TV Recap: Masters of Sex - "Below the Belt"

Left to right: Jack Laufer, 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.

Plot: Virginia is continuing to her therapist. This time it is to see if he has any advice about Masters, which turns out to be fruitless. Lester Linden (Kevin Christy) upsets Barbara Sanderson (Betsy Brandt) over comments about her religious beliefs. Masters finds an article that suggests that his business is shutting down and decides to have the head (Jack Laufer) come in for an interview to reveal that they are starting studies on sexual dysfunctions. This goes over well enough. Libby Masters (Caitlin Fitzgerald) decides to help the blacks spread the word of their protest despite them seeing her as a potential roadblock. The campaign proves to be more successful than they thought. Masters reveals that he likes being submissive when having sex with Virginia. This leads him to think about his father and decides to confront his brother (Christian Borle) over their bratty relationship, which sends their mother (Ann Dowd) into a panic. Dr. Langham (Teddy Sears) begins to sell products and finds that he has attraction to Flo Packer (Artemis Pebdani), whom he has sex with. Lester apologizes to Barbara. As the night winds down, Masters decides to talk to Virginia about his problems hoping that she will console him.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Left to right: Artemis Pebdani and Teddy Sears

I am coming to the realization real quick that I am just not on board with a lot of what's going on this season. The fact of the matter is that in season 1, there was a sense of urgency and newness to everything that made the actions feel risque and informative. While they are still doing the studies, the focus is more on the emotional interaction of the cast. This is fine, but I want the show to do something interesting. As once stated in this episode, Masters and Virginia haven't done a published study in two years. That's quite a long time. There's also only so much time of watching them talk about sex in a hotel room that can be fascinating. Even a lot of the concepts here feel rehashed from last week, including the therapy sessions.

This isn't a bad thing, as the continuity has allowed us to spend more time with Langham. However, it seems bizarre what the show chooses to focus on. I am convinced that we'll never see Barton Scully again despite him being a fascinating component of season 1. Instead, we'll have Langham, who has been so infrequent this season that his arbitrary start-up at this point doesn't make sense beyond the fact that the series wanted to show a diverse array of what sex and gender studies can do. Why is it important that we see him have sex with Flo (beyond that great shot of the cat)? There's a lot to question.

Even the supporting cast who is there more frequently doesn't always make sense. It is great to see Lester and Barbara getting major roles, but their complaints are so momentary that it doesn't seem to matter. We understand already that Barbara is a nervous mess with sexual problems. So is Lester, who reveals his love for Cahiers du Cinema here. That's a plus. However, beyond the passion, what exactly is going on this season? We have moved beyond house hunting and any feud between Masters and Libby. We're in the territory of starting everything back up, which is bizarre when the season is 10 episodes in with two more to go. What big reveals are there? Will it be something about Master's sexual inadequacy? Something has to happen.

On the bright side, the Masters brothers fight was a rather cathartic moment. Here you have two brothers who duke it out over their petty problems. Mother is complaining that they shouldn't and the stress that was established episodes ago is finally coming to the surface. There is that cathartic moment. However, Masters as a timid genius is slowly becoming a tedious investment. He knows a lot, but he isn't doing much about it. I want to see the show move forward, especially after starting off the season so strong. Expanding the cast hasn't done much beyond give us something else to focus on for a few minutes. Luckily these characters are interesting enough to sustain that time.

However, in an interesting turn of events, the only one who is doing something interesting isn't doing anything involving sex. Maybe it is from a lack of it. Libby's choice to help the blacks spread awareness of their causes feels like a cathartic conclusion to a season in which she started off paranoid by them having the smallest different habits. The slow progression feels like it has paid off and hopefully will continue to be her release and contribution to society. At this point, Libby has become the most interesting character because she has actual conflict. As it stands, Virginia used to be interesting because of her familial life. Now she is mostly professional and vulnerable. This is interesting, but it has been way too insular as of late.

I want to like Masters of Sex more than I do. It has been consistently good this season, but I don't feel the spark that drove it initially. Sexual inadequacy in this season almost feels like a meta commentary for the writing. It arouses, but comes up short in other ways. After exploring societal traits in regards to sex, the series seems to have stalled out at this inadequacy, which doesn't make for quite as compelling of TV as anything from last season. I get that it takes more than one day to study it, but come on. Let's move onto something else! This already feels redundant thanks to a lot of the themes from the previous episode being in play yet again.