Nip/Tuck has been more uneven ...
Question: Nip/Tuck has been more uneven this season, but I'm still really enjoying the show. What do you think, though, about what the show's writers have done to Matt this season? Is it possible for a show to take a character in
too dark a direction? Now Matt's not only committed a hate crime, but he's dating a neo-Nazi and doing favors for her white-supremacist dad? I know Matt had his share of shocks last season, but aren't the show's writers taking this way too far, to the point where viewers may no longer care if Matt's conscience wakes up again or if he's eventually redeemed? Unless it's revealed that Matt is also a rapist and/or pedophile, it's hard to imagine how the show could take the character in a more loathsome direction. Maybe it makes for a surprising "twist" or something, but it just feels to me like a betrayal of what we know about his character from the past two seasons. What do you think? Does there come a point when a show gets too addicted to shock value and overwhelms its characters?
Answer: I'm always amused when
Nip/Tuck fans worry about a story line or a character going too far. When
don't they? This particular letter came in before Nov. 29's jaw-dropper of an episode aired, in which Christian debased an unattractive patient, forcing her to wear a paper bag over her head when he took her (cruelly) to bed, after repeated other insults. (The fact she revealed herself to be a masochist did not lessen the sting.) And let's not even get into what Quentin did with that angry soldier! It's hard to forgive any of these characters for their oversize flaws. Yes, it's true that Matt's latest detour into aberrant behavior, following his violent encounter with the transsexual subculture, is beyond disturbing — not to mention the unsettling spectacle of our sweet Meg Pryor (
Brittany Snow of
American Dreams) playing his hateful racist slut girlfriend.
Nip/Tuck always walks a treacherous line as it wallows in each character's psychological dark side. Does this one cross the line? Is there a line? Do we even want there to be a line? I'm not so sure. And even if Matt is eventually "redeemed," I'm betting it won't take. But I'm thinking we'll still care, because all of the other exasperating people in his life will force us to care.
