Home Top

Squillionaires, sex tapes and a marriage of two unlikely dynasties: She's the derriere-flashing sister of Paris Hilton. He's a Rothschild with a tragic past. Today, they'll wed in Diana's old palace
REVEALED: Female friend of Subway's pitchman Jared Fogle wore a wire to help FBI's child porn investigation after he made 'surprising and inappropriate remarks'
Eating too quickly, not enough sleep and counting calories: The ten hidden reasons your diet isn't working... and how to fix them
A massive El Nino is coming! Forecasters say 'strong' weather event could bring relief to drought-stricken California
Trump on top: Outspoken tycoon becomes frontrunner in Republican nomination race after winning over Tea Party voters
$***MINIMUM FEE TO BE AGREED BEFORE USE***\nEXCLUSIVE: **NO USA TV AND NO USA WEB** MINIMUM FEE APPLY** Ariana Grande and her new backup dancer boyfriend Ricky Alvarez seen in a Wolfee Donuts store which got dangerously close to some powdered donuts . Ricky and Ariana, engage in some serious mouth-to-mouth PDA in this security cam video obtained by TMZ.com ,which wouldn't have come to light if not for the donut sniffing or near licking, incident.\nSources inside Wolfee Donuts in Lake Elsinore, CA tell TMZ the couple came in on Saturday, and decided to play truth or dare with the goods -- daring each other to lick powdered jelly donuts on the counter. Time to lick the Donuts!\n\nPictured: Ariana Grande, Ricky Alvarez\nRef: SPL1072899 070715 EXCLUSIVE\nPicture by: TMZ.com / Splash News\n\nSplash News and Pictures\nLos Angeles:\t310-821-2666\nNew York:\t212-619-2666\nLondon:\t870-934-2666\nphotodesk@splashnews.com\n$ 'I was so disgusted with myself': Ariana Grande apologises for 'donut fiasco' and 'I hate America' comment... but fails to say sorry to the actual shop
'Long lost brothers' Bill Clinton and George W. Bush give gushing interview and say Jeb and Hillary will treat each other with respect....but do we believe them?
Salma Hayek lends some star quality to Day Three of the 0.01%'s Sun Valley fat cat camp - while a bored looking Priscilla Chan is seen tagging along with husband Mark Zuckerberg
EXCLUSIVE: Bernie Sanders' very 1960s love life revealed - his first wife, the woman who had his son, and the sugar shack home where he lived as a 'revolutionary'
It's all smiles... for now: Greek leader Tsipras has to win over his reluctant party after capitulating to creditors with pledges to raise taxes, cut spending and slash pensions
Tom Selleck to settle claims he stole 'truckloads of water' to use on his 60-acre California ranch and avocado farm in midst of crippling drought
Pictured: Moment reclusive To Kill a Mockingbird author Harper Lee sees the cover of anticipated second novel for the first time - as fans and critics rush to give their verdict after release of first chapter
Utah teacher, 36, who sexually abused three male students and continued a relationship with one while out on bail is sentenced to up to 30 YEARS behind bars
Revealed: The astonishing FIFTY-FOUR countries and groups battling ISIS... so why haven't they been crushed already?
July 4th terror attacks were THWARTED: FBI Director says law enforcement stopped several plots to 'kill people in the United States'
Russian oligarch dubbed 'Putin's banker' whose lover complained she couldn't live on $15,000 a week goes on the run in France
From champagne-fueled parties to trips in private jets, anonymous ten-year-old lifts the lid on the luxurious lifestyle of the Hamptons' wealthiest 'kidults'
Who knew they were friends? Former First Daughter Chelsea Clinton is chic in black at Nicky Hilton's pre-wedding party
Kate and William were well prepared! As the official portrait of Princess Charlotte's christening is released, a photo history of royal baptisms over the last 100 years
Here's how to make your fitness regime STICK: Forming a habit that's hard to break makes exercise automatic, experts say
'I don't believe in man hating': Women reveal why they are NOT feminists on secrets app... citing 'gross hairy armpits' and 'bad hygiene' as reasons
An ex-lover's name, foreign misspellings and dolphins: The top 10 most removed tattoo designs... and the celebrities that had them inked on their bodies
What did I do wrong, mom? Couple selling their home are horrified to discover daughter, 2, covered herself in paint and then left footprints all over the house
Boyband singer collapsed with heat exhaustion on low-cost flight after wearing TWELVE layers of clothes to avoid excess luggage fee

