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, September 15, 2019

The Affair 5.4: 2053

A low-key, not terribly eventful episode 5.4 of The Affair tonight, sprinkled with some funny, seedy sad moments, until the very end of the very brief (as usual) Joanie segment, when we find out her father Cole died in 2053.

Big news for two reasons: Cole's dead. And the time we're seeing in the Joanie segment is 2053 or later. For some reason, I thought it was a little or more earlier. Maybe because I don't think of Anna Paquin as in her early 40s, which was what Joanie would be pretty much be in 2053. On the other hand, the extent of the environmental crisis is consistent with the later date.

Still up in the air is exactly what's going on in Joanie's mind. Why does she want so little to do with her parents and even Gabriel? There's clearly a big piece of an emotionally rending story here that we've yet to learn.

The Whitney segment was important to see, in terms of advancing her story. In the end, she's willing to sacrifice her body for money and professional success. Her father Noah is also hungry for success, but that's not his crucial weakness. Her mother Helen is now newly hungry for success, but it's as yet not clear what she's willing to sacrifice to get it.

Noah's story was about the lightest we've seen in The Affair for a long time, replete with his planting of a bra in Sasha's bedroom to get Helen angry at Sasha. The whole routine, from how he acquired the undergarment to Sasha and Helen's reaction, was a nice comedy of errors.

I don't know what more to say about this episode, except what I seem to be thinking and saying after every episode: any chance we can get a much longer segment of Joanie? I'm not holding my breath but I'll keep on watching.

See also The Affair 5.1: Death, Nobility, and Science Fiction ... The Affair 5.2: Tears and Floods ... The Affair 5.3: The Raya App