Nip/Tuck - Tuesday November 8, 2005 - A Review
Since the very first episode of Nip/Tuck I have been hooked. Beyond any show I have ever watched this show pushed every imaginable boundary. At times the stories and the graphics were flat out obscene. They have touched on issues virtually unspeakable in every day life. In spite of this, or because of, I am transfixed; incapable of changing the channel and eagerly anticipating each new episode.
The acting and the emotions put forth by this mostly unknown (to me) cast is stellar. One is never disappointed in the delivery or the nuances of each individual actor. You actually feel for the incorrigible, root for the underdog and feel betrayed by the wrongs each character faces. Never mind that in most cases these characters are the essence of dysfunction.
In the subsequent two and a half seasons we have witnessed everything from a covered up killing, drug trafficking via silicone breasts, a physically altered priest that enable him to escape being caught as a child pervert, the separation of conjoined twins, twosomes, threesomes and everything in between, sex changes, a serial killer and that is just to name a few. That list hardly even touches on the things that you see each week on Nip/Tuck. Just writing about it makes me want to watch it again.
Minus the glamour and the deprecation this show is really to me about two men; Christian Troy and Sean McNamara who are the unlikely twosome in their forties still trying to figure out just where they fit in life. Christian and Sean have been friends more than half their lives and are more like brothers and suddenly they find all their secrets and fears coming to crash before them. Christian is the playboy who lives to make money and lay women at any cost. He is toted as the amoral, cold hearted partner to his goody-two-shoe friend Sean. Only problem is, Christian has very good reason for being the man he is and as we learn about these two men we get a true understanding of just how they got here and why they are now stumbling along an unknown path.
Christian and Sean are two men who were once very different but come to find parts of them coveted the life the other has led and when these conflicting worlds collide, there is just no telling where the pieces will fly.
Sean has led a nice life with his wife and two kids, his lovely home, his partner and his financial stability, but what happens when you find out your best friend slept with your wife?
Christian has led no easy life and it takes until the third season to really grasp just how damaged this man really is, but just a hint – how do you feel when you realize because of you a guilty man will get away with molesting a young boy, much like what was done to you as an orphan?
Julian McMahon as Christian makes me want to take him home and “fix” him, a classic trap for the woman he beds on a regular basis. I suppose of everyone on this show he touches me the most. He is so broken, yet he is so not what he appears to be and in every episode there is one look or one gesture or one word that makes you remember, this man is still human and is still capable of love.
Watching Dylan Walsh struggle as Sean between who he is, who he was and what he thought he should be is amazing. He can portray such anguish in every simple action and you root for this man to find what he is searching for.
Joely Richardson as Sean’s wife Julia has been such a find. I have watched this woman be knocked down, spread around and dropped like yesterday’s underwear and then get up start over and make something of herself. She shows courage and strength and is proof that life doesn’t end when your husband lies and cheats. If she would just let her tormented son stop degrading her I would have so much more respect for this woman.
Nip/Tuck is a show that makes me think (sometimes it is just a simple thought like, Can you really have sex in that position?), it makes me feel and it always leaves me saying Wow!