Nip/Tuck
on FX
Episode Summary
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
Nip/Tuck
consistently serves up some
of the most depraved, reprehensible material on television. On January 27th
at 10:00 p.m. ET, the FX network’s twisted show featured a horrifically gruesome
mutilation scene that earned it the shameful distinction of Worst Cable TV
Show of the Week for the second time this month.
As the episode begins, Dr.
Christian Troy attends a breast cancer survivor meeting. His pompous,
loutish sentiments do not endear him to the overwhelmingly female group,
particularly when he offers his opinion of women who do not opt for
reconstructive surgery after having a mastectomy: “Sweetheart,” he spits,
“I’ve been stuffing healthy tits with implants for twenty years. Any woman
who chooses disfigurement chooses to be a victim.” These words take on
grave significance later in the episode, when Christian meets a sexy yet
disturbed woman named Roxy. Her mother and sister died of breast cancer
and she is certain that she is next -- despite the fact that she is in perfect
health. Nevertheless, Christian agrees
to perform a pre-emptive double mastectomy. However, once he gets her into the
operating room, Christian reconsiders.
That’s when Roxy takes
matters into her own hands.
Roxy enters the busy waiting
room of McNamara/Troy and asks the receptionist if there is an available
electrical outlet. She advices the patients sitting next to the outlet to move
to the other side of the room. As “Take Another Little Piece of My Heart”
blares on the soundtrack, Roxy unsheathes an electric carving knife. She takes
off her blouse, cups her naked breast in her hand and begins to slice. Blood
splatters across the waiting room magazines as the by-standers scream and recoil
in horror. Roxy is covered in blood and collapses to the ground. Christian
hears the commotion and rushes in to find Roxy flat on the floor. Her severed
breast lies next to her and a deep gash oozes blood from her chest.
This grotesque
mastectomy-as-performance-art aired as early as 9:00 p.m. in the
Central/Mountain time zone. Whether or not viewers watched it, every cable
subscriber paid for it. Nip/Tuck has shown a general disdain for common
decency, and one can only expect more offending content from this despicable
show. Sadly, though, this is just one series in FX’s stable of shows – each one
just as offensive as the next. It is not enough to complain about this one
episode, or this one series. Indeed, the network itself needs to be served
notice, which is why the PTC encourages viewers to demand that Cable Choice be
made available to all subscribers.
For airing a graphic
self-mutilation Nip/Tuck has been named Worst Cable TV Show of the
Week.
