'Nip/Tuck' gets its own makeover

"Nip/Tuck" is taking a dose of its own medicine.

Creator-executive producer Ryan Murphy looked into his mirror, applied the show's signature question -- "Tell me what you don't like about yourself" -- to his FX series, and decided it was time for some cosmetic changes. For season five, Miami's in the rearview mirror, and it's hooray for Hollywood.

Free-living plastic surgeons Dr. Sean McNamara (Dylan Walsh) and Dr. Christian Troy (Julian McMahon) have taken down their shingle in South Florida and relocated to Tinseltown, where it seems there are only two types of people: those who have had a lot of work done on themselves and the fabulously successful plastic surgeons who did it. Sean and Christian, minor celebrities on the East Coast, are guppies in the Pacific Ocean.

"They kind of ruled Miami as plastic surgeons," Murphy said. "I was very interested in the idea of what happens when you hit 40 and suddenly, you go from being the big fish in a small pond to the opposite. This show is really about them suddenly on Rodeo Drive, surrounded by dozens of other plastic surgeons, who have been here forever. How do they make it?"

How they eventually make it turns the dynamics of the series upside down. A hellcat of a publicist, Fiona McNeil (an effective comeback by veteran Lauren Hutton), educates them in the ways of their new hometown. It doesn't matter how good you are at your profession. Celebrity is everything.

Fiona's solution? She lands Sean and Christian
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a gig as technical advisers on a TV series about -- what else -- a womanizing, party-animal plastic surgeon. Oliver Platt flies way over the top as Freddy Prune, the frantic executive producer of "Hearts 'n Scalpels," and Bradley Cooper's Aidan Stone, the star of the drama, is almost as obnoxiously vain as Christian.

However, it's Sean who is adopted as a role model by Aidan. Sean even gets some on-camera lines, which leads to the high visibility essential in Hollywood. Christian is relegated to second banana and doesn't handle it well.

Murphy was challenged to come up with plausible story lines that would bring the rest of the familiar characters to the West Coast. "To me, the heart of the show is the family," Murphy said. The series loses something when the relationships aren't prominent, "so this year we found a way to have everybody come back for various reasons. We really do explore the temptations of L.A. and how that affects the family."

Anesthesiologist Dr. Liz Cruz was easy. She has professional ties to Sean and Christian and nothing to keep her in Miami. Luring the others west necessitated really creative writing. A crisis leads Matt McNamara, the son of both Sean and Christian (it's a long story), and his kinky wife Kimber to come seeking support. The plot twist that brings Sean's ex-wife Julia to town will generate water cooler conversation.

Joely Richardson as Julia, John Hensley as Matt, Kelly Carlson as Kimber and Roma Maffia as Liz slip back into their old roles as comfortably as if they were putting on a pair of old jeans. Rosie O'Donnell will reprise her turn as lottery-rich trailer-park trash Dawn Budge in a multi-episode arc starting in week four.

Although the setting has changed, "Nip/Tuck" will be as outrageous and racy as ever, Murphy promises. "I feel the show has always been designed to sort of push boundaries and explore things in our society that are a little bit taboo. Sexuality is certainly one of those things."

This has made "Nip/Tuck" probably TV's most protested show by self-appointed moral guardians. The angry letters and boycott threats don't faze Murphy. "The only thing you can do is say, 'Thank you, I don't agree with your opinion,' and move on," he said. "That's what we've done."

Via mercurynews