Over-the-top yet well-written, Nip/Tuck was one of the most intriguing shows on television… until season three, when it took everything--everything--way too far. What once used to be a show about self-worth and society's perception of beauty as portrayed by plastic-surgery patients has become about the abject humiliation of women and rampant storylines. It alienated many fans, who found its love of excess ludicrous and at times, unforgivable. Maybe it was the storyline about Matt (John Hensley), who discovers the love of his life was actually a transsexual, shaves his head and starts dating a white supremacist (American Dreams' Brittany Snow). Or the disturbing new plastic-surgery cases (obese woman physically stuck to her couch, a 17-year-old petrified fetus). Or even the new surgeon Quentin Costa (Bruno Campos) who sleeps with male patients, romances Julia (Joely Richardson) and turns out to have a little "physical quirk" of his own? But the knife that truly stabbed the show's pace into the ground was the ongoing mystery of the Carver, a rapist/killer in a creepy porcelain mask who disfigures victims. Just when the show starts to jell, another character with their mouth cut Black Dahlia-style turns up and throws the show back into a whodunnit, and not even a well-crafted one at that: By the time they reveal the killer's identity, you just don't care anymore. Someone also made a mess of the characters, or at least turned them all manic-depressive; the moral flip-flopping between Sean (Dylan Walsh) and Christian (Julian McMahon) is inexplicable at best. One goes wild, the other grows a conscience--and then they switch sides. One is on the brink of divorce, the other gets engaged--and another switch. It's headache-inducing how each of the main characters become nonsensical and not the least bit engaging. Here's hoping Nip/Tuck regains its mojo in season four. --Ellen A. Kim
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