Masters of Sex

Lizzy Caplan has been on the verge of becoming a huge star for a while now. Over the last decade, she’s been the highlight of films like “Mean Girls,” “Cloverfield,” and “Bachelorette.” But now with “Masters of Sex,” Showtime’s latest hour-long drama, Caplan has found her breakout role.

It isn’t a stretch to think we may see Caplan’s name on the Emmy nominations list come next summer.

Caplan’s co-lead, Michael Sheen, plays Dr. William Masters, a fertility doctor and researcher at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., who decides to embark into the potentially scandalous sexual research territory. Dr. Masters hires Virginia Johnson (Caplan), a former nightclub singer with no science background, to help him with his research.

As Johnson, Caplan radiates the star power necessary to carry this sex research drama created by Michelle Ashford. In a show set during chauvinistic times, Johnson is a strong, level-headed woman breaking into a field dominated by men. Caplan is more than game and steals the show.

Don’t think this show is a cheap “Kinsey” knock-off. While it treads similar territory, “Masters of Sex” is a story about the people behind the sex research revolution. It doesn’t seem as interested in the ramifications the research will have across the nation.

The pilot, helmed by “Shakespeare in Love” and “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” director John Madden, does a fine job setting up intriguing questions and dynamic characters.

Masters is a sex researcher who struggles with intimacy in his own marriage. His wife, Libby, blames herself for not getting pregnant. Johnson is able to separate sex and love, something her male colleague, Dr. Ethan Haas (Nicholas D’Agosto), is unable to do.

Each character has a solid base and plenty of potential to build from.

While period dramas like “Mad Men” have successfully broken down and analyzed gender roles of mid-20th century men and women, “Masters of Sex” focuses more on the personal than the professional.

But sex research seems to be where the personal and the professional will inevitably merge, at least based on Masters’ proposal to Johnson at the pilot’s end.

While the rest of the season may need some lively pacing to keep the audience alert and tuning in, the pilot of “Masters of Sex” is more than enough of a jumping off point to get viewers hooked.

Tune in for the titillating content. Stay for the dramatic, gender-shaking potential.