TV: Masters of Sex

My husband and I have been watching Masters of Sex, a TV series playing on Showtime.

The story is about Masters and Johnson, the team that studied sex back in the 1950s.

The show is very well acted with Michael Sheen playing the role of William Masters and Lizzy Caplan portraying Virginia Johnson. The storyline does a terrific job of depicting gender disparity prevalent at the time (women are inferior) and portrays these attitudes in a most believable way.

There is nudity in the series but not enough to be distracting. The show is really about the two main characters and the lives of those around them. The viewer is invited to learn about people who participated in the study, the wife of William Masters, the provost of the college and his family, and others who were involved with Masters and Johnson in some fashion.

It presents a very nicely rounded view of the whole process of the study as well as what life was like back then.

The most recent episode presented a Civil Defense drill and how the entire country was being urged to hide under desks in the event of a nuclear attack. It was very well done.

There are few shows that I actually want to own on DVD, but this is one of them. I would watch this whole series again. I do not know if this will be a continuing series or if these 10 episodes are all of the show, but if you have missed it I suggest watching it when you can.

It has also given me an interest in Masters and Johnson, particularly Virginia Johnson, who is portrayed as a very strong and capable woman who knows her own mind (and body) in an admirable way. I wouldn't mind finding a biography of her if there is one.