THE AFFAIR Rages On

Article originally published as THE AFFAIR Review Season 2 Episode 1 on Seat42F.

Maura Tierney as Helen, Dominic West as Noah, Ruth Wilson as Alison and Joshua Jackson as Cole in The Affair (Season 2). - Photo: Steven Lippman/SHOWTIME

Showtime’s THE AFFAIR returns tonight for a second season. The timeline of the series isn’t exactly chronological, so it’s hard to say exactly how long has passed when the new year begins, but there has been a very obvious expansion of the story. The premiere not only gets us back into the lives of these people in what feels like a new chapter, but also does a wonderful job deepening the existing structure.

The biggest change you’ll see, and this has been widely publicized so I don’t believe it counts as a spoiler, is that each episode is no longer split between the perspectives of Noah (Dominic West) and Allison (Ruth Wilson). The premiere is a Noah / Helen (Maura Tierney) division, with only a brief glimpse into Allison, and Cole (Joshua Jackson) will also be getting his own turn soon.

Allowing Helen and Cole their turn makes a lot of sense and is very welcome to THE AFFAIR. Tierney is a wonderful actress, and it’s nice to see her get such an expanded role. In the first season, Cole and Helen are in the dark about what’s going on, so don’t necessarily have as rich an experience to contribute. Now, brought into the proceedings, it’s good to see what they remember, too.

If I have one complaint at all about episode 201, it’s that we don’t get to see what Allison and Cole are up to, and I very much want to know. But I’m sure that will be taken care of in week two, and it’s a testament to how good THE AFFAIR is that I’m eager to return for that.

In the premiere, we catch up with Noah and Helen shortly after their separation. She is raising the kids with the help of her mom, Margaret (Kathleen Chalfant), while he is ensconced in a lake house, finishing his book and spending time with Allison. They both have different priorities right now, but their impending divorce brings them back together.

Like in the first season, memories don’t always line up. Most notably, a meeting with a mediator (Jeremy Shamos, Birdman: Or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) illustrates the schism. Where Noah and Helen are in their heads certainly influences the way they recall the event, and as we watch the same scene unfold two different ways, it gives a lot of insight into the mindsets of our leads.

I really like the way THE AFFAIR does this. Perhaps these characters differ a bit more than most people would in telling of their shared experiences, but it provides a way for viewers to analyze the pieces and allows greater understanding of the players. Every time the departures happen, there’s a reason for it. It’s more than just a gimmick THE AFAIR uses;, it’s an important part of the story and necessary to really get what’s going on, which likely isn’t exactly what either are remembering.

The plot arc of Noah facing jail time for Scott’s murder also continues, and provides even more cohesion between seasons one and two. This is something left very much unresolved at the close of season one, and presumably why the past is being brought back up. Detective Jeffries (Victor Williams) has the unenviable task of being the character who most holds the series together while mattering very little to the primary tale. I’m glad to see this continue, and now believe that these events will not be concluded until the series is.

THE AFFAIR’s second season premiere maintains not only the same type of installment that all of the first year does in terms of quality and originality, but finds a way to grow between the two main lines set forth in that initial year. With a locked in beginning and end, filling out the middle in an interesting way is hard to do, and the writers for this program manage to do so consistently. I applaud their skill and very much enjoy their work.

THE AFFAIR airs Sundays at 10 p.m. ET on Showtime.

THE AFFAIR To Remember

Article first published as THE AFFAIR Review on Seat42F.

Ruth Wilson as Alison and Dominic West as Noah | THE AFFAIR

Showtime’s THE AFFAIR is an interesting slow-burn drama. As the title implies it features an affair between a man, Noah Solloway (Dominic West, The Hour), and a woman, Alison Bailey (Ruth Wilson, Luther). But what happens is far from cut-and-dry. Somehow, these two people, who both have spouses, end up involved with one another. But how that comes about and what the aftereffects of this are is up for debate.

See, THE AFFAIR doesn’t just tell a story. Alison and Noah are talking to someone (law enforcement?) and telling the events to the best of their recollection, sort of like HBO’s True Detective, but less coherent. That is because Alison and Noah remember things quite differently. It’s not clear exactly how much time has passed between the two timeframes, their hair has not turned grey or anything, but it’s definitely been awhile. And something really traumatic must have occurred, maybe the emotional toll the affair takes, but maybe something else, that has caused them to crystalize their recollections into at-times extremes.

