Thursday, July 30, 2015

What I’m Watching: Masters of Sex


Masters of Sex: Season 3, Episode 3 “The Excitement of Release” (B)

As usual, this was a pretty packed episode in terms of its developments even if it didn’t span as much time as previous hours have, but I’m pleased to report that it felt much more thematically relevant. The introduction of three new potential investors – Eddie Jemison’s massager developer, Josh Charles’ perfume man, and John Gleeson Connolly’s Hugh Hefner – makes it clear that this business is going somewhere, and, as the biggest star among the three, Charles’ Dan Logan appears to have won out, asking the poignant question of what sex smells like and how he can put it in a bottle. Bill’s idea to have the book used as a textbook was a strong one, but peddling it to Wash U and trying to drag Scully bag into everything was hardly the best use of his time and dealt a particularly unforgiving blow to his ego. Showing Paul his card collection was heavily awkward, and I thought that Bill was going to mistake his affection for Paul as a signal that he should make a move which would have had disastrous results. I’m not sure if we’re supposed to take Joy’s medical collapse as an indicator that Paul found out her plan and was abusive or a subtler signal that escape is never truly possible from the banality of married life. Lester and Jane found a great way to connect through the erotic content of letters written by fans and haters alike, which is nice to see. By the end of the episode, I had forgotten all about Bill’s ugly double standards about Virginia being married, even though it ended with an all too comfortable shared moment in bed. Tessa’s story is what spoke loudest in this hour, as a fun game of talking about her mother’s book led to her being forced to do something she really didn’t want to do and apparently accepting it as something that might just happen again.

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