By Tim Surette - TV.com
Producer Ryan Murphy talks about the show's fifth season, the move to Los Angeles, and getting approval from viewers.
One would think that Nip/Tuck, a taboo-filled show about two plastic surgeons in body-conscious Miami, would pretty much write itself. Well, the fact is that it doesn't; that duty falls largely on show creator Ryan Murphy.
"Has anyone seen my car keys?"
Nip/Tuck is getting ready for its season-five premiere on October 30, and with it comes a big change--the doctors are moving their practice to Los Angeles.
In preparation for the new season, Murphy held a conference call with a panel of journalists (TV.com among them) to answer questions that may be on their minds.
The greatest change in the show--the move to LA--was a hot topic, and the reasons behind the move were a bit surprising.
"[The decision to move the setting to LA] was really nothing but my own boredom," said Murphy. "I love the idea of [the characters] going from being big fishes in a small pond to the opposite... It was just about, OK, if I'm going to come back and commit to two more seasons of this show, I need something to be interested in about."
Murphy always considered the show to be "very L.A." from the beginning--"sort of the purveyor of trends and pain at the same time, and desperation."
Nip/Tuck is undergoing a bit of its own lengthening; this season FX asked for 22 episodes, instead of the normal 15 or so from the previous four years. Murphy admits that the extra time will make the season "a little funky." Though it will be one season to viewers, Murphy sees it as three parts, which are conveniently divided up between the scheduled hiatuses.
So we know where and how long the season will be, but what about what's inside? Murphy promises that the cases will continue to be strange, unusual, and plucked from the headlines (or in some cases actually preceding headlines).
"I remember when we did the face transplant, I got a lot of heat when we were shooting it, like this has never happened," said Murphy. "And then I think literally two weeks after [the episode] aired, [doctors had performed] the first face transplant."
Murphy then discussed the show within the show, a spoof on medical dramas called Hearts and Scalpels. That show serves as the motive for the move to Los Angeles, because the doctors become medical advisors for it.
"It's an amalgamation between our show and ER and Grey's Anatomy, where you have sometimes inappropriate romance scenes and these incredible scenes of carnage, which don't really make sense, but are very funny to write."
The faux show has become so popular that Murphy has been contacted to make it its own online show. Given his hectic schedule, he doesn't think it'll happen, but he does say the crew is planning on doing an entire episode of Nip/Tuck that is all Hearts and Scalpels.
Season five will also feature bigger budgets, which is the result of FX being solidly behind the show.
Nothing funny to say here. Move along.
"Our sets are like three times as big. In success, the network has supported us in making this year even loftier than it's ever been before," explained Murphy. "And if I ever need anything else extra, [FX is] always the first to step up."
As far as writing the storylines for the new season, Murphy is doing something that isn't typical for a producer--he's actually listening to fans. By scouring online message boards--particularly Niptuckforum.com--he can get an idea of what fans like and don't like.
One thing that will never change is Dr. Christian Troy. When asked if the character, who was recently made a grandfather on the show, would continue to be his flashy, sex-crazed, arrogant self, Murphy had a simple response. "Oh yes, until the end of time."
2007: Top 10 TV shows
12.30.07 (10:06 am) [edit]
Vince Horiuchi
The Salt Lake Tribune
1. Planet Earth - No documentary in recent memory has captured the pristine delicacies of Mother Nature's wonderments like this 10-part experience from the BBC and Discovery Channel.
Each focusing on a different region of the Earth - from the rugged mountains to the cold, stark depths of the world's oceans - this visually stunning travelogue took us there and introduced us to the amazing creatures that dwell there.
No television program this year better captured our imaginations thanks to more than 40 filmmakers who spent five years shooting the documentary. Sometimes that meant sitting in the same spot for months, waiting to get the right shot of, say, a great white snatching up a seal in its jaws or of mountain sheep ramming each other to claim their territory.
It's a monument to patience and a keen eye and certainly the greatest television discovery this year. And because it was built from the ground up for high-definition television, it's the best excuse to get an HDTV this year.
2. Mad Men - American Movie Classics wanted to created an original series for TV and hit the ground running with this engrossing, funny and critical look at the gender gap, sexual harassment and excess in the 1960s among Madison Avenue advertising executives.
3. Big Love - HBO's profile of a polygamous Utah family only got better in the second season with searing and heartfelt episodes about sexual values in the church and about a rival polygamous family competing with the Henricksons.
4. Entourage - This half-hour look at Hollywood's celebrity trappings through the eyes of a movie superstar has been on one of the most incredible runs in television. This last season was another gem, this time about the making of a pet film project that turns to disaster.
