The Affair is one of the few recent productions on TV which deals with the hard psychology of man woman relations and its myriad entanglements. An affair between two married people is largely a narrative device through which the series explore what drives men and women to seek out risk, love, chaos and meaning throwing all the comforts of a "settled" life to the bin. Though there is a moralistic angle to it, but its kept at the sidelines with the primary focus being the psychological subtleties of love and betrayal. One can say that the series is heavily driven by pitch- perfect reactions of characters to each other and the ambiguity of desire. Jealousy and possessiveness haunts the characters in the initial part of the story where an affair, quite necessarily is creating new avenues for the intensity of desire to gush forth. There are lives being left behind in the promise of a better one and the collateral damage to the once dear. Season 1 is concerned with the question of carnality as a means to feel alive again. The greatness of the story lies in its astute understanding that men and women are similar in some ways and different in many others. Desire is the self trying to complete itself through another but men and women understand completeness differently many times and this creates timeless problems between them.
Season 2 deals with the aftermath of the affair and I think there is a lot said here about what are the fundamentals of any relationship which determines which relationship lasts and which fails. One of the most brilliant aspects of the second season is the way it brings out the life is approached differently by men and women. What gives life meaning is not a solved question and in pursuit of what one considers meaningful, we are ready to make many subtle self- deceptions. Many times, complexity is just weakness given a flair of rhetoric. At the end of our lives when we are less driven blindly to achieve and more likely to take a dispassionate view of life, much of what we called "complexities of life" will turn out to be a desire to avoid responsibility. Neither man nor woman has the absolute answer to what a good life is. Perhaps we can someday realize that its always in the middle that the answer lies. Mean while, The Affair can teach us how to reflect on these questions and find our own answers
Season 2 deals with the aftermath of the affair and I think there is a lot said here about what are the fundamentals of any relationship which determines which relationship lasts and which fails. One of the most brilliant aspects of the second season is the way it brings out the life is approached differently by men and women. What gives life meaning is not a solved question and in pursuit of what one considers meaningful, we are ready to make many subtle self- deceptions. Many times, complexity is just weakness given a flair of rhetoric. At the end of our lives when we are less driven blindly to achieve and more likely to take a dispassionate view of life, much of what we called "complexities of life" will turn out to be a desire to avoid responsibility. Neither man nor woman has the absolute answer to what a good life is. Perhaps we can someday realize that its always in the middle that the answer lies. Mean while, The Affair can teach us how to reflect on these questions and find our own answers