When they attend Langham’s birthday party, episode director Michael Dinner beautifully frames the couple as they sit at the same table, leaned away from each other. It is a very different pose from what he attempts a few minutes later, breathing heavily over Virginia in a balcony as he attempts to seduce her. Sheen drinking her in as he does a jealously-fueled impression of his desired woman apologizing for all of the men she has been with is the most ravenous we have seen the actor on the show so far. Considering how turgid Sheen’s character was during the first season, it is quite accomplished that he has since become Masters of Sex’s most valuable performer. He has shown immense range, from sordid to sensitive, powerful to powerless, in each episode. Let’s hope he gets some recognition at next year’s Emmy’s.
Masters of Sex also presents characters that we thought had been lost at the season’s start and ushers them back in using subplots that do not feel like contrived efforts to keep the stars on the payroll. Ann Dowd returns as Bill’s mother, who looks to give her son a bit of financial help as his new clinic takes off. He asks the bank for a loan, which Libby finds out about. She informs his mother – a convincing line of action, given his lack of employment stability over the past year. Surprisingly, Essie and Libby have been seeing each other throughout the year; even more surprising, Essie has remained mum about Bill’s tempestuous affair. “I couldn’t hurt her,” she tells her son. “I couldn’t hurt you.” Bill does not relent, explaining that he wants the investment to remain his.
Meanwhile, Betsy Brandt’s Barbara returns, except not in the role of a loose, disorganized secretary. She wants to participate in the study, hoping her “unconventional” sexual experiences – a result of her closed vaginal openings – could be useful. However, Virginia is not sure.
Every character is trying to cling onto someone this week; unlike one of Bill and Virginia’s test subjects, the climaxes of their own relationships are not happening instantly. All three are desperate. Virginia has trouble keeping a stable relationship afloat, which is not helped by the insatiable carnal appetites of Langham and his new girl. Libby is desperate to find an attribute of her husband she recognizes (his behavior even makes her take up smoking again). Bill is so driven by lust that he even visits a prostitute in a destitute alley. (In one lovely framing from those scenes, an outline of a fence covers his lit face, revealing his trapped state.) Even Langham shows a lack of an anchor this episode, returning to his ex-wife in the hopes of starting over.
“Asterion” is confident and thriving with momentum. Dinner’s camera movements are swift without being showy and the framing vivid, separating the drifting Bill and Virginia into their own shots (with a few notable exceptions, including one pose on a hotel bed reminiscent of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s famous Rolling Stone cover – except she is naked like John and he is clothed like Yoko). The stylistic touches extend to the production design, with some austere locations mixing with some trendy new designs to show the warring attitudes as we move toward the 1960s. (Another intriguing escalation: the doctors were horrified by the titillating video in Bill’s presentation in 1957, but by the early sixties, pornography has a niche audience.)
Like the new research clinic, Masters of Sex arrives in a refurbished form this week that is both invigorating and refreshing. The outstanding performances are still there, but the writing is sharper and the direction of the show more focused. Refined and rejuvenated, “Asterion” shows that the Showtime drama is doing something that many other series from the network are unaccustomed to: it is now getting better by the season.