The end of The Affair: Six reasons why the Dominic West-Ruth Wilson thriller was a cop-out and a con, by Jim Shelley

Published: 18:59 EST, 8 July 2015 | Updated: 12:48 EST, 9 July 2015

151

View
comments

The end of The Affair was such a cop-out and a con it didn't even put us out of our misery.

After ten episodes of the thriller set in the Hamptons, viewers were still none-the-wiser about who killed Scotty Lockhart.

The unconvincing 'cliff-hanger' that served as the finale meant the whole series was a waste of time - effectively little more than just a teaser for the second season.

Scroll down for video

Damp squib: The end of The Affair was such a cop-out and a con it didn't even put us out of our misery, turning into a thriller with no resolution

True, the closing scene of the series saw the male protagonist (Brooklyn teacher, writer, and adulterous husband Noah Solloway) being arrested for murder. But even this only convinced you it almost certainly wasn't him. If it was, why didn't the writers just say and create a brand new 'Affair' for the follow-up (in the manner of 'True Detective').

As much as Noah contrived to act like the guilty party and provide evidence for the detective investigating the case, it was transparently circumstantial.

Most of his behaviour was at worst just improbable or inconsistent – which was the most consistent thing about him.

The same went for his female counterpart (Montauk waitress, grieving mother, and unfaithful wife Alison Lockhart).

Dial-a-cliche: After ten episodes Alison Lockheart (Ruth Wilson) and Noah Solloway (Dominic West) never did make a convincing couple with their characterisation still vague and inconsistent

The show's creators were so reluctant to commit to the lovers' actual character and or take a stance on their adultery that their real nature wasn't much clearer at the end than it had been at halfway.

The format of dividing each episode equally between Noah and Alison's versions of events had long ago stopped being innovative or intriguing and just become annoying. It just confused what the narrative of the story was actually supposed to be.

And so the show's chief selling point became one of 'The Affair's major flaws. Here are six of the others.

1. The show's ending was a cop-out

The early promise of The Affair was that it would emulate films like 'Fatal Attraction' and 'The Postman Always Rings Twice', which showed torrid relationships as the pre-cursors to crime. We saw Noah and Alison being questioned by detective Jefferies at the very beginning and throughout.

The final scene of the last episode may have shown Noah being arrested for Scotty's murder but the writers seemed to treat the big twist as the discovery that Noah and Alison had ended up together.

They were living in a swanky New York apartment, basking in the success of the novel he had been writing and the lucrative sale of the film rights. They even had a daughter. (Or at least she did.)

'I'm having dinner with that actor,' Solloway preened. 'He wants to talk about his character or something' – which was a bit ironic coming from him.

Who killed Scotty Lockhart? Sneak peak of The Affair season two

Cop out! The couples' happy ending was ruined... as Noah was inconveniently arrested for a murder

'Where are you going to go? He's so famous!' gushed Alison to her hero, sounding like a schoolgirl.

Trust the dogged (but useless) detective Jefferies to turn up and spoil their happy ending by inconveniently arresting him for murder – the first time he had had any help him during the entire series. (Unusually for a TV cop, Jefferies didn't have a partner.)

Nothing about this ending brought any kind of resolution to the story though.

Jefferies' case was based on the following 'evidence':

*Noah had been recorded on CCTV attacking Scotty at the abortion clinic where Noah's teenage daughter Whitney was getting rid of the baby resulting from her own secret 'affair' with Scott.

