Nip/Tuck

[marywebgirl]

What on Earth could they claim Brooke Shields would want done?

[kafka]

huntergrayson said:

I like how they dub it TV's "deeply superficial" series.

Because it so is. I think I did a paper on that very subject.

Your paper sounds fascinating, HunterGrayson. Was it solely on Nip/Tuck as a reflection on "deeply superficial" series? Could you C&P some small bits from it? Also, what's this about Deneuve's 24K plastic surgery?

MaryWebGirl, Brooke Shields won't be getting anything done. She will be a shrink for Christian. "ort of Dr. Melfi to his Tony Soprano" but, from what I read elsewhere, she won't be all that normal herself." One reviewer said her role will be an ironic F.U. to Tom Cruise. It seems to me, however, that, if she is going to be a screwed up sex addict under the psychiatrist's veneer, it won't be that much of an ironic gesture. Should be interesting either way.

[huntergrayson]

Kafka - I think there's more info in the celeb plastic surgery thread but there seems to be indications that Catherine has not only had a face lift but also gold thread inserted "under" the skin to hold it up and have the lift last for longer.

My paper was kinda about how Nip/Tuck takes the idea of superficiality and the surface conventions of a shallow primetime soap and deepens them by exagerrating the surface to the point of farce, plus the whole surface/reality discrepency. And subverting conventional notions of gender/sexuality. It's not too long - I reread it and thought it kinda sucked because I didn't talk about what I wanted to nearly as much - but it's only 7 double-spaced pages - and I uploaded it here if you want to read it.

[kafka]

Huntergrayson, thank you so much for sharing your paper. I didn't understand all your points about the traditional soaps (e.g., the uninterrupted story line part, because it seems they both have that with the only difference being one of degree), but I found the Nip/Tuck discussion fascinating. You brought to the surface many things I'd only vaguely recognised but you crystallised it perfectly: from the family dynamic brought to extremes with the supposedly Normal Rockwell "perfect" family, to the part about the woman's desire to turn into the Kimber doll, to so much more.

My favorite part was about the homo-erotic subtext to Christian & Troy's relationship. It was hard to miss in that one perfect example you mentioned about the wedding planner/wedding cake incident.

Speaking of your other example in that analysis, the episode right after the one where Sean discovers Matt's paternity and yells "I loved you best" is probably my favorite of all the Nip/Tuck ones. The conjoined siamese twin sisters is probably the reason why, because there is such an obvious parallel with Sean & Christian. Their symbiotic relationship sometimes veers into the parasitic but they're as conjoined as the girls, only there is the added touch of being a bipolar whole: opposite extremes of light and dark, on the surface, but not so much the deeper you go down. And few things reflect the homo-erotic nature of their relationship as that almost 3-way they had with the call girl: Christian's face while sitting, listening to the other make love to the woman, mirrored a thousand emotions, including rejected longing.

I'm babbling but this is probably my favorite show to analyse because there is always so much there. Anyway, thanks again for sharing that essay.

[huntergrayson]

You're welcome and thanks so much for the praise.

Sorry for not warning you about the intro - that kind of stuff was kinda specific to the class. One thing we learned is that traditional daytime soaps are interrupted CONSTANTLY on a narrative level - both within the episode and episode to episode, so you have all these mini-cliffhangers and then the information gets repeated, etc, etc (it was partially designed to fit into a housewife's schedule - so she can step out to do the laundry and then come back). We watched a clip of some soap that was kinda hilarious - every minute or so it was all DUN DUN DUN!

But that's neither here nor there.

If Julian is yours, as you claim on Myspace, what will Alan think?

[deelight]

Does anyone know if/when they will re-run the 3rd season on FX? I have seen the 1st and 2nd and am HOOKED. I've never watched it on tv though; just on DVD and I don't think the 3rd is out yet. When is the 4th starting?

God I love this show.

[huntergrayson]

The fourth starts on September 5th, with the 3rd season DVDs coming out a week before.

[kafka]

huntergrayson said:

If Julian is yours, as you claim on Myspace, what will Alan think?

Hunter, a girl's gotta have backups, ya know.

Deelight, the new season starts September 5th. As for Season 3, I've heard you can pre-order it now on Amazon, but I don't think it ships out until September.

[huntergrayson]

Deelight - I just checked with TiVo and it looks like there is a block of 4 episodes back-to-back starting Sunday at 10, with the same thing the following week. It begins with the 2nd episode of the 3rd season, so you should be able to catch up!

[deelight]

Thanks for checking you guys! I can't wait to see the 3rd season!!