History Series / TheAffair

* CutToSex: After Noah and Helen break up, he runs into the swimmer who flirted with him in the first episode, who tells him she's now engaged. Commence sex scene.

** It happens again to Helen, this time, when [[spoiler: she's driving home Noah from Cole and Luisa's wedding before she runs over Scotty Lockhart.]]

** Happens out and in-universe when Martin Solloway [[FakingTheDeath fakes his suicide]].

** When Noah relates to his agent and friend Max that his [[spoiler:daughter is expecting a baby from Alison's brother-in-law,]] Max can't keep a straight face.

* MakingLoveInAllTheWrongPlaces: When Noah is seperated from his wife, he takes advantage of his bachelor status to sleep around a lot. One of them is another teacher at the school he works at, whom he takes to his locked classroom at night to have kinky sex. Deconstructed when a janitor happens to see them and he's suspended for improper behavior.

** Noah justifiably lost his shit when [[spoiler: Whitney was involved in a cyber-bulling incident.]] [[DrivenToSuicide Considering what the victim almost did]], [[TruthInTelevision can you blame him?]]
** Beautifully {{Discussed}} by Noah, explaining this to Whitney in "310".

** A truly dark example in the penultimate episode of season 4. From Ben's perspective, his talk with Allison is warm as he pours his heart out to her, troubled by his issues as a soldier and they make love. We then see Allison's version of events where [[spoiler: a troubled Ben admits he shot a man he knew was unarmed, tried to rape her and when she pushed him away, ended up killing her in a fight.]]

* ADateWithRosiePalms: In season 3 a French literature professor who is a fan of Noah's erotic novel ''Descent'' pleasures herself while reading a copy of his book.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Noah reconciles with Helen and improves his relationship with his children, but his professional relationship is still in tatters. In the future, Joanie comes to terms with her mother's death, but is unable to bring Allison's killer to justice.]]

* SexAtWork: Noah gets himself in [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome very hot water with the school board]] when they discover that he and one of his colleagues used his classroom for "inappropriate purposes". Even if it was outside of school hours, they don't care.

* NotSoDifferent:
** Noah And Allison on the grounds that [[spoiler: they experienced traumatic deaths of loved ones, which they still carry to the recent episode of the series. Allison losing her four-year old son as a result of secondary drowning (fluid retained in the lungs) while [[MercyKill Noah helped his very sick mother commit suicide, feeding her spiked yogurt because her MS prevented her from doing it herself.]] Also, Noah lampshades this in "Episode 305".]]
** In a rare moment of non-condescension or judgment Bruce invokes this to Noah, when revealing he had a love-affair with a student. He admits that he regretted not leaving his wife for the other-woman and only stayed with his wife for the sake of his daughter.

* ThroughTheEyesOfMadness: Throughout much of season 3, after doing a 3-year stint in prison during the TimeSkip between seasons, Noah is being stalked by a psychotic prison guard named John Gunther who even stabs him during a home invasion. When he visits Gunther in his hometown, [[spoiler:he doesn't even recognize Noah and turns out to just be a normal guy. It's likely that most of their interactions in prison were imaginary, and Noah stabbed himself.]]

* LoonyFan: While Noah was in prison between seasons 2 and 3, a prison guard from his Pennsylvania hometown named John Gunther becomes obsessed with Noah and envious of his success as a writer. He regularly torments and assaults Noah in prison (at one point even returning Noah a picture of Alison that he stole now [[{{Squick}} covered with semen]]) and continues stalking him after he gets out, culminating in an attempted murder.

!Provides examples of

* AdaptationDecay: Bruce despises the movie adaptations of his books because they make a mess with his material, so he just gives nominal support, [[MoneyDearBoy cashes the checks]] and shows up at the premieres.

* SelfServingMemory: The central theme of the series, mixed with UnreliableNarrator as each episode divides the point of view between Allison and Noah as they embark on a relationship. Each one has a different view of things from who started the affair to how they were dressed on a certain day.

