Summer TV Binge: MASTERS OF SEX

Masters of Sex is a show that I really liked in its first season, but in its second I found myself kind of bored with it, and hence less and less inclined to watch the new episodes piling up on the DVR. I bit the bullet last month, though, and was glad I did.

I had felt the timeline was getting bogged down in nothing really happening in that first half of the second season, but in the back half huge time jumps were implemented and Masters (Michael Sheen) and Johnson (Lizzy Caplan) were finally settled into their famous institute and things were starting to move forward, publicity-wise, for the revolutionary sex study they’d one day be famous for.

Masters of Sex is a fictionalization of real events, so there can be a certain sense of the true story not really being dramatic enough, and the show definitely adds an air of sensationalism to certain plots, seemingly in an effort to spice things up. But what’s always interested me most, and indeed what’s most integral to the central story, are the internal lives of Bill Masters, his wife Libby (Caitlin FitzGerald), and Virginia Johnson, as well as their crisscrossing relationships.

In season two, we find out that Libby is aware of the years-long affair Bill and Virginia have had, and that really expands her character from one who is naive and gullible to one who is at times angry, resentful, accepting and resigned. It brings greater depth to her role, to her marriage and to her friendship with Virginia, who doesn’t know Libby knows and would probably feel even more conflicted if she did.

Virginia, too, has struggled with her passion for her work and her expected responsibilities as a mother to her children (the children, I recently discovered, are more part of the fictionalization than I’d originally realized, since even their names have been changed). She’s constantly embattled against her role as a woman, her right to her own sexuality, and the fierce academic interest she has in their study. She has to fight harder for her work because of her gender and her status and all the unfair assumptions that come with both. So I found her devastation at the end over the usurping of their television special by a rival and former lover to be very affecting. She blames herself for her own betrayal, the way so many women do by accepting the unfair expectations they (and others) often place at their feet. We know that’s emphatically not the case, but she doesn’t. I’m curious to see if she ever learns it was Bill, and how that knowledge may change things between them.

Bill is another matter entirely, being fairly arrogant about his knowledge and abilities, having been so long an honored and respected member of the medical community. Sheen plays his stilted and uncomfortable efforts to open up and accept humility wonderfully, and I’m often just as heartbroken by his inability to be vulnerable as I am frustrated by it. He always thinks he knows best, he never opens himself up to help, and he stubbornly closes himself off to declarations of real emotion or caring about the two women in his life, despite caring for both. His impotency arc in the second half of season two was groundbreaking not because it happened but because it was the first step he took in actually accepting and admitting weakness and despair — and in allowing Virginia, his true great love, to help him. That their “work” in that area could also help the delightful new pairing of Lester (Kevin Christy) and Barbara (Betsy Brandt) fills me with hope and joy.

From what I’ve read, season three (which premieres TONIGHT on Showtime) takes another time jump and really dives into the middle of the action when Masters and Johnson were releasing their book and becoming worldwide sensations. It’s a premise so thrilling to me, being invested in both the history and the drama, that I doubt I’ll have any trouble keeping up this time.

I’d recorded Masters of Sex on my DVR off of Showtime. It’s also available on Showtime Anytime (their OnDemand service) and previous seasons are available to stream on Amazon. Season three starts tonight at 10pm on Showtime.

MY MOVIE SHELF: The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2

 

The Task: Watch and write about every movie on my shelf, in order (Blu-rays are sorted after DVDs), by June 10, 2015.  Remaining movies: 9 Days to go: 10

Movie #431:  The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2

So here we are. Finally — FINALLY!! — Bella (Kristen Stewart) is a vampire, and boy, is she great at it. I don’t agree with all the people who don’t like Bella as a human, but I understand their complaints. Bella as a vampire rocks, though, and I will brook no argument on this point. Kristen Stewart has been (purposefully) playing Bella as fidgety and awkward in her own skin for all of these films, and all of a sudden she’s completely centered and calm and so obviously sure of herself. It’s intoxicating. She rules. Her sprinting through the forest with Edward (Robert Pattinson) is awesome, as is her scaling a cliff — in bare feet, no gloves, and wearing a cocktail dress, no less — like the Dread Pirate Roberts on speed. Then she just leaps off the cliff like it’s nothing and takes down a fucking mountain lion like a badass. Fuck that puny deer, Bella wants some power. And not only can she take down mountain lions, she takes down Jacob (Taylor Lautner) as well when she finds out he put his creepy wolfy imprint on her baby daughter. Bella’s amazing, and I LOVE how openly wowed Edward is by her. He could not be more in love and impressed and astounded by his incredible wife, and I am into it.

