They shouldn't have worked together. On paper, it was almost too much intensity for one screen. When The Affair premiered on Showtime back in 2014, the "hook" was the dual-perspective storytelling, but let’s be real. It was the actors. The stars of The Affair weren't just playing roles; they were vibrating at a frequency that made you feel intrusive just for watching.
Memory is a liar. That was the show's thesis. Because Sarah Treem and Hagai Levi decided to show us the same events through different eyes, the burden of the show fell entirely on the performers to play two, three, or four versions of themselves.
Dominic West and Ruth Wilson had to be different people depending on who was "remembering" the scene. It’s a massive technical challenge. If Noah remembers Alison as a provocateur in a short yellow dress, but Alison remembers herself as a grieving, guarded mother in baggy clothes, the actors have to flip that switch instantly. They did. And it was messy.
The Core Four: Dominic West and Ruth Wilson
Dominic West came into this after The Wire. Everyone saw him as Jimmy McNulty. But as Noah Solloway, he tapped into something far more pathetic and recognizable—the mid-life crisis of a man who thinks he’s the hero of a story he’s actually destroying. West played Noah with a specific kind of vanity. You see it in the way he squares his shoulders in his own memories versus the slouching, predatory version of himself we often see in others' perspectives.
Then there’s Ruth Wilson.
Honestly, her performance as Alison Bailey is one of the most underrated pieces of acting in the last decade of prestige TV. She won a Golden Globe for it in 2015, and she deserved every bit of it. Alison wasn't just a "waitress." She was a woman drowning in the wake of her son’s death. Wilson has this incredible ability to make her face look like it’s actually breaking.
The chemistry? It was combustible.
It wasn't just "hot" TV chemistry. It was uncomfortable. You’ve probably seen shows where the leads get along too well. Here, it felt like two people using each other to escape their own lives. It was desperate. That desperation is what kept people coming back even when the plot got a little "out there" in the later seasons (we don’t need to talk about the French professor subplot right now).
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Maura Tierney and Joshua Jackson: The Collateral Damage
If West and Wilson were the engine, Maura Tierney and Joshua Jackson were the soul.
Maura Tierney as Helen Solloway is, quite frankly, the best part of the show for many fans. She played the "wronged wife" trope and then absolutely nuked it. Helen was wealthy, bitingly sarcastic, and deeply flawed. Tierney didn't play for sympathy. She played for keeps. Her character’s evolution from a Brooklyn socialite to a woman trying to find an identity outside of a failed marriage was the show’s secret weapon.
And then there’s Cole Lockhart.
Joshua Jackson played Cole with a raw, rugged grief that felt like a punch to the gut. If you grew up watching Dawson's Creek, seeing Pacey Witter become this broken, salt-of-the-earth Montauk local was a revelation. Cole was the moral center of a show that didn't have much of a moral compass. He represented the "old" Montauk—fishing, horses, dirt, and tradition—being swallowed up by the "new" Montauk of boutiques and $20 avocado toast.
The dynamic between these four stars of The Affair created a square of tension that most dramas can only dream of. When they finally put all four of them in a room together—like that legendary dinner scene—the air felt like it was being sucked out of the room.
Why the Casting Changes Shifted the Show's DNA
Shows change. People leave. But the exits of certain stars of The Affair fundamentally altered what the show was.
By the time we hit Season 5, the landscape was unrecognizable. Ruth Wilson’s departure was... complicated. There was a lot of behind-the-scenes talk regarding her exit, which she eventually hinted was about feeling "unsafe" or unhappy with the direction of the sexual content, though she remained somewhat cryptic due to NDAs. When Alison was killed off, the show lost its shadow.
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To fill the void, the show brought in Anna Paquin as the adult version of Joanie (Alison and Cole’s daughter) in a future timeline.
- Paquin brought a cold, clinical edge to the show.
- She had to play a woman haunted by a mother she never really knew.
- The climate change-ravaged future setting was a bold choice, though it polarized the audience.
Sanaa Lathan also joined as Janelle, giving Noah a different kind of foil. These additions were great, but the gravity of the original four was hard to replicate. The show became more about the "legacy" of the affair than the affair itself.
The Montauk Factor
You can't talk about the cast without talking about the setting. Montauk acted like a fifth lead character.
It’s easy to forget how much the environment dictated the performances. The grey, churning Atlantic, the wind-swept dunes, the Lobster Roll (the actual restaurant where they filmed)—all of it fed into the isolation the characters felt. The stars of The Affair often talked in interviews about how filming on location affected the mood. It wasn't a Hollywood set. It was damp. It was cold. It felt real.
Behind the Scenes: The Creative Visionaries
While we focus on the faces, Sarah Treem was the architect.
She came from House of Cards and In Treatment, so she knew how to write dialogue that felt like a chess match. She pushed the actors to explore the dark parts of their psyche. Sometimes it went too far—there were reports of tension on set—but the result was a raw, visceral look at human infidelity.
The use of different cinematographers for different "points of view" also helped the actors. They would change the lighting and the camera angles depending on whose story we were in. It’s a subtle thing, but it helps the audience understand that we aren't seeing the truth—we’re seeing a truth.
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The Legacy of the Performances
What did The Affair actually leave behind?
It proved that you can have a "shlocky" premise—man cheats on wife, chaos ensues—and turn it into high art through performance. It didn't rely on car chases or explosions. It relied on the way Maura Tierney’s lip quivered or the way Dominic West looked at himself in the mirror.
It also launched a thousand conversations about "He Said/She Said" dynamics. In the era of #MeToo and a heightened awareness of perspective, the show feels even more relevant now than it did when it started. It reminds us that no one is the villain in their own story. We are all the stars of our own messy, biased, filtered affairs.
How to Revisit the Series Today
If you’re looking to dive back in or watch it for the first time, don't just binge it for the plot. Watch the acting choices.
Pay attention to the subtle shifts:
- Look at Alison’s hair. In Noah’s view, it’s often loose and "wild." In her own, it’s usually pulled back, functional, and tired.
- Watch Noah’s level of confidence. He sees himself as a charming rogue; others see him as an arrogant jerk.
- Notice how Cole’s anger is portrayed. To Noah, Cole is a threat. To Alison, Cole is a tether.
The show is currently streaming on platforms like Paramount+ (with Showtime). It’s 53 episodes of emotional demolition.
Actionable Takeaways for Fans of the Genre
- Watch for Perspective Cues: If you're a writer or a fan of storytelling, study the first two seasons. It's a masterclass in how to use unreliable narrators without confusing the audience.
- Explore the Cast’s Other Work: If you loved Maura Tierney here, go back and watch her in ER or her later work in American Rust. If you want more Ruth Wilson, Luther is essential viewing to see her range as a total psychopath.
- Visit the Real Locations: If you’re ever in Long Island, the "Lobster Roll" is a real spot. It’s touristy now because of the show, but it still has that End of the World vibe that defined the series.
- Read the Original Script Insights: Sarah Treem has done several long-form interviews about the "Memory Play" aspect of the show. Reading those helps you appreciate the technical difficulty the actors faced every day on set.
The show ended in 2019, but the performances of the stars of The Affair still set the gold standard for adult dramas. It wasn't always easy to watch. It wasn't always "likable." But it was human. And in the world of TV, that’s actually pretty rare.