‘Masters of Sex’ flashes 
forward to new issues

TV REVIEW

Season 3 will shape 

portrayals of feminism 
and sexuality on TV

By KAREN HUA

Daily TV/New Media Editor

If the pilot and sophomore sea-

sons of “Masters of Sex” haven’t 
aroused modern TV enough, season 
three penetrates 
even 
deeper 

than 
before. 

Eponymously, 
sexual 
tension 

has always been 
abundant; it’s the 
inner, 
personal 

tension 
that’s 

harder to create.

Season Three 

leaps 12 years ahead to 1965 when 
Dr. Bill Masters (Michael Sheen, 
“Frost/Nixon”) and Virginia John-
son (Lizzy Caplan, “Mean Girls”) are 
about to publish their breakthrough 
book, “Human Sexual Response.” 
The episode cuts between the pres-
ent at their press conference and a 
flashback to their lake house vaca-
tion with Libby (Caitlin FitzGerald, 
“It’s Complicated”) four months 
ago. The time jumps are slightly 
disorienting, though, as the show 
already illustrates character devel-
opment brilliantly without the jux-
taposition of past and present.

Bill and Virginia have plateaued 

into familiar — even familial — 
intimacy with each other, but their 
closeness alienates them from their 
families. Virginia cannot stop her 
belovedly 
bespectacled 
Henry 

(Noah Robbins, “Aftermath”) from 
dating a cougar, from getting hit by 
a car, or from enlisting for Vietnam. 
She cannot curb teenage Tessa’s 
(Isabelle Fuhrman, “The Hunger 
Games” series) curiosity for drugs 
or her sexual advances toward Bill. 
The formidable Bill Masters, too 
preoccupied with his own work, 
cannot make himself emotion-
ally available to the children he 
never quite wanted. When Bill’s 
son throws his manuscript into the 
lake in an explosive moment, Bill — 
usually disciplined and calculated 
— has no choice but to accept that 
there are some inevitabilities he 
cannot control. 

The episode delicately captures 

the essence of parenting and uses 
it to examine the duality that exists 
in every individual. Deep down, Bill 
has good intentions, but his evasion 
of fatherly responsibility reflects the 
traumatic neglect he experienced in 
his own childhood. In previous sea-
sons, conflicts with their children 
have stood in the shadows of larger 
adult issues, but the new season may 
pit familial issues against their pro-
fessional lives.

As Bill and Virginia head into 

the public spotlight, they force 
themselves to façade the friction of 
their private lives. They use sex to 
mask deeper emotional problems in 
their relationship. The pristine lake 
house attempts to mask underly-
ing issues in the trio’s lives. Every-
one zips up tightly and plasters on 
a smile, even in moments pregnant 
with discomfort.

The episode especially high-

lights the tragic complexity of 
Libby as a character. Thus far, 
she has doormatted herself, hid-
den beneath her own immaculate 
appearance and her feigned obliv-
ion about her husband’s affair with 
her best friend. She has emotional-
ly prostituted herself in an attempt 
at connection with any willing 
individual. As homoerotic as her 
scene in bed with Virginia is, the 
kiss — her desire to be desired — is 
more tragic than titillating.

However, Libby finally realizes in 

this episode that approval and love 
must come from within. She humbly 
and nobly announces that she will 
end her marriage with Bill. Though 
Bill is also a complex character to 
sympathize with, his separation 

from Libby is a long-awaited breath 
of fresh air. Their divorce is one of 
the first events that strips down 
to the naked truth. Season Three 
insinuates that Libby’s own revolu-
tion is coming.

A disclaimer at the end of the 

episode notes that the children’s 
plotlines are completely fictitious, 
a fact that other reviews condemn. 
However, the beauty of film is that 
fiction adds the dimension of mod-
ern interpretation. “Masters of Sex” 
is not meant to be a documentary or 
textbook. By adding fictional sub-
plots and secondary characters, we 
identify how history is pertinent 
and relatable to society today.