Everything’s great now. Bella and Edward are happy and together and super awesome vampires together. Jacob has stopped whining and being a jerk about Bella since he’s found another girl to glom onto — one who actually wants his affections this time. And Jacob has even found a way to let Charlie (Billy Burke) know that magical things are afoot without spilling the beans about the ampires-vay, so the Cullens don’t have to leave Forks because they’re pretending Bella’s dead. Yay, happy ending! The only potential problem is Renesmee (Mackenzie Foy), who is growing faster than bamboo. They need to find answers about her mortality before she’s turned to dust like that dude who chose poorly in Last Crusade. Only … something else comes up. One of their Alaska friends, Irina (Maggie Grace), shows up and catches sight of Renesmee acting all supernatural and she assumes the Cullens have taken a human child and turned it into a vampire. So she goes to tell the Volturi, because that is a big vampire no-no.

The Volturi have been around since New Moon, and they’re an interesting lot. Their leader Aro is played by Michael Sheen in an as comically over-the-top way as he can while still having a menacing demeanor. He squeals and giggles and over-enunciates like he’s a dandy clown, but he’s completely deadly and malicious and he loves amassing power and collecting gifted vampires, of which the Cullens have a deep supply. The accusation of an immortal child is all the ammunition Aro needs to go after the Cullens once and for all, and this development provides the conflict for the remainder of the story, with the Cullens amassing witnesses to testify to Renesmee’s status as a born and growing child. Suddenly vampires are all over the place, with all sorts of fun super powers because somewhere along the way it became boring to just have them be extensions of their human personalities, I guess.

It’s a great, exciting tactic, and the movie really does a lot to include as many of these new vampires as it can, despite having not one-tenth the use for them that the book does. However, Stephenie Meyer hasn’t written a single action/battle scene in any of the Twilight books to this point, so it’s sure as hell not going to happen now. The book ends with them all standing really tensely in a field, with Bella showing off her shield skills a bit and Alice (Ashley Greene) coming in for the win with a grown half-mortal just like Renesmee, and that’s it. Everyone shrugs and goes home. End of story. The movie, god bless it, could not end that way.

I’d followed talk and articles about the production of Breaking Dawn Part 2 in anticipation of its release, and I’d heard about the so-called twist ending. I was curious to see how they would give the film any sort of action, because it simply doesn’t exist on the page. Well, I got settled in to watch the film on Thanksgiving, I think, with a big assist from my sister-in-law, who agreed to watch the baby so my husband and I could go together. I watched and enjoyed the whole thing, and then when Alice shows up and ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE?? I turned into a MESS. (SPOILER: I’m about to explain exactly why and how I was a mess.)

I was freaking out. First Carlisle (Peter Facinelli) gets his head ripped off, then Jasper (Jackson Rathbone), and I am literally screaming in the theater. When wolf-Seth (Booboo Stewart) dies, my eyes fill with tears, and when wolf-Leah (Julia Jones) SACRIFICES HERSELF FOR ESME (Elizabeth Reaser)?? I am full-on crying. Caius (Jamie Campbell Bower) gets his face ripped off at the jaw, Jane (Dakota Fanning) gets just what’s coming to her at the hands of Alice and wolf-Sam (Chaske Spencer), and Jacob takes down some random Volturi without even losing a step on his sprinting pace — WHILE CARRYING RENESMEE ON HIS BACK.  Plus Edward falls down a giant, crumbling crevasse (but he bursts back up and tag teams with Bella against Aro). And then, POOF! None of that happened at all and Alice was only showing Aro the goddamn future.

Now, my son, when he finally saw this, yelled about what a rip-off it was. I, however, couldn’t stop laughing at what a freaking ridiculous dork I was to be so panicked over this silly, stupid cast of characters. I laughed and laughed and laughed. I am still laughing at my reaction that day, because it was so unchecked and so telling about my true investment in the series. Dumb as they are, I care about these people. I care about these stories. And I’m really, really grateful nobody actually died at the end of the film, because I would’ve been crushed.

