screen.” Noah next goes to his sister in the kitchen, looking for comfort. She offers him whiskey. Noah starts to tell her about the pot and drinking-and-driving, and Nina is shocked. Noah is all, “This is great news for the custody battle!” He could go for full custody. Here is why I love siblings: Nina is like, “Uh, dude — think that through. Helen is a snob, but you can’t take her children away from her after all this.” Nina is the voice of reason: “I’m in love with Brad Pitt but I don’t get to effin live with him!” She basically tells him to think about this and to be very honest with himself. Noah gets mad (of course) and stomps right off. Of course, Martin is pissed to leave because there are two innings left (Let’s go Mets!), and Trevor is having a great time on the trampoline. This leads to a really marvelous chase scene on a trampoline, which should be funny but gets sad real quick. After, they’re driving, and no one seems to know where to go. Poor Martin with his sensitive stomach needs a bathroom, so they end up in a Comfort Castle in Jersey City. The Hamptons, this is not. Martin is in a bad way, holding his stomach and lying by the toilet on the floor. Alison calls and goes into nurse mode, having Noah check out his stomach and telling him to take Martin to the hospital. Martin is like, “Can everyone please leave me alone so I can just go to the bathroom like I’ve been trying all episode?” Poor dude. Anyway, that crisis passes, and everyone is asleep in this terrible hotel room. It’s just Noah and three of his children, and he sees that maybe this isn’t as simple as he thought. He calls Alison and tells her he misses her, and she’s all, “Guess what? I’m downstairs!” That’s love: driving to a Comfort Castle with a six pack. I say this sincerely. They sit outside and drink the beers and seem pretty dang happy to be with each other. “What’s going to happen to us,” asks Alison. Annnnd here we are in the future, in the courtroom, where rich-person lawyer is fighting to get a change of venue for the trial. He makes a pretty convincing speech. But the prosecutor is all, “Relax, the book isn’t that popular.” Noah passes on the plea deal, and the judge is all, “Fine but this trial is staying here.” Woof. See you all next week! www.ew.com/recap/the-affair-season-2-episode-4/2Oct 25, 2015 TV ‘The Affair’ Recap: Season 2, Episode 4By SARENE LEEDS Warning: This recap contains major spoilers from Episode 204 of “The Affair” There is no doubt whatsoever that the deeper they get into their divorce proceedings, Helen and Noah grow more and more unhappy – and they have every right to feel that way. But you know who’s suffering a lot more than these two self-absorbed Solloways? Their three young children. Right, remember them, guys? (We already got a taste of Whitney‘s damage last week; she bailed early in tonight’s episode to serve as Margaret‘s paid companion at her 50th Bryn Mawr reunion.) While Helen is off getting drunk and high and Noah is too busy running away from his responsibilities, both fail to notice their complete and utter neglect of Martin, Trevor and Stacey. This makes tonight’s episode of “The Affair” all the more disturbing, as we learn that each parent is prepared to seek full custody of the four Solloway children. Neither choice sounds terribly sensible, which is evidenced by the episode’s two POVs: First Helen’s, then Noah’s. Now that the couple are in divorce litigation (thanks, Whitney), the gloves have come off – not only are Helen and Noah individually going for full custody, but now Noah is trying to get whatever he can of his wife’s money. Compounding the situation is the judge’s motion forbidding Alison to have any contact with Noah’s kids. This basically means that even though the lovers – or, in Jon Gottlief‘s words, para-MOURs – can now afford a large enough apartment courtesy of Max‘s $50,000, they can’t live together until the divorce and custody battle has been resolved. “What’s going to happen to us?” Alison asks Noah at the end of the episode, when they’re stuck drinking beers outside of a Jersey City motel room (because she can’t be near the kids). It’s a valid question, and rather poignant, as Noah doesn’t answer before we cut to the only flash-forward of the hour. Sure, we know that they get married, but from this vantage point, you get the sense that the honeymoon ended before the wedding even happened. Helen Goes on a Trip Both perspectives open at different moments in the day’s divorce proceedings, and it is not going well for Helen. The judge is blatantly unsympathetic to her case, especially once he gets wind of the fact that she and the kids live in a $3 million Park Slope brownstone that was purchased out of a family trust. Her lawyer, Gottlief, is decidedly unthrilled they were stuck “with the one committed Bolshevik,” and he looks worried when they emerge from the courtroom, advising Helen to meet with him and Margaret and Bruce to go over the Butler family’s assets – because it’s looking like the judge is going to side with Noah’s demands. Helen starts chugging wine the second she gets home, with Margaret offering zero support (and chugging the wine even harder) because she’s a 70-year-old woman who has to pay her granddaughter to keep her company on a trip to Pennsylvania – and she has no clue where her husband is. I don’t know what’s scarier in this episode: Margaret with red hair or that we might be feeling something resembling pity for her. Once Margaret and Whitney take off, Max shows up bearing a huge bouquet of flowers, the news that he gave Noah $50,000 in hopes of expediting the divorce, and two plane tickets to Buenos Aires. But a brand-new relationship with Max is not what Helen needs either. She breaks his heart yet again by ending the affair, which only lands her in a more depressing mood (“No one’s good enough for you!” snaps Max). This leads to the best scene in the episode, of Maura Tierney rocking out, drunk and in her underwear, to Lucinda Williams‘s “Changed the Locks” (also a brilliant choice for the end credits). This season of “The Affair” also seems to be all about unflattering shots of its actors’ bodies: The season premiere had the full-frontal image of Josh Stamberg‘s genitals, and tonight’s episode had the camera stay on Tierney’s non-sexy green-underwear-covered backside (for the record, I’m only saying the underwear choice wasn’t sexy) for an uncomfortably long period of time while she struggled to remove her pantyhose. Since apparently the wine wasn’t producing enough of an effect, Helen also decided to pop that pot lozenge Max gave to her a few weeks back. And because she apparently didn’t have anything better to do, she stopped by her not-profitable boutique wasted and high as a kite to terrorize its only customer. She comes off as obnoxious here, but as soon as she lands her fidgety body in her hair stylist’s chair to get her greys colored, that’s when we develop at least a little compassion for Helen’s reckless behavior. She starts unloading on her stylist, revealing that none of her friends would come with her to court for moral support. Just as she’s descended into hot-mess-type levels (announcing to your hairdresser that you’ve queefed twice tends to fall into that category), Helen gets a call from Trevor and Stacey’s camp – she totally mixed up the days and now they’re stranded. What follows is a massive, domino-like series of errors that, at least from Helen’s perspective, probably never would’ve happened if Noah hadn’t had an affair and driven her to heavily self-medicate on a day where she had to be a responsible mother. She races to the camp with bleaching foils still in her hair, which doesn’t do much for any sort of “I am not a crazy person” argument – and parks in a handicapped spot. Moving about a beat behind her normal pace (yay marijuana!), she then tells Stacey to unbuckle her seat belt to move the ginormous foil rocket ship she made at camp, because it’s blocking her rear view. Except then she gets distracted by an elderly gentleman asking her to move the car – his wife uses a walker. Not helping matters in the slightest is Trevor, using his anger toward his parents’ divorce to screech at them at any given moment (look, Trev, I get that you’re traumatized, but you know something? You’re a monster in this episode). So Helen starts backing out, having forgotten that her seven-year-old daughter was not buckled in – and crashes into another car. Stacey is lucky to walk away with just a nasty bump on the head, but loopy Helen has made enough of a scene that she attracts the attention of a couple of police officers. Things go from bad to worse when she does everything but try to stuff her purse under her shirt in order to keep the cops from discovering the vaporizer and eighth of marijuana inside. Honestly, that would have been better than what really happened: Trevor, the little bugger, screams at his mother to give over her bag, going so far as to yank it out of her arms when she refuses. In their struggle, Helen knocks into one of the cops, and is subsequently arrested for officer assault. Handcuffed and sitting in the patrol car – with the foils still in her hair – a dejected Helen has just one thing to say to Noah when he shows up to collect the kids: “Why are you doing this to us?” As she sits alone in the holding cell, her bleached hair falling out in clumps, it becomes clear that not only does Noah have a shot at a good portion of her family’s money, but she could lose her kids now too. It’s unlikely that a judge who already isn’t a fan of her silver-spoon upbringing will look favorably on a bored, wealthy woman who gets high instead of looking after her children. Noah’s Family Reunion Whatever gloating Noah gets to do in light of Helen’s arrest, it’s pretty short-lived, because it’s not like he’s father of the year – and there’s no shortage of people surrounding him to remind him of that this episode. In Noah’s POV, we see that the judge doesn’t only have problems with Helen being rich – he’s also picked up on the fact that Noah is a terrible parent: “You kids’ needs haven’t been in the forefront of your mind for at least the past year.” The court order banning Alison from interacting with the Solloway children is issued, and the judge strongly advises both Noah and Helen to figure out a custody agreement outside of court. “Because there is nothing worse for children than litigating custody.” What’s so upsetting about this statement is that by the end of the episode, the signs are pointing to continued litigation – and not because Noah genuinely wants the kids with him all the time. He’s probably going to do it to get rid of that nagging emasculated feeling that’s plagued him ever since, well, he was a child (as we learn during a brief visit with his family). When Alison suggests he give up the full-custody battle – after he informs her they can’t live together until the divorce is settled – he’s horrified at the thought. Then Noah gets the call that a looney-tunes woman with tin-foil attached to her head who closely resembles his estranged wife has been arrested, and he really learns what it means to be solely responsible for three young children (he got off easy this time, as Whitney was with Margaret). In Noah’s version of the Helen-gets-high incident, she’s a lot less sympathetic, with her belligerence and incoherent speech shining through more than anything else when she asks, “Why do you get to f—k up and I don’t?” Noah drives Martin, Trevor and Stacey to New Jersey for a surprise visit to his sister Nina‘s house. The more we learn about Noah and his relationship with his family members, the more obvious it becomes that he took the kids out there because he needed help taking care of them (Nina and her husband have a brood of their own). But they’re not even there an hour before Noah bolts with the children in tow. Turns out a couple of brief conversations with his dad, Arthur (Mark Margolis – sorry, “Breaking Bad” fans, no bell in sight) and with Nina (Jennifer Esposito), forced Noah to look in the mirror at his true self, and there he was, running from what he saw, again. Nina knows all too well that Noah is in no way equipped to take care of four kids full-time, and she refuses to sugarcoat it for her brother. “Helen may be a snob,” says Nina, but unlike her Noah, she does make the kids a priority (today notwithstanding). Another thing Noah doesn’t want to hear? That he shouldn’t be off having midnight shag-swims with Alison while his children need his attention, and the judge was right to bar him from living with his “para-MOUR” for now. “I’m in love with Brad Pitt,” Nina says by way of explanation, “but I don’t get to f—ing live with him!” As Noah stomps out of the house, Arthur throws out one final dig, letting us all know where his loyalties lie: “You tell Helen I’m sorry.” Heh, even Arthur thinks his own son is a screw-up. On the road to nowhere, Martin’s mysterious stomach ailment from the season premiere rears its ugly head, forcing the Solloways to retreat to a Jersey City motel for the night. Given the fact that Martin, who’s always been a lonely kid, did not appreciate being pulled away from a baseball-bonding session with his grandfather, it’s looking more and more that these excruciating pains are directly caused by the stress of his parents’ divorce. Martin spends the night doubled-over on the motel-bathroom floor, and his cries appear to get worse when Noah speaks to Alison on the phone – apparently his repeated screams of “Get off the phone!” did nothing to cure Noah’s obliviousness to the situation. But who cares about Martin’s physical manifestation of emotional agony? Alison just showed up outside the motel, and she’s got a six-pack of beer! Those poor kids. Those poor, poor kids. Flash-forward: We’re back at the Suffolk County courthouse, and Gottlief is pleading for a change in trial location away from the East End, refusing the prosecutor’s offer of the plea deal (“criminally negligent homicide,” which will put Noah away for one to three years) again. The judge rejects Gottlief’s motion, sets a trial date, and Noah’s future as a long-term prison resident comes one step closer to a real possibility: “Descent” is all about the people of Montauk, and let’s just say they’re not fans of his idea of “fiction.” “The Affair” airs Sundays on Showtime at 10 p.m. Follow our recaps here all season long. blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2015/10/25/the-affair-recap-season-2-episode-4/
