SEX!!!
Got your attention, didn't I? Haha.  I guess after my last post with interesting but not terribly exciting facts about Hungary, I can spice things up a little with some SEX.

Actually, I just added a new book to my ever-growing and rather long reading wish list.  A book called Masters of Sex, by Thomas Maier.  It's a biography that tells the story of Dr. William Masters and his research assistant Virginia Johnson, famously known as Masters and Johnson.  Their work in the 50's and 60's built on the previous work of Alfred Kinsey, and changed the way that Americans viewed sex.

I stumbled on the book after a friend introduced me to the new Showtime series, Masters of Sex.  The series stars Michael Sheen and Lizzy Caplan, and looks to be really good.  Not sure whether I shall read first or watch first, but thought I would share some of the reviews for the new Showtime series.  The entire first episode, which premieres this Sunday the 29th, is actually on YouTube.

Here is the official trailer...



The Hollywood Reporter says:  

The series was created by Michelle Ashford and stars Michael Sheen as Dr. William Masters and Lizzy Caplan as Virginia Johnson. The casting is impeccable. Caplan is magnetic as Johnson, the single mother struggling to survive in the '60s, getting a secretarial job and, because she’s in tune with her own sexuality, effortlessly conveying to the more uptight Masters just what a woman wants. The actress navigates her sexuality with ease and allows the mental and emotional elements of the character to stay front and center (there’s already enough nudity and sex in the surrounding environs of the show, so this is a fine choice by both Ashford and Caplan).

Sheen is equally compelling, and that’s a feat not without effort, given how unlikable Masters is when we meet him. In the two episodes sent by Showtime, Sheen manages to project Masters’ ego and drive as both his strengths and weaknesses — pushing the sex study when everyone is trying to kill it and, on the other hand, being unable to tell his wife, Libby (Caitlin Fitzgerald), that it’s his low sperm count, not an inability on her part to conceive, keeping them from having a baby – which is cruel and echoes his lack of passion for her. (It has a fine supporting cast as well, including Beau Bridges and Allison Janney.)  There appear to be myriad stories for the writers to mine in Masters of Sex, which lets the audience know that it’s not going to be a sprint from two disparate people to a couple on the cover of Timemagazine, spearheading a sexual revolution. But perhaps the best story of all is that Masters of Sexmanages, with lightning speed, to shed any preconceived notions about what type of show it will be and, in so doing, tilts the camera up from the breast to the brain.

The Washington Post says:

Liberally adapted from Thomas Maier’s thorough 2009 biography of the pioneering sex researchers William Masters and Virginia Johnson, Showtime’s provocative new drama has no problems whatsoever grabbing attention and whatever else that wants to get grabbed. The setting is the prim American ’50s, where well-respected St. Louis gynecologist Masters (Michael Sheen) is secretly exploring the greater mysteries of human sexuality, mainly by convincing prostitutes to let him spy on them through peepholes while they do their work.  What Masters doesn’t know about women could (and eventually does) fill several books, but things get interesting when a new secretary at his hospital applies to be his research assistant. She is, of course, Virginia Johnson (played by Lizzy Caplan), a single mother with a forward-thinking sensibility about her own sex life. As a science project, “Masters of Sex” is an early success; Sheen seems to relish playing the uptight doctor who is beginning to understand the way his world restricts women (in and out of the bedroom) and Caplan is instantly perfect as the woman who will both teach and enchant him.  But none of that is happening too fast. “Masters of Sex” masters the restrained narrative equivalent of seduction and foreplay, building its story in a controlled and stylish (and, yes, frankly adult-oriented) manner. This TV season has failed to arouse me, but if there’s one show that might hit the right spot on the Sunday DVR queue, it’s this one. Grade: B+

Since I started this post, I have actually watched the pilot episode.  Two thumbs up from me :)

Update: found this amazing NPR interview with the author Thomas Maier.  Not to be missed.  It's 33 minutes well spent if you have any intention of watching the show.