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 Tuesday for a dissection of the week's episode featuring thoughts of the show in general as well as predictions of where things are headed.
Masters goes into contemplation regarding whether he should help work on the gorilla. Meanwhile, a new patient arrives to deal with his impotence, despite not having any girlfriend. Jane (Helene York) decides to help him. Meanwhile, Betty (Annaleigh Ashford) helps Helen (Sarah Silverman) work on getting an adoption, which no single mother can get. Everything is going fine and the studies are proving to be effective. Tessa (Isabelle Fuhrman) works at the office and messes with reporters there to interview Masters and Virginia. They find out that hte gorilla is looking for a woman with exquisite assets. Meanwhile, the quest for Helen's adoption continues to go on positively. Lester (Kevin Christy) and Betty remind each other why they fell in love in the first place.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
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| Left to right: Annaleigh Ashford and Sarah Silverman |
We're on the closing stretch, and the show remains just as strong as I hoped. Thankfully, season three has worked out its kinks and is getting back to business. Even if I don't know that the addition of the child actors has necessarily improved the story, I do think that there's something valuable in them doing a season based around their more fruitful time. We have seen them publish a book and deal with the taboos of being publicly accepted as sex experts. How do you continue after that? Well, you continue to improve on your studies of course.
There's the first reveal of the series that humans have evolved from animals. It is a study of basic instinct this week and trying to understand why we react the ways that we do. When a gorilla reaches out for Virginia, it is a longing for attraction and acceptance from it. That is really what we want. Even if things are lost in communication, all that we want to do is be understood by our peers. Even the sexual inadequacy fits in nicely, as it explains why we have trouble relating to one another. It isn't even that we're different species or cannot properly communicate. It is that deep down, our shortcomings shouldn't influence who or how we love each other.
Meanwhile, it is great to see Helen back. I do find it a little peculiar that the series has been doing a revolving door with various old cast members this season. We just got finished with the Scully family, and now we're back to Helen. True, her story is far more interesting and the lack of study on homosexuality leaves potential for upcoming seasons. Yet I am more curious to see if Helen can follow in Virginia's footsteps and prove to be an important and powerful mother figure. Of course, her one hurdle is that she doesn't have a husband where Virginia has a sham one, that she kind of has fallen in love with and is planning to ditch Masters for.
Even if this season seems set on focusing on the moments in between the success, I do think it is giving us a better understanding of how everyone works when they are confident. There is no taboo about sex between everyone. They know their insecurities and have worked on it for decades now. What this season has improved upon is that even if there's moments of failure, there's more often an interesting period of working together to solve it. There's no stretch of meandering or pretensions between the Masters family. It is all just an effective use of time now and the cast is particularly strong, even if the show does feel like a revolving door of sexual taboos sometimes.
I'm hoping that with five episodes left, this show can stick the landing and recapture just what it was that made it appealing in the first. I do think that there's something fluid and organic about the first season that isn't here. However, I do like that the diversity of themes has began to integrate into the show and has allowed for a far more interesting study of sex. We have even covered animals, which resulted in some interesting territory. Who knows what else is in store. Hopefully there's more personal conflict, as I feel that it is the season's only weak spot. However, this has been a rather good stretch of episodes. Let's hope it lasts.
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