*Noah had lied to detective Jefferies about ever going to 'The End' – the party bar where he had indeed danced and fooled around with Alison and near where Scott was murdered.

*Noah had been trapped, caught on tape trying to bribe the driver of the breakdown truck who had changed Noah's tyre on his way back from The End, offering him $20, 000 to lie about it to Jefferies.

None of this proved or even suggested Noah had run Scotty down though.

In fact throughout Noah's protestations of innocence were perfectly persuasive despite the lies and the bribe, which made little sense either way. (Besides the breakdown driver and the hotel receptionist, there were dozens of people who had witnessed that he HAD been at The End so trying to cover it up was futile.)

Noah's attempts to keep his affair with Alison secret had been so hopeless, even he would have seen his chances of getting away with murder as unlikely. (His wife found Alison's bra in the drawer where Noah had 'hidden' it and he was blackmailed when Alison's boss at the restaurant simply worked out she and Noah were having an affair.)

Unless season two reveals that this was all a double bluff and Noah IS the killer after all, we can safely assume that he wasn't - which makes the finale even MORE of a cop-out and a con.

2. The show wouldn't decide whether Dominic West's character was a hero or villain

During the course of the ten episodes Noah Solloway was portrayed as:

*a devoted family man married for 17 years who loved his wife and their four kids

*a helpless romantic who couldn't help falling in love with a waitress he met on vacation

*a helpless romantic who went back to his wife after she forgave him for his affair, seducing her while comforting her crying

Not guilty: Strangely enough the more 'evidence' there was that Noah Solloway had killed Scottie, the less likely it was that he was really the culprit and more probably a red herring

*He was also a terrible father, hard-working teacher, a crushed failed novelist, an 'extraordinary' writer and success, a principled opponent of privilege, the owner of a swanky New York apartment, a guy prepared to have a one night stand with another man's fiancée, a 'Romeo & Juliet' expert, an Olympic swimmer etc etc.

Consistently smug and narcissistic, in the final episode he was hardly riddled with regret about the impact of the affair, telling his publisher: 'my wife's mad at me. So are the kids. I lost half my friends. I live in a place the size of your desk. I lost my job.'

By the final scene - with Alison, his film deal, and his Manhattan apartment - he looked happy enough.

What the writers were really saying about his infidelity though was unclear.

3. The show wouldn't decide whether Ruth Wilson's character was a heroine or villainess

Noah Solloway's lover, Alison Lockhart, wasn't much more consistent or plausible having been portrayed as:

* a tragic, grieving, mother of a four year-old son Gabriel who had drowned in the sea after her husband Cole had (allegedly) neglected to watch him and she had (allegedly) neglected to take the boy to hospital

* a loyal wife desperate for herself and Cole to get over Gabriel's death and save their marriage

* a helpless romantic who couldn't help falling in love with the father of four from the Big City on vacation

Heroine or villainess? As with her lover Noah, the writers couldn't commit to the nature of Alison's character

* She was also a doomed loser/sex maniac prone to self-harming, so self-destructive she also had a one-night stand with the boss she hated

* Then there was the blatant contradiction of the way she was portrayed as a saint – caring for her grandmother and offering to give away her house to her husband after she had left him, telling him 'I just want you to have something that you love' for example. Such behaviour was hardly consistent with the fact she was also just one part of the Lockhart family's business importing cocaine. At least in 'Bloodline', the Ben Mendelsohn character doing this was the family's black sheep/demon seed.

It was almost as if the writers wanted it both ways when it suited them.

4. The show wouldn't decide whether the Lockhart family were idealistic defenders of Montauk's way of life or drug dealers

When Noah Solloway discovered that Alison and the Lockharts were merrily importing kilos of cocaine it was a rare moment when 'The Affair' threatened to become as deep and dark as hit thrillers like 'True Detective'.

But Noah's moral umbrage or doubt about 'who she really was' didn't last long.

Alison persuaded him not to go to the police on the grounds that they were only doing it to pay the mortgage and save the family ranch from being ruined by evil property developers.

