Masters of Sex S1 Review

Masters of Sex, at its heart, is a show about two obscure, enigmatic characters based off real life people who were years ahead of their time.  Michelle Ashford, its creator, has used this as a stepping stone to create a period piece.  The 1950s are a period rife with opportunity to explore racism, sexism, homophobia, and repression.  The show uses that to its full advantage, with the exception of racism, although the sprinkling of black characters throughout its season indicates that is a direction it will go at some point.

It's nearly impossible not to compare this show to Mad Men.  Despite being set around the same time period, Masters of Sex is a vastly different show.  A commenter on an AV Club review pointed out something too enlightening not to steal: that Masters of Sex is about truth and Mad Men is about lies.  (The commenter: Lifeless Husk - who is the best rated comment on just about every episode review towards the end if you're interested in his fantastic analysis.)  I don't think I can say anything in this review that possibly captures the comparison of the two shows more accurately.  And with that, I will not mention Mad Men again in this review.

This show approaches an era that your grandparents will tell you was so much better than nowadays most likely.  The show would argue otherwise.  Libby Masters represents the repressed housewife, a category that surely represented many women back then.  Dr. Ethan Haas likely represents the typical male - undeniably sexist if well-meaning.  Barton Scully represents the hidden homosexual.  And Dr. Lillian DePaul represents the one woman in a male-dominated profession.  These are all fictional characters, but they help fashion a realistic world where people like them existed and dealt with these very real problems.

In this world are two people who don't really belong.  Dr. William Masters is fascinated by sex.  He is a man of many contradictions, but most importantly for the viewer, he wants the truth.  He doesn't really give a damn if the evidence says women don't need men to achieve pleasure.  And there's Virginia Johnson, a woman who could safely be supplanted in the 21st century.  In fact, that's a slight problem as its kind of hard to believe the writers didn't just implant 21st century characteristics on her character.

Any problems with Virginia though are quickly washed away with the performance of Lizzy Caplan.  She's magnetic, creating a character where it's only slightly hard to believe everyone is in love with her (only a slight exaggeration I assure you).  But she's not the best performance on this show.  That would have to go with Michael Sheen.  I don't think Sheen hit a single misstep with his performance.  He has nailed Masters as a person with feelings bubbling on the surface, but rarely accessed.  It is a very hard line between portraying a person with no feelings and portraying a character not willing to show any feelings.  Sheen has hit that line beautifully.

Fortunately, the side characters are treated with comparable talent.  Allison Janney is a standout in her few episodes as the wife who has to deal with the fact that her husband doesn't seem interested in her anymore.  Heléne York is just delightful as Jane, who I'm pretty sure is a fan favorite - justifiably so.  Julianne Nicholson plays Dr. DePaul forced to deal with the fact that she's a woman in a man's world.  And Caitlin Fitzgerald plays the repressed housewife so much better than January Jones in... uh another show.  Needless to say, despite that storyline being a close variation on... that other show, Fitzgerald makes it feel fresh.

It's funny.  A Showtime series about sex sounds like a disaster.  Showtime is pretty notorious for ruining good series by the end of their run.  I've only seen three Showtime series before this and it applies to every one of them: Dexter, Weeds, Homeland.  It also has a reputation for boobs over content.  Thankfully that is not the case here (although not because there's a shortage of boobs - I mean even Janney is momentarily naked)

Masters of Sex is very much a character study.  And with two people as hard to pin down as Masters and Johnson, it makes for some great television.  And hey, if that's not the thing for you, there's a lot of sex.  The title isn't misleading. (With that said, while the show is about revolutionary ideas on sex, the actual show is less revolutionary)

Grade - A-

Playlist (Sex-themed!)
1. "Sex and Candy" - Marcy Playground
2. "I Just Had Sex" - The Lonely Island
3. "Sex" - The 1975
4. "Hot in Herre" - Nelly (Cheated here, but it's Nelly so I don't care)
5. "Let's Talk About Sex" - Salt-N-Pepa

The Americans: The Deal

This is a pretty damn brutal episode for our main characters.  Phillip has to heartbreakingly send Anton away from his family.  Elizabeth Jennings has to listen to Martha praise Phillip's love-making ability.  (At least I hope this is brutal for her otherwise she's weird)  Stan gets blackmailed for his unrequited love for Nina.  It's not easy to be a spy in Cold War America.

