Formeruser012523
Call Me a Cab
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I'm still watching The Affair, but I don't know why. It occasionally has interesting moments, but nothing in it is remotely believable, and I hate all the characters. Noah's the worst husband/writer/dad/lover/teacher/etc. EVER, but they're all mainly jerks to one degree or another.
Is that the show's point, that we're all ultimately jerks, even when we view ourselves as the hero? This show seemingly lost any interest in making interesting observations beyond "Noah/Alison/Cole/Helen is doing something really stupid yet again" a long time ago.
Yet I keep watching!
This is an interesting comment and potential experiment. I remember going to a movie in the 90s (can't remember the title right now because it wasn't very good) that had a clear virtuous hero and a scummy villain. The virtues of the hero were sort of that unattainable, perfect, of utmost integrity variety that you rarely run into outside of books, while the villain was a jerk in real, common, normal ways that you run into every day. I don't care who you asked. I never met anyone who related to the villain, despite the fact that they had far more in common with them. They always viewed themselves like the hero. You know, their inner dialogue was telling them, "I'm him." I'm sure this is a common phenomenon, but in this instance, I thought the situation was particularly sharp. It's funny how much we lack self-awareness (and crap all over anyone who is even attempting to make self-awareness a priority, as if it is a waste of time and of little use). It's funny how we seem to be a nation of superiority complexes and delusion. I don't know if that is cultural, primal, or what. But in some instances, like this movie, it is clear as bathwater that 99.9999% of the audience is basically the villain and would act similarly. It's that goofy notion that we can relate to the exception more than we can the rule. Uh...that isn't how it works, folks.
Back to The Affair. Ruth Wilson is an awful actress. As if her storyline wasn't absurd enough, she doesn't sell any of it.
Interesting that there are so many shows about "jerks" nowadays. Why is that? Or the "morally grey" characters? None of us are truly black and white. Audiences know this and always have, so I think, at least, that it's a bit annoying that it has to be shoved in our faces how rude or brash or "flawed" a character in a show or movie is.
Tried watching Mr. Robot when it showed up on Amazon Prime and didn't get a full four episodes in due to this very thing. Who was good and who was bad? Everybody sucked and I had no empathy for any character AT ALL. Found myself asking why is this so famous and winning awards? Sure, it has good actors, but, what else? Besides things I don't want to see?