The reason I mention it could be something else is because of the themes of death in the pilot. There are multiple scenes in which a child dies or almost dies. I won’t spoil the details, but tragedy is constantly hanging over the program. There are some very dark themes and a creepy mood in certain scenes. This implies, to me anyway, that there could be something truly depressing just around the corner, more so than what leads the characters astray in the first place.

Half of the first episode of THE AFFAIR is told from Noah’s perspective, and then the series flips and retells the tale from Alison’s. Obviously, they being different people, a lot of what is shown doesn’t involve the other. But when their narratives do overlap, the similarities are overrun by the inconsistencies. Was Alison trying to seduce Noah? Was Noah stalking Alison? Who can tell?

Even more than that, though, are the details. In Alison’s telling, Noah’s wife, Helen (Maura Tierney, ER), casts a loving gaze at him that isn’t there when Noah relates the same thing, which says something about how Alison sees Noah. Similarly, we don’t see Noah being attentive to Helen in Alison’s version, but he’s a near-perfect husband in a good marriage when he relates things, the way he sees himself.

We meet both spouses in the first hour. Helen is a busy mom of four. She and Noah find it hard to make time for sex, their kids constantly interrupting. But they do seem to love one another, and she looks to be a good person in both sides. Alison’s union with Cole (Joshua Jackson, Fringe) is more rocky. They’ve gone through something, revealed semi-late in the hour, and they are finding different ways to cope with it, driving them apart. Neither Alison nor Noah paints Cole in the best light.

I like that this series doesn’t give us the truth. In order to understand what actually happens, viewers must watch both versions, then think for themselves. Since everyone is flawed and everyone will bend their memories to what best suits them, it’s extremely likely that neither is getting it right, so you must try to make your own conclusions about what the middle ground is, just as the people listening to our protagonists are doing.

Despite the British leads, known for their work overseas, the show is American. There’s a way the production unfolds that just seems more like the fare we’re used to over here, style and tone and pacing matching other premium network fare. The quality of the action and the production is top notch, and it would probably pair nicely with Masters of Sex, another forbidden love tale with lots of pathos, which actually just concluded their sophomore run. Maybe next year, that can happen.

THE AFFAIR is a must-see offering, with the scope of a film and the intensity to such one in almost instantly. It airs Sundays at 10 p.m. ET on Showtime.

LUTHER 3 Review

Article first published as LUTHER 3 Review on TheTVKing.

The BBC's Luther recently returned for a third (and final) series on BBC America and on DVD. The show follows a cop with dubious morals named Luther (Idris Elba), the killer he couldn't catch whom he now has a strange bond with, Alice (Ruth Wilson), and the various cases Luther is assigned to. Series 3 adds a fetishist murderer, a vigilante, and even the betrayal of members of Luther's own team to the mix.

The main draw of Luther always has been and always will be Luther himself. Elba captures the nuances of a man on the edge who can never find happiness brilliantly. Luther is tempted by many bad things, often at the hands of Alice, yet he always manages to come out ahead, even if only marginally so. He throws himself into his work more so than just about any detective on TV (and that's saying something!), which keeps him apart from any long-term romantic entanglements, though he does make a go this year with Mary Day (Sienna Guillory). And he's always near the brink of madness, seen in Elba's eyes, and other subtle bits Elba does so well, from time to time.

This personality is reflected in the tone of the show. It verges into the horror genre at times, bloody and scary. A man like Luther exists in a violent world, and Luther does not shy away from that, making Series 3 perhaps more intense than the first two. Dread is Luther's closest companion, as much a part of the show as the characters themselves.

Luther is sort of an anti-hero. While he is a cop, and so on the right side of the law, he often skirts over the line. His tormented personality keeps him from being noble sometimes, and he succumbs to his weaknesses far more than one in his position is expected to. He isn't anyone's role model, and perhaps deserves to be locked up himself, after all he's done and whom he associates with.  That outcome might be a good deal better for him than living with his darkness any longer, though that would leave the streets less safe for everyone else. It's this edge that makes the character unique and interesting.

And Luther might just be taken down. In Series 3, an out-of-retirement investigator named George Stark (David O'Hara, The Departed) gets on Luther's case, working tirelessly to bring Luther to justice. With everything else Luther must contend with, keeping an eye out behind him is not convenient. But it does add some more delicious tension to the installments.

