Paul Levinson's Infinite Regress

reviewing 3 Body Problem; American Rust; Bosch: Legacy; Citadel; Curb Your Enthusiasm; Fauda; For All Mankind; Foundation; Hijack; House of the Dragon; Luther; Outer Range; Outlander; Reacher; Severance; Silo; Slow Horses; Star Trek: Strange New Worlds; Surface; The: Ark, Diplomat, Last of Us, Lazarus Project, Orville, Way Home; Tokyo Vice; True Detective; You +books, films, music, podcasts, politics

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

Sunday, July 29, 2018

The Affair 4.7: Noah and Janelle

A superb Noah half hour on The Affair tonight - the second half hour in tonight's line-up. As I think I've already mentioned in the reviews this season, Noah has really been at his best this year. Compassionate, courageous, decisive, all the things you would want in a leading man.

And it was good to see Noah and Janelle finally consummate their flirtation. For a variety of reasons, Janelle is the best woman for Noah that he's been involved with in lo these four seasons. And that includes Helen - who, I've got to say, had another half-baked episode. It's not Maura Tierney's fault. The script is obliging her to do stupid things - including being nasty to Noah, who is trying to do the right thing for their kids.

Back to Noah: the resolution of his episode tonight was also outstanding, swerving from bringing Anton out to Princeton to getting the two into that car we saw at the beginning of the first few episodes. In that car were Noah, Anton, and Cole - and they're looking for Alison.

Not to get too meta, but news was just announced a few days ago that there will be a fifth and final season of The Affair. I was a little worried that, if this was the last season, Alison might not survive it. Which would be a shame - she's the best character (with Noah moving up now to a close second).

So here are my predictions for what's left of this season: Ben is the most likely reason for Alison's absence (though he seems a little too obvious to be such a major villain). Of course, we don't yet know that Alison's missing is involuntary. And back to Helen: I'd love to see Vic survive, but that's not likely. What I do think is that Sierra will have his baby. (Good name for a character - see The Plot to Save Socrates.)

And I'll be back next week with another review.

See also The Affair 4.1: Quakes and Propaganda ... The Affair 4.2: Meanwhile, Back on the Island ... The Affair 4.3: Dire Straits (Not the Band) in California ... The Affair 4.4: Ben ... The Affair 4.5: B'shert ... The Affair 4.6: "Good News and Bad News"