Masters of Sex?

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by mhw58, Nov 7, 2013.

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  1. mhw58

    mhw58 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    I woul imagine there is a thread already about the Showtime series 'Masters of Sex' but I am having trouble with the search engine. If there is already a thread, could someone post a link? I am really enjoying the show and am wondering how accurate it is. Does anyone know how truthful the portrayals are? Dr. Masters comes off as a cruel, coldhearted man.
     
  2. R. Totale

    R. Totale The Voice of Reason

    It's adapted from a non-fiction book which I haven't read, but people who have on another forum I read say many of the baseline facts are consistent with what actually happened, while the characterizations are obviously fiction. I'm enjoying watching it, anyway.
     
  3. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    It's a very funny show, twisted and strange. Definitely not what I expected. I was bowled over to find out that the hospital is a set in Culver City! I thought for sure this was some abandoned 1950s hospital they found somewhere. It looks fantastic, and their attention to detail for this era is terrific.

    It's a brave choice to make Dr. Masters such a total jerk -- just a misogynistic, sexist, insensitive jerk... and yet every once in awhile, he'll turn around and do something unexpectedly kind and thoughtful. Clearly a very complicated character.
     
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  4. Hawkeye

    Hawkeye Senior Member

    Sundays are great:
    football
    football
    football
    football
    walking dead
    homeland
    masters of sex
     
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  5. Yes I am, thank you. Oh, you weren't talking about me. Maybe I provided too much information...
     
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  6. sberger

    sberger Dream Baby Dream

    I think that some of the underlying story line has indicated that Masters is like he is because of a pretty rough childhood. Don't know anymore than what they have told us as I really like the series and don't want to do any research on the characters until after the season.
     
  7. Lonson

    Lonson I'm in the kitchen with the Tombstone Blues

    I recorded five episodes before I started watching, I'm enjoying it. I'm a Kaplan fan, and Sheen is doing a bang-up job.
     
  8. Sneaky Pete

    Sneaky Pete Flat the 5 and That’s No Jive

    Location:
    NYC USA
    The Book and Film based on it were both good. I haven't gotten into the series. Maybe I'm saturated on the subject already. Based on this thread I think I'll check it out.
     
  9. Bill In WV

    Bill In WV Forum Resident

    Location:
    Hurricane, WV
    I think it's great, what I have seen of it. Kaplan is awesome.
     
  10. stereoptic

    stereoptic Anaglyphic GORT Staff

    Location:
    NY
    I've seen the premiere and enjoyed it. I'll catch up with the rest of the episodes On Demand.
     
  11. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    He grew up in a very wealthy family and went to the Lawrenceville private school in New Jersey, so it wasn't rough as in "rough on the ghetto streets." They've established in the show that he has a very distant relationship with his mother, and his father is dead; I don't doubt there's a lot of skeleton's in Dr. Masters' closet.
     
  12. sberger

    sberger Dream Baby Dream

    Evidently he(and very possibly his mother) was beaten severely by his father. And his mother looked the other way. The show makes it sound like his was a pretty traumatic upbringing. Not making excuses for him just what I've gathered from watching the show.
     
  13. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    Well, Lawrenceville was a boarding school, so he only got beaten during the summer and holidays. Where I come from, that's a luxurious lifestyle.
     
  14. Ken E.

    Ken E. Senior Member

    It's a boarding school like Choate, Phillips Exeter... Tuition comparable to the most exclusive colleges. I played on their baseball field in the 70s in HS, like playing on an MLB field!
     
  15. mhw58

    mhw58 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    I am thoroughly enjoying the show. I will have to find a pic of Masters wife. If she is half as good looking as the woman who plays his wife on the show I wonder what his issue is. He is so cold to her. I imagine the sparks will fly when he starts having a relationship with Virginia.
     
  16. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    The show's producers said that for some odd reason, there are no surviving pictures of Dr. Masters' real-life 1950s wife, so they just had to fake it. The real Masters was a little portly and balding, so they're making a big change making him a thin British guy with hair.

    Masters did ultimately marry Ms. Johnson in the 1970s, but they divorced in 1991. It's clear from the show that Masters' ultra-objective approach doesn't include the human, emotional part of sex, which clearly is the reason Ms. Johnson is there.
     
  17. DeeThomaz

    DeeThomaz Senior Member

    Location:
    In The Felony Room
    And that's just a sunday during Game of Thrones hiatus. Once it comes back, Sunday really kicks into gear!
     
  18. sberger

    sberger Dream Baby Dream

    No Boardwalk Empire??
     
  19. mhw58

    mhw58 Forum Resident Thread Starter


    I LOVE Game of Thrones!! I haven't ever watched Boardwalk Empire but have heard great things about it. I will have to check it out.
     
  20. Hawkeye

    Hawkeye Senior Member

    No HBO, only Showtime. Had to draw the line somewhere.
     
  21. Ricko

    Ricko Forum Resident

    I knew retro-porn had it's following and it's good that they're broadcasting it tailored for older housewives.

    It's a clunky concoction of pandering with a feminist twist: an old gal finally gettin' it from virile straight younger guy and lots and lots of dirty talk in the name of important scientific research!!! That about hits all the bases usually covered by a steamy romance novel. But hey this ain't literature, and M.O.S. writer Michelle Ashford sees it as an opportunity to counteract the way she usually sees sex portrayed on TV.

    "It feels gratuitous. It's not particularly interesting," she says. So "Masters of Sex" presented "a challenge, where the actual show is about sex, but coming at it through the prism of science. I thought that's a really interesting way to talk about sex that won't feel like you're showing sex to be titillating."

    Oh yeah? Sounds like double-talk spin. I'm surprised they didn't write in a cameo for Fabio! :laugh:
     
  22. stereoptic

    stereoptic Anaglyphic GORT Staff

    Location:
    NY
    Were there any Pizza delivery guys back then? :laugh:
     
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  23. Lonson

    Lonson I'm in the kitchen with the Tombstone Blues

    I'm enjoying the show. It's filling a certain void acceptably while Mad Men is off the air.
     
  24. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    The recent story arc with Allison Janney as the frustrated wife was very moving and well-done. This was an Emmy-caliber performance. And it's rare you see an actress of her age willing to do a (somewhat) nude scene.
     
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  25. Geithals

    Geithals Forum Resident

    Location:
    Reykjavik
    I just want to watch the series for now and read up on it later.
    I guess you're taking that from what his mother said 'I wish I had of spoken out....'. It sounded very much like she wished she had stood up for the boy against the father. You'd assume that something traumatic had to happen in order to produce the emotionally crippled Masters. That's a given. We probably can rule out sexual abuse by the father. But it doesn't have to be just physical beatings, can be just emotional abuse and the scars of emotional abuse run deeper.
    If we trust the characterisation as played Sheen, he has enough about him to demand respect even ... love, he's intelligent and has an uncanny ability to be distant and objective. However, he can't turn that off and that's where the conflicts are with him, he's crippled emotionally and the poker up the backside doesn't help.
    He's not a deliberately cruel person. Masters and the mother are just superbly characterised and the rest of the drama is just excellent.
     
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