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Post by sissa on Oct 27, 2015 10:37:37 GMT 10
LOSING CONTROL 10.25.15 11:00 PM ET Drugs, Drinking, and a Meltdown: Season 2, Episode 4 of ‘The Affair’ Tim Teeman This week, Showtime’s drama focused on the consequences of Noah and Helen’s marital breakdown—with drugs and alcohol on one side, and a sad journey into the night on the other. As Helen, Maura Tierney just supplied Affair fans with the standout scene of the second season so far. Drunk and slugging wine by the gulpful, she kicks off her shoes, strips down, and throws family laundry baskets to the four winds, to the tune of Lucinda Williams’s “Changed the Locks.” This week, Showtime’s drama focused on the consequences of Noah and Helen’s marital breakdown—with drugs and alcohol on one side, and a sad journey into the night on the other. An extra treat: Sunday’s episode was directed by John Dahl of The Last Seduction and Red Rock West fame, and also, more recently, Breaking Bad and House of Cards, among others. There are some visually arresting elements to this Affair episode—with Noah (Dominic West) swimmingly out of focus as he approaches the camera, and a desperate night in a down-at-the-heel motel. This week is a capsule of the Decline of Helen, or the Making of the New Helen. It also sharply observes the decline of their children’s well-being as the effects of their parents’ split plays out. It begins at the custody hearing of the distant past, which—given her husband Noah’s behavior—Helen should have coasted. He has, after all, left her for Alison (Ruth Wilson) and shacked up in their Hudson Rover writers’ colony shack, the fate of his novel unknown. But as Helen’s lawyer (played by a brilliantly ratlike Richard Schiff) soon discovers, in overreaching on evoking Noah’s villainy and shortcomings he lays his own client open to the antagonism of the “Bolshevik” judge. The man in robes’ expression turns quickly to baleful when he discovers that Helen is the owner of her and Noah’s Park Slope brownstone. Tierney’s facial expressions are a constant riot—and every time Schiff refers to Alison as “paramour” (14 times, Helen counted), her expression curdles. Outside court, they run through alternatives—concubine, f**k-buddy, slut-face, though Helen is happiest with “thingy.” Understandably, Helen is in no mood for her mother, sparky and lighter-in-mood than usual with her newly dyed and cut hair, herself acclimatizing to her husband having left her for another woman. Helen’s mood worsens when Max (Josh Stamberg), magnificently nude in the first episode, turns up for some afternoon sex. Max carries himself, dick-swagger always to the max, like a man ready for sex at any time. She isn’t so sure, so she accepts his gift of travel tickets first. But then he reveals he has also given Noah $50,000, figuring it would help get him out of Helen’s life sooner, which would be good for them. And also Noah is his friend, he says. Helen, thoroughly confused, sends Max packing—with no nookie. He idealized her in college, but now he says tonelessly, “No one is good enough for you.” “Noah left me,” Helen reminds Max. And that tone of grievance—why is she being punished when she is wronged?—has now infected all her behavior. After her angry, drunken singalong to Lucinda Williams and a pot lozenge, Helen heads off to her knickknacks shop. There, in another amazing Helen moment, she rounds on a browsing customer for not purchasing an olive oil dispenser, made by “Vietnamese ex-sex workers living in Oslo blowing glass. They’ve lived horrible lives—not like yours, you aging, Botoxed, hipster bitch.” Next she heads off to the hairdresser, where—getting highlights—she wonders aloud who her friends truly are—people have “evaporated,” she says, worried her marriage failure is “contagious.” But, drunk and high, she has forgotten it is her day to pick up the kids from a summer camp date. She races to them, still with silver foil in her hair—Jackie Collins is the queen of this scenario, in Hollywood Wives—which leads to her crashing her car into another one, injuring Stacey, her young daughter—although, in Helen’s retelling, it’s a little bruise. The police are called. Noah arrives. “Why are you doing this to us?” is all she can ask him. In jail for the night, one of the silver foil strips detaches to reveal a bleached patch of hair—what does Helen’s “makeover” mean she is becoming? Her expression suggests she is becoming unfamiliar even to herself. In Noah’s memory, the custody court date is disastrous: The judge says Alison cannot have contact with Noah’s children, which he conveys to her over a lunch in Brooklyn, where she has excitedly been checking out city properties for them to live in. When Noah tells Alison about what the judge has ordered, she suggests maybe he can just see the children at weekends. She doesn’t want him to sacrifice their relationship after all they have endured already to be together. Their deliberations are interrupted by the police calling about Helen’s accident. In Noah’s retelling, Stacey’s head injury is bloodier and requires stitches. Helen, high and drunk, regales the cops about his affair. The pot lozenge Helen’s recollection has her taking becomes a vaporizer and an eighth of marijuana in Noah’s retelling. “Why do you get to f**k up and I don’t?” Helen asks him. And this, you realize, is the poisonous war Helen and Noah are now both in—punishing each other for screwing each other up. As Helen is in jail, Noah and their three younger children—Martin, Trevor, and Stacey—go to stay with his sister Nina in the ’burbs. There is a brief moment of respite, as the children play in the garden with Nina’s kids (and the stability of his sister’s life is in painful relief to Noah’s own instability). Noah’s dad recalls that his mother once encouraged him to have an affair himself when her health went into a perilous decline. “I told her no because I loved her,” his dad tells Noah. Nina tells her brother he can’t really want to take his children away from their mother, but Noah is unrepentantly gleeful that Helen’s intoxication and arrest will give him leverage in court. Brother and sister fight, and Noah leaves, driving his family into the night. Rather like his close relations, the viewer observes Noah ambivalently. Even in his own eyes, he is selfish, irresponsible, and also trying to do his best all at the same time. The unanswerable and bigger questions Noah faces in the show are asked by Noah’s younger son, Trevor, first when Noah angrily retrieves him from playing on the trampoline (“What is wrong with you? What are you doing?”) and then later in the car (“Where are we going?”). Martin’s antipathy toward his father, bubbling menacingly throughout the series, manifests as a crippling stomach pain in the motel they end up in in Jersey City. Alison turns up with some beer and another, bigger question for Noah: “What is going to happen to us?” Noah’s bad luck continues far into the future, where the judge presiding over his murder case tells him that the case will be heard in Suffolk County, where Scotty Lockhart died. Noah and his lawyer fear that Noah’s bad reputation in Suffolk County—where his tell-all best-selling book is set—will hurt his chances of getting a fair trial. By that time, we know, Helen is enough back on Noah’s side to be overseeing his legal defense. Time has not only done some healing but also further complicating, and perhaps for the better for the Solloway family. In both their perspectives, Helen and Noah ruminate on the effects of their split on their children. Perhaps, just as in one time zone the vexatiousness around the separation sets them at odds, later—with Noah’s freedom imperiled—the emotional threat to their family it represents that makes Helen come to his aid. www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/10/25/drugs-drinking-and-a-meltdown-season-2-episode-4-of-the-affair.html
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Post by sissa on Oct 29, 2015 10:53:05 GMT 10
The Affair is back — and it's brilliant to finally get Helen's perspective on her betrayalIn the first instalment of season two, Noah's intriguing wife gets her long overdue time in the spotlight By Kasia Delgado Wednesday 28 October 2015 at 12:08PM How does a person cope when when they've been betrayed after years of marriage? This is one of the questions that comes to the fore in the first episode of series two of The Affair as we see Helen's (Maura Tierney) perspective on the aftermath of her husband Noah's (Dominic West) adultery. Last series of the Sky Atlantic show was all about Noah and Alison (Ruth Wilson) meeting, falling in love and then navigating their way through the deception and destruction they created. And while you hated Noah for cheating on his wife and lying to his four children, you couldn't help but root for this strange, dangerous new romance he was having. With the whole series set up from their perspectives, it was impossible not to be seduced by their reality, too. Yet as the show progressed, Helen, Noah's wife, became someone we really wanted to know more about. What was she thinking about all of this? How was she coping? We saw only moments of her pain, all through Noah's eyes, but she was always deeply human and never clichéd, reacting in the messy, confused way that real people often do. Sometimes she was calm and controlled, sometimes furious and at other points sad and desperate for him to return. A beautifully acted character, she deserved her own point of view. And in the first episode of series two, that's what we get. A whole thirty minutes of Helen numbing her pain by getting high, sleeping with Noah's friend Max (who she doesn't really fancy) and dealing with gossiping mothers at school who, in morbid fascination, want to know whether there were ever "any signs" that Noah was cheating on her. All the sadness, kindness and frustration we see from Helen may make you want to throttle Noah, but that's what's so great about The Affair —that none of the characters is even remotely perfect or entirely likeable. They're all awful, selfish, caring and fascinating in their own ways. Just like in real life. www.radiotimes.com/news/2015-10-28/the-affair-is-back--and-its-brilliant-to-finally-get-helens-perspective-on-her-betrayalWhy Do You Get To F*ck Up, And I Don’t?October 26, 2015 Posted by Duana The Affair Season 2 Episode 4 recap Welcome to a glorious episode of The Affair, where it’s all mess and no sex. This is the reality of the show and it would almost – almost – still be a fascinating ride if there were no Alison and Cole stories mixed in. This is the reality. No matter who’s the ‘good one’ and the ‘bad one’, everyone’s on a continuum, especially in a family, and nobody gets to be a hero. It’s more that sometimes you get caught, and sometimes you dodge a bullet, and Helen, this week, was all out of dodges. It seems like her bad day is going to right itself –after all, she dispenses with Max fairly early on and has a power-lipsynch in her bedroom wearing some curious combination of garters and nylons – but the truth is that even if she does everything right, even if she breaks up with Max and doesn’t take the pot lozenge and doesn’t tell her daughter to unbuckle, which is going to be the part that haunts her the most here, she might still wind up like her mother: old, and trying desperately to cover her grey hair. Trying to keep up the ruse that she’s together and organized and desirable and young. Noah, on the other hand, lucks out this week. Sure, he can’t live with Alison, by a dubious court order (can a judge actually order that a third party not see kids, if there’s no restraining order?) but he maybe feels relieved by that, since I still think Alison is an upstate-NY holiday for him more than an actual love affair. A ‘paramour’, if you will. He takes the kids all over the area, and you’re bracing for things to get