Masters of Sex: Season 1 (2013)
Average Rating: 8.3/10
Reviews Counted: 38
Fresh: 34 | Rotten: 4
Seductive and nuanced, Masters of Sex features smart performances, deft direction, and impeccable period decor.
Average Rating: 8.6/10
Critic Reviews: 16
Fresh: 13 | Rotten: 3
Seductive and nuanced, Masters of Sex features smart performances, deft direction, and impeccable period decor.
Season Info
Dramatic depiction of the lives of sex researchers William Masters and Virginia Johnson.
Network: Showtime
Premiere Date: Sep 29, 2013
Cast
-
Michael Sheen
William Masters -
Lizzy Caplan
Virginia Johnson -
Beau Bridges
Barton Scully -
Caitlin Fitzgerald
Libby Masters -
Margo Martindale
Miss Horchow -
Nick D'Agosto
Ethan Haas -
Teddy Sears
Austin Langham -
-
-
-
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Episodes
Pilot
Dramatic depiction of the lives of sex researchers William Masters and Virginia Johnson. In the opener, Masters begins conducting a secret study of human sexuality and meets Virginia Johnson, a former nightclub singer who joins the hospital secretarial staff and proves herself to be an asset to Masters' work.
Race to Space
Masters blames Johnson when the sexual response study is forced out of the hospital. To continue his research, Masters moves the study to a brothel but soon realizes that to manage the chaos of the cathouse he needs Johnson's help.
Standard Deviation
Research continues in the brothel but skewed data convinces Masters to get the study back into the hospital. Meanwhile, Johnson meets a new female doctor; Libby struggles to conceive; and Dr. Haas gets the case of a lifetime---a woman pregnant with quadruplets.
Thank You for Coming
New participants are recruited on campus for the study and Johnson is shocked when her ex-husband wants to sign up. Meanwhile, Masters' mother visits but her new take on life stirs up painful memories; and Libby's attempt at playing matchmaker for Virginia and Ethan doesn't go as smoothly as she had hoped.
Catherine
Brave New World
All Together Now
Love and Marriage
Involuntary
Critic Reviews for Masters of Sex: Season 1
Masters of Sex manages, with lightning speed, to shed any preconceived notions about what type of show it will be and, in so doing, tilts the camera up from the breast to the brain.
It's rare that a show can intuit what the viewer wants and deliver it, but that's precisely what happened as I kept watching Masters of Sex.
Without making any extraordinary claims for it, it is easy to watch and to recommend, mostly sweet-natured, with a host of well-shaded performances and almost nothing to insult your intelligence.
Based on the first six episodes, we're being introduced to a show that can enlighten, entertain and contend for Emmys, all in the same breath. And that's great.
By keeping Masters' heroic qualities firmly within the realm of his research, the pilot... falls into another trap entirely, that of the biopic that must explain the importance of its subject.
Performance is never a problem for the cast of Masters of Sex. Caplan, Sheen and the supporting players keep everything humming in the best new drama of the fall season. You'll want to watch.
Masters of Sex is an intelligent, assured drama that gets better and better as it goes along.
Just technically speaking, the look is impeccable, capturing the Eisenhower era with every small touch and wrinkle.
It belongs to a cohort of shows... that noodle on the themes that have so far defined the golden age of TV (masculinity, power, ethics), but with a bunch of new licks.
Like sex, Masters of Sex gets better as it goes on. But without an extra dimension, or a broader glimpse of a world beyond St. Louis, the series eventually grows a little claustrophobic and thin.
Given that a show set in the '50s feels like the freshest take on sexual relations in awhile, it's easy to agree.
Titillating period drama shows the sexier side of science.
Spoiler alert: A show about sex isn't necessarily the same thing as a sexy show.
Masters of Sex isn't just one of the most entertaining dramas ever about science - talk about your niche categories - it's one of the better shows about sex, which cable often uses just to keep us awake.
Masters locates its true sweet spot in exploring sex in all of its mysterious variety and tragicomic complications, which can't always be reduced to numbers on a chart.
This drama may take a little while to seduce you, but it's worth the wait.
The engrossing, beautifully cast and well acted Masters of Sex is at once the tale of an odd couple and the story of a culture coming of age.
When Masters of Sex allows its focus to shift to the true masters -- the female characters -- the series shows promise that it could eventually develop into a can't-miss, smart, character-driven, period drama.
Michael Sheen and Lizzy Caplan are terrific in the tonally opposite lead roles.
Masters of Sex is nuanced, intelligently acted, and swellegantly directed, and I highly recommend it.
It's time to have that talk about (low whisper now) sex...Masters of Sex, that is. And let the talk be in praise of a fledgling series that's not so much shocking as shockingly good.
It's impressive how quickly [it] creates a palpable universe of organic characters.
Masters of Sex is sprinkled with moments that make it worth watching... As is, it feels like some very professional foreplay with no end in sight.
The sex may bring in viewers, but the superb acting and writing will hold them.
The revolution is televised on Masters of Sex, Showtime's inexhaustibly pleasurable drama and the fall's best new series.
Although it's a medical drama on one level, Masters of Sex is frequently laugh-out-loud funny, with romances, mysteries and coming-of-age stories unfolding throughout its large cast.
Sheen can be funny and charming one moment, highly disturbing the next. Yet, his rare ability to get us to like Masters, warts and all, never wavers.
It makes the most of its pay-TV platform by showing plenty of skin, but the sex scenes service a bigger story made all the more compelling by a couple of strong leads in Michael Sheen and Lizzy Caplan.
We've got two skilled leads on Masters of Sex, and now that the exposition is out of the way, here's hoping they can finally get to work.
Call it sex with a side of education, or the other way around.
Masters Of Sex is a brave, beautiful, wonderful show.
The series is at its best when it abandons its vaguely intimate depiction of sex and allows its subjects to become fully enveloped in the importance and strange beauty of the undiscovered frontier they're exploring.
As the free-thinking, twice-divorced single mom who might likely single-handedly spark the sexual revolution, she's [Lizzy Caplan] the shining beacon of the fall 2013 season. Consider us hooked.
Masters of Sex is definitely something that a television viewer looking for quality, intelligent dramas should check out.
An intriguing, occasionally fascinating and well worth-watching drama.
One thing I didn't expect was to be left crying so many times throughout the hour. It's ... moving.
Masters of Sex is adult entertainment of the best kind, a mix of stellar performances and scintillating subject matter.
The creative team behind Masters of Sex clearly seems to be planning for a marathon run. Here's hoping that the series shows more kick down the entire backstretch, rather than just the last five minutes of each episode.
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