Spring Break
Sex, Scandals, and Surgery: How Nip/Tuck is demanding audience attention
MICHELLE ZILIS, The Rocky Mountain Collegian
Issue date: 10/19/06 Section: Verve
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As the show kicked off its fourth season in September, audiences expected more mystery, sex and twisted plots than ever before, which any long-time viewer could promise would be a difficult feat.
The show is infamous for its jaw-dropping content. In the first three seasons, the show covered everything from risqué sexual experiences to sexual identity crises to paternity issues and a whole plethora in between. Not to mention a crazy Cambodian drug lord and a serial rapist who liked to cut his victims. The show focuses on two plastic surgeons in Miami as they deal with the atypical issues in their work and personal life.
Lauren O'Neill, a junior health and exercise science major, said she watches the show religiously and is extremely entertained by how politically incorrect and disgusting it is in every aspect.
"It's just so different, you don't get to see anything else like it on TV," O'Neill said.
The first two seasons of the show aired during the summer, but FX moved seasons three and four to the fall. Many viewers started to watch it more during the third season because of the new time.
"During the summer it was more difficult to watch because you were always out at night, but in the fall you have school and work, so it's much more common that you'll be home to watch it," said Kristin Baker, a junior human development and family studies major.
O'Neill became an avid watcher at the start of the third season, and thus far she said she thinks season four has begun to cool down the sex content (at least for Nip/Tuck standards), and make more of an effort to deal with moral issues. She used the example of when two of the main characters discover the baby they are going to have will be deformed, and the characters struggle to decide whether or not they should keep the baby.
"It's a really thought-provoking show," O'Neill said. "It makes you think about things that most shows would never bring up."
Often times these plots make audiences think about something so bizarre that it would have never crossed their mind if it weren't for the imagination of the writers. Both women remember the first episode that got them hooked.
O'Neill's episode dealt with an awkward sexual encounter that made one main character question his sexual identity. Baker remembered an episode with very open sexual content. Baker also strongly remembered an episode where a woman was attached to her sofa that she had been living on for years.
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