Paul Levinson's Infinite Regress

reviewing 3 Body Problem; Bosch; Citadel; Criminal Minds; Dark Matter; Fauda; For All Mankind; Foundation; Hijack; House of the Dragon; Luther; Outer Range; Outlander; Presumed Innocent; Reacher; Severance; Silo; Slow Horses; Star Trek: Strange New Worlds; Surface; The: Ark, Diplomat, Last of Us, Lazarus Project, Orville, Way Home; True Detective; You +books, films, music, podcasts, politics

George Santayana had irrational faith in reason - I have irrational faith in TV.

Thursday, November 24, 2016

The Affair 3.2: Sneak Preview Review: Right Minds

Well, here I am again with a sneak preview review of The Affair 3.2, which of course I couldn't help watching on Showtime On Demand. Spoilers abound below.

Alison's story in the second half covered a huge amount of territory - the gist of which is that Cole and Luisa now have custody of Joanie, because Alison left her with him as she was having what used to be called a nervous breakdown, brought on by Joanie having a bad flu or whatever, and Alison understandably "freaking out" that what happened to Gabriel could happen to Joanie, and it would be Alison's fault. She compounds this by signing away her parental rights to Joanie - giving them to Cole - but now she's out and cured and back in her right mind and wanting her daughter back, and of course--

Well, Luisa doesn't even want Joanie to see her mother, and Cole certainly doesn't want to give her back to Alison. Of course, as Oscar aptly tells Alison - I have to admit, it was good to see him back - all she needs is a good lawyer. Cole almost does the right thing, bringing Joanie to see her mother - but only for an hour, that's why I said "almost". Lots of ground covered indeed, and the good makings of a powerful season.

Another bad result of Alison's institutionalization is she received none of Noah's letters from prison, which brings us to the first half hour, and Helen's story. Noah, in jail now for two years, is angry at Helen. But what he's likely really angry about is Alison's lack of response. Helen still loves him - especially after he took the rap for her drunk driving - and is doing the best to make a life for herself and her children with the doctor who saved her son last season.

So we have a fine kettle of fish brewing here for all of our major characters. And one last note - Helen mentions a "dick" who voted for Trump. Did she mean in the primaries, which would make last week current time, and this week - which began the advisory that it was a "year earlier" - taking place last year? Or is Helen in current time in this episode - with the Trump vote in our election two weeks ago - which would put Noah's episode last week a year in our future?

The Affair always messes with time - as well as our minds - and that's one of its most endearing qualities.