The incomparable Beau Bridges rounds out the cast as the provost of Washington University, Barton Scully, who is a closeted homosexual yet married to Margaret played heartbreakingly by Allison Janey. There is also Monroe-esque Jane (Helene York), a secretary who participates in the study to have sex with playboy doctor Austin Langham (Teddy Sears).
The series introduces a gamut of beautiful people from Libby Masters (Caitlin FitzGerald), Bill's beautiful wife who wants nothing more than to have a family but whom Bill can't stand to touch, to Betty DiMello (Annaleigh Ashford) the lesbian prostitute who is Bill's first test subject who also tells the doc that faking an orgasm is a thing women do.
However, it isn't just Sheen and Caplan who carry the show. The audience needs to see it to understand the sheer raw power behind it. Put together, Sheen and Caplan sizzle with a chemistry that cannot be put into words. Johnson, a woman ahead of her time in both gumption and sexual prowess. Masters and Lizzy Caplan, best known for her comedic performances, gives a nuanced turn as Ms. Michael Sheen excels as the buttoned-up Dr. Showtime's "Masters of Sex" is the epitome of late-night-cable with sensuality, titillation and occasional gratuitous sex scenes, but the true strength of the show lies in the character study the audience is given. In an era where sex and radicalization were taboo, Masters and Johnson bucked the norms and proved to be forces to be reckoned with. It was a study that revolutionized people's understandings of the human body and sex. William Masters and Virginia Johnson were at the cutting edge of scientific exploration in the mid-1950s with the introduction of their study on the bodily responses to sexual stimulation both alone and with a partner. I can't help but wonder what this cast could do if they had a solid script with better writing. All-star cast that really goes the distance. The acting is incredible.there isn't even room for improvement in that regard. The story itself and the editing style makes it feel like a soap opera.
Update: after watching the full series, I am stumped as to how high the scores and ratings are. If your lead characters are so unlikeable that you can't make it through the first several episodes, the writers have failed.ratings be damned, this is not an enjoyable series to watch because the main character is written the way a 3rd grader would draw an evil monster: all heavy hands and no subtlety or complexity. That's what the writers did to the character of Dr Stevens in this series.Īnd as the main character, nothing else really matters.
Look at some of the classic TV dramas.the landscape of the history of the best shows ever made for television.they all have bad guys and protagonists and antagonists.hell, look at Gus from Breaking Bad: the guy was as evil as a character can be written but he was compelling and complex and not written as someone you couldn't bear to be around or listen to. Lesson to writers: you can creat very difficult and complex characters.even really evil, disgusting characters without writing them as massive, intolerable a-holes. I imagine he changes as a character but honestly right now I can't fathom how this series has made it to a second season let alone 3 additional seasons. Steven's makes me want to turn the story off completely.
To be fair, I'm only 4 episodes in and Johnson's story arc is compelling and interesting but Dr. The character is such a gross part of the story that it genuinely removes any curiosity I have about his story, his life or indeed, this story. It's a case of one bad apple spoiling the whole lot.
Creative license dictates that writers get to take some liberties with character development.they could have made the doctor complex and deep and challenging without making him an unbearable, miserable man. There's clinical (as most physicians are) and then there is just downright unlikable and miserable. And I can't speak from a biographical standpoint but I'm guessing no doctor would make any real strides in any kind of research (let alone sexual) if he was as difficult, cantankerous and argumentative as the character makes him out to be. This series portrays him as a bitter, tyrannical, cold and petty man.
The movie version portrayed Masters as an inquisitive, naive, awkward physician. William Masters is written in such a flawed way that it sucks the oxygen out of the entire story. Here's the problem with this series: it's fairly well written, very well acted but Dr.