Curator Watchlist
A smart, emotionally thorny relationship drama that starts as a provocative affair story and gradually becomes a much broader study of memory, grief, class, and self-deception. Its first seasons are the strongest, with the later years more uneven but still rewarding for viewers who like character psychology over… Read more
Where to watch: Buy
Sun
Created by: Sarah Treem, Hagai Levi
Starring: Dominic West, Maura Tierney, Julia Goldani Telles
The emotional effects of an extramarital relationship between Noah, a New York City schoolteacher and budding novelist with a wife of twenty years and four children and Alison, a young waitress and wife from Montauk at the end of Long Island, trying to piece her life back together in the wake of a tragedy.
Sarah Treem, Hagai Levi
Dominic West, Maura Tierney, Julia Goldani Telles, Jadon Sand, Anna Paquin, Sanaa Lathan, Abigail Dylan Harrison
A smart, emotionally thorny relationship drama that starts as a provocative affair story and gradually becomes a much broader study of memory, grief, class, and self-deception. Its first seasons are the strongest, with the later years more uneven but still rewarding for viewers who like character psychology over plot mechanics.
The Affair is at its best when it treats infidelity as the opening wound rather than the whole story. The dual-perspective structure gives even small scenes a destabilizing charge, forcing you to watch how memory, desire, and self-justification reshape the same events. That formal idea is the show’s signature strength, and it helps the early seasons feel unusually alive and psychologically sharp.
The performances are a major reason it works. Dominic West and Maura Tierney bring real complexity to people who are often frustrating by design, while the ensemble expands the show into a wider portrait of families and class tensions. It is not a warm series, and it often asks for patience, but it has the confidence of a drama that trusts discomfort as a storytelling tool.
Its biggest weakness is consistency. As the seasons go on, the show broadens its scope and changes focus, which creates some strong material but also a sense of drift. Still, if you value character-driven prestige drama and don’t mind a series that is more interested in emotional truth than tidy resolution, it remains well worth the watch.
A glossy but emotionally sharp look at marriage, secrets, and the damage people hide inside domestic life, with strong ensemble dynamics and prestige-drama momentum.
Intense, intimate, and brutally observant about the collapse of a relationship, with the same fascination for shifting emotional power between partners.
A character-first drama with grief at its center, layered family history, and a grounded, emotionally bruised tone.
For viewers drawn to dialogue-heavy psychological excavation and adult emotional complexity, this is one of the best matches in tone and structure.
A slow, meditative drama about trauma, memory, and the long afterlife of past events, with a similarly patient emotional rhythm.
A prestige character study about desire, self-invention, and the lies people tell themselves, with deep psychological detail and moral ambiguity.
Less domestic and more existential, but it shares a serious interest in grief, fractured relationships, and emotional aftermath.
A family drama that balances intimacy, dysfunction, and mortality with the same kind of adult emotional intelligence.
A frank, relationship-centered drama that leans into sexual politics, marriage strain, and uncomfortable honesty.
A moody family drama built on secrets, resentment, and the corrosive effects of the past, with a similarly sunlit but ominous atmosphere.
Though more thriller-driven, it shares a strong interest in marriage under pressure, divided loyalties, and the performance of identity.
A sensitive, intimate relationship drama that captures the push-pull of love, timing, and emotional miscommunication.
infidelity, marriage, family conflict, grief, memory and perspective, class tension, identity, trauma
prestige drama, relationship drama, psychological, unreliable narration, character study, adult melodrama, slow burn, emotional realism, ensemble, Showtime