Don't get me wrong, I actually like this series. The 2nd half of S1, 1st half of S2, and so far the first two of S3 are as good as television drama gets.
I thought the S3 pilot was phenomenal. Rarely do we get such a focused examination of a character's inner psyche expressed mostly through silence and pensive glances and paranoia mixed with a sense of despair. Noah seemed so rudderless and disengaged from life. He is a broken man.
Here's the thing:
Yes Alison was truly damaged and unable to see life with even a modicum of clarity, and Noah unwittingly exploited that. Alison understandably was lost and her compass was broken and she was in a free-fall. One which Noah cushioned initially, or as S3E2 suggests merely delayed the hard landing she was inexorably fated for. Ironically, Noah's valiant self-sacrifice (clearly NOT for Helen though she took it as such), paved the way for Alison to strike bottom, rather forcefully. We shall see if THIS stint of personal renewal actually bears fruit for Alison.
But what most people tend to glance over is just how broken in spirit and mind Noah was. He dutifully assumed the role of father and husband and resentfully son-in-law, and he was clearly a man buried under the weight of obligation. Noah is haunted by the futility of LIFE. He cared for his terminally ill mother. His harsh, bitter, withdrawn father though physically present by his wife, never actually took care of her the way Noah did. Noah's sister clearly abandoned both of them in their hour of need. Thus, Noah has serious abandonment issues. His mother's long, slow, agonizing death tainted Noah's view of life. Life is burdensome, it's an obligation, shackles on the spirit that intends on taking flight. In the end, Noah did exactly what he knew life to be all about--he took on the burden, and pain, and agony of others upon himself. He spared both Alison and Helen accountability for their part on Scotty's death. For Noah, life is this increasingly heavy weight. There is too a sense of failure in Noah--failure in not being able to save his mother, failure in not being successful enough for Helen (and also her parents), failure as a writer (until Descent).
They're all broken in different ways. This series is a focused character study on how our insecurities, our baggage of regrets and what ifs and dead-ends impel these individuals into terrible choices with grave consequences and how these broken individuals contend with the fallout and their personal growth efforts amid all the unfolding anguish.
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InfoBabe
8 years ago
So you give Noah a bit of a pass. I do see Noah was stressed. I think a person with a little more backbone would have addressed these issues one at a time rather than go for the feel good moment.
I try not two be too judgmental. We have a friend who nursed to the end his wife. who had ALS, He threw her a surprise birthday party and later when she was near the end she wanted to see someone in Florida so he packed her into a van and off they went. To me, that is stressed.
Noah should have jettisoned those annoying in-laws, ignored his dad and anyone who was making his life harder. Get his wife and children away and live on their own resources. If that didn't work, there could still be a divorce and his mother would not be sick forever. That way, Allison would still be with her husband, who she still loves, and the brother would still be alive. Her reputation was shot too with that sojourn as an assistant to the woman writer. Noah wouldn't be an ex-con, haunted by we don't know what yet, and poor. But then, we wouldn't have a gripping story.
Persons who let their heart rule their head and are not self disciplined live chaotic lives.
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Cotton-mouth
8 years ago
I give Noah some sympathy but not a pass. He had a life worth embracing (excluding his in-laws) and he threw it away because his ego was bruised and he felt diminished by the mediocrity of his life (teaching, publishing, financial dependence on his in-laws etc). Yes, he was haunted by this grave gnawing feeling of futility and hollowness to his life, but that doesn't excuse or justify grabbing the first ripe, low hanging fruit from the nearest tree he could find. Again, he didn't know about the causes of the "darkness" shrouding Alison, but he clearly sensed it and was attracted by it. I think it complimented Noah's own sense of resignation.
A LOT of pain and loss unfolded because both Noah and Alison sought some reprieve from their inner dread.
You make a good point about the story of pain and loss being so compelling for us to watch. A hunky-dory, light and airy show wouldn't have been worth watching, me thinks.
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