Masters of Sex: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

“Who knows? Maybe we'll even become household names.”

Masters of Sex ends the season not with a bang or a whimper but something in between.

Masters of Sex: One for the Money, Two for the Show

“Well, we tell people -- we're married to the work.”

Just not each other, Virginia adds when the two are asked in the CBS interview to speak to what people may say about their partnership. They really have that line down pat.

Masters of Sex: Below the Belt

"If there's one thing I've learned it's that everyone has their own version of everything that's ever happened."

In ‘Below the Belt’, everyone and everything is pretty messy, at times, even bloody. Luckily, there’s surrender, too. And we all can collectively sigh.

Masters of Sex: Story of My Life

“I’m doing the right thing, aren’t I, by trying to fix myself?”

We've returned to the source that inspired 'Fight', the concept that people are the most unreliable narrators of their own lives. But the stakes are much higher in 'Story of My Life'. In some cases, the highest.

Masters of Sex: Mirror, Mirror

"Our new mission here is not simply to observe. It's also to heal."

Well, sure. Seems reasonable that in navigating the whirlpool of sexuality, it wouldn't be long before Masters and Johnson were confronted with a litany of complex psychological issues that come with being human.

Masters of Sex: Asterion

“That is one world. And this is the other.”

Masters of Sex may not have time for subtlety but they have subtlety for time, if you will.

Masters of Sex: Blackbird

“Don’t move.”

Alright, we won't. But also we can’t. Luckily, ‘Blackbird’ is executed so skillfully it holds us in our grief.

Masters of Sex: Giants

“I suppose I’m wondering if our personal participation in the study is a condition of my employment here.”

I don’t think Masters of Sex has time for subtlety. I don’t even think it has time for time. From the point of view of ‘Giants’, no one who is doing epic battle with the gods of change to alter the course of human history does.

Masters of Sex: Dirty Jobs

“There’s a fence around Bill Masters—chain link with barbed wire. Nobody gets through that. Nobody gets close. But Virginia—Virginia would just waltz through.”

Let’s throw everything up in the air again and see where it lands, okay? Okay!

Masters of Sex: Fight

“I just had you up against the wall in our bathroom. That doesn't exactly qualify us for the cover of The Saturday Evening Post, does it?”

Masters of Sex puts aside their episode structure M.O. in favor of a delicate tribute to our brightest modern playwrights in the spectacular breathtaking ‘Fight’.

Masters of Sex: Kyrie Eleison

“I’m always grateful when someone points out something I could do better.”

Don’t you love it when people tell you what to do, how you should live your life and, my personal favorite, who you are? ‘Kyrie Eleison’ examines this adorable compulsion of the human psyche but underneath this intention lies deep abiding reasons this merry band of misfits has come together. And it’s all pretty brilliant.

Masters of Sex: Parallax

“How will we possibly interpret what’s happened here?”

The work of Masters and Johnson, and everyone connected to them, is displaced in the season opener 'Parallax'. Luckily, Virginia and Bill have no problem dancing around each other, as ever, as the show begins to intuit what it's really good at: its inquiry into the paradigms of power struggles, particularly ones of a sexual nature.

Masters of Sex

Season 2 | Cast

Programming note: We have reviewed only season two of Masters of Sex.

Masters of Sex (2013-2016) chronicles the professional and personal lives of Dr. William Masters and Virginia Johnson as they embark on their controversial ground-breaking study of human sexuality in the mid 1950s. The show is based on the Thomas Maier biography, Masters of Sex: The Life and Times of William Masters and Virginia Johnson, the Couple who Taught America How to Love. Creator Michelle Ashford was drawn to their story because underneath the astounding professional success of the couple was one of the most complicated relationships she'd ever come across. Masters of Sex ran for four seasons.

Season Two

2.1 Parallax
2.2 Kyrie Eleison
2.3 Fight
2.4 Dirty Jobs
2.5 Giants
2.6 Blackbird
2.7 Asterion
2.8 Mirror, Mirror
2.9 Story of My Life
2.10 Below the Belt
2.11 One for the Money, Two for the Show
2.12 The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

Cast

Michael Sheen (Dr. William Masters)
Lizzy Caplan (Virginia Johnson)
Caitlin Fitzgerald (Libby Masters)
Teddy Sears (Dr. Austin Langham)
Nicholas D'Agosto (Dr. Ethan Haas)
Annaleigh Ashford (Betty DiMello)