Nip/Tuck – Season Five: Part 1 (Warner DVD)
Picture:
B- Sound: B- Extras: C+ Episodes: B+
After four
wonderfully entertaining seasons of making the ugly souls of Miami beautiful
Dr. Sean McNamara and Dr. Christian Troy decided to pack it up and move
westward to California in Nip/Tuck –
Season Five: Part 1. After Seasons 3 and 4 had not quite lived up
to the excitement of Season 1 and 2
it was obvious that the series needed a slight overhaul and moving the series
to Hollywood was a great choice. What
better place to work the magic of plastic surgery than Hollywood? But soon enough McNamara/Troy finds that they
are small fish in a mighty big pond…a deep, dirty pond.
In Los
Angeles amongst the glitter and glamour of celebrities and celebrity wannabes,
Sean and Christian find that they are a long way from the shores of Miami. The first half of Season 5 (featured here in this set) starts off a bit slow as Sean
and Christian gets their bearings on how to function in their new home
town. Not before long the boys realize
that in order to get anything from the city you have to give a piece of your
self up in return. As the plastic
surgery team searches for a way to make a name for themselves, they recognize that
sheer talent is not enough to build a practice with a Tinseltown and soon start
rolling with quite different crowds.
Sean becomes a breakout star on a racy, fictional plastic surgery
television series called Hearts and
Scalpels (interesting parallel eh?) and Christian makes a name for himself
in a very revealing magazine spread. In
hopes of solidifying a client base Christian even finds himself mixed up with a
bizarre group of Marilyn Monroe impersonators and throughout the season the
boys have run-ins with terrorist victims, alien abductees, and other various
oddities that only the doctors of McNamara/Troy could ever endure.
The
season overall is a step up from Season
4 and it seems that the series may be back on the right track. The series over time has begun to focus too
much on the boys’ lives rather than patients they are treating. The interesting setup of Seasons 1 and 2 was
that the McNamara/Troy team had their quirks, but it was how they got mixed up
in their patient’s lives that was the captivating part of the series. The show has moved more into the territory of
exclusively focusing on the boys and the practice takes a backseat. Hopefully Season 6 will fix all this.
For a
further look at Nip/Tuck refer to
our Season 4 HD-DVD (now defunct)
and DVD coverage at the link below:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/5997/Nip/Tuck+%E2%80%93+The+Comp
The
technical features on Part 1 of Season 5 are just as clean as the
previous DVD releases, but a High Definition Blu-ray release would do the
series more justice. The picture is
presented in a 1.78 X 1 Widescreen that is crisp and clean, but does have its
moments of light/dark issues, grit, and off balance colors. The sound is a Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
Sound that does nicely use all the speakers at one point or another, but mostly
comes from the front and the surrounds kicking in mainly for the scenes the
utilize music.
The
extras are less than expected, but it is only the first half of the season so
maybe there is more to come. Special
features include Hollywood Hedonism: The
Transition from Miami to Hollywood a featurette that goes behind the scenes
to explore how the series has evolved and what changed once the boys went
west. Extras also include some Unaired Scenes that don’t add to the
season and a Severed Parts: Gag Reel that
is mildly entertaining and fans will enjoy seeing the cast have a few laughs at
their own expense.
The
series is certainly not what it was in Seasons
1 and 2, but still manages to be insanely entertaining with its
unpredictable level of sleaze and debauchery.
- Michael P. Dougherty II
