Nip/Tuck

[thedeadlyhook]

Tonight's Nip/Tuck episode:

Richard Chamberlain! Okay, given the actor's oh-so-tardy coming-out, his appearance here as queenish sugar-daddy was interesting. I so used to swoon over that guy back in his Shogun days and The Three Musketeers, and no wonder. He's a pretty, pretty man. And did anybody besides me recognize RJ, he of the magic letterman's jacket from BtVS, S7, "Him," as the rent boy Christian wants to reform? Also: amazing tush. My.

Boy, practically no one came off looking good this week, did they? Sean's control issues are freaky as ever (I half-expected to hear him say he wanted to operate on the baby in-utero), Christian's gay panic hitting redzone levels (not that it's unprecendented; aside from the like-father-like-son parallels with Matt, Christian has his own rent-boy history to contend with, and he didn't exactly respond, shall we say, well to come-ons from Quentin last season), and Julia's overreacting at what seemed - to me, anyway - to her daughter's perfectly understandable attempts to cope with her upcoming little brother's condition. Scientology came off as the most rational of available options, which is something you don't see too often.

The mutual lap dances with eye contact across the room? Shades of Quentin last year. Yes, call it foreshadowing.

Christian actually threatening Kimber. That was DISTURBING. On the plus end, I have even more respect for Kimber.

Okay, now we know what happened with Matt and Charity and the loathsome white supremicist dad last season. Prison. An improvement over the unmarked grave I expected, given that this is the show that started with people being fed to gators. Ai yi yi.

Connor McNamara? What IS it with that name???

Blu Mondae with a breast reduction becomes Ashlee Wednesday. Nice.

And wow, next week looks even more lurid. Amazing.

I am never not surprised by this show. That's saying something.

Comments

[toysdream.livejournal.com]

I think Sean still scares me more than Christian, but it's getting closer to a dead heat as Christian's misogyny becomes steadily less subtle. And now he has his very own rent boy to go with that giant metal cock!

On the other hand, Scientology seems like a relatively harmless diversion for Matt compared to his previous hobbies. Perhaps some people are just better off joining a cult. :-\

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

That was sort of my reaction as well. Horrified by the Scientology, but when you compare it to last year's skinhead neo-Nazi phase, it may actually be an improvement. Scary.

[thedeadlyhook.livejournal.com]

Christian is scaring me more on the physical intimidation front - compared to Kimber, he's a big, scary guy, and it's a frightening scene precisely for that reason. Although it's worth remembering that Sean is the one to actually have a history of violent behavior to a level that Christian never has.

The Scientology angle is even more interesting, now that I think about it, given how anti-psychology that discpline is, and since the show's usual stance on psychology is not terribly flattering either.

[toysdream.livejournal.com]

I don't recall seeing Christian physically assault anyone before, although I could be forgetting something, and obviously he's crossed that line in this latest episode. I think Kimber's got some serious guts, though, and it's ironic to see Christian accusing her of weakness when she's facing down a shouting bully who outweighs her by a factor of two or three. There really was a lot of projection going on this episode, methinks.

As for Scientology, I'm hardly an expert here, but I have the impression that its ire is directed more specifically against psychiatry (the medical discipline) rather than psychology (the study of how the mind works). In other words, my sister-in-law's specialty rather than my brother's. This animus appears to extend to the use of psychiatric drugs, which ironically seem to be much more effective than parking somebody on a couch and asking them about their mother. :-)

Nip/Tuck's stance on psychiatry is an interesting question, and it's one I started pondering again last week with the introduction of the Brooke Shields character. In general, characters in the mental health field - including Julia's mom, Eva the "life coach," and that staff counselor they had working in the office for a while - seem to be pretty good at zeroing in on peoples' issues and problems, but their advice tends to be self-interested or lead to unintended consequences. On the other hand, they're not depicted as being so relentlessly conformist as the plastic surgeons, and Matt's Scientology-inspired grumbling about taking his meds seems like the first time the show has raised the subject of psychiatry as a device for imposing normalcy on people. Whereas, where plastic surgery is concerned, that topic comes up literally every week.

[thedeadlyhook.livejournal.com]

I think the episode with the pedophile priest is the closest we've seen Christian get to phsyical violence, at least that I recall.

Good point on the psychiatry-vs.-psychology front; I think you're really onto something in the show's attitude re: psychology being pretty good at zeroing in on peoples' issues and problems, but their advice tends to be self-interested or lead to unintended consequences. In contrast, medication does help a lot of people, but tends to be seen medicating away a problem instead of facing it, which brings us back around to psychology again. And it's precisely that kind of moebius-loop thinking that I think I appreciate most about this show. : ) We'll see where they go with it.

God, Eva the life coach... y'know, the series' overall main theme of cosmetic adjustements as a reflection of deeper problems really does tie into all that psycho-babble talk, doesn't it? But is the point of view there that analysis is just like the plastic surgery, only a superficial fix? Hmm...

[asta77.livejournal.com]

I think the daughter needs to start checking out boarding schools now and escape while she still has a chance at a normal, healthy life. I mean, she has parents who think they are doing the best thye can when one screams at her for tryig to understand what her baby brothers life will be like and another who supports her elder brother's decision to join a cult.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah. That poor little girl is DOOMED!

[thedeadlyhook.livejournal.com]

I really am starting to worry about that kid. She's been a pretty background character so far, but you never know what's gonna be in store. If she has even half the problems Matt has... brrrr...

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Why, yes, rent boy had a damn fine tush. Yowza.

[thedeadlyhook.livejournal.com]

For a moment, I actually wondered "stunt butt"?, but then realized that no, this is Nip/Tuck, after all. *g*