The Affair in the Media

[HOTNTX53]

Well, Sarah Treem and Ruth Wilson answer the question about Alison's murder. Yes, murder, but only the viewing audience will ever know that it was murder.

Sarah Treem gives the answer here https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rV5uOBlCrh8

[LoveLeigh]

This makes sense. Why else would Ruth Wilson be mandated not to talk about the reason for her departure? If it was not pay parity this might be it and they want it swept under the rug. 

Ruth Wilson's exit

and this

Edited August 21, 2018 by DakotaLavender

[weaver]

1 hour ago, DakotaLavender said:

This makes sense. Why else would Ruth Wilson be mandated not to talk about the reason for her departure? If it was not pay parity this might be it and they want it swept under the rug. 

Ruth Wilson's exit

and this

Makes more sense than the excuses they provided.   I never believed Ruth Wilson asked out and was granted out just to go on and do other work.  

[cleo]

Well the pay equity thing never made sense, Ruth's comments were more matter of fact than inflammatory. I could not see Showtime getting that upset over it.

If something happened it would have to be substantial for Ruth to want to leave imo. I would think they would try to rectify it to keep her, esp if it didn't involve another actor they wanted to protect.

I am also surprised at how Showtime handled the thing with the double, especially these days. 

[scrb]

I’m kind of surprised that she wasn’t under contract.

Maybe the main cast was signed only through 4 seasons and were willing to do a season 5?

if she was contractually obligated, why not make her stay, since she is one of the leads?

[weaver]

No, I saw an video (its on YouTube) from several years ago with Dominic West introducing Ruth Wilson to accept an award. They both alluded to having signed 6 year contracts.  That to me means Treem and co could have forced RW to stay.   Puzzling.

[cleo]

Well they let her out with an NDA (likely based on her comment)  so whatever it was, would have to be pretty bad. Go and keep quiet. 

[Growsonwalls]

I've been an on and off viewer of the The Affair and I'm stunned Showtime would think that "the character has run its course" would be a believable excuse for killing Alison off. Alison was the mother of Joanie, she was at the center of an extremely popular showmance (Cole/Alison), and also her journey towards self-improvement was a huge character arc. 

Something definitely went down and it's unfortunate that it will probably take a couple of years for the NDA to expire so we can get the full story.

[thefountain]

This interview has a little bit more info at the end.

Quote

There was a meaningful silence. “There is a much bigger story,” she eventually volunteered, urging me, more than once, to contact Sarah Treem, a writer and producer of the show.

[JenE4]

The Affair: Ruth Wilson Says There’s a “Much Bigger Story” About Her Sudden Exit - Vanity Fair

Quote

The strange mystery surrounding Ruth Wilson’s sudden departure from The Affair continues. Speaking with The New York Times, the actress shot down the two most salient theories about why she left the show, leading to her character’s sudden death on the Showtime drama: “It isn’t about pay parity, and it wasn’t about other jobs,” Wilson said, adding, “But I’m not really allowed to talk about it.” After a long pause, Wilson continued, cryptically: “There is a much bigger story.”

[scrb]

Emmy Rossi’s announced she’s leaving Shameless after this upcoming ninth season.

Maybe there’s a thing with Female leads on Showtime series.

[Chas411]

I think Emmy has been ready to finish up for a year or two. I also think she's finishing up on much better terms with the network then Ruth.

[chick binewski]

On 8/31/2018 at 10:08 AM, JenE4 said:

The Affair: Ruth Wilson Says There’s a “Much Bigger Story” About Her Sudden Exit - Vanity Fair

I don't know why I'm so invested in this but I am still really curious. Partly bc Wilson seems non-diva like, partly bc I'm interested if she objected to a turn the story was going to take, and partly bc I want to know if the blind items about her and Pacey are true.

[scrb]

Or maybe just like Ruth, she thought the show was way past it's sell-by date, with characters not really going anywhere.

[Guest]

Quote

“It isn’t about pay parity, and it wasn’t about other jobs,” Wilson said, adding, “But I’m not really allowed to talk about it.” After a long pause, Wilson continued, cryptically: “There is a much bigger story.”

OK, so in my wild imagination, when Ruth Wilson says, "There is a much bigger story" and then suggests to the author that they go ask the series' writer what she means, maybe it means that the 'story' Wilson refers to is what's on the screen—maybe the whole thing wraps up at the end with The Affair just being a literary invention of Noah's, that he never had an affair with Alison, never split from Helen, and Alison never split from Cole, and never died. Maybe "The Affair" was just a book that Noah wrote after catching Alison's eye at the restaurant the first time they met. The big final reveal will be: Don't cheat and keep it in your pants or shitty things will happen to everyone involved. The end. 

