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DVD Review: NIP/TUCK: SEASON FIVE, PART TWO

Studio: Warner Home Video
Year: 2009
Cast: Dylan Walsh, Julian McMahon, John Hensley, Roma Maffia, Kelly Carlson, Joely Richardson, Katee Sackhoff, Portia de Rossi, Adhir Kalyan, Sharon Gless, Richard Burgi, Bradley Cooper
Director: various
Release Date: October 06, 2009
Rating: Not Rated for (adult language, violence)
Run Time: 05h:39m:21s
Genre(s): television

“I want you to marry me.” - Dr. Christian Troy (Julian McMahon)

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The last eight episodes of Season 5 of one of the best shows on TV make their way to DVD just in time for the Season 6 premiere...office visits to McNamara/Troy have never been better.

Movie Grade: A-

DVD Grade: B

Say what you will about the excessive cheesiness and hokeyness that make up at least part of every episode, but Nip/Tuck remains one of television’s ultimate guilty pleasures. While it was recently announced that the show’s final episode will air in 2011, the end is coming not as a result of degrading story quality. Instead, series mastermind Ryan Murphy (Glee) knows that the exploits of Drs. Christian Troy (Julian McMahon) and Sean McNamara (Dylan Walsh) can only go on for so long, and fans have the utmost confidence that the show will end in as grand and fitting a fashion as it began.

Split up due to the 2008 writers’ strike, the final eight episodes of the show’s fifth season aired earlier this year, with the first, Ronnie Chase, showing us the aftermath of crazy Colleen’s (Sharon Gless) surprise attack on Sean. He’s now confined to a wheelchair and deeming himself unable to perform surgeries. McNamara/Troy’s problems don’t stop there, as Christian is diagnosed with breast cancer, putting the practice in peril. Christian begins chemotherapy in Gene Shelly, but he also begins a romance once-thought unheard of in the annals of Nip/Tuck lore. Also in this episode, the jig is up on Sean’s charade, angering everyone he relies on for support.

In Roxy St. James, Christian meets someone he can relate to, cancer-wise, while his relationship with Liz (Roma Maffia) gets even more complicated, and Julia (Joely Richardson) and Olivia’s (Portia de Rossi) love reaches a tragic end. Ricky Wells finds Sean getting closer to new “employee” Raj (Adhir Kalyan), as Matt (John Hensley) becomes more and more jealous of them. Kimber (Kelly Carlson) is back to cause more trouble in Manny Skerritt, this time, wanting to already make her baby daughter look younger via Botox. Aidan Stone (Bradley Cooper) wants to write a movie based on Sean’s life, but he’s busy with new anesthesiologist Teddy (Katee Sackhoff).

Sean and Teddy’s relationship gets even wilder in Budi Sabri, while he works with Christian on a patient with a horrible skin problem. Allegra Caldarello is arguably this set’s best episode, thanks in large part to Richard Burgi’s (Desperate Housewives) performance as Dr. Logan Taper who has one of the strangest “hobbies” ever explored on television, even by Nip/Tuck’s deranged standards. The season finale, Giselle Blaylock and Legend Chandler, does the inevitable and has the show indulging in the current vampire craze. That’s only a minor part of this season wrap-up though, as a major wedding takes place, generally without complications, but a final scene leaves many questions to be answered next season. Ok, I’ve got to admit that Nip/Tuck isn’t what it used to be. However, it is still one of the few shows on TV that I look forward to every week and genuinely miss it once a given season is over. Fortunately, the show’s great cult fan base (my Mom included, yikes!) has Warner to thank for another great collection in the form of Nip/Tuck: Season Five, Part Two. Capturing all eight shows of this season’s second half, the set features audio and video presentations that aren’t quite as impressive as the original HD broadcasts, but still hold their own in standard-def. Unfortunately, we only get one extra, in the form of a worth-while behind-the-scenes piece. Once you get through this set, the best part is that the first episode of Season Six premieres on FX in only a week!

Posted by: Chuck Aliaga - October 7, 2009, 5:14 pm - DVD Review
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