The fallout from last week's episode - Anton gets away with an anonymous female Mossad agent - leaves Phillip in an unsafe safe house if that makes sense.  He's pretty close to the scene of the crime and the cops have already seen his face.  Unfortunately for Anton, the Mossad hold their own in greater importance than the man they are protecting so a trade is set up.

During most of the episode, Phillip is forced to deal with Eti, the Mossad agent they managed to capture.  First of all, something I found enlightening, is that Phillip misses Russia.  I don't think they've explicitly made that known before, but it makes sense since Elizabeth got to spend an extended amount of time there and he did not.  I'm not sure why I found this as interesting as I did, but Phillip always struck me more as the "American" who would be perfectly content staying in America.  (Also, umm, a thing that I would never have thought of is that wiping another man's ass is a distinct possibility in that business, but it makes sense)

After he trades for Anton, he has what probably seems like an impossibly long drive of Anton spilling his guts, saying anything to escape.  He wants to be with his family and stay the hell away from Russia, even if it means betraying the country he has come to love.  Or he's just got a really great acting ability that sometimes might come with the threat of death.  Either way, it hit close to home for Phillip I can imagine, because while he's pining over his hometown, he's taking away Anton's AND his family.

Meanwhile, Martha... oh Martha.  She hadn't quite gotten played enough by Phillip apparently, because Elizabeth gets in on the fun.  "Jennifer" helps convince Martha not to report that she's married to "Clark."  So they dodge a bullet on this one, but I'm assuming the bottom will drop out any minute for "Clark."

Elizabeth continues her masterful ploy of Brad Mullin.  He gives her the files of the suspected killer of their fellow KGB agents.  She of course leads him to believe this will be the last time they see each other.  So cool, manipulate a dude, get what you need, and make it to where he understands he just did something for someone he'll never see again.  Just another day.

Stan Beeman tries to capture Anton and brings in Frank Gaad to help him.  At least I think, I didn't really quite understand what was going on with Gaad claiming there were super secret files, but I guess Anton was really important?  Anyway, Stan thinks he has a lead and is just following Oleg.

Oleg's intentions and character motivations are pretty unclear at this point.  He clearly wants more respect and position among the KGB because he constantly challenges Arkady Ivanovich.  He's probably interested in Nina.  And if the end of this episode is any indication, he really wants to get money - or power.  Either way, his blackmailing of Stan makes a certain amount of sense with what we know about Oleg, but we don't really know much about him.  I hope that this storyline reveals more about his true intentions.  He seems to just want to get out of the Cold War in the best position possible, whether that be a high level KGB officer or as a rich converted American.

I'm also really excited to see what this story does for Stan.  Noah Emmerich is fantastic and he hasn't been given much to do except play the fool so I think this will take his character in an interesting direction.  He's now getting played twice, one knowingly and one unknowingly.

This is another great episode of The Americans, which seems to be on a bit of a roll lately.

Orphan Black: S1 Review

The current state of television is insane.  There are too many good options out there to keep up with them all.  I already have a rather large list of TV shows and every time I need to add one, I get simultaneously excited and afraid.  And I've now added two shows in the past three weeks and am likely to add another one when I watch The Vikings.  Thus is the life of a dedicated television viewer.

Orphan Black is an exciting, thrilling, unpredictable roller coaster of a show.  The very nature of its genre means there are going to be some contrivances, some duds, and some predictable "twists."  Nonetheless, Orphan Black has a wonderful performance - performances? - from Tatiana Maslany.

Maslany plays the main character, and I'd venture to say the third, fourth, and fifth most important characters on this show.  Never has a show been carried by one person as much as Orphan Black.  It is ridiculous how much she makes this show.  The only other interesting character who comes close is Felix, played by Jordan Gavaris.  That's it.  The rest of the characters are either badly acted or underwritten.  But it doesn't matter.  Because Maslany is in 90% of the scenes, and every scene she's in, she's magic.