'We never sell to kids!' she even insisted laughably.

Mixed messages: Alison's husband Cole (Joshua Jackson) seemed unsure about which was a worse crime... opening a bowling alley or importing kilos of cocaine

Alison's husband Cole cared so much about preserving the character of the town he was vehemently opposing her boss opening a bowling alley – a crime which was seemingly deemed far worse than being a cocaine dealer.

Plus of course we were meant to sympathise with Cole because he was in mourning for his son. He was so grief-stricken he had an angel, like Gabriel, tattooed on his back. Even more importantly, he loved animals – specifically horses teaching children to ride on the Lockharts' ranch.

He also loved Alison, poor sod. Like Noah's wife, he forgave her – or at least wanted her to stay with him, pleading desperately that he was even prepared to go to a therapist with her. It was, you thought, bit late for that.

5. The show completely wasted its best characters

The real star of the show was the location, Montauk, the type of shabby beach resort in The Hamptons where the waitresses looked like film stars and there was never anyone on the beaches.

As for the actors, while its British stars Dominic West and Ruth Wilson were showing off their broad American accents and eagerly stripping off to indulge in athletic but dated sex scenes, the most memorable contributions came from US members of the support cast.

The problem with Maura Tierney's performance as Noah's wife Helen was that it was so much more powerful and emotional than Dominic West's it made it hard for viewers to sympathise with Noah – no matter how torn or besotted he was (supposedly).

The breakout performance of the show came from Julia Goldani Telles as the Solloways' dissolute daughter Whitney, who screamed star quality like a young Winona Ryder.

A real loss: The show notably wasted its best characters, namely Maura Tierney as Noah's poor wife Helen

'You said dad was a bad person !' she raged at her mum after Helen had taken Noah back. 'You said he could be a sociopath...I had to go and see him the whole time – wondering 'is he a sociopath?!!'

'I shouldn't have said that. I apologise,' muttered her mum, rather ludicrously.

You had to feel for Colin Donnell who played Scott Lockhart. Even the writers seemed to care little about really happened to Scotty – so God knows why we were.

It took FIVE episodes before it was established that Scotty was actually the victim and we never saw him being killed, even in a way that didn't reveal the killer.

Nor did we ever see him seducing Whitney, despite the fact that the darkly handsome 32 year-old's 'relationship' with the stylishly arch 17 year-old was more intriguing and illicit than the painfully clichéd affair at the heart of the plot.

Happy family: The final scene suggested Noah and Alison's romance had a happy ending, passing over the effects on his wife and four children

6. The show presumed its audience are going to bother with another series - despite stringing them along in this one

'Many people in this room have done terrible things,' the Lockharts' matriarch Cherry suggested to Noah and Helen Solloway, acknowledging that she disapproved of her son Scott's conduct and daughter-in-law Alison's affair. 'So I think maybe it would be best if we just forgive each other and say goodbye' - somewhat naïve but sensible in the circumstances.

It was just a shame the writers didn't take their own advice.

'This was a bad idea,' said Noah picking up the theme, after he had gone back to his wife – during a period when his romance with Alison didn't seem so much like 'Romeo & Juliet' after all and, after much dithering and a disastrous, token, attempt to look for an apartment they had both had second thoughts.

'Which part?' Helen asked. Good question - there were so many.

Helen Solloway could be a good long shot to emerge as the culprit in the second season, if only on the grounds that she is one of the least likeliest candidates in terms of her character if not her motive. Helen had been a much more passionate advocate of going to the police and seeing Scotty charged with raping their daughter than Noah had.

On the other hand when detective Jeffries arrived at their apartment, it was Alison not Noah who looked scared – just as she had at Scotty's memorial when she had been the only mourner to turn around and note the detective's presence. Alison is the most damaged, haunted, possible culprit so personally my money's on her.

This is Ruth Wilson we're talking about after all.

It's always her.

Carry On Carrying On: Having not provided any answers in Season One, the writers assumed that viewers will watch another ten hours in the second series which starts shortly