Whenever a network manages to take a series of soap opera quality and turn it into a cultural sensation, you have to take the time to step back and figure out what’s separating it from the shows relegated to early and midday time slots that have similar themes of torrid love affairs, murder, and irrational behavior on the part of every character featured within. What gives Nip/Tuck its little crowbar of separation from the average soap opera is the firm focus on character development, even if it comes from unexpectedly random emotional outbursts that place protagonists at odds with one another unexpectedly? If you were a fan of the show in its original run or are looking to get started on a new series, the recently released Nip/Tuck: The Complete Series on DVD represents four solid seasons of great dramatic television capped with two lesser seasons, leaving you with a satisfying experience overall.
Doctors Sean McNamara (Dylan Walsh) and Christian Troy (Julian McMahon) have been friends since college and now own and operate a thriving plastic surgery practice (McNamara/Troy) which has placed them at the top of the game in all of Miami. The lives of the two doctors seem inexorably intertwined, though more because they’ve chosen entirely disparate lifestyles than anything else. Sean went the route of the family man, marrying his college sweetheart Julia (Joely Richardson), and having two children by her, Matt (John Hensley) and Annie (Kelsey Batelaan). Conversely, Christian became one of Miami’s most eligible bachelors, bedding countless women and only slowing down once in a while to have any sort of meaningful relationship – the most serious of which was with model-turned-porn star Kimber (Kelly Carlson). However, neither of these two men gets to truly enjoy the lifestyles they lead with each season bringing a new challenge or hardship that threatens or utterly ruins their peace of mind.
Here’s a rundown of the seasons:
Season 1 – The practice and its returning clients are established as the seemingly idyllic lives of both McNamara and Troy begin to show their cracks, with a malpractice suit, a hit and run case, and a druglord’s attempt to change his face complicating their lives.
Season 2 – One of the best seasons in the set, the second sees the lives of McNamara and Troy begin to crumble as Sean’s son Matt gets involved with an older seductress (Famke Janssen) with a secret while the long-kept secret of Matt’s parentage finally comes to light and threatens the relationship of Sean, Christian, and Julia.
Season 3 – The assailant known as “The Carver” returns from a single act of cruelty in the second season to begin a string of attacks against men and women alike in the third season, and the partners of McNamara/Troy choose to heal each victim, even if it means putting themselves and their new partner (Bruno Campos) up as his targets. Meanwhile, Julia opens her own post-surgery recovery spa, and the downward spiral of Matt continues unabated.
Season 4 – The fourth season brings a winding down of the gobs of tension heaped on the series by the events of the third season, with a tale of an organ harvesting ring that finds itself with ties to the McNamara/Troy practice that puts everything the two doctors have worked for at risk. It’s a very Christian-centric season and the return of the factor that adds a new human element to his character is reintroduced and here to stay. The chronicles of Matt take a turn for the absurd as he gets married to Kimber and they have a child whilst in the care of Scientology.
Season 5 – Parts 1 and 2 – The most uneven season of them all (due to an interruption by the WGA strike), the practice of McNamara/Troy has relocated to Los Angeles where the partners have to work hard to fight for their place in the new town, and they succeed with mixed results. Sean becomes the lead in a hit television drama and attracts the attention of less than stable talent agent (Sharon Gless) and Christian has a painful revelation about his health, prompting him to propose to his friend and longtime colleague, Liz (Roma Maffia). At the same time, Sean’s dreams of saving his relationship with Julia hits a roadblock as she visits from New York with a new romantic partner (Portia de Rossi) whose daughter (AnnaLynne McCord) has less than kind intentions for anyone who gets in her way (including Julia).
Season 6 – The series comes to an uneven end as many of the less than satisfactory plot twists of the fifth season are undone in hasty and poorly thought out revisions. Christian and Sean both enter the final twists of their unraveling lives and with the final countdown; it becomes uncertain whether or not their friendship will outlast their practice. And, as if Matt’s story wasn’t ridiculous enough, he becomes a mime only to return to a romance with a character from his past.
Through all of this, a huge number of recognizable faces pop up for some truly great cameos, including Sanaa Lathan, Bradley Cooper, Rose McGowan, Brittany Snow, Peter Dinklage (who is superb), Jacqueline Bisset, Mario Lopez, Vanessa Redgrave, Oliver Platt, Rosie O’Donnell, Kate Mara, Brooke Shields, Alanis Morrisette, Jennifer Coolidge, Anne Heche, and Kathy Baker.
Whenever a studio puts out a complete series set, there’s the opportunity for some really unique packaging. Some of the best sets out there have some truly creative boxes and you’d have to think that a show about plastic surgery could have generated some cool box ideas, but instead the pack is just the original 7 season releases (with the two parts of season 5 still in split packaging) crammed into a silver box with the main characters decorating the exterior. It feels more like an easy out than anything else, with Warner Brothers just taking surplus copies of the Nip/Tuck season releases and simply stuffing them into a new box. It’s the kind of minimal effort that you’ll protest against and that might affect your purchasing decision if you’re the type who buys complete series sets in the hopes of something cool and unique.
DVD Bonus Features
Here’s another unfortunate facet of this complete series compilation: all the extra features are the ones previously available on the original season sets. They haven’t even produced a new extras set to give this box additional value over purchasing the sets individually (which might be cheaper if you can find them on Amazon or Ebay for a reduced price). However, if you’re just looking for a great series to get started on and want to buy it all at once, there’s nothing wrong with this set, and the quality of the show easily warrants the purchase.
"Nip/Tuck: The Complete Series" is on sale November 2, 2010 and is not rated. Drama. Directed by Craig Zisk, Elodie Keene, Michael M Robin, Ryan Murphy. Written by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, Lynnie Greene, Richard Levine, Jennifer Salt, Sean Jablonski. Starring Dylan Walsh, Joely Richardson, John Hensley, Julian McMahon, Kelly Carlson, Roma Maffia.
