Chalk it up to another case of there simply not being enough hours in the day, but the truth of the matter is that I’ve never watched a single episode of “Nip/Tuck” until now…and since this is the second half of the show’s next-to-last season, it’s probably not exactly the best time for me to decide to get involved in the adventures of Drs. Sean McNamara and Christian Troy. The decision, however, came as a result of two simultaneous events: Ross Ruediger’s review of the first half of the 5th season, which was just released on DVD, and the arrival of a screener of the first episode of the second half of the 5th season. Stupid ol’ Ross. If his positive review of “Criminal Minds: Season 2” hadn’t introduced me to that show, then I wouldn’t be trusting his opinion of “Nip/Tuck,” but when the guy describes it as “tasteless, vulgar, trashy, over-the-top fare that most people probably don’t care to admit they enjoy,” then I’m left wondering why I never took a chance on it before now.
And with that, let us hit “play” on “Ronnie Chase,” the first new “Nip/Tuck” of 2009.
The use of the O’Jays’ “Backstabber” within the opening sequence is inspired, as is the Mark Ronson cover of “Stop Me If You Think That You’ve Heard This One Before,” since what we’re watching is, after all, more or less an expanded flashback to events which occurred during the last episode of the season’s first half. After we catch up to the cliffhanging moment where Sean was lying in a pool of his own blood, things move pretty fast. Christian and Liz manage to keep Annie from crashing, and even after being dragged from the operating room into his office by Colleen, Sean successfully extracts revenge on his crazed assailant and keeps the show from becoming “Misery: The Series.” But poor Doc McNamara is in bad shape: as Christian arrives and tells his partner to hold on, Sean groans, “I can’t feel my legs.”
Suddenly, it’s four months later…and Sean’s doing his best Ironside impression, making his appearance by rolling out of an elevator in a wheelchair.