Of course, that'll never happen. 

[Elizzikra]

Quote

OK, so in my wild imagination, when Ruth Wilson says, "There is a much bigger story" and then suggests to the author that they go ask the series' writer what she means, maybe it means that the 'story' Wilson refers to is what's on the screen—maybe the whole thing wraps up at the end with The Affair just being a literary invention of Noah's, that he never had an affair with Alison, never split from Helen, and Alison never split from Cole, and never died. Maybe "The Affair" was just a book that Noah wrote after catching Alison's eye at the restaurant the first time they met. The big final reveal will be: Don't cheat and keep it in your pants or shitty things will happen to everyone involved. The end. 

I like it except that it would mean Joanie doesn't exist and she's kinda my favorite character.

[taragel]

So Joshua Jackson's out for Season 5 (mostly). That makes think maybe they are heading into a reconcilliation for Helen and Noah. I'm not sure I'll be tuning in as JJ was really my reason to watch, but probably my curiosity will kick in and I'll check it out.

 

https://tvline.com/2018/09/25/joshua-jackson-leaving-the-affair-season-5-cole/

[Chas411]

Wow while I couldn't really see where there really was for Cole to go I could kind of say the same for Helen and Noah at this point.

The whole thing has turned into a clusterfuck.

[Diane12251]

40 minutes ago, taragel said:

So Joshua Jackson's out for Season 5 (mostly). That makes think maybe they are heading into a reconcilliation for Helen and Noah. I'm not sure I'll be tuning in as JJ was really my reason to watch, but probably my curiosity will kick in and I'll check it out.

https://tvline.com/2018/09/25/joshua-jackson-leaving-the-affair-season-5-cole/

Interesting that Joshua Jackson isn't coming back, except for perhaps a guest appearance in one or two episodes.  The article doesn't say why, but I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't because of how they treated Ruth Wilson and the way they killed off Alison.  Cole was always one of my favorite characters, so this is very sad.  It won't be the same without Alison and Cole.  I'm bummed, but I'll watch Season 5, mainly out of curiosity.

[taragel]

Just now, Diane12251 said:

Interesting that Joshua Jackson isn't coming back, except for perhaps a guest appearance in one or two episodes.  The article doesn't say why, but I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't because of how they treated Ruth Wilson and the way they killed off Alison.  Cole was always one of my favorite characters, so this is very sad.  It won't be the same without Alison and Cole.  I'm bummed, but I'll watch Season 5, mainly out of curiosity.

I hope they do at least wrap up what happened with him and Luisa and Joanie.

[Diane12251]

On 9/4/2018 at 8:17 PM, Elizzikra said:

OK, so in my wild imagination, when Ruth Wilson says, "There is a much bigger story" and then suggests to the author that they go ask the series' writer what she means, maybe it means that the 'story' Wilson refers to is what's on the screen—maybe the whole thing wraps up at the end with The Affair just being a literary invention of Noah's, that he never had an affair with Alison, never split from Helen, and Alison never split from Cole, and never died. Maybe "The Affair" was just a book that Noah wrote after catching Alison's eye at the restaurant the first time they met. The big final reveal will be: Don't cheat and keep it in your pants or shitty things will happen to everyone involved. The end. 

I like it except that it would mean Joanie doesn't exist and she's kinda my favorite character.

Please... I really hope they don't do this - reminds me of the Dream Season of Dallas.  What a cop-out!!

[bilgistic]

3 hours ago, taragel said:

So Joshua Jackson's out for Season 5 (mostly). That makes think maybe they are heading into a reconcilliation for Helen and Noah. I'm not sure I'll be tuning in as JJ was really my reason to watch, but probably my curiosity will kick in and I'll check it out.

 

https://tvline.com/2018/09/25/joshua-jackson-leaving-the-affair-season-5-cole/

Ugh, this is a huge bummer. He's pretty much the only reason I watch.

[scrb]

They'll have to scramble to introduce new characters, since they're eliminating 2 of the 4 characters which got most of the story lines.

Or maybe they'll only do 6 episodes or something.

Edited September 25, 2018 by scrb

[taragel]

3 hours ago, scrb said:

They'll have to scramble to introduce new characters, since they're eliminating 2 of the 4 characters which got most of the story lines.

Or maybe they'll only do 6 episodes or something.

Plus they're out of women Noah hasn't slept with. ?

