Wednesday, September 2, 2015

What I’m Watching: Masters of Sex


Masters of Sex: Season 3, Episode 8 “Surrogates” (B+)

There are some parts of this show I’m not always thrilled about, like Lester and Jane inserting their personal lives into the study and Bill having to act like a disapproving parent, but there were a number of strong plotlines that I found very effective in this hour. Austin was all too willing to try to deceive Bill in order to get Helen and Betty on his side in his custody battle, but Bill saw right through their scheme and quickly deduced that he and Helen had never had sex despite their claims of having tried to get pregnant for several years. I like that Betty stood up for herself and even brought up Bill’s affair with Virginia that he brought up keeping private lives private. It was great to see Emily Kinney from “The Walking Dead” as Nora, Bill’s new star pupil who used to live down the street and was sleeping in the office because she’s more than a bit late on her rent payments. Libby was not fond of having her participate in the study, but she’s engaging in her own secret behavior, sleeping with Paul and pretending that he’s her dearly departed Robert, who we learned was hit by a car after surviving Freedom Summer. I was pleased to recognize Rob Benedict from “Threshold” as Scully’s new assistant who was very keen on the fact that he too liked musical theater. Dan spiriting Virginia away to a business pitch was a real treat, and I like that he referred to her as a partner after she nearly derailed the meeting and stuck with her as a respectable agent of his operation. Turning down the contract because he doesn’t want to leave St. Louis suggests a major attachment that might prove problematic given her relationship with Bill. The way he handled himself with the burglar was impressive, and kudos to Virginia for opting to give the poor kid a second chance instead of calling the police on him.

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