‘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