Masters of Sex, Season 1, Episode 3: “Standard Deviation”
Written by Sam Shaw
Directed by Lawrence Trilling
Airs Sundays at 10pm ET on Showtime
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The title “Standard Deviation” more obviously refers to William Masters’s chance encounters with homosexual men, who provide his latest ethical and moral hiccups in pursuing sexuality scientifically, but it also works to demarcate the episode as being the precise point Masters of Sex decides to make a clean break from history and chart a potentially very different path for its characters. I won’t go into too many specifics for fear of potential future-series spoilers, but it’s already clear that Michelle Ashford is setting out to use Masters and Johnson as more of a loose framework to probe big ideas about societal relationships to sexuality than strict historical portraiture.
The result is a bit of a mishmash, moreso than the first two episodes. The series continues to develop its narrative and visual language, this week adding flashbacks to Masters’s pre-fame conversations with Provost Scully. These scenes, which feature a barely de-aged Michael Sheen conveying youthfulness mostly through a sense of increased naivete and enthusiasm, can’t help but feel a little clunky and more openly expository than we’ve seen so far. Masters openly discusses with Scully his desire to probe human sexuality in a comprehensive way – not at all spurred on by his personal romantic failings, of course. Similarly schematic, though more effective, is the introduction of the Pretzel King (Greg Grunberg), who mostly exists (for now, at least) as a pathos delivery device. His arrival and complete obliviousness to the realities of Betty’s life, work, and sexual orientation feel like a sop to a more straightforward form of melodrama we haven’t seen Masters of Sex so openly court before.
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Most of “Standard Deviation,” though, hews closer to the high standard set by the first two episodes, featuring the sort of representations of sexuality we’re utterly unaccustomed to seeing on television. The female-masturbation montage, which features three very different takes on the female orgasm, is typically warm, funny, and delightfully human, and the comedic beat of Masters having to “join in” on the festivites is comedic but not so broad it chafes. More importantly, the series is doing an excellent job folding in notes of trauma and bitterness along with the requisite whimsy: one prostitute’s tale of how she learned everything she knows about sex from an abusive uncle is potent but not overworked.
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Even more nuanced and perceptive is the introduction of Julianne Nicholson as Dr. Lillian DePaul, whose demeanor towards Virginia hints at another axis of tension the series hasn’t tackled quite yet: gender and class. Lillian has no interest in solidarity with Virginia, who she sees as just another lackey, despite Virginia’s open admiration of her accomplishments, which she sees (rightly) as a triumph over gender biases. To be fair, the other female hospital staff don’t reciprocate Virgnia’s warm feelings, either: the notion of being examined by a female doctor gives them all a shudder.
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Most of “Standard Deviation,” though, hews closer to the high standard set by the first two episodes, featuring the sort of representations of sexuality we’re utterly unaccustomed to seeing on television. The female-masturbation montage, which features three very different takes on the female orgasm, is typically warm, funny, and delightfully human, and the comedic beat of Masters having to “join in” on the festivites is comedic but not so broad it chafes. More importantly, the series is doing an excellent job folding in notes of trauma and bitterness along with the requisite whimsy: one prostitute’s tale of how she learned everything she knows about sex from an abusive uncle is potent but not overworked.
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Even more nuanced and perceptive is the introduction of Julianne Nicholson as Dr. Lillian DePaul, whose demeanor towards Virginia hints at another axis of tension the series hasn’t tackled quite yet: gender and class. Lillian has no interest in solidarity with Virginia, who she sees as just another lackey, despite Virginia’s open admiration of her accomplishments, which she sees (rightly) as a triumph over gender biases. To be fair, the other female hospital staff don’t reciprocate Virgnia’s warm feelings, either: the notion of being examined by a female doctor gives them all a shudder.
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Then there’s the small matter of William Masters and his attitude towards homosexuality. While I’ll avoid specifics, the real William Masters may have been a man ahead of his time in many respects, but there’s no indication that he was any more enlightened on the subject of homosexuality than any of his colleagues, or fellow straight men in general. The William Masters of Masters of Sex clearly isn’t wild about the notion of watching men have sex, but when a young hustler tells spills about the sort of clientele he’s been servicing – not “degenerates,” as Masters calls them, but family men and professionals – he claims to have had his eyes “opened” to the truth of the matter. The fact that this supposed enlightenment just serves to hand him a way to blackmail Provost Scully is a satisfying bit of acid to help this rather unlikely development go down more smoothly.
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What’s less clear is what Masters’s newfound compassion actually means for the rest of the series. There’s some fascinating, extremely thorny material to be dramatized involving Masters and his work with homosexuals in the late 60s to early 70s, and “Standard Deviation” doesn’t necessarily point towards a nixing of those developments. It does, however, soften Masters somewhat, in outlook and dogma if not in his lack of scruples. Hopefully Masters of Sex can continue to toe the line between historicity and fictional melodrama without compromising what makes its subject matter so rich, troubling, and poignant.
Then there’s the small matter of William Masters and his attitude towards homosexuality. While I’ll avoid specifics, the real William Masters may have been a man ahead of his time in many respects, but there’s no indication that he was any more enlightened on the subject of homosexuality than any of his colleagues, or fellow straight men in general. The William Masters of Masters of Sex clearly isn’t wild about the notion of watching men have sex, but when a young hustler tells spills about the sort of clientele he’s been servicing – not “degenerates,” as Masters calls them, but family men and professionals – he claims to have had his eyes “opened” to the truth of the matter. The fact that this supposed enlightenment just serves to hand him a way to blackmail Provost Scully is a satisfying bit of acid to help this rather unlikely development go down more smoothly.
–
What’s less clear is what Masters’s newfound compassion actually means for the rest of the series. There’s some fascinating, extremely thorny material to be dramatized involving Masters and his work with homosexuals in the late 60s to early 70s, and “Standard Deviation” doesn’t necessarily point towards a nixing of those developments. It does, however, soften Masters somewhat, in outlook and dogma if not in his lack of scruples. Hopefully Masters of Sex can continue to toe the line between historicity and fictional melodrama without compromising what makes its subject matter so rich, troubling, and poignant.
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– Simon Howell