Frank

If you aren't familiar with it, Nip/Tuck is a series that shows the tangled, mixed up lives of two plastic surgeons in Miami. The show details many issues of the day, such as a man wanting breast implants to get inspiration for a book he's writing to more far-fetched stories of a wicked crime organization that has it's members seducing and taking kidney's out of random bar patrons. The show doesn't focus on the gory side of surgery (although it does show many in vivid, bloody detail) but on the two main characters whose lives are just as fucked up, sometimes even more so, as their patients physical appearances. Basically, the show is just a really well acted and produced soap opera.

In many episodes, there will be a certain theme that resonates with the main characters lives. In a series of episodes, the main characters, Sean and Christian, find themselves at odds with each other finding their practice splitting apart. They are forced to examine their situation when they are called to do a surgery for Rose and Raven Rosenburg (Lori and George Schappell) who are twins conjoined at the head. After a somewhat successful separation, one of the sisters dies and the other one doesn't want to live without her and her mother pulls the life support plug. As the two doctors sew the two women back together, they realize that they are stronger together than apart. It's moments like these, I think, that keep the show from becoming a standard, medical drama.

What the show really excels at, though, is bringing to light how much people in our society, in general, hate themselves so much that they are willing to go to extreme lengths to feel better about themselves. Invasive, unnecessary surgery has become the standard for fixing today's supposed ills, and doctors, like the ones seen in Nip/Tuck, are pushing the business even farther.

There is even a reality show about plastic surgeons on E! called Dr. 90210 chronicling, among others, the practice and home life of Dr. Robert Rey. I was amazed to see the 120 lb. models coming in for liposuction before a shoot. I don't get how people can feel so bad about themselves and find so many flaws that they need to have half a pound of fat sucked out of them. Sometimes I think they need half a pound of common sense injected into their heads.

My point is that people are under a lot of bogus pressure today to look good in order to feel good about themselves. I just wish that people could put aside the glamour media and take stock of what life is really about and enjoy what they've been given.