She plays four completely unique, different characters who look the exact same.  When watching the show, you'll find yourself pulling for one of her characters more than the other.  You get lost in the characters.  You forgot it's being played by one person.  There aren't enough words to adequately praise her performance to the level that she deserves.

The show is good at writing characters into bad situations and getting them out of it in realistic and plausible ways.  The show suffers a bit because some episodes force action and it seems forced instead of natural.  And some characters do less than smart things at the behest of the plot needs.  But those situations are few and far between.

The show has a major weakness and that is supporting players.  Dylan Bruce plays Sarah/Beth's (played by Maslany) boyfriend and he's just a bland pretty boy with little personality.  He's just so wooden and they have a good explanation for it, but it didn't make his character more interesting.  Sarah/Beth's cop partner, Art, is played by Kevin Hanchard.  Hanchard has one note and that is cliche, angry cop.  Dude is angry in 100% of his scenes.  Part of that is the writing, but he can't be intense every single scene.  There's also an underdeveloped romance that's only partially convincing for one of Maslany's characters.

Gavaris though plays Felix as super flamboyant  gay guy.  But he has actual human traits and develops solid rapport with Maslany.  Their friendship is one of the more well-developed relationships on this show.  Another bright spot is Michael Mando, who plays Sarah's ex.  He's pretty much comic relief, but he's hilarious and kind of sad.

I'm going to have to make this a short review, because Orphan Black is a lot of plot and to try to continue, I'd have to spoil, which I would not want to do for newcomers.  With an incredible lead performance and some exciting adventures, Orphan Black is both unique and a must-see TV show.  If you're willing to add it to your ever growing list of TV shows, of course.

Playlist
1. "3005" - Childish Gambino
2. "Nature Boy" - Wild Beasts
3. "Balmain Jeans" - Kid Cudi feat. Ralphael Saadiq
4. "Let Go" - RAC feat. Kele & MNDR
5. "There He Go" - Schoolboy Q

Hannibal S1 Review

Let's say you're magically a person who has managed to avoid the serial killer television trope that has become so popular.  And you're deciding, for whatever reason, what show you want to watch in that genre.  And you can only pick one show.  Ignore Dexter, which previously held the title, but it was a tenuous grasp at best since half of its seasons aren't very good.  Ignore Bates Motel, which is an interesting show, but it's too campy to really be considered that great.  Screw The Following, which I think sucks.  Hannibal is the best of the serial killer genre, and it's not even close.

Hannibal is a perfect show set forth by creator Bryan Fuller.  I've never seen Fuller's shows before and apparently I still kind of haven't seen a "Fuller show," because Hannibal is almost nothing like his previous work.  Nonetheless, Hannibal has been so incredibly satisfying that I am going to find the time to watch his other works, one way or the other.

A fair warning is necessary for newcomers to the show - well several warnings really.  One, this show is significantly less about Hannibal than the title implies.  It's more of the Will Graham show, a detective with extreme empathy who is able to recreate murders based on the evidence at hand.  He's essentially a clairvoyant.

That's another warning for newcomers.  This is not a show that's very realistic.  It's really hard to explain how this isn't a bad thing, but basically it's almost like the show is set in a nightmare dream escape.  Every killer is a serial killer who creates art out of killing people.  There's like 8-9 of them in this season.  The deaths are nowhere near realistic, but it's important to realize this isn't trying to be CSI at all. (Which is also pretty unrealistic, but in a different way).  This is not a show too interested in the crime aspect of the genre and some of the work to discover the killer is skipped altogether.  Some may find this a bad thing, but it's important to remember this show is less concerned with filling the crime procedural drama points and it's just a way to make an episodic premise out of a season-long storyline.

The show is basically a procedural show, which I usually mean as a complaint.  There are murders of the week on nearly every episode.  But the procedural aspect is not consistent episode-to-episode - sometimes the kill of the week takes up 10 minutes of screen time, other times it takes up 30 minutes.  It's not predictable the way most procedurals are, which is why that label is usually a complaint.  There's obviously comfort in knowing exactly what to expect from a show, but Hannibal is most certainly not that show.  (Despite the fact that if you've read Red Dragon, you technically know where it's going to go)

A third warning is that, despite the fact that this is on a network station, the show is amazingly gruesome and disgusting.  Apparently, in one of the episodes, the network executives had a problem with a butt crack being shown, but okayed it when Fuller suggested he would just hide it by removing the skin and filling it with blood.  What the fuck?  Anyway, my point was that if you have a weak stomach, unfortunately this might not be the show for you.  Also, it's a bit of a nightmare show in that it could give you nightmares.  However, it hasn't caused me any actual nightmares despite the fact that I watched most of the episodes past 9 pm.