worse. But it’s almost as if Helen has spent all the day’s bad karma already. He’s nervous about seeing his father (the casting of whom is so perfect I can’t shake it - you can see Noah growing older, into his father’s face, just as Helen saw herself growing into her mother’s), but nothing that bad ultimately happens. In fact, the dad turns out to be much less upsetting than I thought he’d be. Then Noah downs a whisky right after a beer, and right before getting back on the road with his kids – he could easily have been pulled over for a taillight that didn’t get fixed and had the officer smell his breath. Even Martin’s stomach pains could have turned into something much worse – I was sitting on my couch begging Noah to take him to the hospital—but it’s not Noah’s day to feel like a bad father, despite what his sister Nina says. You know he knows it, too. Noah is as aware that his day could have gone worse as Helen is that hers should have gone better. Because they think the same way. If the same kind of day had happened to Alison or to Cole, there would be much more sadness and acknowledgement that it was a bummer, and much less self-flagellation and anger. This is what keeps getting me about this show –Noah and Helen are so much more similar than Noah and Alison. Alison and Cole are so much more similar. Even if Helen did wrinkle her nose at Nina’s wine (Noah and Nina – are they twins?), Noah and Helen see the world in the same slightly sardonic way – as a series of pleasures interrupted by problems. When Helen thinks about her store, I truly believe its existence is mostly a delight to her, punctuated with worry about the sales. Isn’t that exactly Noah’s book? Alison and Cole are much more pragmatic. Much more oriented toward the idea that work is what you have to get through, and that life hands you more bad than good. Noah may think that’s the sort of middle-class life he was born into – he may even think that’s why he and Alison are such a good fit – but when all’s said and done, he’s more like Helen than he’d like to admit, right down to their shared lawyer. What a good episode. I love this show more this year than last (and with less Alison rather than more). But people don’t talk about it that much. Is it because, as I suspect, people want to keep their thoughts about infidelity to themselves? Is it true that, as Helen says, “everyone thinks divorce is contagious”? www.laineygossip.com/The-Affair-Season-2-Episode-4-recap/41020
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Post by sissa on Nov 1, 2015 0:20:00 GMT 10
The Affair Season 2 Episode 4 Review: Checkmate Paul Dailly at October 25, 2015 11:00 pm. A family falling apart is always going to have repercussions for both parties and just when the dark clouds are clearing up, they'll come rushing back to show just how messed up everything still is. On The Affair Season 2 Episode 4, we got a lot of insight into Helen, and it really was needed. To date, she's pretty much played second fiddle to Noah and Alison, and it's interesting that the show has been focusing on her a lot more this time round. Maura Tierney is a seasoned actress, and she finally got a diverse amount of material to showcase that. Helen and Max - The Affair It's evident that deep down, she's lonely. Noah was her ride or die, and she's realizing that he was her one true friend and love and that she's not much without him. That's what happens when you spend so much of your life with someone. Helen has tried and tried to get away from all the drama and have a drama free home, but her mother's revelation that her father has run off with one of his students makes her realize that it ain't going anywhere. I can't be the only one who absolutely loved drunk/high Helen. We needed this hour to realize just how integral she is to the show. She's done a lot of questionable things, but that's because the poor woman is venting. It's not normal for someone to have four kids and have to be back on the dating scene. Helen is a catch, but she just doesn't see it. As much as I enjoyed her being with Max, this was always going to end in tears, so it made sense for her to nip it in the bud early. Helen: Noah wants money. Margaret: I'm sorry? Helen: Were you gonna ask how the hearing was, or are you gonna talk some more about your hair dos? Elsewhere, Noah was treated like trash in the first act of the hour and that made him ever more eager to get the upper hand on his wife, and I sort of fell out with him this week. Alison was also called a "paramore" like fourteen times. HA! Helen: Maybe. If you stop saying paramore. John: If I? Helen: I mean, what the f**k was that, John? You said it fourteen times. John: Well, it happens to be the legal term for it, but if you prefer I could say concubine. f**k buddy? Slut face? Helen: How 'bout thingy? thingy works for me. He seems stuck in this mind frame in which he thinks Helen is the bad one. It's time for him to wake up to the harsh light of day and realize that he and Alison are the reason his family is being torn apart. Heck, he has his daughter lying for him. What's that about? He and Alison seemed to think that getting a house and everything would be as smooth as concealing an affair, but that's not how real life works. Why should Helen let the kids see her? It's a sucky situation for anyone to be in, but Helen will always think of her as the woman who is trying to replace her. That's the way it is, and that won't be changing any time soon. I'll admit that I had to rewind the scene with Nina giving Noah the honest truth. Jennifer Esposito is a wonderful addition to the cast as Nina, and it would be good to see some more of her down the line. The jury is still out on Noah's father, but it's clear these two aren't going to be friends any time soon. That ending was a crazy one and I'm intrigued to see how the trial actually plays out. There are a lot of things we have to ponder as The Affair Season 2 plays out, but it's been an enjoyable ride so far. Other tidbits from the episode: Helen's one liners were on point. The way she spoke to her hairdresser was freaking hilarious. I'd love to see her next appointment with her... if there is one. Margaret's new hair style was pretty great, right? The woman is going through a similar crisis to her daughter, and it was really nice to show Helen following in her footsteps. Can Whitney get more screen time, like now? She's such a fun character who just speaks her mind. We need to catch up with Cole. Can he get like a whole episode to himself next week? Pretty please? This show deserves even more awards love than it's already received. The acting is flat out amazing. Remember you can watch The Affair online right here on TV Fanatic. www.tvfanatic.com/shows/the-affair/full-episodes/www.tvfanatic.com/2015/10/the-affair-season-2-episode-4-review-checkmate/
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Post by sissa on Nov 4, 2015 8:18:47 GMT 10
OH, IT’S YOU 11.01.15 11:00 PM ET When Wife and Mistress Meet in ‘The Affair’: Season 2, Episode 5 RecapHelen told Alison her happiness would be short-lived, there was more nudity, and a bad-idea hook-up: more happy, happy times in The Affair. What about an episode of The Affair where Alison (Ruth Wilson) is happy? Just for a few minutes? In last night’s episode, Alison seemed—not for the first time—like a ghost or intruder in her own life, reaping the perverse whirlwind of the custody judge ruling last week that she could not have contact with Noah (Dominic West) and Helen’s (Maura Tierney) children. This led her to Helen’s door, and the most extensive, if not full-and-frank exchange between mistress and wife. Before that storm front of awkward, Alison had to endure an even odder micro-climate of dislike from writer colony owner and now-officially terrifying publisher Yvonne (Joanna Gleason), whose attitude toward Alison suddenly shifted to cold and aggressive dislike, and all this while she was immersed in Noah’s manuscript—something which Alison has been banned from reading. Gone was the warm, sisterly earth mother who enthusiastically employed her as an assistant. Suddenly, immersed in Noah’s book, Yvonne was simply ordering Alison to do this and that, and pleases and thank yous were notably absent. That hostility was matched by Robert (Peter Friedman), Yvonne’s husband, who—after Alison realized they both shared the genesis of their relationships had taken place through affairs—coldly rejected her too, after she had tried to tell him about the “bolts of lightning” and other romantic cliches that had sealed her relationship with Noah; how she felt alive again suddenly, so long after being encased in a fog of grief. But, as she looked down she realized her therapeutic exercises were having an unintended consequence: Robert had a raging boner. “I guess you just have this effect on men,” he told her. Off she went to town for errand-ordering Yvonne on her bike, practicing riding without holding the handlebars. It seemed like a piece of hokey tentative liberation symbolism to this viewer, or maybe she was just having a playful moment—although she seemed her usual sad self doing it. Still, in town, a shop owner told Alison that Yvonne had told her that Alison and Noah were “lovebirds” in her eyes. Had Yvonne’s froideur just come from jealousy that Alison attracted her husband; or were the concordances between her affair and Alison’s too close for comfort? Whatever, Yvonne treated her again like a servant when some family came to visit, and Robert told her that her services were no longer required (she would be replaced by a young man who had caught Yvonne’s eye from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop). When Alison went to confront Yvonne, she instead found Noah’s manuscript, and read reference and reference to a character that sounded like her, and utterly sexualized: “She was sex, the very definition of it, the reason the word was invented.” Suddenly her position in Noah’s life not only seemed precarious, but cheapened. Her whole place in her new universe seemed precarious too. She went to Brooklyn to visit Noah’s home, where he was supposed to be looking after his son, but instead ran into Helen, the first significant confrontation between them. She told Helen it had never been her intention to steal Noah away from her. When her husband arrived unexpectedly home, he punched Cole in the face, as she queried, “You’re supposed to be golfing.” Helen, noting she had “a lot of balls” to confront her, also launched a bitter denunciation of “the greatest man on earth” she was now with. Of her soon-to-be-former husband, Helen told her that while everything seemed rosy in the early days of being with Noah, just wait till he “takes all of his fears” and “petty bullshit” and makes it Alison’s fault. Just wait till you become his enemy for knowing him so well, Helen told her, and then wait for the day someone shows up at her house thinking they fell in love with “the greatest guy” on earth. It was Helen’s mini-victory, and Alison was left speechless and worse out on the stoop. If Helen had last week been an out-of-control booze- and pot-fueled mess, this week she was—at least in Alison’s interpretation—returned to wronged, but in-control chatelaine. And so Alison was left bereft again, rootless, alone, with that familiar misery etched over her face, and having toyed with Noahs engagement ring on the train, alighted at Montauk, a station platform we memorably saw in the first season. She had gone home, but for what? In Cole’s (Joshua Jackson) memory of events, the second half of last night’s episode, he was after some quick sex with one of his blonder, hotter cab passengers of a few episodes ago. She was soon totally nude (how Joshua Jackson escaped this is down to familiar TV sexism—or his very good agent, or both), and fetishizing him as her “ranch-hand” so volubly he told her to “shut the f**k up,” which just made her shout “yeah, shut me up,” as he pounded her as hard as she requested, before she suddenly demanded he cum on her face. Delightfully, she demanded this as a sudden, amazing idea, like she had just concluded that a simple floral pattern for the second bedroom would be best. When her husband arrived unexpectedly home, he punched Cole in the face, as she noted, “You’re supposed to be golfing.” Affair fans hope to see more of her as a character—maybe she can cheer morosely miserable Alison up. Naturally, this moment of levity was short-lived. Scotty, Cole’s brother (soon-to-be-dead brother) wanted money from the sale of his house, as Cole was holed up in the caravan outside, miserably, since Alison had left him. It was also emphasized again that Scotty was a drug dealer, and bad egg. Scotty was also having sex with cute, undocumented but hard-working Louisa, who Cole liked too—and, over drinks, they shared a sweet, but not consummated, connection. A real estate agent wanted Scotty’s beachside house too (we all do, it is pretty amazing, and all that beach out front to himself!), but when he returned from his various gallivanting and confronting and consoling he found Miserable Alison had let herself in. Of course she had come back to Montauk for him, for comfort, and for the loveliest bed-quilt