WHO’S IN IT

Lucian from Underworld, Janice from Mean Girls, Epperly from Gossip Girl, Shaun from Fired Up!, Beau from The Red Pony.

THE PREMISE

Drama about the lives and relationships of William Masters and Virginia Johnson, pioneers of the science of human sexuality.

WHAT WORKS

Almost everything so far. The casting, the acting, and the writing are very good so far. I love Lizzy Caplan and will follow her anywhere. She’s Casey from Party Down for God’s sake! So Michael Sheen is Dr. William Masters, a stuffy, married, out of touch OB/GYN at a teaching hospital in St. Louis. Very accomplished. His wife, Libby, looks right out of Mad Men. If I had my way, she would be Betty Draper. Libby seems like she could take the Hammaconda in a way that January Jones couldn’t. All Libby wants is to have a baby. Women of the ’50’s and their stupid fucking dreams. Bill and Libby are trying to get pregnant but with no success. Separate twin beds might have something to do with it. Bill has Libby convinced that the difficulty with conception lies with her. He is a fucking monster in this regard, because he puts her through the medical ringer attempting to determine a solution for her infertility. He is the one shooting blanks. His younger colleague, Ethan, knows this and is caring for his wife, but does not tell her. Virginia, Bill’s assistant, is a single mom, who is light years ahead of her time. Ethan is hot. Virginia knows it, and she fucks the shit out of that fool. He’s smitten, and she just wanted service. They are friends in her eyes, he doesn’t get it. There is a lot of sex in this show. SHOCK! But it’s tasteful! Beau Bridges is the closet case provost that won’t allow Bill to do his sex study in the hospital. So initially he is forced to do it in a whorehouse. They aren’t in Texas, so Dolly isn’t there. Frowny face. But you know who is there? Maggie Sheffield from The Nanny, and she looks like what I imagine Kim Kardashian’s pussy looks like. Beat. The. Fuck. Up. See?

WHAT DOESN’T

The pacing. Sometimes this show moves so fucking slow, I’m so bored I could die (then Kristen Johnston falls out the window at Candy Bergen’s party, you know what I’m talking about). I don’t mind something that moves slow, as long as it is compelling. The Wire, anyone? They can’t seem to fill the entire 50-some odd minutes with interesting material. The sex scenes would be more compelling if I were straight. They did get some gays in the study for a hot minute, and it was a hot minute and I was wide awake for that. But remember the time period, so they were booted as deviants. Whatever! My hope is that the pacing improves or more interesting things start to happen. Otherwise, I’ll just watch Kinsey once a week. That movie was fucking good.

THE GRADE: B+