Nip/Tuck, the unique and edgy plastic surgery drama of years past, ended its run on television with its 6th season. Back in September 2009, I guessed that Nip/Tuck season 6 was a "meh" and could be missed unless you were a fan of the show - like I was - who just needed to be there for the end of the ride. Unfortunately, I am sorry to say I was correct in my prediction.
Nip/Tuck stars Julian McMahon as millionaire surgeon playboy Dr. Christan Troy and Dylan Walsh as the talented yet rapidly unraveling Dr. Sean McNamara, who has a heart of gold. The two of them have, since college, had an unlikely bond that took Sean's talent and Christan's charisma and turned it into a plastic surgery enterprise. In earlier seasons, the dramatic, eclectic, and bizarre story lines made this show fascinating to watch. As it continued to outdo its own crazy plots, though, the ability to do much more diminished. This show didn't end with an abrupt cancellation, but maybe it should have.
Season 6 opens a handful of months after Christian finds out he doesn't have terminal cancer, leading him to divorce anaesthetist Liz Cruz (Roma Maffia), who in turn decides to take him for all he's worth financially. Sean is dating a new nurse, Theodora "Teddy" Rowe (Rose McGowan), Matt McNamara (John Hensley) is performing on Venice Beach as a mime to make money, and Kimber Henry (Kelly Carlson) is still struggling with her inevitable descent into aging. Over the first half of the season, Teddy attempts to kill Sean and his family before becoming victim to a murder herself, Sean attempts to kill himself until he realizes he hates Christian, the cause of all of his problems. Christian loses everything just to miraculously get most of it back before the end of the show while marrying Kimber and finally ruining her ability to love herself at all anymore, and Matt is caught committing armed robberies, at which point he goes to prison, has breast augmentation surgery, and kills a man. And then the middle of the season happens. And anything that had resembled an interesting story disappears.
The last 7 episodes had originally been planned to air in 2011 as season 7. Instead, they decided to put Nip/Tuck out of its misery, airing the final episodes in January, 2010, immediately after the end of season 6. They didn't advertise this decision, market it, or even really bother to make anyone aware. They just aired the show. And, almost as if this unceremonious treatment was an ominous sign, the lackluster end of the series seemed to have brought insignificance on itself. The final half of the season mostly strays from the outrageous plots and attempts to turn itself into a character drama, focusing almost solely on the relationship of Sean and Christian. This relationship is quite clearly dying, but to make sure that we as viewers don't miss that point, they turn Christian into an irredeemable monster and Sean into a callous and confused disaster. Nip/Tuck was never a show for subtlety, but the blatant character "developments" of the end of the series were downright unnecessary. After years of having Christian be mostly a dirtbag, but with something warming the cockles of his heart somehow, they threw any attempts to make him redeemable out of the window. Sean, always weaker but never weak, started making terrible and hateful decisions (completely out of character) just to emphasize the repetitive drama of the unraveling practice of McNamara/Troy.
Sure the series wrapped up for other characters. Matt, who in my opinion was always the easiest character to hate on the show, managed to get away with horrific acts repeatedly - arguably worse acts than even Christian had - and at the end he got a dull and convoluted send off and, in my opinion, none of the justice (ie: painful slow death) his character deserved. Liz has a baby with a sperm donor (Sean) and finally gets named a partner in McNamara/Troy just in time for the practice to be dissolved. And finally, after they made it totally obvious that nothing good was in the future for McNamara/Troy, Christian and Sean break up, so Sean can go work for people in poor countries and find his soul again and Christian can continue to be Christian.
I'm not sure what about this was so insulting to me. I don't know if it was the lifeless ending given to this once vibrant world, the lazy nature of the final act, or how little I cared about the characters when the last episode aired. I will be honest when I say that the chance to watch the full season on DVD was partially redeeming, since I was able to remember the first half of the season which, while only weeks earlier, felt as though it had aired years before the last 7 episodes. It was also nice to have a bit of scandal before the mind numbing march to the finale.
Overall, even for a huge fan of the show, the last season was underwhelming, and that is putting it kindly. The show probably should have ended 2 seasons ago, with the show still crazy and in Miami. Something definitely left the show when they first found it necessary to "relocate" to Los Angeles and by the end of season 6, I felt it was the soul that stayed behind in Miami. Despite a lukewarm first half, the latter half of the season is nothing but a disappointment, and Nip/Tuck ends in some ways more disgraced than it would have been if canceled, with "season 7" never seeing a television set.
DVD Bonus Features
There is only one extra feature in this box set, a short documentary called "Tell Me What You Don't Like About Yourself - The Psychology Behind Plastic Surgery." In this feature, a group of plastic surgeons discuss the ethical lines that McNamara/Troy often crossed as well as the difference between a "good" and "bad" candidate for plastic surgery, which is basically rooted in the ability of an individual to differentiate between the true cause of their problems and insecurities. While the subject matter itself is interesting, this documentary almost felt like the show was attempting to let viewers know that they were aware the whole time that what they did was ludicrous and now, after 6 seasons, they want to let people know that not every whackjob truly needs multiple surgeries to be a better person. It was haphazard at best.
Nip/Tuck Season 6 is presented in Widescreen with 5 DVD's in one case. The artwork on the discs looks cheap, an apt appearance for such a letdown.
"Nip/Tuck: The Sixth and Final Season" is on sale June 8, 2010 and is not rated. Television. Directed by Ryan Murphy. Starring Dylan Walsh, Joely Richardson, John Hensley, Julian McMahon.