ever seen in primetime. Seriously, where was it from? Want that quilt. That mystery is as tantalizing as whoever freaking killed Scotty Lockhart. Alison was curled, foetally, in bed—if she could walk, foetally-victimishly, down the street she would—and complaining that she felt she wasn’t real, a figment of people’s imaginations. She felt she was nothing, and in reassuring her she was not, Cole thoughtfully had sex with her. They were then both discovered by Scotty. Flashing forward in time, the long-suffering detective of Season One and Noah’s sharky lawyer are having lunch, the latter noting half the town wanted Scotty Lockhart dead, not least his brother Cole, who ended up acing him while setting up the location they sat in—Lockhart’s Lobster Shack. So, the mystery deepened again; the viewer was left scratching their head, thinking they might too confess to killing Scotty Lockhart—fictional as he might be—if this all isn’t cleared up soon. It was the quietest episode of the season so far, and served only to remind us of—or remind us to be interested in—the central plot driver of Scotty’s death, and why he was such an obnoxious person. The absence of Noah meant we will have to wait to see how he sweet-talks Alison back—we know he does, of course. And then how and if he finds out she slept with Cole, or Pacey from Dawson’s Creek, as I keep, dammit, thinking himself as. We know lots of things about the future; the stitching of how we get there remains still a vague pattern. But my current money’s with the sharky lawyer on the matter of Scotty’s murderer: Pacey dunnit. www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/11/01/when-wife-and-mistress-meet-in-the-affair-season-2-episode-5-recap.htmlAlison: Where's Noah? I'm sorry? I need to talk to him. It's urgent. Helen: Well, he's not here. [Stacey]: Mom, who is it? Helen: It's nobody. (OUCH!!!) You have a lot of balls coming to my house. Alison: Look, I I didn't mean to Helen: Go on. Alison: I wasn't trying to steal your husband. Helen: You weren't trying to steal my Hus Alison: No, I'm not that kind of person. I-I didn't make him do this. I wasn't out for him, for anyone. I just it sort of happened, and I'm - I'm sorry, I just - Okay. Helen: Look, I don't know what you're in the middle of, and I really don't care, but let me just tell you a few things about the man you sort of happen to be involved with. At first, Noah seems like the greatest guy on earth. He's, um, there for you, and he wants you, and he's romantic and passionate and understanding. But then you start to really get to know each other, and he feels safe enough to let you see who he really is. And then he takes all of his fears, all of his failure, all of his petty bull$hit, all of his fvcking headaches in the morning, and he makes all of that your fault. And then you become the enemy just because you know who he is. And then one day, somebody's going to show up at your house, thinking they fell in love with the greatest guy on earth. If you'll excuse me. (Boom -sound of mic dropping--DIAYAM GIRL). credits: Cotton-mouth - imdb www.imdb.com/title/tt2699110/board/thread/250024054?d=250024054#250024054
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Post by sissa on Nov 4, 2015 8:36:28 GMT 10
‘The Affair’ Season 2 Episode 5: Never Read the BookBy MIKE HALENOV. 1, 2015 Season 2, Episode 5 O.K., it’s obvious that writing snippets of a fictional novel so that they can be read aloud on television — a novel whose author, we’ve been told, is “an incredibly strong writer” — is a losing proposition. They’re never going to be good enough. But when we finally heard bits and pieces of Noah Solloway’s “Descent” on “The Affair” on Sunday night, it was hard to have much sympathy for the screenwriter (in this case the playwright Sharr White). “Would she remember him? His voice felt lost in his throat.” “He lifted her skirt, just an inch. He paused. They listened together to the sound of the marina, hearts shaking in their skin.” “She was sex, the very definition of it. She was the reason the word was invented.” From there it just turned pornographic, 50 shades of sea foam. The expression on the face of Ruth Wilson, as Alison, grew progressively darker as she read the manuscript, which was supposed to be her response to its growing explicitness but which you’d like to think means that she has more taste than people give her credit for. Alison’s perusal of “Descent” — left out on Yvonne’s work desk — was the dramatic high point of the episode’s first chapter, which was devoted to her point of view. Reading the book enraged her, because it brought home to her how powerless she was. She’d just been fired as Yvonne’s assistant, with a strong hint that it was because of Yvonne’s jealousy, fed both by Noah’s book and by how close Yvonne’s husband, Robert, was getting to Alison. Now she saw herself exploited by Noah, depicted as an East End siren with an insatiable sex drive. As she told her ex after she fled back to Montauk, “People don’t see me, Cole.” The real problem is that “The Affair” itself has never exactly seen her as more than a victim and a bundle of guilt, neurosis and small-town, working-class awkwardness. (As if you don’t learn a little sophistication growing up in Montauk.) It’s not that her timorousness doesn’t make sense, given events, but she’s so relentlessly belittled, in both the writing and direction, that it’s hard to have any real sympathy for her. If she gets out of the subway in Brooklyn, she has to be overwhelmed by the city crowd. If she goes into town to run errands for Yvonne, she isn’t given the car — she has to be on her rickety bicycle with Yvonne’s packages in a little-girl handlebar basket. When she gets angry, she expresses it petulantly and destructively, sweeping Yvonne’s books off a shelf. When she helps Robert with his physical therapy, the erection he develops is shot in a giggly close-up out of an “American Pie” movie. When she tells Robert the truth about her affair with Noah — already a questionable decision — she uses language like “I felt this bolt of electricity course through me.” Wait, maybe that was why she was so upset when she read the manuscript — she actually wrote it! Most of the first half-hour of the episode was devoted to Alison’s feeling bad about herself and getting fired, after which she went to Brooklyn and, for some reason, went to Helen’s house to ask for Noah. (Did she really think Helen knew where Noah was, or would tell her if she did?) It was a good decision for the show, however, since Maura Tierney, as Helen, got to deliver a pithy, entirely credible précis of Noah’s personality and romantic habits, at the end of which she warned Alison that another woman would be coming to her someday with the same story. (And really, that’s the biggest strike against Alison as a character — why is she so blindly in love with a guy who, despite Dominic West’s magnetism, comes off virtually all the time as an unappetizing lummox?) The other half of the episode was devoted to Cole, and it was refreshingly low-key and straightforward. Alison’s ex was still driving his cab, but now providing stud service to Tory, the interior designer who tried to pick him up in the season’s second episode. He was embarrassed to discover Luisa, the attractive woman whose little boy he almost ran over, worked at Tory’s house. Then he was more embarrassed to discover that she was having sex with his ne’er-do-well brother, Scotty, on Scotty’s boat. When the POV is Alison's, she always appears neurotic and sad. Isn't that the point of this show? To show us how each character views... Annabelle S. 3 hours ago I don't understand the complaints that the characters are unlikeable. They are characters who are in difficult, complicated and very... PrairieFlax 5 hours ago What if the show is cancelled before we found out the identity of the killer? Scotty revealed his latest scheme, to buy the Lobster Roll out from under the debt-ridden Oscar, which would cost $1 million. (He has an investor, who, we can only assume, has connections to the drug business. Scotty is getting by selling drugs off his boat.) Cole, meanwhile, spent the night flirting with Luisa at her bartending job, then went home only to find Alison asleep in the house, having run away from her problems with Noah. The two of them made love, Cole managing to hide the palm on which he’d written Luisa’s phone number. In a short future scene, set in what was now called Lockhart’s Lobster Roll, we learned that Cole had carried out Scotty’s plan to displace Oscar — in an amusing touch, we saw Oscar serving coffee to Noah’s lawyer, Gottlief — and we saw Gottlief floating the idea of Cole as a suspect in his own brother’s death. Let us know your thoughts about the fifth episode of the second season of “The Affair.” Would you agree with the proposition that in the pairing of Joshua Jackson and Catalina Sandino as Cole and Luisa, the show finally, after a season and a half, has a couple with some actual chemistry? www.nytimes.com/2015/11/01/arts/television/the-affair-season-2-episode-5-review.html
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Post by sissa on Nov 23, 2015 8:46:05 GMT 10
‘The Affair’s’ Maura Tierney on Finding the Humor in Helen’s SufferingCOURTESY OF MARK SCHAFER/SHOWTIME NOVEMBER 22, 2015 | 11:38AM PT Whitney Friedlander As a jilted wife slowly coming to terms with a life she never had planned for herself, “The Affair’s” Maura Tierney has found a perfect balance of comedy and tragedy in her character Helen’s situation. Whether it’s ill-planned rebound sex, drinking wine while fighting with shapewear or hitting bottom and spending a night in the slammer, this poor little rich girl-turned Park Slope mother of four has become a fan favorite of the Showtime drama. Speaking with Variety in its Los Angeles office, Tierney said she was definitive on at least one thing about her character. “I said Helen will have fixed her hair by episode eight,” Tierney laughed, referring to the gray streaks her character winds up with after the aforementioned night behind bars. She also talked about the series’ overarching mystery of if Helen’s ex, Noah Solloway (Dominic West), actually committed murder and keeping up with its multiple time jumps. Now that we’re a good ways through the season, can you tell us anything more about the murder mystery?The mystery’s going to be solved definitely by the end of this season. They’re not going to tease it out excruciatingly long. That’s really all I can say. There’s this excellent mix of humor and tragedy with Helen.[The writers] took care of me. I think I worked on Helen being funny this season. I think I contributed in that way so that they knew to write for that, but the writers just did a great job with her. Anya Epstein wrote episode four [where Helen has her disastrous situation]. I liked it because it was just so sad, but also so funny. Speaking of that episode, is there an art to dancing in your Spanx?Just throw your ego out the window. I don’t wear Spanx, like politically I hate them. I really responded to the idea that it’s impossible to take them off and it’s humiliating to do so. Was it meant to be a feminist statement?I think she just wants to take them off, but the moment where she looks at herself in the mirror and is like this is it … How do you keep the storylines in order in your mind?I think all of it is actual reality. That’s how I play it. People are always like, “What’s the real story?” I think all of it. Or none of it. From the viewpoint of the performance, I know the critics get upset because they think that the POVs have been diverging too wildly. But that doesn’t bother me. We’re both experiencing this moment in a completely different way and we’re going to remember it in a completely different way. Everyone certainly believes that their memory is the truth. This weekend has a Helen and Noah episode. Do you feel any pressure or get nervous when you get a script, given how much they’re making you do this season?Sometimes I read it and hope I can do it justice. I get nervous when people talk loudly in the room with what I’m supposed to do and it becomes a thing I have to do and it’s not organic. There’s some funny parts in this episode because Noah and Helen go drinking together. I hope it came out funny, but it felt funny doing it. There’s a turning point for Noah and Helen in Episode 8. They’re coming to terms with a new relationship. In this one, his side is a lot more humorous. They go back to where they went to college. variety.com/2015/tv/news/the-affair-maura-tierney-helen-noah-1201646252/credits:twitter.com/mauratierneyfan
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Post by sissa on Dec 2, 2015 10:46:04 GMT 10
