Grid Effect

Not a whole helluva lot to say about last weeks episode. We couldn’t stand the gimmick or the “New York” cameo or the infighting or anything about it really. Eden’s miraculously early return seemed entirely too premature and quite honestly, if there was anything we enjoyed about the episode it’s been forgotten about over the past week.

Sean biting the proverbial apple (see James, its a fairly common metaphor, no need to beat it to death) was inevitable. A series like this doesn’t devote a significant amount of time to something that doesn’t happen. It isn’t that good. In light of recent events, we can all see where this is heading. She’s going to attempt to blackmail him despite putting on her most innocent and victimized face last week, Sean is going to have a moment of reflection where he questions his judgment and morality, and either by the end of tomorrow’s episode or the end of the season, Sean will have exposed Eden for what she actually is, and all will be right in the Nip Tuck universe.

It’s all moot anyhow, because after the “future episode” last year we all know Sean is practicing medicine twenty years from now, so he won’t go to prison or lose his license or anything damaging. Maybe a few bad headlines, anything else for this series would be unrealistic. We do have to give the creators of this series credit though for the sculpting of Eden’s character. That is one nasty little piece of work. She’s like the female equivalent of Antoine Chigurh.

In case you don’t know who Antoine Chigurh is, he’s the guy strangling the cop above.

The only other four characters that this series devoted any time to, in typical fashion, were involved in something of a love triangle. A triangle with four people you ask? Christian was the puppet master this episode, leaking to Julia that Olivia and Liz were making out. As a side note, I have no idea if he actually witnessed this, or lied about it and it turned out to be true. We were playing with the roommates dog while watching this. So as you can imagine, our interest has all but deteriorated.

The patient this week was actually reasonable, but the series has spent the better part of five seasons with the unreasonable, so he seemed misplaced. But an aging employee feeling the need to sustain his youthful image is entirely understandable, if also depressing. We can’t imagine him agreeing to be apart of a reality series, but in an episode full of plot holes and missteps, we can agree to suspend disbelief for it.

As for the “unique” format of this episode, we give them points for trying but it’s not terribly innovative to mock reality trash television. Reality TV of the VH1 mode s pathetic and superficial and a train wreck unraveling before our eyes, but the problem with a train wreck is after awhile it loses its shock value, you become desensitized and ultimately you wind up drinking yourself in a stupor trying to forget it even took place.

And really, could anyone take Christian seriously with his outrage about how the debut episode turned out? Didn’t he orchestrate its exploitative nature? He seemed genuinely pissed about the product, and I couldn’t tell if he was putting Sean on or being honest. It seemed like the latter, which is absurd.

Speaking of which, can this series develop some new themes and character traits to hammer away at. We get it, Christian’s a narcissist, Sean’s a pussy, Julia’s indecisive and the world is shallow but individuals usually get nothing out of it. I’m assuming the show creators have a rolodex of, like, ten themes that they casually toss into whatever “shocking” subplot they offer up for any given episode.

In short, this series has a few kinks to work out, and its probably not going to happen before this season is cut short due to the writer’s strike. We’re tuning in tonight, but not out of adulation or interest, but out of apathy.