So I’m finally marathoning the Masters of Sex show, after watching the pilot last fall. IDK, I think Virginia would’ve had a lot more ish to deal with from society at large being that ‘independent’ back then, particularly sexually (I mean honestly, I know plenty of women who still do, and none that don’t, even in L.A. today) and I feel like I once read, around the time of her divorce from Bill, that she said something along the lines of “I could be anything any man wanted me to be” … which is decidedly antithetical to the portrait being painted of her. And Bill, well, so far Bill is just an uninspired, un-creative control-freak with an MD and a wife who is way too cool for him.

While Masters borrows heavily from Mad Men stylistically, if we weigh the two shows in the proverbial balances, Masters is left wanting. The show wants to be so much, but it isn’t. Why? Because it’s trying too hard, and is coming across as dishonest as a result, something Mad Men never did – except when it came to excruciating attention to historic detail or teasers that give absolutely nothing away. Being comfortable with an ambiguous message has power gang. Trust. If the Masters & Johnson writers can learn this, maybe I’ll keep watching. Big ‘Maybe’.

Masters of Sex Season 2 premieres tomorrow night at 10pm on Showtime.

Binary Rating: 0/1 for now, half-on-half-off but wow(!) I love Lizzy Caplan’s Virginia.