The bond between Luther and Alice is a strange one, but highly satisfying for the viewer. We know Alice is wicked, we know she has committed some serious crimes. Yet, it's hard to root for her to get caught because that would limit her interaction with Luther, one of the strongest elements of the show. I don't know that I want them together romantically, if only because that just might destroy the last of Luther's soul, rather than save him. But I do enjoy seeing them in the games they play, which we unfortunately get less of in Series 3 than in the past.

The other characters in Luther are great, too, but none of them get all that much to do. This is solidly Luther's show, and so while we see some amazing glimpses of Justin Ripley (Warren Brown), Martin Schenk (Dermot Crowley), Benny Silver (Michael Smiley), Erin Grey (Nikki Amuka-Bird), and others, none of them get their own serious subplots.

Series 3 more or less picks up where Series 2 left off, with implications from those events echoing into this new batch of episodes. Characters are shuffled and replaced in different positions, and a couple of loose ends are tied up. Yet, I still wished for just a hair more of a serial nature to this drama, as it does get a little repetitive as it goes on, like American cop procedurals are wont to do. It also skirts realism a bit, but the performances are more than enough to make up for these drawbacks and keep the show worth watching.

Sadly, this two-disc DVD release has only a single extra, a Making Of featurette. One would love to get into the heads of the star and the creator, but sadly, this is not to be, at least not here.

Luther Series 3 is available now.

Luther 2 takes things to the next level

BBC's Luther ends its first series on an incredibly dark note, with Detective John Luther (Idris Elba, The Wire, The Office) having been betrayed by his best friend and devastated by the murder of his wife, Zoe.

As series two, which consists of four hours split into two stories, begins, Luther has been wasting away working cold cases. He is given the chance to come back to investigate current crimes, but with his old unit gone, he will now serve under Martin Schenk (Dermot Crowley, Raw, Bleak House), a former police complaints officer who, with good reason, isn't sure that Luther should be a cop at all. Working with the ambitious Detective Erin Gray (Nikki Amuka-Bird, The Omen, Bad Girls), Luther also recruits his former partner, Justin Ripley (Warren Brown, Savage, Dead Set) to assist. The two, with their very different opinions on the titular detective, provide a nice counterbalance to each other.

Other familiar faces return, too. Mark North (Paul McGann), Zoe's guy at the time of her death, is now a good friend of Luther's. He even helps during a case. This is a strange reversal, as the two are so at odds previously, but it's nice that Luther retains McGann's talents in any fashion.

There is only a little bit of Alice (Ruth Wilson) in series 2, as she is in jail. One misses her presence, and it changes the tone of the series to have her out of the game. While it may be a relief to have a cold killer like her off the streets in real life, Luther needs her involvement to be the best show it can be. Hopefully, she will be freed be the time series 3 begins.

Luther, himself, is quite a bit different. He is still in a depressing place, occasionally contemplating suicide, but he no longer contributes to the darkness. In fact, he would like redemption for his wrongs. His conscience continues to bother him, but he's working to balance the scales in his favor. He may still be grieving, but he is finally moving on from the events of the first episode, and that's a good sign.

Luckily, Luther doesn't get much chance to dwell in his sadness, because there are two strings of killings that must be stopped in Luther 2. The first is done by a serial murderer who thrives on causing fear. He is played by the wonderful Lee Ingleby (White Heat, Inspector George Gently). The second villain is more elusive, and less showy. It takes all of Luther's considerable skill to take on these two criminals.

Elba is the heart of the series, and always will be. He shines brilliantly in this second batch of episodes, taking a character he already soars with, and adding new layers and depths. The accolades continue to pour in for his performance, and every one of them is deserved.

The sole fault with this release is the lack of extras. At least the first series boasted one, while Luther 2 has none. It is a great show, one that will keep viewers on the edge of their seats. But it would be nice if some behind the scenes information was given, letting fans take a peek into how the show is made. Instead, the episodes are expected to stand alone.

Which isn't necessarily a terrible thing. After all, Luther is one of BBC America's most popular programs for a reason. It has complex, intelligent characters and stories, and is populated with some great actors delivering some truly impressive work. So if any gritty crime drama wants to stand alone, with no bonus features to support it, then Luther is the one to do so.

