To be entirely honest, I’ve been somewhat disappointed by the first half of season three. I mean, I guess that goes without saying, but I had remembered the first half of this season being better than it was. Well, “Two Scents” is sort of the opposite. I guess considering the episodes proximity to “Monkey Business” I remembered the episode being worse than it was, but I actually think it may be one of season three’s stronger episodes. It certainly feels like a continuation of “Matters of Gravity”.
Virginia’s dissatisfaction in this episode is somewhat understandable. Her mother being there certainly being the driving force from Bill towards Dan Logan. I don’t really have a problem with the Dan Logan storyline this season.
What I do have a problem with Libby Masters’ storyline this season. Okay, let’s get into it. The problem with Libby Masters. Now, her arc in the first season was I think necessary for the show. To show that Bill is a married man but also to have his wife’s insistence on having a baby be kind of a force that drives him towards the work. But then in the second season, Libby goes from racist-white-lady to activist. To be honest, I actually enjoyed Libby’s storyline in season two. It worked well as a way to incorporate the racial tensions of America at the turn of the 60s into the Masters of Sex storyline.
In season three, the Masters marriage is dead, and instead of continuing what they established in season two, they instead give Libby Masters this lame romance with her neighbor. It certainly felt like been there, done that.
Okay, ladies and gentlemen, I won’t delay it any longer. It’s time to discuss it. The episode that arguably killed Masters of Sex. The episode that received unanimously negative reviews. The episode that Michael Sheen went on record saying it was a mistake. And keep in mind, this is a guy who thought that this mustache was a good idea:
Now, I’ll start this off by saying that my favorite episode of Masters of Sex is “Asterion”. It’s an episode all about time and change. It’s a very cinematic episode and is wonderfully written. Another of my favorite episodes is “The Pleasure Protocol”, which is another great episode that changes the direction of season four, as the tide begins to turn, as we see Bill beginning to evolve and Virginia do the opposite. This episode also has a very distinct visual style and some very creative visuals.
So you have the duo who wrote “Asterion” and the guy who directed “The Pleasure Protocol” together to make “Monkey Business”. How bad could it really be?
Oh…
See, I think this episode exists only as filler. I think Michelle Ashford wanted to do an episode where Virginia and Dan are in Las Vegas while Bill starts the surrogacy program in her absence, but she had introduce the surrogacy plot in the episode before. Considering “Two Scents” was 58 minutes long, it was pretty clear that episode was full, so they had to devote episode seven to introducing this plot. And then, because the episode needed something to fill the other ¾ of the episode, they concocted this bizarre monkey story to be the A-story.
Now, the idea of the ape storyline isn’t that bad. It could’ve been good if it was done right. Considering how similar apes and humans are, could an ape’s sexual dysfunction be fixed? Or can ape’s even suffer from sexual dysfunction like humans? Maybe have a few scenes of Bill and Virginia talking with professors or experts on monkeys. I don’t know…
I think that the ape stuff could’ve worked if the tone was right. Masters of Sex is a very smart, scientific show. To present gorilla sexuality in comparison with human sexuality in a smart, scientific way would’ve been true to the show.
However, the tone and content of these scenes are just baffling. In the first scene, Bill and Virginia are having a discussion with the zookeeper about sex that’s supposed to be humorous as we’re misled to believe that we’re talking about the zookeeper but instead we’re talking about the gorilla.
Then we have an awkward scene with Alex Borstein that is also supposed to be humorous. And then when Virginia flashes Gil, it’s supposed to be dramatic.
I think the biggest misstep the episode made is that the majority of the set-up is that it was played for laughs. A serious investigation into primates and their sexuality could’ve been interesting. But to have most of the exposition for a storyline be humorous, and then when the storyline concludes (in a laughable scene), it’s supposed to be dramatic… it just comes across as strange.
I think the tone was the main flaw of the ape storyline.
OH MY GAAAD!
Well… the second biggest flaw.
What’s even more confounding is how little of this episode the ape storyline is about, and this leads me to my next point. Masters of Sex is a show that usually thrives with little going on. What do I mean by that? Well, simply put, the less storylines in an episode, the better the episode. Take a look at “Fight”. No tacked-on side story with Betty or Libby. That episode is just Bill and Virginia and it’s a near-masterpiece. A Masterspiece, if you will.
A typical comedy has an A-story and a B-story. A drama usually has a little more going on because they typically have longer running times to fill, but it’s usually a good idea to keep it around four things going on. And usually, a Masters of Sex episode only has about four things going on, give or take. The point is: the less, the better. The more stuff you throw at the audience, unless it’s all connected in some way, the episode loses it’s focus.
This is very clear in “Monkey Business”. So much is going on. Seriously. A lot of people don’t remember anything about this episode outside of the monkey stuff, and I think a main reason why is because this episode in particular was a jumbled mess. I mentioned that your average Masters of Sex episode has about four things going on. “Monkey Business” has NINE things going on.
1) Bill, Virginia, and Gil the Gorilla
2) Bill, Virginia, and Dan
3) Bill and Virginia starting the surrogacy program
4) Bill and Virginia getting interviewed by Newsweek
5) Jane and Lester and her friend
6) Tessa at the clinic
7) Betty and Helen want a baby
8) Libby and Paul
9) Johnny and whatever
You can argue that #3 and #5 are more or less connected, but… um… OH MY GOD, nine subplots??? No wonder this episode is a mess. I mentioned earlier that the main point for this episodes existence was to introduce the surrogacy program, and that they concocted the ape storyline to be the A-story for the episode.
The downside of this is that every other storyline (with the exception of Betty/Helen wanting a baby and Jane/Lester, which were both introduced in this episode) moves at a snails pace simply to fill the running time. Seriously, was there anything really significant that happened this episode with Libby and Paul’s relationship? Or with Tessa and Virginia? Or with Johnny and Bill? Or even with Virginia and Dan, you could pretty much just skip from the end of 306 to the start of 308.
But after “Monkey Business”’s myriad flaws, all "Surrogates" had to do was show signs of improvement, regardless of where it would fall on the spectrum of good to "Monkey Business". If episode seven was the equivalent of OD'ing at a party, episode eight is waking up in the hospital bed. But was "Surrogates" successful?
(^My reaction to how tedious rewatching this season of Masters of Sex has been)
Well... it's passable. To be honest, "Surrogates" was a lot worse than I remembered it being. In particular, the dialogue in some scenes were horrifically bad. Namely in the scene where Paul was overreacting to Libby being quiet in bed because the writers needed some way to bring up Robert. To be honest, I’ve been feeling embarrassed for Caitlin FitzGerald in some of these late-season-three scenes. Actually embarrassed.
But there were some other scenes this episode with really bad dialogue. The scene where Virginia tries to tie in the stages of human sexual response to gambling. I think that the writers intended this to be a scene where Virginia is slaying this business meeting, but, maybe it's just me, but it really felt ham-fisted.
The Nora-Bill scenes weren't bad. I think the focus on the surrogacy program certainly helped this episode. However, the Betty/Helen/Austin scenes may rival Libby and Paul for worst storyline of the episode. During Betty’s confrontation with Bill, she says “Don’t insult my intelligence!” Well, in Bill’s defense, how could Betty have possibly thought this was a good idea. And how could Betty not know that her girlfriend’s hymen was still intact? This whole strategy of theirs was entirely hair-brained.
Well, that does it for this installment. Hopefully the remaining episodes of season three can grant a reprieve.
