There is often considered to be a common trope among all of the Showtime Network series. No matter how great the first season is, the remaining show is doomed to fail. Not in ratings or production disasters, but in overall quality. It is a trope that has caused shows in the past to go from critical darlings to ridicule, specifically that of awards favorite Homeland, whose second season proved to be a little too tumultuous. While it isn't entirely true (Penny Dreadful did fine in its second season), it did seem like the inevitable threat to Masters of Sex, especially following its second season, which may have featured its strongest episode with "Fight," but also featured its more baffling run of episodes in the closing stretch. With season three, things kicked back into gear, kind of. At best, the show found conflict that worked where at worst it took away what made the show enjoyable. The results this time around fall somewhere in the middle.
The main draw of the series has always been in the presence of Bill Masters (Michael Sheen) and Virginia Johnson (Lizzy Caplan). Over the course of the show's run, their affair has fueled some of the show's tensest and most passionate moments. The sex research almost at times became secondary. This time around, the show jumps to 10 years on, when they have a better idea of what they're doing. It's a time when they became too confident and published literature of their work. They are both famous and notorious, causing family members to become tepid to average conversations. Meanwhile, their children are seen as promiscuous simply by association. So, where does the season go? Into the ego of Mr. Masters.
The general vibe that has been developed over the course of Masters of Sex is that Masters isn't all that great on his own. He has the confidence, but he is richly insecure and unable to work with others. As the show unveils that it largely has to do with his childhood and a neglectful father, we see for the first time as it takes a major impact on their work. Virginia begins to work with others as Masters tries to get sexual inadequacy studies going. Meanwhile, various conflicts at home cause Masters to seem less like a father and more like a random person visiting from time to time. It could be that his affair with Virginia has taken away from family, but that is to ignore that even Virginia is sick of him.
The magic of the show has always been Masters and Virginia. "Fight" was about that chemistry of them learning to accept each other. In this season, there isn't a chance to have that moment. Virginia is immediately pregnant, forced to take sick leave as Masters gets too cocky for his britches. Everything falls onto his shoulders where even his secretary Betty DiMello (Annaleigh Ashford) chew him out. Yes, there are some moments where the duo work together, but it's mostly hopeless. In one of the season's lesser episodes, "Monkey Business," the duo take on the sexual behaviors of gorillas. It provides some breakthrough, but it more deals with the growing disconnect that Masters has with everyone.
This, in its own way, caused the show to have some sort of a blessing in disguise. It meant that supporting players could be given juicier roles. The sporadic Barton Scully (Beau Bridges) gets to finally embrace his gay lifestyle, thus saving us from more problematic woes and dangerous operations to cure it. Likewise, Betty and her girlfriend Helen (Sarah Silverman) have to deal with potential pregnancy while not being married. It's one of the remaining taboos that the show explores at length. Even Barton doesn't accept their ideals, which paints a more interesting conflict even within LGBT community members. The child becomes another main draw to Masters' disconnect. Where the baby could have solved various research problems, he is insistent on a dated idea of what a loving couple can be. That, in a sense, is his excuse for why everything else fails.
Among the homestead characters, who have been reduced to supporting roles, Libby (Caitlin Fitzgerald) has gotten meatier roles this season. Where last season saw her in one of the more baffling interracial relationships, she is now in something more believable, if a little scandalous. She is dating her son Johnny's (Jaeden Lieberher), sports coach. He is more there for Johnny than Masters is. Yet the season ends with Johnny convinced that his parents' inevitable separation was his fault because of a few words regarding sexual conversation with a fellow student. Is it? Not entirely. However, it's the lynch pin as to why Masters ends the season alone in a field overlooking an airport where Virginia is set to depart.
What is missing from this season was the sense of connection that Masters and Virginia brought to the earlier years. This was intentional, as it was the main focus. However, it also means that there's more tense moments that amount to a very pitiful presence by the two leads. There aren't as many great advancements. Most episodes don't even revolve around the sex research. It's a lot of self-woe. There's plenty of catharsis that comes in time, but the season is inevitably bogged down by the realization that this may be over. Considering that the credits feature title cards suggesting that the show isn't entirely truthful anymore, there's a chance that there's a lot of liberties being taken.
But what is to be done with this show as things go on? Given if this series returns, where will Masters and Virginia end up, especially as the latter has a love life and Masters is now on his own? For all of the good that the show did in getting to a point, it still needs to be able to continue, preferably with the sex research still intact. While it is interesting that it was success that inevitably split them up, it was also what sort of wavered the show at times between being great and just good. This is, in every sense, a stronger season than the second thanks to a more assured focus. However, I do think that shifting the dynamic between these two may prove to hurt the show long term. The one good thing is that the show has evolved to focus on an interesting supporting cast. I just wonder how long it could be until they replace Masters entirely as being the main draw of the show.
Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5
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