Buy Luther 2, on DVD now.

MORE: If you like my reviews, please follow me on Twitter!  Article first published as DVD Review: Luther 2 on Blogcritics.

Luther is a complex crime drama

For those who like gritty crime drama, the BBC's award-winning Luther, available on DVD, is a must have. Luther is the title on the case for the first series, which consists of six hour-long episodes. The show follows Detective John Luther (Idris Elba, The Wire, The Office), a cop with a tormented soul. Luther may be a genius, but he's also extremely self-destructive and impulsive. This man is both a catcher of dangerous men, and also, a dangerous man himself. It's a duality that makes him good at his job, if he can stay sane long enough to complete it.

The first episode of Luther begins with the titular character facing a child killer. The bad guy dangles from a ledge. Luther stands over him, demanding to know where the latest victim is kept. The criminal gives up the information, but Luther lets him fall, resulting in the man ending up in a coma. Luther is cleared of any wrongdoing months later, and returns to work.

This scene sets up everything else that will come. In this moment, the character of Luther is defined as both heroic and having questionable morality. Who wouldn't want to see a guy who kills kids hurt or dead? But who among us would be willing to stand by and let it happen? What Luther dispenses may be justice, of a sort, but it's not something most people would approve of.

Nor is Luther proud of his inaction. The results of what he does, or doesn't do, rather, cause him much torment, and lead to him doubting many things about himself. Throughout the six hours, as Luther hunts (and usually catches) other serial killers, that night haunts him. He is a changed man because of it. Did he do the right thing? Maybe not. Were his actions excusable? Well, that's a matter of opinion.

Luther is joined on this quest of the soul by Alice (Ruth Wilson, The Prisoner, Suburban Shootout). Alice is introduced in the first episode as a killer herself, brutally murdering her parents and dog. Luther knows she did it, but has no way to prove it, since she has committed the perfect crime, leaving no evidence behind. Luther fails to build a case against her.

But that's for the best, as Alice becomes a pivotal figure in Luther's life. Attracted to his complexity and intelligence, which she shares, she becomes obsessed with Luther. She is able to figure out the cause of his torment pretty easily, and intrudes into his life to gather more details. Is Luther an object worthy of study for Alice, or a kindred spirit she'd like to be around?

Not that Luther is always happy with the attention. Some of the things he sees in Alice are the things that he cannot stand in himself. As he questions his own sense of right and wrong, Alice feels like a dark temptation that could lead him down the wrong path. It makes for an exciting and juicy partnership, one that will keep viewers locked to the screen.

There are other characters in Luther, too, of course. Most notable is Luther's ex, Zoe (Indira Varma, Human Target, Rome). She leaves her husband, not because of what he does in the pilot, which is not a secret to her, even though Luther doesn't admit to it, but rather, she feels undervalued and unhappy. She cares about him, but doesn't want to be with him. Luther struggles mightily to win her back, but it's too little, too late, as she has already moved on with Mark (Paul McGann, Doctor Who, Collision).

Luther's co-workers certainly appreciate the job that he does, but aren't always sure about his methods. Luther's boss, Rose (Saskia Reeves), risks her own reputation to reinstate Luther, and may come to regret it. Luther's best friend, Ian Reed (Steven Mackintosh, Underworld), would like to be supportive, but it's not like Luther lets him in more than anyone else. So the working relationship in the unit is tenuous, at best.

Critical reviews for this first series are mixed, but few criticize Elba's performance. As the title character, he is the meat of the series, and carries it extremely well. For his gifted, nuanced part in Luther, Elba has deservedly won several awards, including an Emmy and a Golden Globe. Whether one believes the story of Luther is enticing or not (it is), Elba alone is enough to warrant a viewing. The rest of the cast is excellent, too, though they have not been recognized for it like Elba has.

Unfortunately, the BBC-released DVD comes with one sole extra, a half hour behind the scenes piece. It's interesting, as the series creator, Neil Cross, and members of the cast discuss the show. But it's too bad there isn't more.

Luther is still more than worth the price. With series two also out and a third ordered, it's time to catch up for those who haven't seen it yet. Pick up a copy today. You can get your copy and save on others using this Amazon coupon code.

MORE: If you like my reviews, please follow me on Twitter! To buy this and other DVDs go to amazon.com. Article first published as DVD Review: Luther on Blogcritics.