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