Breakout TV Performances We’re Thankful ForBY VARIETY STAFF TV’s Best Side Dishes The turkey is the main course on Thanksgiving, but the side dishes are often standouts of the meal. While television's leading stars deserve all the attention they get, Variety's TV team is giving thanks to some of the year's best supporting stars this holiday season. Maura Tierney // “The Affair” The actress has never been more sublime than in her meaty role in Showtime's "The Affair." In Tierney's hands, Helen Solloway is a hot mess of a 40-something woman coming to terms with rejection, regrets and uncertainties about her post-divorce life. ... variety.com/gallery/breakout-tv-performances-were-thankful-for/#!2/maura-tierney-the-affair/ ‘The Affair’ Recap: Season 2, Episode 9By SARENE LEEDS 11:00 pm ET Nov 29, 2015 TV Joshua Jackson as Cole Lockhart and Catalina Sandino Moreno as Luisa Mark Schafer/Showtime Warning: This recap contains major spoilers from Episode 209 of “The Affair” There were no real bombshells in tonight’s episode of “The Affair” – though the Noah/Whitney incident at the Hamptons party is debatable – but it hardly took this tweet from showrunner Sarah Treem to confirm that “everything changes” after this week. Anyone who watched what went down with our four principal characters will know that we should all prepare for a substantial shift in the narrative going forward. A big reason for this is, as Treem also said in the tweet, the creative decision to “break the mold” in the series’ storytelling style. For the first time this season, there were no flash-forwards to the washed-out, post-Noah’s arrest time period. But even more striking – in addition to having an hour with a full-color palette – was the choice to abandon the dual-perspective approach for this episode (and possibly going forward). Other than a few time stamps to remind us that we were following all of the characters as they faced the same extraordinary day, the narrative regularly switched from Alison to Helen to Noah and to Cole. It was also difficult to know if we were seeing the characters’ perspectives, or, in a truly unprecedented event, an objective point of view. We’ve jumped ahead a few months in this episode, with a weather newscast establishing that we’re now in March – and that everyone in the “Affair” universe, not just people named Solloway, Lockhart or Bailey, is about to be permanently affected by a gathering storm called Hurricane Alice. Helen’s Unexpected Affair While Alison’s story line navigates its way through both Noah’s and Cole’s this week, Helen’s subplot is the closest “The Affair” comes to a “bottle episode”: She’s detached from the other three main characters, but the developments in her narrative are no less important. Tonight we see Helen take her first real steps toward life after divorce. When her Tinder date doesn’t show (oh, Whitney), the mother of four strikes up a conversation with a handsome, very-familiar-looking gentleman, who reveals himself to be Dr. Vic Ullah – the surgeon who operated on Martin a few episodes ago. Thanks to the impending hurricane, their budding relationship is forcibly accelerated: With the bar closed due to a subway shutdown, and Dr. Ullah needing a place to hang before his hospital shift starts, the two adults throw all manner of social customs to the wind that is literally whipping at their faces. Besides, Helen admits that she’s so over the concept of dating. “It’s just an interview for sex,” she tells the doctor, who counters with, “Want to have sex?” Maura Tierney as Helen Solloway and Omar Metwally as Dr. Vic Ullah Mark Schafer/Showtime After checking that the Solloway kids are safe and sound at the brownstone (save for Whitney, who has been picked up by her friend Chrissy – remember that for later), Helen sneaks Dr. Ullah into the basement for a filthy-looking quickie on the concrete floor. But it’s the doctor’s actions afterward that leave the most lingering effects on Helen. Instead of sending him out into the storm, she encourages her new friend to stick around by offering him a beverage. This allows for a puzzled Martin to walk into the kitchen and ask why his ER surgeon is randomly at his house. The smooth Dr. Ullah – who has already proved his ability to turn on the charm with the most annoying of his patients (or, rather the mother of his patient) through a sugary-sweet phone call – eliminates the awkward element by offering to help the Crohn’s-afflicted teen with his HUMIRA injections. (They stopped the treatment because Helen’s hands shook while giving the shots, and it was too painful for Martin.) The exchange between Martin and Dr. Ullah turned out to be a major trigger for Helen’s emotions, and she escapes to her bedroom to cry in solitude, only to be interrupted by her visitor. With no one else to confide in, she opens up to Dr. Ullah about how overwhelmed she is – because it’s beyond obvious that hotshot book author Noah hasn’t been around to fulfill his parenting duties, again. The discussion about the HUMIRA injections just reminded her of how she’s done nothing but hurt her children over the past year. “Sometimes I think I hate being a mother,” she admits. While I don’t think that’s true, I do think it make sense she feels that way. If all you’re doing is causing your kids pain – whether you mean to or not – then it’s a natural reaction. From left: Jake Richard Siciliano as Martin Solloway, Omar Metwally as Dr. Vic Ullah and Maura Tierney as Helen Solloway Mark Schafer/Showtime There’s no clear resolution to this story line, but the doctor does leave Helen with a healthy dose of hope: He teaches her and Martin some nifty tricks to lessen the pain of the shots – and, before departing, he gives Helen a romantic kiss on the inside of her wrist. As the rain comes down in buckets, and Dr. Ullah heads out into it, Helen cannot help but smile. It’s the first time we’ve seen her this happy in the entire series. Noah’s Crushed American Dream As the hurricane builds, so do Alison’s contractions. We see that she’s not only home alone, but Noah has become unreachable. She is forced to go to the hospital by herself, and endure the uncertainty of what’s ahead solo. We learn that she’s five weeks from her due date, but try telling that to a five-centimeters-dilated cervix. Baby Joanie is on her way, and before we even see where Noah is, it becomes quite clear he won’t be around for the birth. Why? Because he’s pulling up to a sprawling Hamptons mansion with Eden, both oblivious to the water lapping at the car windows and Noah’s incessant ringing phone. See, the house belongs to a big Hollywood producer who wants to make a movie of “Descent,” and there’s a really good chance an equally interested George Clooney might stop by tonight. There’s a flimsy plot point of Noah not being able to find his phone in the car, which is exacerbated by Eden, who tells him to forget about it. But I have a feeling that even if Noah had his phone on him the whole time, he still would’ve ignored it. Because what lay ahead for him inside that Hamptons palace was the apex of his abounding ambition: A party filled with bikini-clad women, plentiful drugs, Keith Richards (just mentioned, no cameo) – and an ego-stroking Hollywood producer (played by James Naughton) who compares Noah to Henry Miller and Vladimir Nabokov, and calls him Norman Mailer‘s “literary son.” Brooke Lyons as Eden Ellery and Dominic West as Noah Solloway Mark Schafer/Showtime Life could not get any better for Noah at that point, but it does. First Naughton’s character, Rodney Callahan, plies him with cocaine. Then he announces he wants Jennifer Lawrence to play the Alison character (“Lana”), and then he busts out the biggest shocker of them all: He wants to change the ending of “Descent” to something more “romantic,” à la Noah’s original idea of not killing off “Lana.” But reality is still creeping up behind Noah and breaking his reverie, no matter how hard he tries to ignore it. A wasted, obnoxious Max barges in on his BFF’s meeting with Rodney, insulting the party’s host to his face and suggesting former porn star Sasha Grey portray Lana. As Noah tries to get rid of Max, his hedge-fund pal reminds him that maybe he could pay back that $50,000 now that he’s a rich superstar author. More tellingly, Max points out that Noah’s changed, and not for the better: “You were supposed to be the good guy, and I was supposed to be the a—hole.” Noah continues running away from his past via more cocaine, shots with a red-dress-clad Eden, and a steamy dance with his publicist to the very appropriate LCD Soundsystem track “North American Scum” (The lyric “In the end we make the same mistakes all over again” is pure Noah here). She entices him to join her upstairs, citing that “the tour’s over.” Between the news that the roads are closed – slumber party! – and that Clooney’s not coming, Noah sees no reason to argue with Eden’s indecent proposal. Maura Tierney as Helen Solloway PAUL SARKIS/Showtime Except maybe Eden shouldn’t have told her client to give her 15 minutes, because while Noah was killing time – accepting a vape from two lovely ladies, noticing a copy of Mailer’s “An American Dream” on Rodney’s coffee table and broadly smiling at his seemingly endless success – he was jolted out of his ego trance in the worst way possible. In a drug-induced haze, a naked Noah slips into a pool filled with other swimsuit-less partygoers. But he’s intrigued by two young girls making out in the Jacuzzi. It’s obvious he wants to turn their little party into a Noah sandwich as he slowly moves toward them, but when one of the teens reveals herself to be Whitney, it’s hard to know who is more freaked out by what just happened, father or daughter. A thoroughly embarrassed and disgusted-with-himself Noah bolts out into the downpour, jumping into his BMW BMW.XE 0.00% and finally locating his phone. As if his night couldn’t get any worse, Noah discovers the dozens of texts and missed calls from Alison, and in a panic, makes a futile attempt to head home. But it’s too late – and I don’t just mean because of the weather. The closed roads and muddy ditch that claims Noah’s car are secondary to his unbridled ambition, which is the real culprit here. Noah breaks down in sobs over what he knows he’s lost: Alison, Whitney – and the new baby, all thrown away for the glory of fame and fortune. How he’s supposed to recover from this is anybody’s guess. The Curse of Cole Alison may have been trying to reach Noah all night, but her real connection throughout her labor was with Cole, even if neither character was aware of that fact. There’s a reason why Joanie’s birth was intercut with scenes of Cole, and not Noah – and it’s more than just because we’re 99 percent sure Cole is her biological father. Both Alison and Cole are still shrouded in the grief caused by Gabriel‘s death, and it’s preventing either of them from moving forward in their lives, especially in Cole’s case. Their fears are legitimate, but neither character will ever be able to find happiness if they keep fighting against their realities. Cole and Luisa are riding out the hurricane in the now-sold-and-packed-up beachside house. They remain in love, but Cole continues to put unnecessary brakes on their relationship. First he still staunchly refuses to move to New York, despite Luisa’s constant reminders that regular trips out to Montauk are growing more and more inconvenient. But it’s when Luisa reveals that she is unable to have children (fibroids) that Cole’s self-destructive nature sets their romance on a one-way path to ruin. Cole, completely insensitive to Luisa’s heartache (as she angrily reminds him, she’s the one who can’t have babies), makes her infertility all about him and further proof of the Lockhart family curse. Quick question: So who is that little boy Luisa was looking after in this episode and this one? Appalled at his behavior, and realizing that all Cole ever does is blame others for his pain, Luisa bails for the rest of the episode: “I love you Cole. But I can’t get rid of your curse. You have to do that for yourself.” Catalina Sandino Moreno as Luisa and Joshua Jackson as Cole Lockhart Mark Schafer/Showtime Unbeknownst to both of them, his curse is being broken as they speak. Though Alison’s stress, caused by her terror over history repeating itself and her misery over having been abandoned by Noah, has put the baby in danger. With Joanie’s heart rate dropping, Alison gets some tough love from her doctor, who orders her to “stop fighting the contractions.” As Alison sobs throughout the birth, a traumatized Cole tries to annihilate the pain of his past by getting drunk on moonshine. The rain pounds onto the beach house and the hospital, and Alison’s labor moans seem to echo all the way out to Cole, who is also crying uncontrollably. Their shared drama builds as Cole, looking out at the rain-swept ocean, sees an apparition of Gabriel. Gabriel calls out to his father to join him in the water, which, given the boy’s drowning death, seems to suggest some suicidal thoughts on Cole’s part. But instead, Cole drenches the house with the moonshine, and sets the property aflame, just as Joanie makes her first appearance. The next morning, a finally blissful Alison is resting comfortably, with little Joanie in her arms. She’s told that her “husband” has arrived (so did Noah and Alison tie the knot offscreen, or was the doctor just mistaken?), but when asked if he should be shown in, Alison says, “not yet.” With those two little words, Alison has firmly established that there is no place in Noah’s life for her and Joanie anymore. We know their relationship will still exist months and possibly years down the