I dropped Masters of Sex midway through this season – or, more specifically, right after the now-infamous “Monkey Business” episode – but did check back in on the once-great period drama, and specifically the final two episodes of its wildly inconsistent third season.
The penultimate episode, “Party of Four,” is arguably the best episode Masters has put together since season 2’s “Fight.” It is, again, contained – an occasionally fascinating, blessedly fluid conversation between four people tangled up in a messy, complicated web of romance and sex. It gave Michael Sheen and Lizzy Caplan great stuff to play, while also finally giving Josh Charles some deeper material – oh, and it brought Judy Greer into the mix, which is never a bad thing. But, as a bottle episode, it's the kind of formula that a show of relative conventionality (like Masters) can never rely on.
The episode had a resonance to it, and I’d even argue that showrunner Michelle Ashford more than competently brought her many disparate threads together for a finale that, at least, felt earned. Libby’s (Caitlin Fitzgerald) bizarre travails with Paul converged nicely with Virginia’s own affair with Logan (Charles). Overall, the character work done over the 12 episodes lined up coherently.
But I’m past the point of caring. Masters of Sex has become a show almost entirely driven by ideas; its emotional throughline and sense of self disappeared, in retrospect, before this season even began. The series plays with Bill’s horrific parenting as a way to examine his own issues with fatherhood, for example, without considering the audience (or critical) response. Ashford and her team of writers tensely negotiate investment with their viewers, jumping ahead in time sporadically and drastically; bringing back actors for brief and ultimately insufficient periods of time; and lacking any sort of evolution in thematic or tonal direction. The show veers between slapstick and poignant, but without any sense of logic or intent. It brings characters back who are no longer relevant to the show, and expects a definitive appreciation of their return.
This will probably be the last time I write about Masters of Sex for the foreseeable future – something I couldn’t really imagine two years ago, when it so profoundly impressed me. The relationship between Bill and Virginia – the show’s very center – is neither emotionally engaging nor intellectually stimulating at this point, even if Caplan and Sheen continue to do excellent work. And Ashford has run up against the limits of historical fiction, servicing a lengthy story in sacrifice of a narrative progression worth getting behind. Masters will always be capable of great scenes – or as the “Party of Four” episode reminds, great, contained episodes – but as a television show, it seems hopelessly lost.
Grade: C