I mentioned before this show is less realism, more surrealistic nightmare.  But it makes sense in the context of the story.  Without spoiling too much, our protagonist, Will Graham, has vivid nightmares that only get progressively worse as the season progresses and these gruesome deaths take a toll.  So there are quite a few dream sequences, and some of them aren't immediately obvious as dream sequences if you catch my drift.

This show wouldn't work well if it wasn't for the performances.  Hugh Dancy as Graham is incredible.  He plays a highly competent special investigator to the FBI who starts to doubt his own sanity.  So a pretty similar role to the character his wife, Claire Danes, plays on Homeland.  But sometimes Danes came off as annoying and unlikeable, while Dancy is at all times completely sympathetic and endearing.

While the show wouldn't work without Dancy, the show would be an utter disaster with someone less talented than Mads Mikkelson.  I'm not even close to an expert on the character of Hannibal, but he takes the character in a different direction than Anthony Hopkins.  It's played to where you can understand how the FBI guys were fooled.  They struck a very delicate balance between allowing Hannibal to get away with it and making the FBI guys still seem smart.  This is not the Miami Metro PD.

It's a disgrace that neither of those actors were even nominated for Emmys.  I'd be mad if I thought they meant anything.  Those two weren't the only good performances.  Laurence Fishbourne plays Jack Crawford and he plays him as a somewhat morally ambiguous character in the sense that he will catch his criminals at any cost.  Caroline Dahavernas plays Dr. Alana Bloom, and manages to make her into a sweet character who truly has Will's best interests at heart.  Kacey Kohl plays a role that I couldn't possibly explain without spoiling, but she very much excels in a role that would be incredibly hard to sell.  (Fun fact: They wanted to cast Kohl, but had ran out of money so a producer gave up the money she made so Kohl could be in it.)  There's also Gillian Anderson, who brings an icy demeanor almost equal to Hannibal Lecter in the few scenes she's in. (She shot all of her scenes in like three days to give you an idea of how little of the season she's in, yet she's credited with 5 episodes).

It's truly shocking that Hannibal is apparently made on a low budget.  It looks like a high budget television drama with its dreamy atmosphere, exquisite sets, incredible death images, and beautifully looking imagery.  Fuller is a fanboy of the Hannibal series and therefore he puts every inch of every scene with meticulous detail.  It's truly an incredible work of art on a visceral level.  I don't have the knowledge of behind-the-scenes to know how television is made, but the directing, the cinematography, the set design, and all the things you tend to take for granted when watching a show are easily some of the best on television.

Hannibal is a show unlike any other on television and I strongly encourage anyone who has the chance to watch the show - from the beginning.  Do not start in the second season.  I cannot find a single fault with this show, and I hope I managed to highlight potential faults that I had no issues with, but I could easily see others having a problem with.  Overall, this is a must-see television show.  If you are a horror fan - and full disclosure I hate horror films - you should probably stop what you are doing and start watching this show now.

(Note: I'm not well-versed enough in the Hannibal lexicon to notice this, but others have noticed many homages to the films and books.  If you're a big horror fan, I think there's also subtle references to some obscure horror movies.  I'm not so there was no way I would get them.)

Playlist
1. "Blue Moon" - Beck
2. "Migraine" - Twenty One Pilots
3. "Santa Monica" - Everclear
4. "Desire" - Pharaohe Monch
5. "Double Trouble" - The Roots feat. Mos Def

The Americans: Cardinal

Spoilers to follow

The Americans returns this week with an episode that I found was as equally strong if not better than last week's.  Granted, last week's held a stronger punch - that tends to happen when a family get killed point-blank and a son is left to witness the details.  But this focused on characters we actually know and care about.

