Friday, September 19, 2014

What I’m Watching: Masters of Sex


Masters of Sex: Season 2, Episodes 9 and 10 “Story of My Life” and “Below the Belt” (C-)

I suppose I should stick with this show through the end of the season (just two more episodes), but I’ve lost interest entirely. There are no interesting characters left, and anything that is remotely intriguing is far too blunt and blatant, with no subtlety or subtext left at all. There’s something half-worthwhile about Virginia transmitting Barb’s sexual frustrations to a therapist as if they were her own, but then her inability to understand just what she is doing when she comes clean with the therapist is disappointing. I’m not happy with the direction that Lester has gone, and even Betty is starting to be grating – not that it’s much of a surprise, but her character has lost considerable depth since the beginning of the season. I’d be interested to see what Adam Arkin’s PR man could do to spin the study into something positive, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen. We got a lot of family drama after Bill’s mother had a little accident, and it’s so incredible to me just how unlikeable Bill is. Sure, he admitted to Virginia later that he did abandon his brother, but he was so cruel and vicious to him when they were fighting. Usually, such despicable characters have a silver lining, but there’s nothing about Bill that makes him a fitting protagonist. Austin’s predicament was also far from sympathetic. I suppose there’s some solace in the fact that Libby is redeeming herself following her racist stage, and the idea of her asking Virginia if she’s comfortable lying to Bill is pretty funny.

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