Over the last several years, some of the cable stations that had mostly aired shows in syndication or slightly older movies started to make their own original shows.  I heard about Nip/Tuck when it started airing on FX in 2003.  I didn't see the show at that point.  I quickly got hooked on the show once I did start watching it.  I also started to pick up the DVD sets for the seasons once the price dropped.  I recently watched Nip/Tuck - The Complete First Season.

Nip/Tuck was about plastic surgeons who had a practice in Miami.  Sean McNamara and Christian Troy had known each other for years and ended up setting up a practice together even though they were very different.  Sean was married to Julia and they had two children, Matt and Annie.  Christian was a playboy who frequently picked up women for sex.  Christian was sort of a member of Sean and Julia's family.  The differences between the two men frequently had them disagreeing about all kinds of things despite their friendship.

Each episode of Nip/Tuck during the first season took time to deal with the various issues that Sean and Christian had going on in their personal lives while also showing things related to the practice.  There was at least one procedure shown in every episode, which did allow for several characters to make short appearances.  Most of the patients were only in one episode, though a few of them turned up in more.  There were a variety of procedures featured, some of which I had never heard of before.  The patients had varying reasons for wanting the procedures, including reconstruction or wanting something changed for vanity reasons.  Sometimes, the patients and procedures had more of a connection to one of the doctors.  Some of the surgeries were extremely important to the plots, and one or two of them had longer reaching implications.

Since Nip/Tuck aired on a cable network, the show was able to get away with showing things that broadcast networks can't.  The surgeries were very graphic at times and looked realistic with lots of blood.  Some of them were a bit disturbing to see and might bother some viewers.  I did have to look away during some of them because of how graphic they were.  Certain things just looked disgusting to me as well.  The show won't appeal to everyone because of the graphic surgery scenes.  Those scenes are also a big part of why the show isn't for children.  It did seem like the show was trying to push just how much they were showing a few times.

The personal lives of Christian and Sean played a big part in what was going on throughout the first season of Nip/Tuck.  They were both messed up in some ways and had issues.  Sean and Julia were having problems in their marriage and they split up several times, only to get back together.  Julia also had issues that she was trying to deal with that added some complications to the marriage.  Christian seemed to only be interested in having sex with as many women as possible.  That caused him some complications, including a few with the practice.  There really wasn't one main story for the entire season, but there were some storylines that carried through several episodes.  Certain things would make more sense if the episodes were watched in order.  Sometimes only a short amount of time passed between episodes and other times it was months.  Once or twice it seemed like something was resolved only for that to turn up again in a later episode.  Even Sean and Julia's son Matt had issues that came up in a few episodes that didn't seem to be typical for a teenager.  Everything the characters were going through did seem to be a bit extreme, but it did make for some interesting episodes.  All the extreme things did detract from the believability and certain things did annoy, but I just couldn't seem to stop watching.  Sean, Julia, and Christian were all so screwed up that they deserved to be stuck with each other.

There was a lot of sexual content in Nip/Tuck, with much of it provided by Christian and the various women he had sex with.  He was always picking up women and he didn't always choose wisely since he didn't think beyond getting them into bed.  He then tended to discard them quickly, sending them away after they were done and not thinking about them again most of the time.  Christian just couldn't seem to stop himself when it came to having sex.  Even when he was supposed to be in a relationship, he was still having sex with other women if he had the opportunity.   Sean and Julia's sex life was shown as well.  It was clear that the passion seemed to have left their relationship, but they did try at least a few times.  There were several sex scenes throughout the first season, usually at least one per episode, with some of them being more graphic than others.  A lot of skin was shown, including several bare behinds.  Several women also showed a lot of skin, but they would be strategically covered in certain spots.

Christian and Sean were the main characters for the first season of Nip/Tuck with Julia also being around a lot.  All three of them had known each other for years.  Christian was considered a part of Sean and Julia's family with their kids calling him uncle Chris.  With how things were set it up, Christian was basically the villain of the show, but I didn't think Sean was that great either.  Even though the two men frequently irritated or even infuriated each other, they still remained loyal friends.  Sometimes it took them a while, but they seemed to be able to get past all their problems.  As far as I'm concerned, there really wasn't a hero type of character.  Christian was really a big jerk and had a lot of faults, but he acknowledged those things.  Sean had his own faults that he seemed to be in denial about.  

