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.

Monday, September 23, 2019

The Affair 5.5: No One Happy

Dominic West remarked in one of the promos on Showtime several months ago for The Affair that no one ends up happy in this final season, a take that was really borne out in tonight's episode 5.5.

In no particular order of importance -

Noah (who doesn't even get a segment) tells Helen (in her segment) that he loves her and wants a second chance. As we saw in some of the aheads-on-The-Affair this season, she tells him not only no, but that he's had plenty of second chances, and blew them all.
Helen thinks she's falling in love with Sasha, but has a rude awakening when she finds out what a bastard and/or cruel dude he really is.
Sasha can't be happy, either, given how he plows through people or whatever the best metaphor
Sierra didn't have a good night, either, though better than most, since she did get the Madam Bovary part, and had a segment all her own. I'm happy to see her have such a good if not so happy evening - she's having a hard time taking care of her baby - since the heroine of my Sierra Waters time-travel trilogy (see below) is, well, Sierra.
And, not to get too meta on this, but I wasn't too happy with this hour, either, since, as you know (because I make this point just about every week), my favorite segment this season has been the Joanie future science fiction segment, of which tonight's episode had ... none.

So I'll be saying what I say in just about every review: I wish there was more Joanie and her story. Especially this week, because, there was none. But the coming attractions show some very significant Joanie scenes next week, so I live in hope.

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 ... The Affair 5.4: 2053