[dangwoodchucks]

Count me out for season 5 too. It’s bad enough that Ruth Wilson is gone, but I only started watching the show because of Joshua Jackson. I don’t care what happens to Noah, Helen and their insufferable brats.

[AngelaHunter]

On 9/28/2018 at 5:54 PM, dangwoodchucks said:

I don’t care what happens to Noah, Helen and their insufferable brats.

Have we ever seen brats more insufferable and annoying than Helen and Noah's offspring? The little girl (I forget her name) is okay but every time we see the two boys I just want to spank them, really hard.

[HOTNTX53]

Looks like Luisa (Catalina Sandino Moreno) is out too.

https://www.usmagazine.com/entertainment/news/the-affair-season-5-casting-shakeup/

[scrb]

3 hours ago, HOTNTX53 said:

Looks like Luisa (Catalina Sandino Moreno) is out too.

https://www.usmagazine.com/entertainment/news/the-affair-season-5-casting-shakeup/

That article says Vik, Janelle, Sierra and Ben will be back in S5.

i guess they’re trying to figure out how to fill the eps. 

[Pallas]

Quote

 

That article says Vik, Janelle, Sierra and Ben will be back in S5.

 

The article says only that Moreno won't return as a regular, leaving open the possibility that she could return in a recurring or guest role: like some of the above, I'm guessing. It adds that the season is already in production. 

[scrb]

Right but what I'm saying is that most of these secondary characters are tied to the main characters who've left.

For instance, with Alison and Cole gone, why would Ben need to be on the show?  Are they going to feature his POV when he kills Alison?

Or Vik or Sierra?  Is Helen going to have some dreams about Vik?

Is she still going to have to deal with Sierra?

I guess Noah is still going to sniff around Janelle unless he gets back together with Helen.

 

There is a lot of doubt about the value of having a fifth season, especially without Alison and to a lesser degree, without Cole.

Bringing some of these supporting characters back suggest they don't have much story left and they will fill out episodes with these other characters.

If they're doing another season just to wrap up Helen and Noah getting back together, it's a questionable undertaking.

[Babalu]

6 hours ago, scrb said:

That article says Vik, Janelle, Sierra and Ben will be back in S5.

i guess they’re trying to figure out how to fill the eps. 

I’m reading it as saying that only Jenelle and Sierra will be back for Season 5. The article states that Vik was added as a series regular and Ben as a recurring star in Season 4, but it doesn’t indicate whether they’ll be in Season 5. Vik probably dies between seasons. I don’t see any reason for Ben to be back since Sarah Treem said none of the characters will ever know that Alison was murdered, so what purpose would he have? (Just my guesses.)

[LoveLeigh]

News about next season with SPOILERS

[PrincessPurrsALot]

Paramours,

I moved the discussion of the spoilers in the above link to the Spoilers thread.  Head on over there if you are okay with being spoiled and you want to speculate on the next season.  There is a lot to speculate about. 

Thanks!

[LilaFowler]

The final season trailer has dropped.

[chick binewski]

On 7/2/2019 at 2:16 PM, LilaFowler said:

The final season trailer has dropped.

Eek that dialogue is making my teeth hurt. But the show sucked me in again during the July 4th marathon (I even watched some season three episodes!) and I am looking forward to this even though I cannot with the Redemption of Noah Solloway with his Sidekick the Scornful Ex-Wife. West & Tierney deserve better.

[Guest]

On 7/2/2019 at 2:16 PM, LilaFowler said:

The final season trailer has dropped.

...like a turd in the toilet. 

Thank god it's ending. 

[gingerella]

On 7/8/2019 at 3:04 PM, Giant Misfit said:

...like a turd in the toilet. 

Thank god it's ending. 

Yes but it's that tenacious turd that you keep flushing and walking away and when you go back, its still bobbing there in your toilet, like a little happy shit emoticon...

[dangwoodchucks]

I watched the trailer out of curiosity, just to see if it looked interesting. But as soon as I heard Whitney shrieking “I fucking hate both of you!”, I said nope.

Nope nope nope 

[AngelaHunter]

On 7/8/2019 at 5:54 PM, chick binewski said:

The final season trailer has dropped.

I admit I didn't watch all of the trailer, but is Helen getting a toyboy? Really? Other than that, without Alison and Cole, I see no reason to watch this. Except I probably will out of desperation, since I have nothing to watch. That makes me sad because I did so love this show. 

[scrb]

There’s plenty to watch but mainly want to finish the series since I’ve stuck with it this far.

cant imagine what Treem will do next.

