Nip Tuck: Difference between revisions

''Nip/Tuck'' is an American Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning television [[Medical Drama]] series created by Ryan Murphy for FX Networks. The show follows the lives of two plastic surgeons, Sean McNamara and Christian Troy at the McNamara/Troy surgical practice.

 

 

The series focuses upon the relationship between Sean and Christian, friends since college and partners in a successful plastic surgery medical practice. Sadly, their lives are far from happy: Sean's marriage to Julia, who dropped out of medical school after becoming pregnant (with Christian's child, due to a one-night stand) is strained at best. Their "oldest" son Matt (an 18-year-old played by an [[Dawson Casting|actor in his late twenties]]) is a complete screw-up of epic proportions. Matt's crazy "antics" include trying to cut off his penis's foreskin by himself, seducing his girlfriend's lesbian lover, running over a young girl and disfiguring her as a result, sleeping with a 30+ year old woman who turns out to be transsexual, beating up another transsexual (who later has her friends beat Matt up and piss on him afterwords), doing crystal meth and becoming a Scientologist while being married to his real dad Christian's ex-fiancée, porn star Kimber Henry, and fathering a daughter with her, almost starring in gay porn because he can't afford baby food, burning himself while "cooking up" drugs, dating a horribly disfigured woman and then cruelly dumping her when she won't marry him, and becoming an armed robber while dressed like a mime.

Basically, every one of the core characters, and most of the supporting ones, are people you want to reach through the screen and slap at least once per episode.

 

* [[Aesop Amnesia]]: Christian consistently "learning" not to be a selfish, coldhearted monster and immediately forgetting all about his lesson by the time the next episode rolls around, even though it always appeared he had made amends to start a new life the week (or season) before.

* [[All Just a Dream]]: {{spoiler|Christian's "funeral" in Season 3.}}

* [[Force Feeding]]: In the season five episode "Kyle Ainge," a rival talent agent is knocked out, taped to a chair, and killed by having teddy bear stuffing pellets forced down his throat through a machine.

* [[Freaks of the Week]]: A lot of the clients of the week were part of strange subcultures.

* [[Goodbye Cruel World]]: Megan O'Hara (Sean's first love) does this with his help after her breast cancer returns as does The [[Donnie Darko]]-esque [[Emo Kid]] Enigma, and then Kimber after she discovers that Christian is still unable to truly love her.

* [[Good Girls Avoid Abortion]]: Averted twice. In season 2, Liz had one when she finds out that the baby she's carrying would be born with Down's Syndrome. In season 6, Kimber has one when [[Jerkass]] Christian tells her that she could either choose between keeping him as her boyfriend or receive child support checks but lose him completely as he already has 3 kids and does not want another. There are some complications during the procedure and afterwards Kimber is told that she can't have kids anymore.

* [[Gorn]]: During the surgery scenes, and in plenty of other instances as well.

* [[Grand Finale]]: A somewhat subdued one that gives a fairly definitive conclusion to the series {{spoiler|with Christian forcing Sean out of the practice for good because he knows its what Sean really wants}} while still being somewhat open ended and not overly dramatic about the whole ordeal.

* [[Has Two Mommies|Has Two Daddies]]: {{spoiler|1=Matt McNamara}} after [[The Reveal]] refers to {{spoiler|Sean and Christian}} as his Dads to acquaintances.

* [[Heterosexual Life Partners]]: Sean and Christian

* [[Homoerotic Dream]]: See [[Ho Yay]] in the YMMV tab.

* [[Idiosyncratic Episode Naming]]: Each episode is named after the patient(s) served by McNamara/Troy.

* [[Incest Is Relative]]: {{spoiler|The Carver and the female police officer investigating the case}} are siblings. Who are sleeping together.

* [[Infant Immortality]]: Compared to what rest of her family goes through, the [[Mc Namaras]]' young daughter Annie gets off awfully light. The show rarely even acknowledges that her immediate family going through hell might have some kind of adverse effects on her.

* [[Insecure Love Interest]]: Christian breaks up with Natasha because he thinks she deserves better than a [[Casanova]] like him.

* [[Ivy League for Everyone]]

* [[Jerkass]] / [[Jerk With a Heart of Gold]]: Christian Troy zigzags between these tropes constantly. Although, many agree that he falls more into the Jerkass category.

* [[Promotion to Opening Titles]]: Several. Liz gets one in Season 2 (along with a new last name), and Kimber, Gina and Dr. Costa all get one in Season 3, although Gina was only credited for her appearances. {{spoiler|Liz and Kimber remain so until the end of the show, Gina and Dr. Costa are both dropped after Season 3, although Gina begins appearing as a guest star again.}}

* [[Rape As Redemption]]: This could be the point of the Carver arc. [[Serial Killer|The Carver]] selects beautiful models (both female and male), brutally rapes them and disfigures their faces. In one memorable case, the Carver rapes a ''male'' victim, hinted to be a [[Jerkass]] prior to the rape, making him pathetic, broken and emasculated.

* [[Redemption Equals Death]]: Even after knowing she'll probably go to jail, Marcy Hamill decides to call Virginia Hayes herself so she can apologize to her in person for stealing her identity. When Virginia shows up, she takes a pillow and suffocates Marcy.

* [[Refuge in Audacity]]

* [[Sex Is Interesting]]: Those who thought the [[High Concept]] of "a TV show about plastic surgeons" is interesting enough to hold the viewers' interest by itself will have to get used to the constant influx of sex-related plots, most of which surprisingly enough don't even involve [[The Casanova|Christian]], the one character you'd expect it of.

* [[Soap Within a Show]]: the show Sean co-starred in during season five, named "Hearts 'n Scalpels."

* [[Something Completely Different]]: Season 5 and 6 of the show take place in Hollywood, not Miami.

* [[Split Personality]]: In the episode Montana/Sassy/Justice, the client has a split personality, where one personality wants her ankles fixed and another wants her breasts reduced because she is 5.

* [[Villainous Rescue]]: In the last episode of Season 3 {{spoiler|Kit}} saves Christian and Sean from the Carver by shooting him in the back. Sounds good, huh? Not really, since {{spoiler|she is Carver's sister, they were working together all along and this is just a part of Carver's escape plan.}}

* [[Wham Line]]: {{spoiler|"Ava's a man."}}

** This also seems to happen when a character is promoted to series regular. Grace Santiago was dropped with no explanation toward the end of the first season, and when Gina was added to the main cast of Season 3, she appeared a grand total of... four times. And was promptly removed and began appearing regularly as a guest star again.

* [[White Mask of Doom]]: The Carver.

* [[You're Not My Father]]: Matt says this to Christian right after the latter bails him out of jail. {{spoiler|the twist is that Christian really ''is'' Matt's father and had only found this out in the same episode. Unusually for this trope, Matt's pronouncement is actually quite accurate-- Christian isn't much of a father figure to him at all}}.

* [[Yo Yo Plot Point]]: Basically, if a character isn't dead, expect them to come back, (and even then don't rule it out.) Characters from any episode, any season, and any situation can reappear for little or no explanation, often causing the scenes shown in the "Previously on Nip/Tuck" flashbacks to be from FOUR SEASONS PRIOR.