BELLA AND EDWARD FOREVER.

MY MOVIE SHELF: Underworld

The Task: Watch and write about every movie on my shelf, in order (Blu-rays are sorted after DVDs), by June 10, 2015.  Remaining movies: 146  Days to go: 99

Movie #292:  Underworld

See, this is so disappointing.

Despite her almost pathologically bad taste in paranormal movie roles, I really like Kate Beckinsale. I really like vampire stories. I really like chicks being badass. And yet, Underworld is a terrible, messy disappointment.

The concept is that there are vampires and werewolves among us, of course, and they insist on calling the werewolves “lycans” like a bunch of snooty d-bags. And these two species have been warring for centuries, duh, though apparently no regular human is aware of this, even though in the opening scene Selene (Beckinsale) and her assassin buddy open fire on a group of lycans in a freaking crowded subway station. Whatever. The lycans have some sort of sunshine bullet that kills vampires, which seems like a big deal except it never comes up again? Except in that the vampires steal the technology to create liquid silver nitrate bullets that are supposed to be super extra deadly, only I guess they aren’t, because when they kill two of the main lycan guys with them, they still are alive for a while. But I digress.

Selene finds out the lycans were actually following some dude named Michael (Scott Speedman, who I always think is the lead singer of Creed until I Google it and find out that’s Scott Stapp — literally, Google autocompletes that request for me at this point), who is a human and apparently lycans would never follow a human except I thought they ate them. Very confusing. Anyway, something something, the lycans are trying to create a super race of vampire-lycan half-breeds and this Michael dude is the key to that because something something descendant of some guy who survived a plague? I don’t know. Michael is bitten by Lucian (a hot and sexy Michael Sheen, which I didn’t know was a thing, but good on ya, Sarah Silverman, for tapping that), who is supposed to be 600-years-dead only some vampire played by Shane Brolly named Kraven (GET IT??), which is the stupidest made up vampire name ever (at least EVERY OTHER VAMPIRE had a real name), lied and didn’t really kill him because I’m not sure why. He wants to be vampire leader, but if Lucian kills all the vampires, how is that going to work? This turns Michael into a lycan, only they halt the change because they’re going to mix his blood with vampire blood and then inject it into Lucian. It doesn’t make any sense, I’m sorry. Selene is I guess infatuated with Michael, though, because she doesn’t want him dead and he saved her life. (I didn’t know vampires got fainty, but they do! And can I guess drown!) So she thwarts Kraven’s plan by waking up the sleeping vampire elder Viktor (Bill Nighy, vamping it up — ha ha — even more than he does in every other movie) and tattling. Only Viktor is way against the abomination of interbreeding, so he goes to try to kill Michael and all those nasty lycans too. Selene saves the day by biting Michael and turning him into a creepy silvery gray monster and then she kills Viktor with his own sword and sets up the sure-to-be-terrible sequel with a breathy voice over narration.

Apart from being a nonsensical mess filmed in nothing but dark blue light, Underworld also features the worst vampires of all time. (Yes, even worse than Twilight vampires, I am not kidding.) These vampires don’t have any kind of super speed (Selene gets thwarted by a goddamn elevator door) or any kind of enhanced hearing or anything. And aside from the cool sunlight bullets which were never a factor after that first scene, these vampires are killed by bites and stabs and exsanguinations like a bunch of fucking humans. They might as well not even be super beings. Did I mention Selene almost drowns in a stupid car crash caused by her fainting at the wheel? Because that happened.

Not only that, but this freaking vampire society is even more patriarchal and misogynistic than regular society. Don’t be fooled by Selene wearing leather catsuits and shooting things, she’s frequently told she’s supposed to be nothing more than arm candy for Kraven. Not just by him, but by Viktor as well. How dare she take her urgent matter upon herself and not let someone smarter and more male-like take control of the situation? Wear something elegant already, sheesh. I mean, the thing that makes vampire stories so popular across time is that they are romanticized and glamorized to seem so much sexier and more enticing than our regular lives, but in my regular life I don’t have to ask permission from some power-hungry dude before I go anywhere or do anything. So I guess I’ll just stay a human, thanks.

Jeez, even Twilight makes being a vampire seem way cooler than this.