Positive Critic Reviews for Masters of Sex (2013)

100

Verne GayJul 10, 2015

Season 3 Review: Masters of Sex just gets better and better. Read full review

100

Joanne OstrowJul 14, 2014

Season 2 Review: The series returns for season 2 on July 13 on Showtime, still excelling thanks to a confluence of terrific casting, great performances and smart storytelling about America in the repressed 1950s. Read full review

100

Kristi TurnquistJul 11, 2014

Season 2 Review: Masters of Sex is better than ever. Read full review

100

TV Guide MagazineMatt RoushJul 11, 2014

Season 2 Review: Masters and Johnson's work was all about bringing sex in its infinite varieties out into the open. The psychological richness of Masters of Sex positions it to be a worthy successor to the fast-fading (except in Emmy voters' eyes) Mad Men. Read full review

100

Alan SepinwallJul 11, 2014

Season 2 Review: Masters of Sex has much more on its mind than simply the tumultuous relationship between its two famous central characters. But if it just had those two, it would still be among the best things you could watch on television this summer. Read full review

100

Sonia SaraiyaJul 11, 2014

Season 2 Review: With Masters and Johnson occupying a space in between love, work, and friendship, the heart of the Masters feels like it is finally beating; the joy of the show is watching the two of them interact with each other, and Lizzy Caplan and Michael Sheen have thrown themselves wholeheartedly into their roles. Ashford and her team have also become more confident with pacing and plotting. Read full review

100

Hank StueverJul 11, 2014

Season 2 Review: It is intelligent, witty, quick-paced and surprising; it is tragic without being emotionally devastating. Read full review

100

Verne GayJul 9, 2014

Season 2 Review: Better, richer, more compelling than season one. Read full review

100

Uncle BarkyEd BarkJul 9, 2014

Season 2 Review: Masters of Sex is without question in Mad Men’s league as a period drama that looks inward, outward and unsteadily ahead. The performances of Sheen, Caplan, Janney and Bridges rival those in any ongoing TV series. Read full review

100

Uncle BarkyEd BarkSep 27, 2013

Season 1 Review: Performance is never a problem for the cast of Masters of Sex. Caplan, Sheen and the supporting players keep everything humming in the best new drama of the fall season. You’ll want to watch. Read full review

100

Tom GliattoSep 27, 2013

Season 1 Review: This is adult entertainment in the very best possible sense. [7 Oct 2013, p.47]

100

Willa PaskinSep 27, 2013

Season 1 Review: A gorgeous period drama that swiftly establishes its risqué themes.... Masters of Sex is the best new show of the fall season. Read full review

100

Ellen GraySep 27, 2013

Season 1 Review: Masters of Sex, a biographical drama about sex researchers William Masters (Michael Sheen) and Virginia Johnson (Lizzy Caplan) that makes science sexy.... Sheen and Caplan are beautifully mismatched as the central figures in a story adapted from Thomas Maier's 2009 biography. Read full review

100

TV Guide MagazineMatt RoushSep 27, 2013

Season 1 Review: There is no more fascinating, or entertaining, new series this fall season. Read full review

100

David WiegandSep 26, 2013

Season 1 Review: The performances, nurtured by such A-list directors as Michael Apted and John Madden, are extraordinary. There isn't a clinker in the bunch. Read full review

100

Diane WertsSep 26, 2013

Season 1 Review: Humor is also key in the capacious pilot hour directed by John Madden ("Shakespeare in Love"). Subsequent episodes echo its deft balance of epic scope and whimsical humanity. Read full review

100

Robert BiancoSep 26, 2013

Season 1 Review: A few plotlines look rocky, and a few lines of dialogue stumble, but based on the first six episodes, we're being introduced to a show that can enlighten, entertain and contend for Emmys, all in the same breath. Read full review

100

Hank StueverSep 13, 2013

Season 1 Review: The characters get better and more complex, the story builds, strange things start to happen and now I can’t wait to see how its interweaving plots unfold.... It’s rare that a show can intuit what the viewer wants and deliver it, but that’s precisely what happened. Read full review

91

Uncle BarkyEd BarkJul 9, 2015

Season 3 Review: Season 3, which again will have 12 episodes, shows strong signs of fully regaining its bite, passion and fury. Read full review

91

Melissa MaerzOct 16, 2013

Season 1 Review: It's a smart show that plays dumb at first, just to get your attention. Masters may not yet be as groundbreaking as the true drama that inspired it. But like Betty, it knows how to fake it until things get real. Read full review