road, but they’ve reached a point of no return here. Alison’s focus will now be on her daughter, and Noah will be lucky to come second. But will there ever be – and should there be? Tough call – a way for Cole (and Luisa, if she is the one he marries) to share in the joy of raising Joanie? Forget Scotty: Such pressure this kid is going to be under if Cole ever finds out about her, I tell you. “The Affair” airs Sundays on Showtime at 10 p.m. Follow our recaps here all season long. blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2015/11/29/the-affair-recap-season-2-episode-9/ The Affair Season 2, Ep. 9 | Aired Nov 29 Posted November 29 2015 — 11:00 PM EST I think this is the first episode we’ve seen where we’re in no character’s perspective! What are we to make of such a thing? Who is driving this bus? Related 'The Affair' recap: The Importance of Being Earnest (Schiffbaum) We begin at noon with a very pregnant Alison cleaning out her fridge and helpfully listening to the radio, which tells us that it’s March and a huge hurricane is heading towards the area. An hour later, we’re with Helen who is moodily sitting in a cute cafe/bar and telling the waitress that she’s being stood up on a Tinder date. It just never gets easier dating in New York City, does it? The waitress helpfully tells her to try Match instead because Tinder is a hookup app. But look who is at the bar! It’s the handsome surgeon, Dr. Ullah, who some of you sharp-eyed readers noticed was making eyes at Helen during the great Martin stomach crisis. He’s very sexy in a rakish kind of way and has that kind of deadpan sarcasm thing that makes it incredibly hard to tell if he’s kidding or not. Helen is having trouble with this — especially when he says/jokes that surgeons just want to booze it up with whiskey all the time. (By the way, he’s drinking at a bar near the hospital, which is indeed a little worrying.) He’s clearly got a case of the Helens, though, and his ears perk up a bit when he hears she’s divorced. They get kicked out of the bar on account of the storm and he immediately starts hitting on her. The waitress is like, “Um, keep it on the sidewalk people,” but does the universal girl signal for you-go-girl-he’s-hot. Outside, Helen is all like, “Ugh, you want to ask me out? Why?” “It’s just an interview for sex,” she says. He’s all, “Cool, want to have sex?” And Helen, bless her, says yes. So this is the wild Helen we’ve heard so much about! I’m into it. She sneaks him into the basement entrance of the brownstone while the little kids are watching TV. They proceed to have some hot-looking basement sex. Afterward she somehow brings him up stairs for a glass of water and some awkward chit-chat without the kids catching wind of anything. He gets a call from the hospital and very patiently and sweetly talks a very nervous parent off a ledge. Helen takes note, but then the mood is broken after he hangs up and is all, “Needy b—-.” Before she can investigate, Martin is like, “Oh hey, why is my surgeon in my kitchen?” Again this dude again seems like the greatest guy in the world. He asks if Martin has been taking some injections, and Helen and Martin admit they’ve been skipping them because they hurt and Helen’s hands shake. Dr. U is all like, “Wait I can show you a trick!” Martin starts to freak out, but the good doctor manages to chill Martin out and give it a chance to work. After Martin leaves, Helen is basically, “Okay, so who are you?” “Are you a nice guy that acts like a d–k or a d–k that acts like a nice guy?” Excellent question, Helen! He doesn’t get it. She keeps pressing about what on earth is going on inside this guy’s heart. His response: “My heart is a muscular organ with four chambers… It doesn’t feel anything. It works.” Well, that is it for Helen. She’s done trying to figure these monster men out. She goes upstairs and cries. Dr. U comes in, and she really rants to him about how hard it’s been and how did this happen and how it’s a lot. Poor Helen. I can’t for the life of me answer Helen’s question about this guy — I keep going back and forth. I do know that in the midst of all this heart exposing, he’s distracted by a Tinder message! Nope. He does help Martin, though, so that’s something. Helen gets her kids settled on the couch and tells Dr. U he can wait out the the storm with them if he wants. “I’d rather drown,” he says, but sort of sweetly, and kisses the inside of her wrist goodbye. Huh! A real head scratcher. Meanwhile, Alison is in labor. She keeps calling Noah, who is not picking up. Of course. At the hospital she learns her regular doctor won’t be making it due to the storm, and instead she has a sweet young doctor named Dr. DiMato. Alison is all, “Hey, I’m not due for another five weeks.” And honestly I don’t know what this math does for all us Cole-as-Daddy conspiracy theorists, but I’m sure it means something. The doctor lets her know that whether she planned on it or not, this baby is coming tonight. At 7 p.m., Noah and Eden are pulling up to the fancy house of a producer who wants to adapt Noah’s book. There’s even talk of George Clooney committing — man, I love the idea of George Clooney portraying a fictionalized Noah Solloway! Noah hears his phone buzzing but can’t find it, and Eden convinces him to just leave it in the car. Which…no way. No way on a normal day, but especially no way when you have a very pregnant wife and there’s a crazy storm, right? Inside, the party is raging as hard as the storm outside. Eden is all sexy kitten’d out and brings him back to meet the producer, Rodney Callahan. (Place your guesses on who this guy is based on but I’ll go with Jerry Weintraub mixed with Robert Evans with a sprinkling of Scott Rudin for fun.) He tells Noah that he’s the literary son of Norman Mailer. (Ugh, please don’t tell Noah that.) He puts out a table of cocaine, too, and Noah partakes. Hilariously, Rodney wants to change the ending of the movie version to what Noah originally fought for: the couple sitting down to dinner instead of the guy running the woman down with his car. Jennifer Lawrence’s name is dropped as a potential Alison character. But imagine if Decent was really this popular of a book and then Hollywood just up and changed the ending? People would lose their mind. Anyway, maybe this isn’t even going to happen because here comes bumbling idiot friend Max. Hi, Max! Max immediately puts his foot in it, insulting Rodney, gobbling down some coke without being invited, and in general being a boob. Noah tries to toss him, and Max bristles. He reminds Noah that he was the one who leant him 50K when he needed it. As they bicker, there’s an announcement that the roads will be closing soon, so if people need to leave, they should do it soon. Noah hurries back to Rodney and tries to pretend like Max is Helen’s friend. (If Noah only knew the half of it!) Noah does some more coke and is clearly getting trashed but also is having a good time. He and Eden dance, and ugh, you all know how I feel about this lady. Her whole no-mixing-work-with-pleasure rule is apparently over because when Noah makes to leave, she gives him a pretty good invitation to stay with her. Oh, Noah. Sigh. It doesn’t really matter because the announcement comes moments later that the roads are closing. Eden and Noah start making out, and she tells him to meet her in a guest bedroom in fifteen minutes. Why the delay, Eden? Noah and I are both wondering. I suppose a lady needs her time. However, this turns out to be a bad call on her part as now Noah is wandering the party in a drunken/drugged/sexual haze. He smokes some pot and smiles when he see’s Norman Mailer’s An American Dream on the coffee table. The party, by the way, now looks more Plato’s Retreat than fancy cocktail party, what with all the naked ladies in the pool. And we all know that Noah has a tough time resisting both nubile young women and swimming pools. So off go his clothes and in he goes. The show does a nice job of showing the impaired brain in this scene: Underwater everyone is naked; above water everything is just dreamy and hazy. When he swims to the side of the pool, he spies two young women making out in the hot tub. Noah is all id at this point, and he hops out of the pool and plops down beside them, no doubt hoping for an invitation to join or, at the very least, for a free show. But…well, oops: One of the young women is Whitney. (Cue screaming.) And I mean…this is enough to kill every sexual impulse for the rest of your life, right? Whitney screams, and Noah flees into the rain. He should definitely not be driving, but I understand the need to get the hell out of that situation. He wrestles the keys away from the valet and gets in. And that’s when he notices the millions of missed messages and calls from Alison and the hospital. Side note: It is only 9:27 p.m., which seems pretty early for such late-night behavior, but I suppose everyone goes a little hard during a hurricane party. Noah realizes he’s managed to really screw the pooch on this one and starts cursing and driving. Of course, no one was kidding about the roads being out, and he ends up getting stuck in the muck behind a blockade. And maybe this is bottom? Noah realizes he’s also spiritually stuck in some mud and begins to cry. Pull it together, Noah! It’s 10 p.m., and Alison has been in labor for at least five hours, poor thing. She’s scared and freaked out and wants her husband. The doctor, who I like, stays calm and tells her she won’t leave Alison, even when the power is flickering in and out. Meanwhile, an hour later we’re back in Montauk. Cole is in a gloomy funk and barely paying attention to his lovely girlfriend as she tries to entertain him with stories of her failed ballet lessons. He’s pissed because he got stuck cleaning out Alison’s crap. Well, it sounds like Luisa was stuck cleaning out Alison’s crap. Luisa, bless her, is like, “I know how you can thank me: Let’s get busy!” So they do. Hooray for hurricane sex! But wait: Cole says he didn’t bring a condom. No problem, says Luisa. Afterward Luisa gets practical: Cole is about to be homeless and rich. Cole is doing that dumb dude thing where he’s saying he refuses to take any money from the sale of the house. She also points out that she has a new job and it will be harder for her to get back and forth to Montauk. She floats the idea of Cole moving to the city which he clearly is not into. He brings her to the piece of wood where he recorded Gabriel’s height over the years (ending, sadly, in 2013). He asks if he should take it, and Luisa tells him, of course. But when he mentions that perhaps one day they’ll be cutting notches into the wood for their own kids, Luisa freaks out. Turns out she can’t get pregnant. Poor Luisa! She had fibroids and didn’t have health insurance and went to some quack who removed the fibroids but left so much scarring that she can no longer carry a baby to term. Cole has just about the worst reaction to this. He’s all, “Oh my god, my crazy grandmother was right: This family is cursed!” And if you hear screaming, it’s because I’m shouting in my empty apartment about adoption and surrogacy. I mean, come on people. Thankfully, Luisa tells him a thing or three about how offensive it is that Cole turns everything that happens — including her terrible tale of infertility — into something that’s about him. I agree, lady. “The world does not revolve around your pain.” Word, Luisa! She stomps off, and Cole lets her. At 2 a.m., things have gotten really dark. Alison is crying about not even wanting to have this baby. (Boy, The Affair sure wants you to know how horrific childbirth is.) The doctor tells her to pull it together. Not too far away, Cole is drinking Grandpa Babykiller’s moonshine and is straight up hallucinating visions of his dead son. Boy, everyone is hitting a real low this episode. We cut back and forth between Alison and Cole both in a lot of pain. (For you Cole-daddy theorists, this seems to be giving you a lot of bolstering.) Cole decides to straight up light the place on fire, which is sad because I love this house, but I suppose that doesn’t matter because he already mentioned earlier that the new owners were planning to knock it down anyway. As the old home and memories go up in literal flames, the new baby is being born. And then it’s morning, and Alison is smiling (with remarkably clean and shiny hair) at her new beautiful daughter. The doctor tells her that Noah has finally arrived, but Alison tells her to not let him in just yet. Golly. www.ew.com/recap/the-affair-season-2-episode-9/2
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Post by sissa on Dec 2, 2015 10:52:38 GMT 10