Sean was quick to judge everyone around him and he generally found them lacking in some way.  Whenever something went wrong, even when he caused the problem, he wanted to blame someone else.  He was very sanctimonious and tried to act like he was better than everyone else when he wasn't.  He got bent out of shape when Christian started to see Kimber, who was a former patient at that point and went on and on about how unethical it was.  Then Sean was the one who started an affair with a woman who first came in about reconstruction, changed her mind and then ultimately had the surgery after the affair started.  He also tried to blame Julia for him having the affair as well.  Sean would see something and jump to a conclusion and remain absolutely convinced that he was right and use that as justification for something questionable he wanted to do.  Sean decided that he wanted to do more pro-bono work, which was fine, but he was then going around wanting to refuse to take several other patients that he decided were just superficial.  He seemed to forget that the practice needed to make money to stay in business and plastic surgery is a superficial field of medicine in general.  Sean's attitude just really annoyed me, so I don't like him that much.  In some ways, Sean was more of a jerk than Christian.  Dylan Walsh was good in the part.

Christian was a good surgeon, though most people considered Sean to be the better surgeon, especially for certain procedures.  Christian was happy that the practice had become successful, and he was loving the lifestyle he had.  He liked to talk about going into surgery when he was trying to pick up new women.  He really didn't treat women that great most of the time and tended to see them as sex objects.  He kept making questionable choices for sex partners, which caused him to have to deal with some extreme situations.  He did try to have a steady relationship at one point, but that didn't work out very well at all.  He did seem to enjoy acting like an uncle to Matt and Annie.  Christian wasn't a nice guy, but he did tend to be up front about that.  I thought Julian McMahon handled the part well.

Julia had been planning to go to medical school too, but that changed when she got pregnant with Matt and she and Sean got married.  She stayed home to take care of their son and then their daughter.  She took care of everything around the house and was getting frustrated because Sean wouldn't help with anything, even when he created more problems.  He fired the gardener for no real reason and then told Julia to hire someone else.  She was also bothered when he contradicted her with the children at times.  Julia wasn't really happy with her life or the marriage anymore, so she started making changes, like going back to college.  Sometimes she seemed overly emotional and fragile, and other times she could be downright cruel.  Joely Richardson was fine in the part, though the character was irritating at times.

I don't remember hearing Matt's age during the first season, but I think he was about 17.  He was a good kid most of the time, though he did do a few things that weren't so good.  It seemed like he was intelligent, but he did something extremely stupid at one point when Sean just wouldn't listen to him and take his concern about something seriously.  Matt was close to Christian and tended to like spending time with him.  John Hensley was fine in the part.  Annie was in grade school and not shown as much as her older brother.  Kelsey Batelaan was fine in the part.

Liz worked with Sean and Christian as their anesthesiologist.  She had been working with them for several years despite the fact that she was frequently angered by them.  She seemed to especially have issues with Christian at times.  She did try to keep things more in balance with the practice and was more level headed.  She wasn't around as much as the doctors, so she wasn't as developed.  Roma Maffia was good in the part.  Nurse Linda turned up briefly in some episodes, usually with very little to do.  

Grace Santiago was a psychologist that Sean hired to help them screen potential patients to make sure that they didn't have potential issues.  She disagreed with both doctors at times and didn't seem to like either of them that much.  She was very opinionated at times.  I didn't think that she added that much to the show with the way the character was used.  She was just sort of around.  Valerie Cruz was fine, but nothing special in the part.  

Kimber was a model that Christian picked up for sex, talked her into having several procedures, and then didn't contact her again.  He eventually did see her again and the two ended up having a relationship for a while.  She did seem to really care about him and she was trying, but he was quickly growing bored with being with one woman and he ultimately really screwed up the relationship.  She did briefly turn up again after the end of their relationship.  Kelly Carlson was fine in the part.  Gina was another woman that Christian picked up for sex.  Gina was not happy when he was ready for her to leave right after they had sex.  She popped up again later with a complication for Christian.  Even when they were getting along a bit better, she was very nasty to him and tended to call him a certain name.  Jessalyn Gilsig was fine in the part.  Megan O'Hara was a potential patient who ended up being more important.  The other patients were mostly just in a few scenes for one episode and not as important to what was going on.

Main Cast

Valerie Cruz - Grace Santiago
John Hensley - Matt McNamara
Julian McMahon - Christian Troy
Roma Maffia - Liz Cruz
Joely Richardson - Julia McNamara
Dylan Walsh - Sean McNamara

DVD Information

The thirteen episodes of the first season of Nip/Tuck are on five discs.  The case for the set unfolds and there is one disc per panel.  Eleven of the episodes had deleted scenes.  For some of them, it was just one short scene and for others, it was a few scenes that dealt with an entire subplot.  There were three documentaries on the fifth disc that dealt with different aspects of making the show, including show how some of the effects for the surgeries were created.  There was a gag reel that was funny, a music video for the theme song, and a teaser trailer.

Nip/Tuck - The Complete First Season is a good DVD set for fans of the show.  The episodes were entertaining even though some of the stories were rather extreme.  The fact that the show is graphic at times means that it won't appeal to everyone.

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD