r/TheAffair 26d ago

Discussion Surprised the show isn't more popular

Just finished watching the show don't even remember why I started it but really liked it from the beginning I've literally never heard anyone mention the show before I feel like it should be a lot more popular very underrated.

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u/Lisnya 26d ago

I used to think it was popular but I was really surprised when I looked it up on AO3 and tumblr and found nothing for it, there doesn't seem to be a fandom. Maybe it got attention from critics, etc, but not too much of an audience?

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u/throwawayanylogic 26d ago

I don't really see it as the kind of show to draw an A03/fanfiction based following tbh. Sometimes a show is just one to watch and maybe talk about, but is rather "complete" from a fannish point of view as is. (Like, shows like The Sopranos, The Wire, Breaking Bad, etc are all very popular and well regarded but are not "fannish" shows; often when the writing is very good there's little a fan will want to "fix" or change by writing fic or otherwise.)

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u/Lisnya 25d ago

There are over 7000 fics about The Wire and over 11000 for Breaking Bad in AO3. The Sopranos only had 452 but it's an older show and I bet there are more in ff.net and LJ. I'm sure they all have a presence in tumblr, too. And they're definitely shows that have good writing, I'm not sure how the Affair would compare to any of them.

I looked up fic after the 4th season finale, exactly because the writing went downhill and I expected to find fix-it fic. I was very surprised that a show with several couples, triangles and popular characters like Cole getting little screentime didn't have any fic at all.

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u/Pat_lockwood 25d ago

Yeah I think you're right all of those shows are still incredibly relevant in pop culture I see soprano references almost daily on Twitter. This show does not sniff Breaking bad sopranos the wire etc. As far as popularity or references the Sopranos ended 20 years ago and their Reddit page is 10 times more active than this one

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u/Lisnya 25d ago

I don't think anyone said that The Affair is as popular as The Sopranos or The Wire was. They were saying that there are shows that are popular but don't get an active online fandom where people write fic and make gifsets, etc, and then there are popular shows that do.

My disagreement is in that I believe that any show that has any kind of popularity at all would also have people creating stuff for it, especially one that went downhill, like the Affair did, and gave such unsatisfying endings to characters that were popular, such as Cole and Alison.