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Master of Sex not what you expect
Adapted from Thomas Maier’s 2009 biography of the same title, Masters of Sex tells the story of William Masters and Virginia Johnson, two pioneering sex researchers in the 20th century who co-wrote important and unprecedented reports about human sexuality.
“The study of sex is the study of the beginning of all life,” Masters, played by British actor Michael Sheen, declares in the pilot. “And science holds the key. Yet we sit huddled in the dark like prudish cavemen, filled with shame. And guilt.”
From these lines you may get a feeling that the series aims to tell a bigger tale.
“TV depicts sex all the time, but what it rarely examines is the terror and confusion that intimacy and reproduction can bring to our lives,” Maureen Ryan wrote in a review for The Huffington Post.
Another review by The Hollywood Reporter echoes this idea by saying: “It was comforting to see that Masters of Sex has depth of vision and plenty of dramatic material to delve into without taking the easy way out with a nipple and a romp every 10 minutes.”
Female awakening
Besides depicting sex as a science subject, Masters of Sex has another overt agenda.
US actress Lizzy Caplan portrays Johnson, the former nightclub singer who comes to work at Masters’ hospital as a secretary. She manages to attach herself to Masters and his project, eventually becoming his partner. This character, as Los Angeles Times’ review puts it, is “the driving spirit, both within the story and of the series itself”.
“Johnson is a new woman, by nature. She likes sex, but she also wants to do ‘something important’,” the article said.
Set in the late 1950s, the series looks back on this time as the beginning of the end of male dominance and privilege. So, the “important thing” for her is to deliver the message that sisterhood is powerful — “a memo some of the women around her have yet to receive”.
“Masters’ journey,” the article continues, “though it involves a kind of awakening, is simply not as dynamic as Johnson’s self-reinvention.”
With every worthy message, Masters of Sex fights back all the preconceived notions about what type of show it will be and successfully moves the camera up from the breast to the brain. Maybe that’s the best story of all.