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| Left to right: Michael Sheen and Lizzy Caplan |
Welcome to the weekly recaps of the Showtime series Masters of Sex that follows the history of Dr. William Masters (Michael Sheen) and Virginia Johnson's (Lizzy Caplan) actual studies of sex. Make sure to tune in every Wednesday for a dissection of the week's episode as well as thoughts of the show in general as well as potential thoughts of where things are headed. Also, please feel free to check out my recaps on Orange is the New Black every Saturday.
Plot: Masters and Virginia continue to work at the hospital, though their opinions with Dr. Hendricks (Courtney B. Vance) aren't all that favorable. Where he wants things to be resolved without causing racial problems, Masters wants things to progress. Masters invites a journalist to chronicle the events in hopes that it will promote the study. It backfires when there's some sensitive subject matter that becomes present. Libby Masters (Caitlin Fitzerald) remains suspicious of Coral (Keke Palmer) and her friend, who has served jail time. Betty DiMello (AnnaLeigh Ashford) is still coming to terms with her relationship with Helen (Sarah Silverman), even if her husband is starting to discover her sexual attraction to her. Dr. DePaul (Julianne Nicholson) decides to stop taking treatment in order to enjoy the last moments of her life. Burned out, Masters decides to quit his job and runs into Virginia's husband when he goes to her house, making his situation more awkward. Meanwhile, Virginia is at DePaul's house calling an ambulance due to finding her passed out from a sleeping pill overdose.
Rating: 4 out of 5
One of the more interesting aspects of this second season is that the themes have become stronger and they have decided to move beyond sexuality and human functioning. Where last week saw the uprising of sex as a civility tool, this week sees the fact that no matter how much we want to believe that sex helps people, it also hurts. People don't know what they're doing sometimes and that can result in something traumatic and a little embarrassing. From the opening scene with the treatment with DePaul to the final moments where Masters quits his job, there is a sense of hopelessness and desire to try something different. The constrains of society or friends is proving to be too much and there is a need to fly.
In the broadest case, Libby remains obsessed with Coral's friend, who has served jail time. Considering that Coral claims that he was arrested for race reasons, it is reflective of the time. While I do wonder where this plot will go, I do also feel like it is strange to give Libby such a sharp subplot because she had a black housemaid before last season. While the taboos are all there and she is bound to not like these people for their own values, it does seem like a story that is going to get dull if it ever escalated. It's even a little dull right now with nothing particularly invigorating going on of note.
In the bigger sense, there's DePaul, who has been dying of cancer since the beginning. She longs to be free and become someone. She doesn't quite commit to the study, but with the help of Virginia, she decides to find satisfaction in her life, knowing that her end time is coming up quickly. By the end of the episode, there is one major question that is in tow: did she commit suicide or did she really not know how many pills to take? I'm assuming the former, as she did seem rather freethinking during this entire episode and had a humble sense of passing away. Though what does that do with her study, which hasn't really gotten anywhere beyond some production values and videos that were created?
Then there is Masters, who feels restrained by the interracial hospital. Dr. Hendricks is somewhat of a pest and there's not much satisfaction in publishing a story. To say the least, Masters has lost his passion and had it not been for Virginia, who knows if he would still be alive. She is his sole motivation at this point, and it has provided phenomenal results. However, with his job gone and Virginia's husband aware of their relationship now, there isn't much room for him to improve. He is in the hole with a wife and baby to feed. Is this the end of the sex studies? He has already been kicked out of two hospitals in six episodes, which is quite a record.
Maybe it is a return to Barton Scully and his hospital? In fact, there is a lot of unanswered territory with the Scully family. Is Barton even alive and is he still having homosexual thoughts? I am not entirely sure if that will be addressed, but it has to be the route that this series is going to avoid just being a redundant calculation of every place Masters stopped by on his way to publishing a sex study that nobody seems to want to invest in. Maybe this is the moment of redemption. Hopefully Betty and Helen's story also continues to go in interesting directions and provide some substance for the season. Otherwise, I do worry that things will easily fall into the melodramatic before too long.
Rating: 4 out of 5
One of the more interesting aspects of this second season is that the themes have become stronger and they have decided to move beyond sexuality and human functioning. Where last week saw the uprising of sex as a civility tool, this week sees the fact that no matter how much we want to believe that sex helps people, it also hurts. People don't know what they're doing sometimes and that can result in something traumatic and a little embarrassing. From the opening scene with the treatment with DePaul to the final moments where Masters quits his job, there is a sense of hopelessness and desire to try something different. The constrains of society or friends is proving to be too much and there is a need to fly.
In the broadest case, Libby remains obsessed with Coral's friend, who has served jail time. Considering that Coral claims that he was arrested for race reasons, it is reflective of the time. While I do wonder where this plot will go, I do also feel like it is strange to give Libby such a sharp subplot because she had a black housemaid before last season. While the taboos are all there and she is bound to not like these people for their own values, it does seem like a story that is going to get dull if it ever escalated. It's even a little dull right now with nothing particularly invigorating going on of note.
In the bigger sense, there's DePaul, who has been dying of cancer since the beginning. She longs to be free and become someone. She doesn't quite commit to the study, but with the help of Virginia, she decides to find satisfaction in her life, knowing that her end time is coming up quickly. By the end of the episode, there is one major question that is in tow: did she commit suicide or did she really not know how many pills to take? I'm assuming the former, as she did seem rather freethinking during this entire episode and had a humble sense of passing away. Though what does that do with her study, which hasn't really gotten anywhere beyond some production values and videos that were created?
Then there is Masters, who feels restrained by the interracial hospital. Dr. Hendricks is somewhat of a pest and there's not much satisfaction in publishing a story. To say the least, Masters has lost his passion and had it not been for Virginia, who knows if he would still be alive. She is his sole motivation at this point, and it has provided phenomenal results. However, with his job gone and Virginia's husband aware of their relationship now, there isn't much room for him to improve. He is in the hole with a wife and baby to feed. Is this the end of the sex studies? He has already been kicked out of two hospitals in six episodes, which is quite a record.
Maybe it is a return to Barton Scully and his hospital? In fact, there is a lot of unanswered territory with the Scully family. Is Barton even alive and is he still having homosexual thoughts? I am not entirely sure if that will be addressed, but it has to be the route that this series is going to avoid just being a redundant calculation of every place Masters stopped by on his way to publishing a sex study that nobody seems to want to invest in. Maybe this is the moment of redemption. Hopefully Betty and Helen's story also continues to go in interesting directions and provide some substance for the season. Otherwise, I do worry that things will easily fall into the melodramatic before too long.
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