Category: Herald Archive

TV Review: Masters Of Sex S1 Ep01

On January 8, 2014

I know this is obvious to anyone who watched an episode, but Masters Of Sex is a show filled with sex. The first season came to a close on SoHo tonight with a rather titillating finale that didn’t quite go as I was expecting. And yes, there was plenty of sex in the finale hour of the season.

This wasn’t your standard “adults only, may contain sexual themes and nudity”, mind you. I mean copious amounts of sex. There were explicit sexual acts, multiple times per episode. There was extensive discussion of sexual behaviour, enough bad language to make a drunken sailor blush, various sex-related equipment in both camera-fied and vanilla flavours. It is a show where simple nudity seems tame, where you’d be thankful for a little fully-clothed tension.

Masters Of Sex was also a nightmare to try and find time to watch. My twelve year old daughter moved in with me around the time the first season started on SoHo, so I had to be very selective on when and where I tried to squeeze in an episode or two – even after she’d gone to bed, I couldn’t guarantee she wouldn’t overhear the sound or walk into the lounge undetected.

I ended up watching most of the season on my laptop, in my office, with my headphones on, ready to slam the laptop shut at the sound of approaching footsteps. I must have looked very depraved indeed.

Yet for all the adult content, I don’t think it would be fair to dismiss any as being gratuitous.

Sure, some scenes lingered a little longer than they needed to and some characters behaved a little more brazenly than perhaps they would have in real life. But the sexual content of the show didn’t feel forced, it didn’t feel like it had been included to simply shock, and everything seemed necessary for telling the story.

The first season finale was no exception: Bill Masters, wonderfully played by Michael Sheen, showed video footage of a female orgasm and the inside of a vaginal “tunnel” (as one character called it) to a room full of fellow university doctors, as he presented the results of the season-long sex study.

It says something about the show, and about my response as a viewer, that I wasn’t fazed at all by the footage. The fictional doctors, on the other hand, were outraged. Some of them referred to the footage as pornography and called for Masters’ head on a platter. The show is set in the late fifties, though. I guess seeing the changing attitude towards sex, the difference between then and now, is part of the appeal of a show like this.

Masters ended up getting fired from his position at the university hospital, of course, which leaves his work in limbo – though he did manage to salvage his relationship with Virginia, the Johnson part of the infamous Masters & Johnson duo, played by LizzyCaplan. Well, I mean, if you call missing the birth of his first child so he could get drunk, then showing up on Virginia’s doorstep and declaring his love for her a form of “salvage”.

I thought that was a disappointing development. The storylines dealing with Bill’s somewhat loveless marriage to Libby (Caitlin Fitzgerald) and their attempts to get pregnant, and time spent on Virginia’s attempts to balance work, children and a fledgling relationship with Haas (Nicholas D’Agosto), were far more interesting than anything romantic between our two leads. It might be inevitable that Masters & Johnson end up together, but that doesn’t make it interesting.

Also disappointing: Barton Scully (Beau Bridges) deciding to go ahead with electro-shock therapy. What is it with Showtime and electro-shock therapy? The first season of Homeland ended with Carrie undergoing that bizarre treatment. Showtime are single-handedly keeping the electro-shock industry alive at this point.

I did enjoy the b-story involving Scully and his wife, Margaret (Alison Janney), though. Bridges and Janney played well off each other and, like so much else on the show, we saw a kind of ripple effect with new characters and developments being introduced as the story spread further and further away from the centre of the show.

Masters Of Sex is a show full of sex. But it is also a show full of great writing and interesting characters. The first season introduced and developed our main characters and put a number of riveting storylines into motion. And at some point, the sex faded into the background behind an incredibly well-crafted story. Like the scientific approach to Masters & Johnson’s epic study, Master Of Sex invited us to look past the physical and see what is really going on.

I saw one of the best new shows of the last twelve months. I can’t wait to see more.

TV REVIEW The Blue Rose S1 Ep02

By cphilpott

On February 12, 2013

In Herald Archive, Stuff Archive

Last week’s premiere of The Blue Rose – the latest drama from Rachel Lang and James Griffin, the team behind Outrageous Fortune – ended abruptly. In fact, it left my spidey senses* tingling, so much so that I held off on reviewing the first episode. It just didn’t feel like the right point at which to review the show.

(Warning: spoilers from the first two episodes of The Blue Rose follow.)

I’m glad I did hold off on that review, because last night’s second episode tied up much of what took place last week and, paired with the first episode, turned what was a muddled, abrupt premiere into an intriguing two-parter (whether that was the intent or not) that introduces us to this world and establishes the characters and their roles within it.

After the suspicious death of Rose, a secretary at a law firm, the temp assigned to replace her – Jane, played by the delightful Antonia Prebble – works with Rose’s best friend Linda (Siobhan Marshall, playing the role with a bit of sass) to uncover the truth behind Rose’s death, uncovering a conspiracy and a group of co-workers fighting for the little guy.

It’s an interesting idea for a show, weaving together a longer serial arc while leaving room for the characters to take on smaller, weekly missions like getting rid of an ex-husband or returning the life savings to a hurting family.

The writing is clever and the first two episodes are tightly paced, but we’d expect no less from Lang and Griffin. The pair has worked on a number of entertaining series at this point, and they know how to put together a great show.

More than just entertaining, the writing here is efficient, quickly getting to know the main characters Jane and Linda (as well as lawyer Simon, played well, albeit subtly, by Matt Minto), while putting in the foundations for a great story as the season goes on (and also popping in a few easter eggs, like the connection to The Smiths’ singer Morrissey).

The first two episodes are also technically brilliant. Director Mark Beesley has done a great job with the script, taking the implication in the writing and realizing it as a taut thriller, full of suspense; many parts of the first episodes invoked the likes of 24 or Homeland, but with a uniquely Kiwi touch.

The music is fantastic too, maintaining the suspenseful vibe, courtesy of former Supergroove singer Karl Steven.

The question is whether the writers can keep it up for the rest of the season, and perhaps beyond. I have faith in Lang and Griffin, and I think they’ll do a typically great job crafting storylines going forward. And while we can see a few of the angles they might seek to explore – a legal battle over Rose’s daughter with douchebag ex-husband Grant, and Jane’s boyfriend developing a crush on Linda, in addition to the ongoing conspiracy we’ve already been introduced to – there is always a risk that the story might unfold too slowly, that The Blue Rose could be caught meandering during later episodes.

We can only wait and see how things turn out, and I’m looking forward to seeing where the show goes next. But regardless of what happens from here, I think it’s safe to say that The Blue Rose is one of the year’s most intriguing new shows, and another success for Lang, Griffin, and the team at South Pacific Pictures.

(*) That reference to “my spidey senses” might be the goofiest thing I’ve ever written.