The episode elucidates the “revo-

lution” aspect of Masters and John-
son’s medical research because 
even 50 years later today, human 
sexuality is still taboo. Set amid the 
Vietnam War and the Civil Rights 
movement, the show discusses mul-
tiple instances of female empower-
ment – when Libby independently 
ends her marriage, when Virginia 
insists on finishing her college 
degree – when women finally tear 
down the facades. 

Whereas “virtuosity” was most 

commonly used in terms of sexual 
chastity in the ’60s, “Masters of 
Sex” defines it as personal morality 
— doing good as a mother, as a wife, 
and as a woman for herself.

“We are the sexual revolution,” 

Virginia says.

“You’re pregnant,” Bill adds. 
In a climactic end, what Virginia 

chooses to do with her body in the 
upcoming season will shape the 
portrayal of feminism and sexuality 
on television here forth.

‘Minions’ lives up 
to expectations

MUSIC VIDEO REVIEW

By CONRAD FOREMAN

Daily Arts Writer

If you watched “Despicable 

Me” and thought I like that movie 
a lot but really 
wish 
there 

more 
scenes 

with just min-
ions 
and 
no 

people 
then 

you’ll love the 
summer’s lat-
est 
animated 

feature, “Min-
ions.”

If 
you’re 

unfamiliar with the minions, 
don’t worry; the narrator (Geof-
frey Rush, “The King’s Speech”) 
offers a thorough backstory. Min-
ions have been around far longer 
than humans, their existence 
dedicated to faithful service of 
the most despicable master they 
can find. And they have had to 
find a lot of masters, since keep-
ing a master has been so hard 
for the minion tribe. After a lit-
any of masters lost, three brave 
minions, Kevin, Stuart and Bob, 
decide to venture into the world 
to find a new master so their 
tribe may survive. When the trio 
comes into service of the world’s 
first female super villain, Scarlet 
Overkill (Sandra Bullock, “The 
Blind Side”), it seems they have 
achieved their goal, though things 
are never quite simple when deal-
ing with a super villain.

The film’s core strength, obvi-

ously, lies in the adorability of 
the minions. To enjoy the film 
it’s essential that you enjoy the 
interactions between and per-
sonalities of the minions. While 
minions don’t speak any one 
human language, their dialect 
includes plenty of phrases and 
words directly from Spanish and 

French (and others). The heroic 
trio is designed to optimize the 
minions’ most endearing fea-
tures: Kevin, the inspired leader; 
Stuart, the wild one; and Bob, 
the eager but simple-minded 
one. Every minion is voiced by 
Director Pierre Coffin, who also 
directed “Despicable Me 2.”

The year of this adventure is 

1968, and the film incorporates 
the era’s culture into its com-
edy. Between the minions walk 
through the set where the moon 
landing was faked, the film’s 
soundtrack laden with hits from 
the British Invasion, and a won-
derful Abbey Road reference, 
the film clearly aims to make the 
experience a relatable one for 
parents and grandparents in the 
audience with their little ones. 
And, of course, the timeframe 
functions to catapult the minions 
into the service of the master we 
already know and love, Gru (Steve 
Carell, “Foxcatcher”).

Sandra Bullock’s Scarlet Over-

kill never convinces us that she 
poses a great threat to the min-
ions, but one shouldn’t expect 
anything but a happy ending 
from this movie (it is a “kids 
movie,” after all). Her punchlines 
are some of the film’s weakest, 
but her partner, Herb Overkill 
(Jon Hamm, TV’s “Mad Men”), 
delivers delightful silliness in 
small doses.

One of the film’s strengths is 

its pace. “Minions” knows itself 
enough keep the runtime right 
at 90 minutes, which means 
the plot unfolds quickly. Any 
film can drag if bogged down 
by extraneous scenes, but that’s 
especially true of a film where 
the main characters speak gib-
berish and jokes are overtly 
silly. The film’s quick pace main-
tained throughout is its success.

8

Wednesday, July 15, 2015
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
ARTS

B-

Minions

Universal 
Pictures

Rave 20 & 

Quality 16

UNIVERSAL PICTURES

merp

SHOWTIME

“I’ll master your sex.”

A

Masters 
of Sex

Showtime

Season 3 Premiere

MOVIE REVIEW