'The Affair' Season 2, Episode 9 recap: Stormy weatherEthan Renner For The Baltimore Sun As a hurricane approaches "The Affair," Alison enters early labor. Noon. Alison is working in the kitchen when we hear that Hurricane Alice is on the way. Meanwhile, at a restaurant, Helen is being stood up by a date from a "hookup app for millennials," as her waitress describes it. The helpful server suggests that Helen try a different Internet site for online dating, "where the divorcees hang out." Yikes. Helen, thoroughly disgusted, asks for the check. While she waits to settle up, a man at the bar asks her if he knows her. He does. He's Dr. Ullah, the doctor that operated on Martin earlier in the season. 'The Affair' recap: The descent of man. Well, just Noah 'The Affair' recap: The descent of man. Well, just Noah Helen says that she's been meaning to follow up with the doctor to thank him, and he suggests that she buy him some alcohol. He offers his home address so that she can send him some whiskey and mentions that he's on call. Helen, noting that he's already drinking and asking for another, asks how much he's had to drink. "This? Don't worry. This just loosens my joints," he says. The server alerts the pair that they need to leave, as the place is closing early due to the impending hurricane. The good doctor takes this as an opportunity to ask for Helen's number, after she tells him that she isn't married any more. "Bad idea," she says. She tells him not to ask her out on a date, and muses, "What's a date anyway? It's just an interview for sex." 'The Affair": Season 2, Episode 8 photos "OK. Would you like to have sex with me?" Ullah asks. "Sure," Helen says. I don't know, man. Does stuff like this happen in your life? Nothing remotely close to this has ever happened to me. I mean, I'm happy for Helen. I'm just curious. Helen takes the doctor back to the brownstone, and after making sure that her children are occupied, she informs them that she's "going to the basement to check for leaks." "Is it raining yet?" Trevor asks. No son, it isn't. Helen and the doctor do the deed in the basement, after she sneaks him in. After, they make awkward small talk in the kitchen. Dr. Ullah takes a phone call form the hospital from a patient concerned about the storm. "Needy bitch," he says, after hanging up. As Helen tries to usher the man out, Martin pops in. He's surprised to see the doctor, who says that he was in the area and dropped by to check on him. Ullah suggests a different way to administer Martin's injections. Martin balks at first, but agrees to allow the doctor to give him the needle once the medicine warms to room temperature. "I don't get it," Helen says. "Are you a nice guy that acts like a dick, or a dick that acts like a nice guy?" she asks. He rambles on about the good he does and whether or not it outweighs the bad and says that it's up to Helen to decide what to make of him, and that he doesn't feel anything in his heart. "It doesn't feel anything," he says. "It works." Helen retires to her bedroom and cries a bit. Dr. Ullah checks in on her and asks if something he said upset her. "It's just really depressing," she says. She says she doesn't want him to go, she wants him to stay and give Martin his shot, because she hurts him when she does it. She says she's put her kids through hell fro the last year. "How did this happen? How did this happen?" she asks rhetorically. As Helen pours out her heart and talks about how she hates being a mother sometimes, the doctor's phone buzzes. It's a message from that hookup app. Helen asks him to leave her alone. Dr. Ullah stays to give Martin his shot, which goes well. Helen gets her kids a snack, and tells the doctor that he's welcome to stay to wait out the storm, if he isn't going to run off to answer the message from the app. "I'd rather drown," he says. He reaches to kiss Helen, but Helen pulls away, as they are in plain view of her children. They step further into the hallway and Ullah kisses her wrist before leaving. Who is this guy? Helen steps back into the living room and tells the kids that Dr. Ullah left, so they run to the window to wave goodbye. In her apartment, Alison is experiencing stomach pains -- or maybe contractions? She calls Noah, but he doesn't answer. "Where are you?" she says. She heads to the hospital to see her doctor, but the doctor couldn't make it in due to the storm. Another doctor tends to Alison, who comments on how young the doctor seems. She assures her that she's a real doctor and Alison lays down to be examined. Alison says that she can't possibly be in labor, as she isn't due for another five weeks. After examining her,and determining that she is five centimeters dilated, the doctor tells her differently. "Allison, you are having a baby tonight," she says. "No, I don't know where he is," Alison says when asked if she has a partner there with her. "It's OK, we will find him," the doctor assures her. 7 p.m. Noah and Eden are waiting in a car outside a party, talking about his book, "Descent" being made into a movie. Eden tells him that he needs to hit it off with Rodney Callahan, the potential director, at the event they're about to step into. George Clooney is going to be there, Eden tells him. As Noah takes a big swig of ego, his phone buzzes. He reaches for it, but can't find it in the dark car. Eden tells him to forget the phone, and that it will be there when they come out of the event. "Solloway, let's go," she says. And he does. Inside, music blares and celebrities and revelers mill around. Noah spots Keith Richards, and Eden says she can introduce Noah to him if he likes. She takes Noah directly to Callahan, who seems thrilled to meet Noah, and wants to talk business. "Do you know how long it has been since someone dared to mix high art and good old fashioned f---ing?" Callahan says of "Descent." He continues to heap praise on Noah, name-drops Norman Mailer and boasts of the movies he did based on his work. Callahan casually pulls out a cocaine platter, and offers some to Noah. "Here, try this. I heard it's very good," Callahan says. Noah snorts some cocaine, and Callahan suggests a different ending to "Descent" for the movie, something more along the lines of what Noah had originally planned. Amped on drugs and wanting to make a good impression, Noah enthusiastically agrees with him. Callahan has another note for Noah, but he is interrupted by Max, who just happens to be there, too. Max makes a snide remark about the host of the party being a snob, and Noah awkwardly introduces him to Callahan. While Max starts man-splaining something or other about Wall Street, he sees the cocaine and decides to help himself. Callahan is put off by Max and even more put off that Noah would be associated with someone like him. Noah pulls Max away, telling him that he's ruining his business deal. Max brings up the money that he loaned Noah and things get testy. A server at the party interrupts and announces that anyone not staying the night should leave now, as the police are going to close the roads. "How do you know that unpleasant human being?" Callahan asks Noah, as he returns to his table. "He was a friend of my ex-wife," Noah says. With Callahan appeased for the moment, Noah and Eden hit the bar, drinking shot after shot, and then they hit the dance floor. While there, an attendant approaches Eden and tells her that George Clooney isn't going to make it after all because of the weather. Noah says that if Cloon-Dogg isn't going to be there, that he should get home. He asks Eden if she could call him a cab. "I could," she says. "Or you can stay and see what happens," she says, and grabs Noah below the belt. Noah asks her about her business and pleasure policy. "Tour's over, Noah," she says. Then the attendant announces to the party that the roads have been closed, and that everyone there is in for the night. "See? It's a sleepover," Eden says. She tells Noah to meet her in a guest bedroom in 15 minutes. Welp. Trying to kill some time, Noah sits down and casually takes a pull off a vape pen that someone offers him. At least I think that's what it was. I'm not cool, so I don't know for sure. He sees a copy of a Mailer book on the table and smiles. He still has some time to kill, so Noah wanders to the pool area of the building, drink in hand. Some naked swimmers make the pool seem like a pretty cool place to be, so Noah takes his clothes off and hops in. It's about to get awful. Noah looks over to a nearby hot tub and sees two women kissing. Noah decides to head over there and see what might happen. As he climbs into the tub, and settles in, one of the young ladies turns around to see what was up. The young lady was Whitney. She screams at her father to get out, and he does. 9:27 p.m. Noah runs and grabs his keys, intent on leaving despite the valet's protests. Noah gets to his car and grabs his phone. He has a series of missed calls and messages, of course. Distraught, he drives off into the night. He narrowly misses a fallen tree, then sees a roadblock. He tries to drive around, only to get is car stuck in mud. He screams and cries, knowing that he won't be there for Alison. 10 p.m. "Please keep trying him. I can't do this alone. I can't do this alone," Alison says to the doctor as her contractions intensify. "You are not alone right now," the doctor assures her. 11 p.m. Luisa tries to distract Cole with a story from her childhood, as he simmers in the beach house. "Everything that was her responsibility, you did," he tells Luisa. Alison was supposed to come by to pack her things so that the house can be sold. Clearly she's busy, but Cole doesn't know that. Luisa asks for a thank you, which is television trope for "sex." Cole mentions that he didn't bring any condoms, but Luisa tells him that's OK, which is television trope for "Luisa will be pregnant in an upcoming episode." "Where are you going to live? In a tree?" Luisa asks, after. Cole is officially homeless as of the next day, and says that he has no plans to take any money that Alison might offer from the sale of the house. "I'll figure something out," he says. Luisa says that she won't be able to come to Montauk as often when she has her new job and asks if Cole had considered moving to the city. No, he tells her, but assures her that he loves her and that they'll work things out. As they ready to leave the house for the last time, Cole shows Luisa some notches on a frame where he used to mark Gabriel's height. "He would have loved you," he says. "Who knows, maybe someday we can cut in some notches for our own kids." Luisa pulls away. Cole goes after her, confused as to why the mood changed. "I should have told you sooner. I can't get pregnant. I'm infertile," she says. Cole's eyes glaze over as Luisa explains a medical procedure that she underwent years earlier. "It's true," he says. "We're cursed. My family is cursed." Luisa tells Cole that she's sorry that he lost Gabriel, but that the idea that he is cursed because of something his grandfather did is absurd. "The world does not revolve around your pain," she says. "I know that," he says. "Do you? Because you don't seem like you know," she counters. Cole says that Scotty looks after his family now, and that he doesn't have to take care of them any more. "Scotty's an addict. He needs to go to rehab. But at least he's trying, which is more than I can say for you," she says. "I love you, Cole. But I can't get rid of your curse. You have to do that for yourself," Luisa says. She says that Cole always blames everyone else for the bad in his life, and that it has become clear to her that he will blame her if things go wrong between them. 2 a.m. "I don't want this baby," Alison says as her labor continues. "You have to stop fighting," the doctor says, telling her that the baby's heart rate is slowing. "This baby is coming," she says. Alone in the house, Cole pulls out some of the family moonshine and chokes it down. Drunk, he kneels in front of the notches on the door frame and cries. He looks outside and sees a vision of Gabriel. "Daddy, come into the water with me," he hears. Alison bears down and pushes at the doctor's urging. Cole pours moonshine all over the house and sets it on fire. "She's here, Alison. She's here," the doctor says. Cole stands in the middle of the burning house. The next morning "Good morning, Alison. She's perfect," the doctor says as she checks in on Alison, who is holding her child. "Alison, your husband is finally here. Should I show him in?" the doctor asks. "Not yet," she says. Final thoughts I applaud the show for playing with the format and changing up the story structure. It made for a more manic episode than usual, but I like that the writers and producers aren't afraid to try things. I can be pretty harsh when it comes to my feelings on the Noah character and Dominic West at times. I find his American accent rather suspect, I find it completely unbelievable that he would know or care about baseball, which Noah seems to know a lot about, and I don't think it helps that I have come to think of Noah as a completely irredeemable character. All that said, he was great in this episode. I don't know of too many actors that would have nailed the desperation in the crying scene in the car the way that Mr. West did here. Bravo. Copyright © 2015, The Baltimore Sun www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/bthesite/tv-lust/bal-the-affair-season-2-episode-9-recap-stormy-weather-20151129-story.html
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Post by sissa on Dec 2, 2015 10:57:29 GMT 10
