Thursday, September 26, 2013

Previewing Masters of Sex



Lizzy Caplan and Michael Sheen in Masters of Sex

Oh Showtime, when you announced that you were greenlighting a show called Masters of Sex; you had me at Lizzy Caplan. They could have filled the rest of the cast with the worst actors and hired the most inept writers, and the show still would have been highly watchable just because Lizzy Caplan was starring in a show called Masters of Sex. But they did hire one competent actor Michael Sheen to star opposite as the real life William Masters who pioneered research on human sexuality to Caplan’s Virginia Johnson who was his club singer turned receptionist turned assistant.

As for the writing, the show was created by Michelle Ashford who knows her way around a historical drama penning the HBO miniseries for The Pacific and John Adams. Masters of Sex pushes the subject matter closer to modern day in the late fifties when Masters decides there are enough books on how babies are delivered and decides to research on just how babies are made. It probably helps that he himself is having a bit of trouble making a baby of his own with his wife as the show starts up.

Masters of Sex is surprisingly funny. Despite wanting to explore new scientific ground, Masters is clearly still uncomfortable talking about sex especially around other people. And the way he collects data before he conducting his study at his university is humorous and involves a quick witted prostitute. But the funniest scene in the first episode involved Beau Bridges as Sheen’s boss watching a woman, um, achieve complication through a glass, um, self pleasuring devise. Oh science. Masters of Sex is far and away the best new show you will watch this fall.

Masters of Sex airs Sundays at 10:00 on Showtime.

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