The Affair

So although it has already been broadcast in the States, where it won the Golden Globe for Best TV Series, The Affair began here in the UK last night with a double episode opener. Set in the US, and made in the US, it starred two brilliant British actors doing mostly successful American accents, although they didn't always fill me with confidence. Which is a shame, because apart from that, The Affair was more than watchable - at times it was intriguing, bewildering (in a good way) and thought-provoking.

It begins in a fairly predictable way, lulling its audience into a sense of being in familiar territory: handsome and successful Noah (Dominic West) lives with his gorgeous wife (Maura Tierney) and reasonably charming children (there is a disaffected teenage daughter of whom I have high hopes for trouble later) in one of those New York brownstones that make you wish you'd made better decisions about your life - like moving to New York in your twenties and getting a shit hot job. They're heading off to Long Island for the summer, to stay with the (albeit tricky) in-laws in another to-die-for house, on the beach. Of course. We see him nobly not-leering at a pretty girl in the swimming pool, and evidence of a healthy sex life with his wife that is only interrupted by the cute kids.

But there are signs early on that this drama will have some unusual, jarring notes. One of the kids (who is, honestly, called Trevor) pretends to hang himself just before they leave. It's a joke gone wrong, but it's a hell of a moment when Noah finds his hanging body and desperately cuts him down. Not long after, their younger daughter almost chokes on a marble, and again panic and fear ensue. We're no longer so sure of which territory we're in. And it's about to get much more complex - because the diner is where Noah meets Alison, played to perfection by Ruth Wilson. I would watch anything with Ruth Wilson in it - she had me at Jane Eyre back in 2006, and then cemented my love for her with her stunning, glorious Alice in Luther. Here she plays an enigmatic, slightly frosty waitress and you just know there's so much more going on behind her wistful, knowing eyes. Eventually the two players break off from their surroundings and after a rather awkward, clumsy but laden-with-subtext meeting on the beach late at night, the seeds of the inevitable affair are sown.

BUT. A huge BUT. In the second half of the episode, the story is turned on its head and told from Alison's point of view, which gives us a whole new perspective. We find out more about her background (a troubled relationship, manacled by grief over a lost child) but more crucially, we see the events that have taken place so far with Noah and they are very, very different. And to add to the mystery, both sets of events are framed by a thread in which Noah and Alison are, separately, being interviewed by the police. We learn that the events they're describing took place some time ago, and it's clear that there is a whole lot more story about to unravel ...

I found it fascinating and will catch up with Episode 2 (which followed on straight afterwards) tonight. It's innovative and surprising, and it made me sit up and concentrate, my mind wandering in all sorts of directions. I wonder about Noah, though, and how sympathetic he can be: he seems rather underwritten, especially compared to Ruth Wilson's wonderfully complex Alison. Noah seems too admirable, too heroic, perhaps too passive and, dare I say it, one-dimensional. More is obviously going to be revealed, and writer Sarah Treem (whose work includes House of Cards and In Treatment) has cleverly built layers around her characters which are gradually being peeled back, but I'm hoping to see a few more flaws emerging in the coming episodes. Because Noah is a bit too good to be true, and It makes me want to see him screw up - either that, or to like him a bit more because he screws up, because he is human. Compared to Alison, he's a little bit too bland and predictable. But I thought that about the series at the beginning of the episode and was proved wrong, so I'm hoping to be surprised and beguiled as the story develops ...

The Affair continues on Sky Atlantic on Wednesdays at 9pm (repeated on Sundays 11.15pm)