[Razzberry]

It looks like someone is making a movie of their life, perhaps with Noah as the screenwriter and Anna Paquin playing Alison?  It couldn't have been easy to cast someone with Noah's magnetism and sex appeal .😉

[scrb]

I didn't realize this will be on next Sunday.

OK, lets get this over with, just for sake of completion, even though it was BS to continue after Wilson left the show.

BTW, the creator of the Israeli show on which The Affair is based produced a show with HBO called Our Boys which is airing on Mondays.

Edited August 18, 2019 by scrb

[Razzberry]

"She's sashaying around Hollywood like she's Nicole Kidman!"

 I'm actually looking forward to this.  With Kirsten Dunst's new show premiering right after, I need to re-up Showtime.

[suomi]

Quote

Maura Tierney Has Reached the End of The Affair

I was surprised to discover that the series was doing a time jump for a portion of this season.

Oh, yeah! I’m very curious about that. I didn’t see any of that. Okay, maybe I saw one set. But I wasn’t in it, so I didn’t get to work with Anna [Paquin], and all of it, it’ll be completely new to me. But it’s exciting that Anna’s on the show. Although I miss Josh [Jackson] and Ruth [Wilson].

On that note, Ruth obviously asked to leave the show, and they gave her that opportunity. But were you surprised when she made that decision to leave?

Um...I don’t know. People have different tolerances for different things, you know? I’m not surprised by much.

Well, it is a very intense show. I can see how someone could run their course with it.

Yeah, that’s what I’m saying. Or how long they want to do one thing. The work was certainly very demanding for her. Like, that character was just suffering all the time. I mean, I can’t speculate as to what happened...

Nor was I asking you to. I was just wondering if you were surprised when she asked to leave.

No. I’ve been on other shows where other people...No, you know, this show is very specific. And it’s very demanding. And sometimes people have a shelf life for it. I think that’s what I would say.

All I want to know is if you were happy with the conclusion of Helen’s journey.

I...was - I think so. I mean, you know, the flaw in the character is that she’s always trying to make everything all right for everybody. And that’s impossible! So the idea this season was to push her into some circumstances where she'd  realize that it’s impossible. And I don’t know if Helen really does. [Laughs.] It might just be who she is.

But there’s something really nice in the final episode about people being honest with themselves. It’s just sort of about accepting that you love who you love, and who the fuck cares what anybody thinks about that. It’s said in a more eloquent way, but I like that.

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2019/08/maura-tierney-the-affair-final-season-interview

Edited August 22, 2019 by suomi

[HaaCHOO]

"Alison started dating Ben (Ramón Rodríguez), a veteran suffering from PTSD, who she met at work."

W H O M 

[AngelaHunter]

It's on tonight? It's been so long I had to look it up to remember which station it's on.

On 8/18/2019 at 12:24 AM, Razzberry said:

It looks like someone is making a movie of their life, perhaps with Noah as the screenwriter and Anna Paquin playing Alison?  It couldn't have been easy to cast someone with Noah's magnetism and sex appeal .😉

100% will watch. 🤣

2 hours ago, HaaCHOO said:

W H O M 

We are now in an era when reporters often cannot write a single declarative sentence using correct grammar.

[Growsonwalls]

No Alison since last season and now no Cole? Fuck that, I'm out. The only two characters worth caring about are gone. 

I also think that if they wanted to write off Alison's character they should have had her and Cole ride off into the sunset. Part of my frustration with the series was that at no time did I ever think that Cole and Alison didn't belong together. They had a rough patch after their son died. Many marriages do after tragedies. But they loved each other, they had another child (!!!) together, and so why the hell aren't they just together? 

Edited August 25, 2019 by Growsonwalls

[AngelaHunter]

My frustration is that only we, the audience, know that Alison was murdered. Her child, her mother, Cole, Noah, etc are all left with the guilt and remorse of thinking she committed suicide. Stupid beyond belief and a huge "Fuck you" to the viewers. I see this a lot with shows. TPTB figure we'll watch to the bitter end since we've invested so much time on the series that we'll continue with it no matter how much it sucks. I hate that they're so often right. 

[Growsonwalls]

Hmm. In light of some of the rumors surrounding Ruth Wilson's departure, and then Joshua Jackson also leaving, I thought it was interesting that Josh Jackson's Instagram has as his bio this:

Edited August 25, 2019 by Growsonwalls

[Crs97]

I understand Maura probably isn’t able to say much, but her answers seem to insinuate the work just got too demanding for Ruth.  It leaves a bad taste for me.