I don't see what can be found wrong with this series, which is why I gave it a 10. I have to admit when I really like a show, I do fall in love with it. As far as I can see, the acting is great, the writing is great, the characters are great, and the time period is very realistically portrayed. This is the 1950's. It is a very conservative America. Not as much in the political sense as in the cultural sense. This was before all hell broke loose in 1964-65. The Civil Rights Movement was taking place and gaining ground in the South, but this is white upper class America we are seeing. A white hospital with white doctors and white secretaries. Because that is the way it was then.
Michael Sheen and Lizzy Caplan are terrific as Masters and Johnson. There is a dual consideration to their relationship. They do have a professional relationship as Virginia Johnson is Dr. Bill Masters' Research Assistant. She is a woman with talents. Instinct, ambition, innovative with ideas and very good with people. Dr. Masters is the most talented Doctor in this teaching hospital, but he is a reserved, even repressed man. The two are exact opposites, and yet compliment one another professionally. They also compliment one another personally, as they take part themselves in the Sex Studies that Dr. Masters has begun in his study.
Lizzy Caplan is fabulous as she is sexy, intelligent, and complex. She is an ambitious woman, like a supremely interested and involved student, and is persistent in her goal of uncovering truths for the study and keeping the study and the office working and intact. She is unafraid, and knows she wants more out of her life. She has had a somewhat shady, unsteady life up until, apparently, taking this job, which changes her life. Lizzy Caplan has been said to have a "quirky sexiness" and that she has. She is also a terrific and "different" actress.
Michael Sheen as Dr. Bill Masters is also a driven person. Restrained personally, but unafraid to be a revolutionary, and even an outcast, in his prime love affair, the scientific study of human sexuality. BUT he also has a personal side that is calculating in getting what he wants, when he knows what he wants. In Season One, he does discover what he wants, both personally and professionally. I will say that without giving too much away.
So once again, Cable TV has trumped Network TV in originality, acting talent, subject matter, and writing. Of course Cable has the freedom to be more creative.Perhaps this is what draws so many movie actors to the small screen The writers need not worry about language and are not so compelled to limit nudity to, uhhhh, the 1950's? Where Network TV seems to be stuck.
So, check out this series. The only competition to the pay channels are AMC, and the BBC, and recently, Netflix. And there will be more. Listen, networks, enough writing to the lowest common denominator. I know you are trying, Network TV, but you are still falling way short. Cable TV and others are getting the better actors, and the better writers! Masters of Sex is yet another example! I can't wait for Season Two!!
Michael Sheen and Lizzy Caplan are terrific as Masters and Johnson. There is a dual consideration to their relationship. They do have a professional relationship as Virginia Johnson is Dr. Bill Masters' Research Assistant. She is a woman with talents. Instinct, ambition, innovative with ideas and very good with people. Dr. Masters is the most talented Doctor in this teaching hospital, but he is a reserved, even repressed man. The two are exact opposites, and yet compliment one another professionally. They also compliment one another personally, as they take part themselves in the Sex Studies that Dr. Masters has begun in his study.
Lizzy Caplan is fabulous as she is sexy, intelligent, and complex. She is an ambitious woman, like a supremely interested and involved student, and is persistent in her goal of uncovering truths for the study and keeping the study and the office working and intact. She is unafraid, and knows she wants more out of her life. She has had a somewhat shady, unsteady life up until, apparently, taking this job, which changes her life. Lizzy Caplan has been said to have a "quirky sexiness" and that she has. She is also a terrific and "different" actress.
Michael Sheen as Dr. Bill Masters is also a driven person. Restrained personally, but unafraid to be a revolutionary, and even an outcast, in his prime love affair, the scientific study of human sexuality. BUT he also has a personal side that is calculating in getting what he wants, when he knows what he wants. In Season One, he does discover what he wants, both personally and professionally. I will say that without giving too much away.
So once again, Cable TV has trumped Network TV in originality, acting talent, subject matter, and writing. Of course Cable has the freedom to be more creative.Perhaps this is what draws so many movie actors to the small screen The writers need not worry about language and are not so compelled to limit nudity to, uhhhh, the 1950's? Where Network TV seems to be stuck.
So, check out this series. The only competition to the pay channels are AMC, and the BBC, and recently, Netflix. And there will be more. Listen, networks, enough writing to the lowest common denominator. I know you are trying, Network TV, but you are still falling way short. Cable TV and others are getting the better actors, and the better writers! Masters of Sex is yet another example! I can't wait for Season Two!!