Nip/Tuck - Complete First Season  (2003)

Starring: Dylan Walsh, Julian McMahon, John Hensley, Valerie Cruz, Joely Richardson, Roma Maffia

Creator: Ryan Murphy

Rating: NR

Distributor: Warner Home Video

Release Date: June 15, 2004
Review posted: June 22, 2004

Spoilers: None

Reviewed by Dennis Landmann

SYNOPSIS

Beauty, the saying goes, is only skin deep. The beauty of Nip/Tuck is that it goes deeper, laying bear the complexities and fragile natures often found in patients seeking cosmetic surgery. Dylan Walsh and Julian McMahon portray hotshot Miami South Beach plastic surgeons who are themselves in full-blown midlife crises as they confront career, family and romance problems.

CRITIQUE

Nip/Tuck is a pretty cool show. I didn't see the first season on the F/X network when it premiered last summer, but thanks to the kind folks at Warner Brothers I had the chance to get caught up on the first thirteen episodes before the second-season premiere on June 22.

The show focuses on two plastic surgeons, Sean McNamara (Walsh, Blood Work) and Christian Troy (McMahon, TVs Charmed), who are best friends and run a partnership together. What makes the show so appealing, not to mention addicting, is seeing how both of their lives change after operating on a man who offers them $300,000 to change the appearance of his face. There's no point in spoiling the events of the season because that would take away from the surprises, the drama, and the romance the two main characters experience.

First and foremost, Nip/Tuck succeeds because it tells interesting stories, especially the various (and original) reasons behind the people requesting the resident surgeons to change their looks. Secondly, the characters seem real as do their problems. Sean's marriage to Julia (Joely Richardson, 2000's The Patriot)  is not on the best terms and the communication with his son Matt (John Hensley, TVs Witchblade) is not all that good either. Christian's life style is radically different, he's single and lives from one one-night stand to another, using his charm, good looks, and job to pick up beautiful women. Meanwhile, at their office, Sean and Christian work with the best anesthesiologist they know, Liz Winters (Roma Maffia, Nick of Time), and the sometimes neglected psychologist Grace Santiago (Valerie Cruz, the upcoming Cellular).

The show's writing team, including creator Ryan Murphy, Sean Jablonski, and Jennifer Salt, create a world around the characters that's interesting and real, but also entertaining to watch. There are several subplots that span over two or three episodes while some are resolved by an episode's end. Without spoiling much, the subplots involving Miami's rival plastic surgeon and Sean's interest in one of his patients are two that I remember liking the most, although I didn't much care for the Sophia Lopez plot. Lastly, the plots concerning Matt McNamara are fine (the one with his girlfriend is kind of hot, you'll know what I'm talking about if you're a guy), but they're too easily resolved after a few episodes, especially the one concerning the girl in the hospital.

In terms of acting, Dylan Walsh and Julian McMahon play their characters convincingly and with real emotion. The support from Joely Richardson is strong and John Hensley does a good job acting ten years younger than himself (he's 26). However, he bears a tiny bit resemblance to Michael Jackson with very thin white skin, large eyebrows, and full lips. Well, I guess this is just a bit irritating on my part, and I doubt anyone else will notice. Valerie Cruz's character gets kind of neglected as she will sometimes disappear for a number of episodes, but whatever. Roma Maffia is pretty good, though, proving some humor and stuff.

THE VIDEO

Warner Bros. presents Nip/Tuck in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen. "Tell me what don't you don't like about the video presentation," you might ask. Well, despite looking real good in widescreen, the show's presentation on DVD lacks a bit. First of all, there's grain in about every other scene. Perhaps the production uses natural light or it's because of something else. Image quality is quite good, however, considering there are no compression artifacts or nasty specks/dirt. Colors are rich and well-saturated. Color detail is good, as is sharpness. Definition looks fine. For a show that's very recent (from last year) I would've expected it to look better than it does. The studio probably should've consulted with a surgeon to remove all the grain, wouldn't you say? Optional subtitles include English, French and Spanish.

THE AUDIO

Warner Bros. presents Nip/Tuck in English 2.0 Dolby Surround. This is a perfectly good presentation. Dialogue is clear and easy to understand, the sound effects are nicely emitted from across both front channels, and the music/score makes its way into the soundfield from time to time. No real complaints here, the 2.0 track serves its purpose just fine.

THE EXTRAS

For the first season, Warner Bros. has included some nice bonus materials in the form of three featurettes.

Giving Drama a Face Lift (23:21) is all about the show, its characters, the graphic operations, the look of it, and so on. There's interviews with the cast and crew that are good. An overall very nice featurette.

Realistic Expectation: The Practice of Plastic Surgery (7:38) is an interesting featurette that discusses the practice in terms of training and industry. Three real plastic surgeons are interviewed here, they discuss the topics above and more, including their reactions to the show.

Are They Real or Fake?: The Miraculous Make-up Effects of Nip/Tuck (6:10) offers a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of the special effects. It's kind of neat to see the process for this show.

Rounding out the extras on disc five is the "A Perfect Lie" music video (1:56), the semi-amusing gag reel cleverly entitled Severed Parts (4:38), and a teaser trailer (0:32) for the second season.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Nip/Tuck creator Ryan Murphy (TVs Popular) pushes the envelope quite a lot, mostly in terms of showing sex and the surgical operations. I myself have no problem with watching those things, but I was a bit surprised to find out that such footage would actually air on television. Then again, F/X programming is unlike regular TV, in fact it's more like HBO, and that's a really cool thing. With The Shield and Nip/Tuck, F/X is emerging as the type of network that produces quality shows. Their next original series is Rescue Me starring Denis Leary as a firefighter in New York City.

Warner's video quality lacks a bit, though the audio sounds just fine. The three featurettes are good, but I would've liked a commentary on the first and last episode from the creator. All in all, this 5-disc DVD package that makes up the first season comes highly recommended.

VERDICT: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

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