Masters of Sex’s hot streak (no pun intended) comes to a screeching halt with “Love and Marriage”, which is my least favorite episode of Masters of Sex’s first season.
As far as episode eight goes, let’s start with the positives. The highlight of this episode is probably the introduction of Lester and the use of “home movies”, as well as this being the first episode to mention the presentation in front of the University, finally giving this season some sense of it’s endgame. Allison Janney and Beau Bridges also give fantastic performances. Another positive of episode eight is that Ethan Haas doesn't make his first appearance until the 20 minute mark.
But the increased focus on Ethan and Vivian really drag down both episodes eight and nine, including the cringeworthy subplot wherein Ethan briefly attempts to convert to Christianity, and then runs over a guy with his car. I already dealt with how much of a scumbag Ethan Haas is in the last installment, so I’ll save you all the rant.
“Well, Margaret, that is a blow. But, of course, if if you've made up your mind I respect your decision. Of course.” -Austen Langham, after being broken up with
Watching episode eight, I was struck by how much of a gentleman Austen Langham was when Margaret broke up with him at the start of the episode. Especially with this being the 1950s, you would imagine most men being womanizers and pig-like; it’s interesting to see a guy being an absolute gentleman in this period of time. Langham is probably the most underrated character in the show, it’s a shame he didn’t really get anything substantial to do after this season (Cal-O-Metric was just weird and then he was just shoehorned into seasons three and four).
Speaking of Austen Langham, there’s a part of episode ten that kind of stuck out to me. When Margaret is swimming, Austen enters and says “California’s been blown off the map. They’re announcing death tolls on the radio like baseball scores,” jokingly, I assume. And then Margaret’s response is “What are you doing here?”. I would imagine, in a time of nuclear panic, that if somebody entered saying that California has been destroyed in a nuclear holocaust, my first response would be something like “Are you serious?” or “Oh my God! How awful!”
"Fallout” is an improvement over episodes eight and nine in every way imaginable. The debate between whether or not Virginia should have told Austen about the baby is a debate that I still waffle on whenever I rewatch this episode. “Fallout” is the first of three episodes wherein Libby Masters is not present.
And speaking of Libby Masters, I did a post on the timeline and the implausibility of Libby’s pregnancies taking place within the certain amount of time, but I think it’s absolutely laughable that the writers expect us to believe that the events from episode nine to episode twelve span eight months. That would mean that Bill/Gini’s rough patch lasted months, when if you took out Libby’s pregnancy, I would have guessed it was only weeks.
“You might as well tell me the sun now sets in the east.” -Margaret Scully, regarding the discovery of her husband’s homosexuality
I always found this to be an interesting choice of words for Margaret Scully. As far as Earth-shattering revelations go, the sun setting in the east would be pretty far down on that list.
While the third-act break-up has become commonplace in most movies, it felt sincere in Masters of Sex’s first season. Bill feeling guilty about his affair with Virginia, and feeling the need to pay her. I have to say, it’s a good thing that I am not a television writer. I would not be able to come up with arcs that deep.
The first season comes to a close with “Phallic Victories” and “Manhigh”, the latter of which is arguably the best episode of Masters to date. Michael Sheen delivers another excellent performance, particularly in the lonely dinner scene with Libby, laughing at the idea that Virginia was the woman in the video.
You know, I didn’t mention it last time, but it really is shocking that Michael Sheen didn’t get nominated for “Catherine”. I mean, I looked up who his competition would have been. Apparently it would have been Bryan Cranston, Jon Hamm, Kevin Spacey, Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey (both from True Detective). So there would have certainly been steep competition. However, they also nominated Jeff Daniels, who already won the year before, so they could’ve easily given his spot to Michael Sheen.
(Above: The extended cut of “Manhigh” showed us that Bill Masters kind of got carried away with his presentation)
I mentioned while ago that the first season of Masters of Sex was my least favorite. Well, I don’t know what I was smoking; this re-watch has been illuminating. I can safely say that I like season one more than season three, which--I know, I know, baby steps. I do think I still like seasons two and four more, if only because it contains 99% less Ethan Haas.
Anyway, season one concludes with our heroes finding their way back together. Next time, I begin watching season two, which, if memory serves me correctly, is my favorite season. Will that still be the same after re-watching it? Stay tuned!
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