91

Alan SepinwallSep 26, 2013

Season 1 Review: Masters of Sex is the best new show of the fall by a very long stretch. It's also a refreshing anomaly: a prestige cable drama that doesn't feel like a recombination of elements from 15 shows that came before it. Read full review

91

Emily VanDerWerffSep 25, 2013

Season 1 Review: From episode three on, [Sheen] begins to give one of the most fascinating performances on TV. Read full review

90

Diane GordonJul 13, 2015

Season 3 Review: In season three, it’s clear the complex web of relationships will deepen and tangle even further. The show’s writers continue to craft the story with expert care, giving each character moments to shine. Masters of Sex continues to be a Sunday TV must. Read full review

90

Diane GarrettJul 11, 2014

Season 2 Review: With lead characters this complex, showrunner Michelle Ashford has plenty of material to plumb for episodes to come. Judging by the second season's start, Masters of Sex is just getting down to business. Read full review

90

Mark DawidziakJul 11, 2014

Season 2 Review: Director Michael Apted and writer Michelle Ashford masterfully guide you back into the Masters of Sex story, providing a beautifully textured framework for these wonderfully nuanced performances. Read full review

90

Hal BoedekerSep 28, 2013

Season 1 Review: Richer and more challenging than any new series this fall from broadcasters. Read full review

90

Mark DawidziakSep 28, 2013

Season 1 Review: Although technically listed as a drama, make no mistake, it's one of the funniest programs on TV this season. Read full review

90

James PoniewozikSep 26, 2013

Season 1 Review: It's an absorbing, beautifully acted story about science, emerging feminism and American culture. But it's also a gamble on the idea that great TV drama can involve stakes that are not sharpened to pointy tips. Read full review

90

Joanne OstrowSep 24, 2013

Season 1 Review: The engrossing, beautifully cast and well acted Masters of Sex is at once the tale of an odd couple and the story of a culture coming of age. Read full review

88

Lori RacklSep 23, 2013

Season 1 Review: It makes the most of its pay-TV platform by showing plenty of skin, but the sex scenes service a bigger story made all the more compelling by a couple of strong leads in Michael Sheen and Lizzy Caplan. Read full review

83

Verne GaySep 9, 2016

Season 4 Review: At least the opener indicates this remains an intelligent series in search of complex answers to complicated questions. Read full review

83

Alan SepinwallJul 9, 2015

Season 3 Review: Its deviations from the record have to be compelling or illuminating enough to be worth it. Last year, they rarely were; so far this year, they are. Read full review

83

Melissa MaerzJul 9, 2014

Season 2 Review: Masters may be set in the 1950s, but its politics don't need to live there as well. Luckily, the conversations between the women are just as juicy as last season. Read full review

83

Tom LongSep 26, 2013

Season 1 Review: There’s a lot of humor here, but it’s more innocent than leering. And there’s also a great deal of understandable awkwardness that seems as pertinent to 2013 to the ’50s. You may not want to watch this with Aunt Tildy, but it is certainly worth watching. Read full review

80

Jon NegroniSep 12, 2016

Season 4 Review: This is the most entertaining the show has been in quite some time, but for reasons most would never have predicted. Like just about everyone in this episode, Masters of Sex has finally been liberated. Read full review

80

Tirdad DerakhshaniJul 21, 2015

Season 3 Review: The season's most exciting new development is Bill and Virginia's realization they are a viable romantic couple. Read full review

80

Bruce MillerJul 14, 2015

Season 3 Review: Masters of Sex is highly watchable, not fact. If you understand that, you’re going to enjoy it much more. Read full review

80

Brian LowryJul 9, 2015

Season 3 Review: Despite creative speed bumps, Masters of Sex remains a slick vehicle, one that thoughtfully examines the relationship between sex and romance that Masters and Johnson sought to uncoil. Read full review

80

Mary McNamaraJul 14, 2014

Season 2 Review: In Season 2 the issues and tensions remain the same, but perfectly dialed up a notch or two. Read full review

80

Ellen GrayJul 11, 2014

Season 2 Review: Showing people having sex while wired up to machines may have gotten viewers in the door, but it's the characters and the performances that should keep them there. Read full review

80

Willa PaskinJul 11, 2014

Season 2 Review: For a show about sex and attraction, Masters of Sex is very cerebral, measured, distanced. But so are its characters, who use their intellects to protect their vulnerabilities. Read full review

