'Masters of Sex': Going Limp
Masters of Sex returns for its third season on Sunday night with a little leap in time — it’s now 1965, and Dr. William Masters (Michael Sheen) and Virginia Johnson (Lizzy Caplan) are about to publish their magnum opus, Human Sexual Response. As has become usual with this series, Masters and Johnson’s own human sexual and emotional responses to each other have become central, even predictable.
The first couple of episodes of the new season are, I’m afraid, rehashes of themes well explored already. The research duo continue to pursue their sex experiments on each other outside of the lab; Masters’s wife Libby (Caitlyn Fitzgerald) is still unhappy and unfulfilled as a mate and as a woman with a purpose; and the show is still using dildos as punchlines in jokes that have become tiresome groaners. About the only surprise I experienced watching the season premiere was Libby’s choice to plant a kiss on Virginia (that’s no spoiler — it’s in the Showtime trailer below), and the surprise wasn’t the kiss (as unlikely as it seemed, the way this character has been portrayed thus far) but that when she does it, it seems so forced as a tingly plotpoint.
Do I care that the kissing scene may have been based on a real-life incident? Nope: If it’s not dramatized effectively, the show can’t hide behind the but-it-really-happened excuse. Speaking of which: The children of both Masters and Johnson are getting older and in some cases rebellious, but there’s nothing here you haven’t seen on a hundred shows about 1960s-era rebels. And there’s a disclaimer at the end of the episodes saying that all of the offspring “are entirely fictitious.” So, like, what’s the point, man? Not groovy.
The effect of the repetitive, lurchingly-paced first couple of episodes is to frequently reduce the previously excellent performances of Sheen and Caplan to a collection of tics: Masters is always a prissy fussbudget; Johnson never uses contractions and speaks in a stilted, formal manner to convince everyone she’s a serious person.
I hope later episodes, which will feature Josh Charles and the returns of Beau Bridges and Allison Janney, will be better. I’m rooting for the show to regain its potency.
Masters of Sex airs Sundays at 10 p.m. on Showtime.