Since the second season of The Americans will have a tighter focus on the Jennings' relationship to their two children, I feel a theme developing.  In both episodes, the Jennings are forced to do something with their kids they aren't comfortable doing.  In the first, Phillip brings Henry to a secret switch of information from John Carroll Lynch.  In this episode, Elizabeth wants so badly to have a family night only for her country responsibilities to get in the way.

The Jennings are on high alert after the cold-blooded murder of their two friends.  Elizabeth is jolted into reality in that she's facing potential consequences of their life's work for the first time.  Sure, she could die, but that's kind of understood when entering life as a secret spy.  But the implication that their kids will be hurt?  That's something they should have seriously considered and for the first time are forced to deal with.

And it shows on Elizabeth throughout this episode.  In the first season, it kind of seemed like Phillip was more of the family man and Elizabeth was the colder character.  While that certainly may be the case, she is freaking the fuck out over her family right now.  Phillip seems more in control, although Matthew Rhys is playing him nicely as a man who isn't really in control, but projects it on the surface.  Elizabeth is pretty openly losing her shit.

She sees construction workers - it's pretty obvious they are actually construction workers early on.  But one of them gives her a glance while she's in her house and she thinks they are spying on them.  I mean wouldn't you think that?  So she's constantly looking out the window throughout the episode.  Also, Henry's right: Paige is crazy.  Who would want to play Life instead of see Raiders of the Lost Ark?  (Note: The timeline seems a bit off unless movies were in theaters for like a year back then.  Raiders of the Lost Ark came out in the summer of 1981, while later on we find out it's the summer of 1982.  But hey it's not that big of a deal and I'm sure some theater may have carried it.)

Meanwhile, Phillip needs to go see if John Carroll Lynch - I'm not sure what the character's name is as the Episode 1 credits on IMDB don't give him a name - to see if he's the one who ratted them out.  We get some new cool wig work this episode again.  I'm all for a new wig/persona for every episode.  The costume people earn their money.

Anyway, a surprising amount of tension hangs over the scene when Phillip gets electrocuted even though there's no way he's getting caught or killed.  Still, that whole scene I half expected him to maneuver his way out (which I guess he did technically).  We find out Lynch really cared about that couple and that he has no idea they were killed.  Well, he may have an inkling, but refuses to accept it at the very least.

Tension remained over that scene for me personally as I was genuinely expecting him to kill Lynch for... some reason.  Like even when it was clear Lynch was a "good guy," I thought the source's integrity had been destroyed and he needed to be removed.  Anyway, an important movement seems to be happening as Lynch tells Phillip they need to get moving NOW because some important development is happening.

Speaking of double agents, Nina plays Stan like a fiddle in the episode.  It's kind of sad really.  For some reason, Stan is resonating with me less as a protagonist this season and it's way easier for me to root for the Russians.  I feel dirty typing that, but damn it, it's the truth.  His whole approach to Nina is slightly disturbing and it doesn't help that Nina is sympathetic and essentially forced to do this.

Nina gains Stan's trust by telling her about the walk-in (Name: Bruce Dameran).  I'm not sure of the significance of the walk-in, except the last walk-in to the KGB office was really important.  But the walk-in doesn't seem that important because they allowed Nina to tell Stan about him.  At least, I'm pretty sure that's what happened.  That scene where Nina describes what she did with Stan was just... cold.  It forced the audience to see the situation for what it was and it wasn't pretty.

Also, in the news of potential problems later on, Nina has drawn the attention of Oleg Igorevich.  I'm not sure what kind of problems he'll be, but he's either a potential love interest for her, someone who will be drawn in by American ways, or he could fuck something up.  Either way, he's way too prominent for something not to happen with him in the future.

And lastly, Phillip as Clark makes some new ground on Martha, convincing her to not only not leave counter intelligence, but encouraging her to put herself in a position to get promoted.  That was well done on something that could have been a total disaster for him.  Also, Martha wants to get a gun.  Well, that sounds like Chekhov's gun to me.  Think she'll be aiming it at Clark sometime in the future?  I sure do.

Oh yeah, and Paige is still trying to find things out.  She gets stopped in the process and frankly it looked like Phillip caught on that she was doing something wrong.  But they already kind of are aware that she's snooping of them so that was probably not a huge deal.  Anyway, Paige I encourage you to stop so that your life won't get ruined.

