Nip/Tuck

It's riveting, it's controversial, it's explicit, and it's steaming up the small screen! Nip/Tuck is certainly not your average cable television show, but its material is presented in such a way that you're hooked after the first couple of episodes. It's real, it's bloody, and it gets under your skin. But personally, I think Nip/Tuck is a real gem - and the acting is totally off the page. Just when you think it can't get any better, Ryan Murphy throws you another delicious twist. I recommend that everyone watch at least one episode. This show offers the opportunity for talents like Dylan Walsh and Julian McMahon to shine in truly unique roles. FX definitely scored with this one.

The first episode I caught of this show involved a talking disembodied head and a poignant suicide set to Elton John's "Rocketman". I was hooked! As soon as the DVD set of season one came out, I bought it and watched it within a couple of days. This show is completely immoral, shockingly disturbing, undeniably fascinating. It is like a bad car accident... you know you shouldn't look, but you just can't help. By far it is the best show on TV now. The stories are entertaining, twisted, and smart. The acting is what makes this series great. Dylan Walsh, Julian McMahon, and Joely Richardson give some top-notch, powerful, and gripping performances on this show!!!

I have little patience for people who get bent out of shape about TV shows like "Nip/Tuck" that push the envelope when they are warned, up front, that the show contains material not suitable for the average viewer.

There is a lot of mindless, self-serving crap on Network TV today with all the reality garbage that only appeal to the lowest common denominator. Thankfully, "Nip/Tuck" is not one of them. What makes "Nip/Tuck" different is not that it seems like a cross between "ER" and "Jerry Springer," -- which it is -- but that it keeps the viewer engaged by being both off-the-wall and unpredictable.

Yes, all the characters on the show are dysfunctional (with the possible exception of Liz), but they are far more realistic than all the characters on "Father Knows Best" where everyone only had a good side.

On "Nip/Tuck," both the good sides and the dark sides of each character are brought to the fore. Irony has a field day on this show as those who you deemed to be stupid and insensitive turn out to be just the opposite when situations change.

The main problem with this series lies in where you, the viewer, make your entrance. You will be at a great loss to figure out what is going on now if you have not followed the show from its inception. Every successive show builds upon the events of all the previous ones, straight back to the pilot episode. For example, the turmoil in Sean and Julia's marriage was there from Day One as was the competitiveness between Sean and his womanizing partner, Christian Troy.

At the core of it all is Sean's ongoing identity crisis in which he has gone from a prudish wimp to a man at war with himself and everyone around him.

Although the tagline of the show is when Drs McNemara and Troy ask patients what they do not like about themselves, the underlying theme is about all the things that these two perplexed plastic surgeons hate about their lives. In trying to make others "feel better about themselves," they confront their own inadequacies, and invariably direct their hatred of themselves towards others.

Psychobabble aside, the show is damn funny, too!

This is one of the biggest surprises of my 50+ years of television viewing. I love this show! The characters are complex; the story lines are interesting and entertaining. I think the show is so well done. The special effects to depict the surgeries looks so real. I didn't watch the first season because I thought it would be superficial but it is so much more than that. I rented the first season on DVD to get caught up from the beginning of the series. It is intoxicating at times; funny, diverse, with the plots intertwining. Walsh's character is mostly good; McMahon's character is more the bad boy but they show the opposite sides in both making you love both for the all their attributes and flaws. We love flawed heroes. Thank you FX for some of the best dramas on television.

I want everyone who has access to FX to watch and give it a chance with an open mind.

After a few years, I've finally finished the entire series of Nip/Tuck and it's a mixed bag. From season 1-2, you won't get one complaint out of me. The characters were complex, the writing superb, and the acting beyond stellar. We shouldn't care for confused, privileged Sean, Christian, and Julia, but somehow, we do. It's the writing and acting that take this far above your standard night time soap and into something far deeper and more meaningful. This is a show that has an awful lot to say and doesn't apologize for any of it.

The show reaches its pinnacle with the introduction and storyline of Ava Moore (a brilliant and sexy Famke Jansen). The Ava storyline, in fact, is so fascinating and unique that it ends up making everything that comes after it feel bland.

After a genuinely wicked season 2 cliffhanger, the show returns for season 3 and gets off to a rocky start with a confusing dream sequence, but after that, the show gets back to normal and is better than ever...until the reveal of the evil Carver. It's so dull and obvious from the get-go that you just have to sigh and hope for something better next season.

Unfortunately, season 4 is when the show really starts to fly off the rails. Season 4 amounts to what is basically a series of (fairly amusing) celebrity cameos. Everyone from Brooke Shields to Catherine Deneuve to Rosie O'Donnell shows up while our three leads suffer a series of dull story lines.

Season 5 has the show move out of Miami and to LA - the plastic surgery capital of the world. This sounds like it could be interesting, but by this point, it seemed like everyone - writers, directors, and actors - had checked out and were just there for the paycheck. Besides a creepy, unexpected turn by Sharon Gless, this entire season is truly unmemorable.

The rest of the series hits a series of depressing lows before it tries to redeem itself by bringing back fan favorite, Ava, for the final two episodes. Sadly, even that feels half-baked.

Basically, bask in the brilliance of season 1&2 (and they really ARE brilliant), give 3 a watch, and then call it a day.