veronikave

Hightown had a promising premise and some hood acting but then comes Jackie - the main character - who makes the show pretty much unwatchable. Infantile, spoiled brat energy with narcissistic traits and yet she gets a pass after pass, everybody loves her and solves all the mysteries and crimes by herself. Like a narcissist P Town Veronica Mars. Sure, all characters start flawed (usually), but she's just getting worse and less watchable with each eppisode. Then we have Abruzzo, who turns from an arrogant cop into a pathetic victim of circumstances. A friendly, cuddly bear of a drug king pin. The list just goes on and on. It's just a waste of time; waiting for the show to turn and not only it never does but it gets worse and worse.

I can't remember the last time a movie or story stayed with me the way this series does. The title does it a brutal injustice. Yes, it begins with 'an affair', but it is so much more than just a story about infidelity-it's a raw meditation on what it means to be human. The good, the bad, and the unbearably ugly (and imperfect).

Unlike so many series that start strong and then unravel, this one does the opposite. It begins with a seemingly surface-level, Fifty Shades of Grey-esque premise-heavy on the sex scenes (too much, if you ask me)-but slowly transforms into something visceral and unflinching. It strips itself bare, becoming raw and animalistic, yet never sacrificing the richness of fiction.

I'm not drawn to stories that mimic real life so closely you can say, yes, that's me. The creators of The Affair, despite portraying realistic lives, created a world I can step into, one that's still beautifully fictional, where even in the midst of pain and destruction, you still want to live it; to escape into when you return home from an averagely paid, mentally understimulating job.

It's like a sad song you can't stop listening to, the kind that wrecks you yet keeps pulling you back.

The actors are amazing, believeable, they pull you in and they push you away by their actions and behaviors. Just like real people.

A masterpiece.

P. S. When Noah got drunk on his own fame, it almost felt like a modern Picture of Dorian Gray-watching him decay while believing he was untouchable. Hauntingly gorgeous.

One of the basic principles of storytelling is presenting the audience with a mystery with the promise of a resolution. It's basically a contract. If you give me your time (and money) and hear me out, I will tell you something you don't know. It's the bare minimum every writer should know. Unfortunately, this writer doesn't seem to be aware of that because there's no resolution. So many questions and no answers. Pure frustration. Why even make a movie like that? The promise is amazing and the idea is quite unique, but the stories don't really make sense in terms of coming together and moving the plot or characters along. I have to say I am very disappointed, mostly because I had very high hopes for this movie from the setup. This is just not how you tell stories.