Oddly enough, I found myself liking this episode more than the previous one.  I think it's because I had my wits about me and was aware of everything happening.  Last week, it took me a bit to figure out what was going on since I hadn't seen an episode of The Americans in months.  Either way, it seems like The Americans is better than ever.

Bates Motel S1 Review

Last year, I watched the pilot to Bates Motel and remember liking it enough to keep watching.  Only I didn't keep watching and forgot about the show for some reason.  When the show popped up on Netflix a couple weeks ago, it was the perfect opportunity to revisit this show.  It is purely a coincidence that I just so happened to finish this season literally the day before the second season begins. [Note: I clearly meant to post this last night.]

Bates Motel is a goofy show.  I'm inclined to compare it to American Horror Story lite, because it's not as insane and is a little more grounded in reality.  A little.  Seeing as I just changed my opinion on American Horror Story, this is pretty good timing for Bates Motel.

There's enough good elements on this show to pretty easily outweigh the not insubstantial amount of weaknesses.  The acting's pretty great, the mood is appropriately spooky, it's beautifully shot, and of course I'm kind of fascinated by this fake backstory to Norman Bates.

However, Pyscho this is not.  It's not really that scary, it's unintentionally hilarious at times (which is a good thing for some people), and the plot is kind of ridiculous.  Ok, there's an Asian sex slave ring, an enormous weed business, people burned alive, insanely corrupt cops.  Yeah, ok the plot is really ridiculous.

The star of this show is Vera Farmiga, who is operating on a different level than everybody else.  She plays the mother so well that it's not at all hard to figure out how she helped create Norman Bates.  Which is amazing if you think about it.  She lives up to the mother of Pyscho that we had imagined in our heads.

Freddie Highmore is well cast, if at times a bit awkward in his delivery.  Max Theriot plays the new, invented character of Norman's backstory as the brother.  His role is integral in my mind as sort of lets the audience know this isn't a true origin story.  If we were supposed to think this was a true origin story, this show would suck.  Olivia Cooke plays Emma, the girl with cystic fibrosis, to utter perfection.  She's kind of a hard character to sell on paper seeing as she's literally the perfect girl with no flaws (except the CF thing, which is kind of a cheap flaw in writing), but Cooke makes her into an actual human being instead of a caricature.

I can't mention the acting without giving proper compliments to Jere Burns, who just oozes evil from every scene he's in (this is not a complaint).  Nestor Carbonell plays... well he plays the character he always plays, but he does it so well.  And Nicola Peltz as Bradley could be a character you hate - well you really should hate her - but she makes her sympathetic enough.

One of the things I really like about this show is that it's not really clear when this show takes place.  It's pretty clear it's in some sort of period that combines different aspects.  It mostly takes place in modern day, but if you pay attention, there's a lot of things that would indicate it takes place well in the past.

With that said, I wouldn't exactly recommend this show to people.  It's too inconsistent, it's too utterly ridiculous, and there's quite a few too many scenes where I just don't care what happens.  To be honest, this is almost a show where you have to just completely ignore logic and sort of go along for the ride.  There's a few too many "shocking" moments that failed completely at making any sort of sense and was clear it was just for the sake of being shocking.

The biggest thing keeping me with the show however is probably that it just seems like it could be better.  There's potential in this show to be genuinely entertaining.  Granted, this show will never be one of the great television shows, but it could be pretty fun to watch.  It's not at that point and to be honest it probably never will, but that potential is enough to keep me watching as long as it's mildly entertaining.

I'm going to give this the same grade I gave American Horror Story season one as I pretty much have identical feelings towards this show as I did towards AHS (except for the potential - there wasn't really a sense that AHS was going to be anything more than what it is).  Hopefully, Bates Motel makes a similar jump as AHS did in its second season in quality and enjoyment.

Grade - C+

Playlist
1. "Love is to Die" - Warpaint
2. "Gimme that Money" - Hopsin
3. "Let's Groove" - Earth, Wind & Fire
4. "What It's Like" - Everlast
5. "Halftime" - Nas