After a few years, I've finally finished the entire series of Nip/Tuck and it's a mixed bag. From season 1-2, you won't get one complaint out of me. The characters were complex, the writing superb, and the acting beyond stellar. We shouldn't care for confused, privileged Sean, Christian, and Julia, but somehow, we do. It's the writing and acting that take this far above your standard night time soap and into something far deeper and more meaningful. This is a show that has an awful lot to say and doesn't apologize for any of it.The show reaches its pinnacle with the introduction and storyline of Ava Moore (a brilliant and sexy Famke Jansen). The Ava storyline, in fact, is so fascinating and unique that it ends up making everything that comes after it feel bland.After a genuinely wicked season 2 cliffhanger, the show returns for season 3 and gets off to a rocky start with a confusing dream sequence, but after that, the show gets back to normal and is better than ever...until the reveal of the evil Carver. It's so dull and obvious from the get-go that you just have to sigh and hope for something better next season.Unfortunately, season 4 is when the show really starts to fly off the rails. Season 4 amounts to what is basically a series of (fairly amusing) celebrity cameos. Everyone from Brooke Shields to Catherine Deneuve to Rosie O'Donnell shows up while our three leads suffer a series of dull story lines.Season 5 has the show move out of Miami and to LA - the plastic surgery capital of the world. This sounds like it could be interesting, but by this point, it seemed like everyone - writers, directors, and actors - had checked out and were just there for the paycheck. Besides a creepy, unexpected turn by Sharon Gless, this entire season is truly unmemorable.The rest of the series hits a series of depressing lows before it tries to redeem itself by bringing back fan favorite, Ava, for the final two episodes. Sadly, even that feels half-baked.Basically, bask in the brilliance of season 1&2 (and they really ARE brilliant), give 3 a watch, and then call it a day.

This show is amazing!! Ryan Murphy had enough of a brain to put Joan Van Ark in a sex scene, smart man!I love this show!! The best episode is the one in which Joan Van Ark and Donna Mills guest star!! Joan has a provocative sex scene with Dr. Christian Troy! She is riding Christian and make sex sounds! Christian even tells her she is perfect, he knows his stuff and he had sex with thousands of women and he knows JOAN IS PERFECT! One big complaint though! They didn't show Joan's naked butt, only a prosthetic of her real naked butt! Why not show Joan's naked butt and make our dreams come true!?!?! Joan said in an interview that she went down and had to take a mold of her royal Dutch butt! They should have showed her real naked butt though, they showed Rosie ODonnel's ugly naked butt, why not Joan's!?! I change my review now, Ryan Murphy is stupid because finally a show that allows graphic sex scenes and nudity and he didn't use Joan's hotness to the fullest, he was on the right track by giving her a sex scene though! It was awesome that Joan had a sex scene and Donna Mills didn't haha! Joan reigns supreme!! I do think that Ryan Murphy is stupid though because he should have had Joan on as a permanent character and had her be in a sexual relationship with Dr. Christian Troy, complete with lots of graphic sex scenes, sexy skimpy clothing and nudity! Why not give the world what we are dying for people!!?!?! Joan would have been up to the challenge because her dream role is a slut who struts her stuff and shows off the worlds greatest body that should be in a museum for all the world to enjoy!!!!!

What can I say? Ryan Murphy's a genius! Nip/Tuck's one of cable TV's landmark guilty pleasures. Murphy's said that NT was meant to be a love story between two straight guys. Of course it's also about people wanting to be perfect and being gravely disappointed. And yet there's still much more to the show.The first 2 seasons were the best, as many people agree. A bit more emphasis on psychological drama, but still a wicked sense of humor. The last 3 seasons became even more lurid, the 5th season turning into a parody of itself as the doctors moved their practice to Los Angeles.Either way, Nip/Tuck is a landmark cable soap opera that was funny, disturbing, kinky, and so many other things. Basically a bit of everything.As for the "moral majority" groups who talked many sponsors into pulling out of NT, this is America. It was "Soap" all over again. When that show came out in the late '70s, a lot of decency groups tried to talk people out of watching it. It annoyed my dad, who was one of the many soldiers who fought to defend the right our free speech. I felt similarly about those who boycotted NT and insulted those of us who watched it.

There are things to like and not like about Nip/Tuck. I didn't start watching the show till Season 4 till the very last episode, and only recently started the first three seasons. I'm noticing that the Miami years are/were the best seasons, but once the show moved to Los Angeles, the show came off more like a parody of its former self. It jumped the implants at Season 5.Drs. Sean McNamara and Christian Troy are the ultimate bromance: can't live with each other, can't live without each other. Sean the family man trying to do the right thing for his family, but when your stuck with a perpetually needy wife like Julia, a nutjob second wife like Teddy, and a perpetual screw-up "son" like Matt, it's hard to be a good guy all the time. Christian is the sexy egotistical ladies man who loves and leaves women, treats the women that do stick around (Kimber) like crap while trying to tolerate others (Gina), but turns to mush when it comes to his "son" Wilbur.You want to like Julia, Matt, and Kimber, but it's just so hard to do so. Julia is basically the desperate housewife with no direction in her life who seemed to never love Sean but stayed with him because he was the breadwinner and a good father to the kids. She loves Christian, she stays with Sean, she goes back to Christian, she sleeps with a dwarf, she tries being a lesbian, and on and on. Jesus, no wonder Sean is stressed. Matt is just a screw-up who gets into one bad situation after another even worse situation. The only time Matt is likable is when he knocks some sense to his parents, but then he goes back to being a screw-up all over again. Kimber is just a lost soul looking for fame, fortune, and romance, but instead gets into porn, gets treated like crap by Christian, and marries Matt thinking he's Christian 2.0 but is nothing more than Matt 0.0, before ending her sad life.Liz seems to be the only normal character out of the bunch. It's fun to see her and Christian go at each other.Despite the L.A. seasons, it's still a brilliant show.