But I'm doing it somewhat as a favor to a former colleague, the picky Polish sausage eater whose ex-husband memorably left her what she described as 'Picassos' (use your imagination) in the toilet after failing to adhere to a basic bathroom custom of flushing after using the toilet. Especially when you're leaving 'Picassos' behind. Never mind the seat etiquette that was also probably not adhered to as well.
I'm sure the guy had other faults, but when you flunk basic bathroom etiquette, you surely do not endear yourself to your spouse. Thus, the eventual goodbye.
For the longest time I remained current with watching the show, Season 1 and its lead-up to "who killed Scotty Lockhart." Season Two tells us, but I lost interest in the show when I just plain got tired of viewing the most screwed-up people the world. They had no redeeming qualities. Only enough "issues" to keep a graduating class of therapists busy for the rest of their lives. They were all about one of my least favorite topics, relaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaationships.
The acting was the hook. It was good, The theme song by Fiona Apple almost made me a fan. I stayed with the series as long as I could take it. But eventually, I just let the DVR do its thing and watch the episodes pile up recorded, but unwatched.
That's starting to change since I plan to move to Verizon Quantum, or enhanced DVR service. I did this once before but returned the boxes when I realized I couldn't transfer the recorded shows from my old DVR to the new DVR. So, right now, I'm in the process of cleaning up the unwatched inventory. Deleting, or watching shows is sort of a virtual digital closet cleanup.
So, as a service to my former colleague, I'm summarizing where I am in Season Two. I've just completed Episode 7. This is where Helen, Noah's ex-wife, drives to Pennsylvania and pulls the sonofabitch out of the lake
Anyone who is familiar with this soggy mess of a series will know the hour is split into two part of thirty minutes each. The story is told Rashomon-style, from the viewpoints, memories, of the main character the episode is about. Thus, Season 2 Episode 7 halves are both titled Noah, with some variations in the telling of the episode. Rashomon is a Japanese style of story-telling that puts forward contradictory interpretations of the same events by the different people involved. I only knew that this was named after a famous Japanese film director Akira Kurosawas's seminal 1950 film 'Rashomon' when I read the TV reviews of 'The Affair' when it first came out.
Previously, I only knew about Akira from the story that the movie 'The Magnificent Seven' was based on his film 'The Seven Samurai.' Anyone who knows anything about the movie 'The Magnificent Seven' knows that it boasts an absolute all-star cast, especially enhanced by having Eli Wallach play a Mexican.
Noah is a mess. He's been stabbed, involved in an automobile wreck that ruins his relationship with his teaching colleague, Juliette Le Gail, an attractive professor who is married to an older man who is back in France suffering from Alzheimer's, and whose fire is hardly out.
Noah is hooked on Vicodin. His shoulder's a mess because a sicko prison guard at Fishkill, John Gunther, had been brutalizing the poor fellow. Noah's done three years for vehicular manslaughter, but steady viewers know the real tale.
Helen, the ex-wife, is in so need of a man that she seems to constantly have one on top of her, or in front of her standing up. Her nickname should be Miss Moana. It's no wonder the oldest of the four Solloway offspring, daughter Whitney, 22, has taken up with a 50-ish painter who has a 24 year-old daughter who plays in a band. The artist's name is Furkat, and he basically puts Noah's lights out on a Brooklyn sidewalk in front of the brownstone.
Dr. Vic Ullah is Helen's new companion, having worked his way up from humping Helen in the lower level of the brownstone (furnished) while the kids are home, to actually becoming part of the family and sitting down to dinner with them. He's a surgeon. He's seen as a good guy.
Noah is hallucinating. He thinks John Gunther is trying to kill him. And maybe he is. We don't know at this point who stabbed Noah in the neck and left him for dead, only to be saved by Juliette who was worried and came to his college apartment and rescued him from bleeding out on the bathroom floor.
It seems post-prison, Noah has worked his way into an adjunct teaching position at some college in New Jersey, I think. Juliette is a faculty colleague, and almost lover, but Noah is too twisted to even take advantage of that, which of course shows you how sick Noah really is, because generally he's on top on anyone he can.
As an aside, it seems Noah has a thing for women with slight overbites. Alison, the Montauk waitress that Noah initially throws his life overboard for, as played by Ruth Wilson, has a bit of an endearing overbite. As does Helen, played by Maura Tierney. If Gene Tierney were alive and in the cast, Noah would never been seen out of bed.
If you think Noah's a mess, you've got to consider Helen. Bringing Noah back to their former brownstone and caring for Noah in the lower level has infuriated Dr. Vic. He's walked out, and I suspect we won't see him again.
No Vic of course clears the path for Helen to embrace Noah once again, because Helen, it seems, can't seem to get that man out of her life, or out of her bed. She's probably a nymphomaniac.
George Steinbrenner was a graduate of Williams College, a tony New England school that 'The Affair's' writers tell us is where Noah and Helen met as freshman. Noah even still wears a Williams sweatshirt that lately is covered in blood because Furkat has just beat the crap out of him.
If George S. were still alive, he probably would have leaned on the writer's and put Noah in a different collegiate sweatshirt, say Michigan. He wouldn't believe Helen and Noah could be alumni of his Alma Mater.
There are three episodes for me to finish watching. At the rate I'm going, two watched in the last two evenings, I should be ordering my Verizon Quantum upgrade soon. The local baseball teams are not worth watching, and the selection of shows to keep up with is thin. 'Broadchurch' and 'The Tunnel' are getting the programmed DVR treatment now, but I'm keeping up with the episodes as they air.
Thus, Season 1 of 'The Affair' was about who killed Scotty Lockhart, and Season 2 is basically about who stabbed Noah. I know my former colleague said they were disappointed with the last episode. Eventually I'll get there and share with all.
If it weren't for Quantum and time invested, I wouldn't really care.
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