Maura Tierney and the art of dancing in SpanxBY WHITNEY FRIEDLANDER, VARIETY AT 03:11 PM ON NOV 29, 2015 Maura Tierney on 'The Affair' As a jilted wife slowly coming to terms with a life she never had planned for herself, “The Affair’s” Maura Tierney has found a perfect balance of comedy and tragedy in her character Helen’s situation. Whether it’s ill-planned rebound sex, drinking wine while fighting with shapewear or hitting bottom and spending a night in the slammer, this poor little rich girl-turned Park Slope mother of four has become a fan favorite of the Showtime drama. Tierney says she was definitive on at least one thing about her character.“I said Helen will have fixed her hair by episode eight,” Tierney laughs, referring to the gray streaks her character winds up with after the aforementioned night behind bars. She also talks about the series’ overarching mystery of if Helen’s ex, Noah Solloway (Dominic West), actually committed murder and keeping up with its multiple time jumps. Now that we’re a good ways through the season, can you tell us anything more about the murder mystery?The mystery’s going to be solved definitely by the end of this season. They’re not going to tease it out excruciatingly long. That’s really all I can say. There’s this excellent mix of humor and tragedy with Helen.[The writers] took care of me. I think I worked on Helen being funny this season. I think I contributed in that way so that they knew to write for that, but the writers just did a great job with her. Anya Epstein wrote episode four [where Helen has her disastrous situation]. I liked it because it was just so sad, but also so funny. Speaking of that episode, is there an art to dancing in your Spanx?Just throw your ego out the window. I don’t wear Spanx, like politically I hate them. I really responded to the idea that it’s impossible to take them off and it’s humiliating to do so. Was it meant to be a feminist statement?I think she just wants to take them off, but the moment where she looks at herself in the mirror and is like this is it … How do you keep the storylines in order in your mind?I think all of it is actual reality. That’s how I play it. People are always like, “What’s the real story?” I think all of it. Or none of it. From the viewpoint of the performance, I know the critics get upset because they think that the POVs have been diverging too wildly. But that doesn’t bother me. We’re both experiencing this moment in a completely different way and we’re going to remember it in a completely different way. Everyone certainly believes that their memory is the truth. Last weekend had a Helen and Noah episode. Do you feel any pressure or get nervous when you get a script, given how much they’re making you do this season?Sometimes I read it and hope I can do it justice. I get nervous when people talk loudly in the room with what I’m supposed to do and it becomes a thing I have to do and it’s not organic. There’s some funny parts in this episode because Noah and Helen go drinking together. I hope it came out funny, but it felt funny doing it. There’s a turning point for Noah and Helen in Episode 8. They’re coming to terms with a new relationship. In this one, his side is a lot more humorous. They go back to where they went to college. zap2it.com/2015/11/the-affair-maura-tierney-dancing-spanx/
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Post by sissa on Dec 3, 2015 9:53:07 GMT 10
The Affair Recap: You Are Not AloneBy Angelica Jade Bastién Jake Richard Siciliano as Martin, Omar Metwally as Vic, and Maura Tierney as Helen. Showtime/Mark Schafer All season long, I've wondered when we would get an episode unencumbered by anyone's perspective. We've finally got one with episode nine. It's nice to finally answer the question that's been lingering in my head: What does the truth look like on The Affair? It isn't pretty. If anything, it's brutal and heartbreaking. The episode is structured with vignettes that use the time of the day to help us keep track as we look at the lives of the four lead characters. There's a lot to love in this episode, even if it does jump around a bit too much and feel tonally disjointed. The hurricane that rips through the area is a clear metaphor for the upheaval and (emotional) disasters everyone deals with — and I feel the worst for Alison. I think we can all agree Alison needs some friends. Who can she be herself with? I don't think the raw vulnerability that comes with the deepest friendships is possible with Noah. He sees a highly edited version of her and he's too busy living it up as the latest bad boy of literature to focus on her well-being. So, it isn't surprising she's left with no one at her side as she gives birth at the hospital, all while the hurricane rages just beyond the windows. Although Alison isn't actually due for another five weeks (which puts us in March), her baby is on a different timeline. "You are not alone. I'm not leaving," the doctor says. But she is very much alone, in the emotional sense. Getting with Noah was a way to blow up her life and start anew. It now seems clear that she's traded one hell for another. But where is Noah exactly? He and Eden are heading into a hedonistic, booze-soaked party hosted by a Hollywood producer, Rodney Callahan, who really wants to turn Noah's book into a film. George Clooney may even show up; he's interested in the adaptation. He doesn't make it, but the mere mention of Clooney's name shows what rarefied air Noah finds himself in now. Noah hits it off with the producer between shots and lines of coke. He's blissful until Max nearly wrecks the evening. Max's obnoxious, entitled arrogance is on full display as he goes for the coke without asking, then tosses off the recommendation that Sasha Grey should play Alison in the adaptation. The producer can't stand him, so Noah shuts Max down. (Max doesn't hesitate to bring up the $50,000 he gave to Noah, of course.) It's unsurprising when Noah characterizes Max as his ex-wife's friend, not his own. The night continues on like this. More shots. More cocaine. More scantily clad women writhing on the dance floor, naked in the pool, having sex against the wall. Even when he learns that the roads are closed, Noah doesn't think to contact Alison. Sure, he doesn't have his phone on him — but it says a lot that he wouldn't worry about his very pregnant wife during the hurricane. There's a moment when the book An American Dream by Norman Mailer comes into focus. A wide smile spreads across Noah's face when he sees it. This is his American Dream, isn't it? He's the bad-boy writer who gets compared to Nabokov, Henry Miller, and yes, Mailer. A Hollywood producer wants to make Descent into a movie. He has the relationship with Alison tucked into a corner of his life, while the divorce with Helen worked out to his benefit. He can greedily consume enough cocaine and bourbon to kill several men. Everything he wants is before him. The money. The fame. The lust. The love. But as we know, this moment doesn't last for as long as he'd like. His arrest and trial loom in the near future. Eden tosses out her rule about not mixing business with pleasure, grinding against Noah on the dance floor and even inviting him to come upstairs for sex. Noah is too messed up to remember, then gets distracted by naked women (and men) in the pool. As he strips and slips into the pool, it seems like Noah could black out at any moment. Things take an ugly turn when he ogles two women as they make out, then joins them in their enclave before realizing that one of them is Whitney. Yes, Whitney. His teenaged daughter. When he escapes into his car and sees the many missed calls and messages from Alison, he realizes how immensely he has messed things up. But he doesn't get far, considering the hurricane and roadblocks. We know Alison and Noah are somehow still together at the time of his trial. How can she ever really trust him again after tonight? Meanwhile, Cole is with Luisa enjoying what seems to be his last night in his home. Everything is packed up, the place is sold. As much as I like seeing them interact, I really hope Alison ends up with Cole. He probably isn't feeling that option at the moment. He's upset that Alison bailed out on packing her own things from the house. (He doesn't know about her hospital visit.) Despite the chemistry between Cole and Luisa, it seems they're not on the same page. She encourages him to move to the city. He seems to be elsewhere, not fully listening to her story. When they have sex, sans condom, I cringed thinking of another child brought into the orbit of all these messed-up adults. No matter, though. Luisa can't have kids. She reveals that a messy surgery from her early twenties left her infertile. In that moment, I realized this relationship has an expiration date; Cole obviously wants to have kids in the future. Instead of being sympathetic, though, Cole makes her revelation about himself and the Lockhart curse. "The world does not revolve around your pain," Luisa says before she leaves. She's right. It's easier for Cole to wallow in pain than it is for him to gain perspective. What's interesting is how Alison's difficult labor provides a soundtrack to Cole's moonshine-drunk wallowing. The episode really hammers home the parallels between Cole and Alison. Even though they're divorced, they're still linked because of their past tragedy. We bounce between Alison struggling to give birth, screaming and declaring she doesn't want the kid, and Cole being a drunken mess. Toward the end, the episode pushes things a bit too far maudlin — even a bit fantastical — when Cole sees a vision of his dead son, Gabriel. When Cole dumps all the moonshine around him and lights the place on fire, I was taken aback. I get it as a metaphor. Beyond that, I'm not sure it works. Cole has always had a destructive edge, but this is a crazy decision, drunk or sober. The one person having a relatively good day? Helen. Apparently, she's taken Whitney's advice to try online dating. But it doesn't start off all that well — her Tinder date stands her up. The waitress remarks that she needs to set her sights on Match.com since that's where all the divorcées are (ouch), Tinder is more "hookups for millennials." (This dialogue seems clumsy. Does anyone actually call herself a "millennial" in day-to-day conversations?) Luckily, the day ends up being full of surprises for Helen. Remember the hot doctor, Vik Ullah, who performed surgery on Martin a few episodes back? He just happens to be at the bar, and overhears Helen as she talks about her failed Tinder date. After they recognize each other, they quickly fall into a prickly, yet sexually charged rapport. "Do you prefer red or white?" Helen asks about giving Ullah a gift of wine. "I prefer whiskey," he replies. A few things become apparent about Ullah: He may have a drinking problem, he's rough at the edges, he's blunt, and he's interested in Helen. I agree with the waitress who mouths to Helen, "He's hot," before the two leave together. "Would you like to have sex with me?" he asks. Well, that's one way to do things. The most hilarious, yet on-point line actually comes from Helen as they walk to her place: "What is a date really? It's just an interview for sex." Their exchanges make me curious about what Helen wants. Does she see herself getting married again? Since her kids are at home, sans Whitney, Helen lets Ullah in through the basement where they have sex. Despite (or maybe because of) the lurid sneakiness, the sex scene is actually kind of hot. Get it, Helen. The interactions between Ullah and Helen bounce between moments when their radical differences are painfully apparent and moments when he shows a surprising tenderness. Afterward, he finds her crying in her bedroom and she says, "Sometimes, I think I hate being a mother." He gets a notification on his phone — it's a Tinder message. But, he also helps to give Martin the medication that Helen's shaky grip made too painful. When he leaves, he kisses her gently on the wrist as a goodbye. I'm not sure this relationship would ever be healthy, but I hope we see more of Ullah. He brings out an interesting side of Helen. I also really enjoyed the performance by Omar Metwally, who also appeared on another Joshua Jackson show, Fringe. The truth in The Affair has always remained elusive, given the show's framing device. It's fascinating to watch what the truth really looks like, finally. Cole isn't the abusive wreck that Alison tends to remember him as — but he is a mess of a man defined by pain, as capable of tenderness as he is anger. Noah is trash (big surprise), who puts his own desires above thinking of anyone else until the last possible moment. Alison is lonely. Helen seems to have a better handle on things, even through the tears. I'm very curious to see where the show goes from here. How will future events appear now that we've seen a clearer look at these characters? The episode ends with Alison cradling her daughter, Joanie. Whatever doubts she has about motherhood dissolve in the face of her new child. When the doctor returns to tell Alison that her husband has finally arrived, she shows little interest. Noah can wait. After all, she was left alone waiting when she needed him most. www.vulture.com/2015/11/affair-recap-season-2-episode-9.html?mid=twitter-share-vulture#
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