* SelfServingMemory: The central theme of at least the first season. Noah and Allison remember the broad strokes the same, but usually recall the details in a way that makes themselves look better at the other's expense. Sometimes inverted, though, with one of them [[YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre actually coming off better in the other's version than in their own.]] For example, in Episode Eight when Allison recalls Noah giving her a long, insightful speech about [[spoiler: needing to let her dying grandmother go,]] something that Noah himself apparently has no recollection of doing.

* JailBait: Noah's 16-year-old daughter Whitney had sex with Cole's 30-year-old brother Scott during the summer and became pregnant as a result. Her parents threaten to press charges for statutory rape and Noah attacks Scott when he runs into him. [[spoiler:This makes him the primary suspect when Scott's murder is being investigated.]]

* LikesOlderMen: Whitney likes older men to a fault. This includes 30-year-old Scott in season 1 when she was [[JailBait still underage at the time]], and a 40-something artist in season 3 who has a daughter 2 years her senior.

* SwitchingPOV: The second season gradually moves away from RashomonStyle to show differents parts of the events with rotating POV characters but without overlap or contradictory accounts.

* AwfulWeddedLife: Bruce and Margaret. She knows about his affairs, but she stays with him for the money. [[LampshadeHanging Even they acknowledge it themselves.]] [[spoiler:They're finally getting a divorce in season 2.]]

* NotSoDifferent: Noah And Allison on the grounds that [[spoiler: they experienced traumatic deaths of loved ones, which they still carry to the recent episode of the series. Allison losing her four-year old son as a result of secondary drowning (fluid retained in the lungs) while [[MercyKill Noah helped his very sick mother commit suicide, feeding her spiked yogurt because her MS prevented her from doing it herself.]] Also, Noah lampshades this in "Episode 305".]]

* CutToSex: After Noah and Helen break up, he runs into the swimmer who flirted with him in the first episode, who tells him she's now engaged. [[YourCheatingHeart Commence sex scene]].

* LoveDodecahedron: It starts out as a fairly straightforward YourCheatingHeart with two members of different married couples cheating on their spouses with each other, but the entanglement of relationships gets increasingly complex over the following seasons, including multiple instances of break-ups and make-ups with the same two people.

* YourCheatingHeart:
** The whole story revolves around the affair between Noah and Alison, both of whom are already married, and the fall-out from it.
** Season 2 has a more comedic example when Cole sleeps with a woman he once gave a cab drive before her husband walks in.

''The Affair'' is an American television drama series produced by Creator/{{Showtime}}.

** Noah hates Bruce, and Bruce is quite patronizing and contemptuous towards Noah. In a bit of hilarious {{metacasting}}, it couldn't be any other way, given the reunion between arch-enemies Dominic West and Creator/JohnDoman from ''Series/TheWire'', whose characters Jimmy [=McNulty=] and Bill Rawls were in a similar position.

The series explores the extramarital relationship between Noah Solloway (Dominic West) and Alison Lockhart (Creator/RuthWilson) and its effects after the two meet in the resort town of Montauk, Long Island. Noah is a New York City schoolteacher who has had one novel published, and is struggling to write a second book. He is happily married with four children, but resents his dependence on his wealthy father-in-law. Alison is a 31-year-old waitress trying to piece her life and marriage back together in the wake of the death of her child.

* LoonyFan: While Noah was in prison between seasons 2 and 3, a prison guard from his Pennsylvania hometown named John Gunther becomes obsessed with Noah and envious of his success as a writer. He regularly torments (at one point even returning Noah a picture of Alison that he stole [[{{Squick}} covered with semen]]) and assaults Noah in prison and continues stalking him after he gets out, culminating in an attempted murder.

** After a pile-up of misfortunes earlier that day, Helen ends up trying to pick her kids up from school when she's drunk ''and'' stoned. She crashes the car and gets arrested after assaulting a police officer. It single-handedly undermines her case for sole custody of her and Noah's children.

* UnreliableNarrator: Noah and Alison clearly have differing views of themselves in their respective viewpoints (Noah sees himself as more reluctant and Alison as more seductive, and Alison sees herself as more reserved and Noah as more forward) and each have a poor view of the other's respective spouses. Season 2 adds to it by showing the viewpoints of their significant others, Cole and Helen, who naturally have a very different view of this "romance."