There is a rather interesting television show that runs on Showtime called “The Affair.” It’s been on since 2012 and a fourth season is set to debut later on during the month of June. This is a fairly unique concept because it completely evolves from one season to the next, always adding at least one other element for each new season that didn’t exist before. It also has a habit of telling the story from a perspective that is far different from virtually everything else on television today.
During the first season of the show, it was all about two people that were married and who ultimately fell in love with each other. The main characters are Noah Solloway and Alison Lockhart. Alison was struggling after the death of her young son, who was claimed in an accident at just four years of age. This put a real strain on her marriage and she suddenly found herself working in a local diner as she tried to figure out what path she was supposed to take in life. As you might suspect, she struggled a lot with her own identity, especially after the loss of her son. Previously, she had seen herself as a wife and mother. Suddenly, she found herself no longer being a mother and wondering if there was anything salvageable left when it came to her marriage.
Solloway, on the other hand, had the misfortune of walking into the diner and almost instantly falling in love with Alison. The problem is, he too was already married. At the time, he believed that he was happily married with a wife and several children. However, after he meets Alison he starts to have doubts about whether or not he truly wants to remain with his wife. Eventually, the two start getting together, even though they’re still married to their spouses. As season one continues, you see the typical types of problems that you might expect to see in a situation like this, especially when it involves a small town.
One of the more interesting things about the show is that it essentially tells the same story from two different perspectives. It’s an hour-long show, so it spends half the time telling the story from Alison’s perspective and the other half of the show is spent telling it from Noah’s side of things. Clearly, these two perspectives are never quite the same but it certainly provides the viewer with an interesting way of looking at things
As the second season begins, you start to see the story not only from the perspectives of both Noah and Alison, but also from each of their previous spouses, whom they have now become estranged from. It really dives deep into the realm of trying to understand what an affair can do to people and how far-reaching that ripple effect can really be. You start to understand that these decisions affect everyone involved, whether they actually had anything to do with it or not. The interesting thing about season two is that it gives you plenty of time to see how the previous spouses were affected and what it has done to the families since Noah and Alison had that first chance encounter.
If you thought that season two was interesting, season three made things even more interesting, and perhaps a little bit complicated. Viewers find that Noah has developed a new love interest named Juliette. Now you’re seeing things from the perspectives of all of these different people, including Juliette. You or start to see that perhaps Noah didn’t just fall in love with Alison by accident. In addition, it might not have had anything to do with his frustration concerning his in-laws in his first marriage. Here, you start to wonder if Noah is just another one of those people that has a roaming eye. Before you know it, it seems like he’s got love interests all over the place. This makes for a very interesting little love triangle and it definitely complicates the lives of every single person involved.
Who knows what season four will bring when it premieres. It will be interesting to see how many more different perspectives the showrunners can add without making things so confusing or redundant that they start to lose viewers. For now, this is a well-crafted show that most people find interesting enough to sit down and watch again and again. Hopefully, they won’t mess with that formula too much as the show continues to progress.
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