Impressed with its own excesses, too often.
“Nip/Tuck,” FX’s risque plastic surgery drama, insists on pursuing its point no matter how uncomfortable – or queasy – it makes viewers.
The good news is, there’s usually a point.
The goal of this eye-popping series really does aim beyond the obvious titillation. Sometimes the aim is to explore vanity and petty preoccupations with the flesh, sometimes to reveal the lack of trust in human relationships, sometimes topical medical/ethical issues, and other times larger questions of mortality and morality.
If you can get past the showy physicality, there’s real meat here.
Unfortunately, the series is frequently its own worst enemy.
Every so often, (it feels like every few scenes), the visuals overwhelm the content, and it’s clear the producers are intent on using every bit of license that cable networks allow. Story is overwhelmed by effects. It all becomes “deeply superficial,” without the ironic twist.
However, to complain would be to insist you read Playboy only for the interviews. And so we watch.
As the fourth season begins at 11 p.m. Tuesday on FX, there’s trouble in the charmed practice of super surgeons Christian Troy (Julian McMahon) and Sean McNamara (Dylan Walsh).
Thankfully putting last season’s annoying “Carver” business behind us, the season launches with the yin-yang business partners at odds; both the friendship and the professional relationship are in jeopardy. And Julia (Joely Richardson), the emotionally crucial end of their odd triangle, learns distressing news about her (and Sean’s) unborn baby.
The faces passing through the action continue to be as much fun as the action.
In this season’s opening hour, Larry Hagman shows up in a stunning guest role as Burt Landau, a wealthy businessman who has a much younger wife. Landau has a need for an increased sexual capacity, shall we say, and, it turns out, a desire to purchase the medical practice. His plan is to leave the day-to-day running of the business to his gorgeous wife, Michelle (Sanaa Lathan).
That’s a perfect set-up for the predatory Christian, who is in need of proving himself after his sexual preference is questioned. He’ll have to do more than “butch up” the interior design of his bachelor pad in this running storyline. The dark humor verges on silliness as the ladies’ man begins to question himself.
Brooke Shields is forgettable as Christian’s psychiatrist, but Kathleen Turner, as the aging phone sex artist who requests a “voice lift,” is hilarious.
In the second hour, airing Sept. 12, Richard Chamberlain makes what’s destined to be the most talked-about guest appearance of the year.
We’ve come a long way since “The Thornbirds.” Here the former king of the miniseries seems to have a blast making fun of a certain subset of the gay male population.
Chamberlain plays Arthur Stiles, the wealthy, haughty and manipulative older boyfriend of a much younger man. Stiles wants his young protege to undergo surgery to achieve more perfect facial features, like his own. The young man is unsure of his own sexual preferences.
That’s where Christian steps in to offer assistance. This story, juxtaposed with the tale of a deformed man who Sean operates on, mines the series’ ongoing issue of self-worth. (Not to mention bad puns on the phrase “pro bono.”)
Naturally on “Nip/Tuck,” the grand ideas about self-esteem and what’s important in life are tucked between the shots of pole dancing, lap dancing and drilling (surgical and sexual).
“Nip/Tuck” lives to shock. As in seasons past, the series challenges our intestinal fortitude and tries our patience.
It’s best in the quiet moments when it stops trying to outdo itself.
Disney scores again
Speaking of deeply superficial, the debut of the new tween movie starring Raven-Symone, “The Cheetah Girls 2,” on the Disney Channel averaged a record 7.82 million viewers last week, surpassing the company’s previous phenomenon, “High School Musical.”
TV critic Joanne Ostrow can be reached at 303-954-1830 or jostrow@denverpost.com.
