Nip/Tuck

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.

"Nip/Tuck" is one of the craziest, outrageous, most graphic, and fascinating shows I've seen. It is a story of two Miami based plastic surgeons and the drama of their friendship, careers, personal lives, and other social difficulties. From the first second, it is a wild ride – amazing pace, incredible situations, twists and turns, and it is very well done. I did not watch this show when it first started but my younger son is a huge fan and he always tells me how much I've been missing. Finally, he gave me the First season on DVDs for my birthday. I trust my son's taste in shows – because of his high recommendations I started to watch "24" and was completely blown away with its first season. Anyway, "Nip/Tuck" is very controversial, and its graphical surgeries moments are difficult to watch – do not watch it when you eat or right after your dinner – but it is entertaining, twisted, smart, and disturbing.

After having finished watching the complete First season on DVDs, I can say that "Nip/Tuck" is certainly one of the best dramas on TV now and I am looking forward for the new season that will begin in September. I hope that Season two will come on DVD soon because I want to see it before Season 3 starts. The creators of "Nip/Tuck" did a really great job on the show with truly interesting characters - no one is perfect, they all are flawed but compelling. The twists in plot are always unexpected, the visual effects - eye-popping and jaw dropping, the acting - first rate from everyone, and then, the episode 10 comes - the crazy mixture of surrealism, dark humor, and highest drama. Fascinating.

I eagerly anticipated this series because of my admiration for Julian McMahon (Charmed). The entire cast is great, and the subplots are the real masterpiece of this drama/comedy. Sure, the premise is built around the issue of plastic surgery, but it is everything outside the operating room that provides the substance to this show. The triangle of Christian / Julia / Shawn is by now (second season) ripe for some real turbulence, especially with Christian's crisis and Julia's secret. I, for one, can't wait to see how the season unfolds - or explodes, I expect. The theme is also well-represented in showing how people can so easily take plastic surgery way too far - surgeons included. This show has a lot of life to it, and I can't wait to see where it takes us.

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.

The first time I heard of Nip/Tuck I was hesitant and reluctant to see it. Plus I felt that the show was not going to last and that it stereotypes plastic surgeons. But as I continued watching the show I got addicted to the offbeat humor, the gross surgical procedures, and its characters. Julian McMahon is sexy and gives his character a vulnerability and humanity that is not typical in sex-crazy handsome male characters. He gives his character a reason to like him and yet he will also give audiences a reason to despise him. Dylan Walsh shines as Dr. Sean McNamara. Proving himself worthy as an actor, he shows us a character with everything in the world and yet has inner self-destructive part that is hidden from everyone else.

Additional performances by Joely Richardson as a woman who may have some skeletons in her closet and is loved by both McMahon and Walsh. Excellent writing and dialogue that leads you to want more.