80

Brian LowryJul 10, 2014

Season 2 Review: he come-on of the title notwithstanding very little about that is groundbreaking, or even surprising. But it is, almost without exception, highly watchable and entertaining. Read full review

80

Emily NussbaumOct 3, 2013

Season 1 Review: The dialogue isn’t always subtle, but it’s often sharp. Read full review

80

Matt Zoller SeitzSep 30, 2013

Season 1 Review: Masters of Sex is an intelligent, assured drama that gets better and better as it goes along. Read full review

80

Sara SmithSep 30, 2013

Season 1 Review: Although it’s a medical drama on one level, Masters of Sex is frequently laugh-out-loud funny, with romances, mysteries and coming-of-age stories unfolding throughout its large cast. Read full review

80

Zap2it (Inside the Box)Terri SchwartzSep 30, 2013

Season 1 Review: All together Masters of Sex makes an engaging pilot, but it is as yet untested as a premise for a series. Read full review

80

Robert LloydSep 28, 2013

Season 1 Review: Without making any extraordinary claims for it, it is easy to watch and to recommend, mostly sweet-natured, with a host of well-shaded performances and almost nothing to insult your intelligence. Read full review

80

Maureen RyanSep 27, 2013

Season 1 Review: [Michael Sheen and Lizzy Caplan] are simply tremendous throughout, and they are the main reason to stick with the show, even when some of the supporting characters grate and parts of it feel like exposition-heavy excerpts from Thomas Maier's book of the same name. Read full review

80

Matthew GilbertSep 27, 2013

Season 1 Review: It’s an inviting, beautifully acted, and smartly written period drama set in the 1950s Read full review

80

Alessandra StanleySep 26, 2013

Season 1 Review: Masters of Sex does an elegant job of reframing their [Masters and Johnson's] strange, complicated and at times deeply cynical partnership into a twisted but intriguing love story. Read full review

80

Tim GoodmanSep 24, 2013

Season 1 Review: It was comforting to see that Masters of Sex has depth of vision and plenty of dramatic material to delve into without taking the easy way out with a nipple and a romp every 10 minutes. Read full review

75

Robert RorkeJul 8, 2015

Season 3 Review: When Masters stops himself from punching Johnny, Sheen--who has the least showy role here--has his finest moment. The exquisite Caplan, on the other hand, is given many chances to shine, and doesn’t let any of these moments slip away.... Season 3 promises to be the show’s wildest year yet. Read full review

75

Melissa MaerzJul 2, 2015

Season 3 Review: The steamy morality drama has become a thoughtful rumination on the sacrifices that parents (especially mothers) make for their families. It’s too bad, then, that so many plot twists are played for cheap thrills. Read full review

75

Tom LongJul 10, 2014

Season 2 Review: Although the first episodes of the new season lack the snap and sizzle of the first season’s sexual discoveries, the air of indecision that haunts the show feels both accurate and unique. Read full review

70

Rob LowmanSep 14, 2016

Season 4 Review: There is an old axiom that says you should not confuse sex with love. The fourth season of Masters of Sex lands squarely and entertainingly right in the middle of that potential mess. Read full review

70

Brian LowrySep 24, 2013

Season 1 Review: While Masters of Sex might not be a great show as yet, viewed strictly in terms of giving consumers something worth paying for--or at least an experience they couldn’t receive in quite the same way in many other places--it’s the equivalent of a master class in pay-TV development. Read full review

67

Ariana BacleSep 6, 2016

Season 4 Review: Masters of Sex excels when Virginia Johnson and William Masters are together, so it's to the season 4 premiere's detriment that they share only a few mostly uneventful minutes on screen. Still, the duo deliver nuanced performances. [9 Sep 2016, p.55]

63

Robert BiancoJul 9, 2015

Season 3 Review: While the time jump may be troubling, the real issues tarnishing the luster of this once-sterling series are a loss of focus and an increasingly heavy hand when it comes to illustrating the complexities of Master's and Johnson's odd relationship. Read full review

63

Chris CabinJul 9, 2014

Season 2 Review: Masters of Sex remains passingly enjoyable, thanks largely to the cast, including Caitlin FitzGerald, Keke Palmer, and Allison Janney, all of whom help to refocus the series on the crucial role of women in sexual and scientific exploration. Read full review

63

Mike LechevallierSep 30, 2013

Season 1 Review: Where Mad Men branches out its individual narratives in a variety of ways, letting its characters deal with problems not related to the workplace, Masters of Sex seems rigidly anchored to its basic premise. Read full review