5. The Office - This irreverant yet wholly identifiable sitcom gets the award for one of the most consistently laugh-out-loud comedies for the past four years. Some of this year's episodes, like the one about the "Race for the Cure" for both rabies and Meredith's bad leg, were priceless.
6. Heroes - This pick really refers to the brilliant second half of the first season (which aired the first half of this year), which came to an explosive, edge-of-your-seat conclusion involving our heroes' fight with the evil Sylar. The series has somewhat faltered the beginning of the second season (but not by much), yet there's hope it will continue next year with a more exciting story arc.
7. Curb Your Enthusiasm - After a two-year break, Larry David returned with new episodes that were his funniest and most wicked in three seasons. In a bizarre twist, the story arc involved separating from his wife amid a divorce from real-life wife Laurie David.
8. Friday Night Lights - This wonderfully told drama about high-school football in a small Texas town is here for the same reason as "Heroes": an emotionally riveting first-season second half that nailed the struggles and dreams of rural America like no other series. The second season has included some missteps, including an unnecessary murder subplot, but still told its story with sincerity and style.
9. The Sopranos - I liked the ending to one of the most praised dramas on television. I liked its ambiguity, its mystery and certainly the controversy that surrounded it after it aired. But the whole season leading up to it - particularly the second half - was pure "Sopranos" mastery.
10. Flight of the Conchords - Think of a mellower, more wry version of Tenacious D, and you get a sense of how this offbeat comedy is as it follows the trials of two New Zealanders and their musical exploits in New York City. Hilarious, dry, with spot-on laughs.
Walsh Says Feeling Pressured to Have 'Nip/Tuck' is "Nothing to Be Embarrassed About"
12.27.07 (7:44 am) [edit]
Plastic surgery is very big among Hollywood stars today, and even television star Dylan Walsh, who plays a cosmetic surgeon on FX's Nip/Tuck, admits to feeling the pressure to go under the knife.
“It is nothing to be embarrassed about,” Walsh said in an interview with Hollywood.com. “You feel the pressures of looking good because that is the business. Let's face it, it is not radio.”
Walsh also pointed out that looking good has always been a priority in the entertainment industry, saying that even when he was just starting out, actors were already obsessed with maintaining an image, the only difference being that back then, all they had were trips to the gym.
“Now," he said, “…you have this option to get plastic surgery, [so] it is no surprise that a lot of people are going to it.”
Dylan Walsh admitted, however, that while he understands his fellow actors' want for plastic surgery, he sees “more and more bad work done.”
“It is not always going over very well,” he said. “In fact most of the time I think it doesn't go over very well. I think most people's reaction when they see someone who has had some work done, most of the time it is a negative reaction even if the work is pretty good. It is the change--and there is something that is usually negative.”
On Nip/Tuck, Dylan Walsh's character, Sean McNamara, and his partner, Christian Troy (Julian McMahon) accommodate clients from all walks of life, all of whom have different motivations for getting plastic surgery.
“What the show has always been about is 'What are the parameters?'” Walsh told Hollywood.com. “It is not a science like normal medicine where somebody is sick and you have to help them. This is something where it is trickier to define what is right and wrong. That is what the show has always tried to look into…”
Nip/Tuck airs Tuesday nights at 10pm on FX.
No Lost? No Office? No Betty? No Heroes? Have the Globes Gone Crazy?
12.17.07 (11:39 pm) [edit]
I agree with the author. Lost and the Office are the two best shows on tv (and Grey's Anatomy) and they both got the huge snbu by the Golden Globes. What is up?
by Kristin Dos Santos
Either I didn't slam enough espresso this morning for my very early morning call and was nodding off while the Golden Globe nominations were announced, or the following should-be shoo-ins were completely left out of the running this year:
• Lost
• Heroes
• Ugly Betty
• Desperate Housewives
• And even...the freaking Office!
Say it with me now: Whaaaaat?!
And what's more, save for acting nods to America Ferrera and Steve Carell, all the actors and actresses from these shows were completely shut out, too. (Get all the deets and the full list of noms in our news stories.)
So, if all of these fan-favorite heavyweights were left out in the cold, who actually managed to make it in?
Turns out, the normally mainstream-minded Hollywood Foreign Press decided to shift its attention to cable this time around, giving multiple nods to such stellar shows as Showtime's The Tudors, FX's Damages, AMC's Mad Men, Showtime's Californication and HBO's Extras.
If you ask me, this surprising cable sweep offers up a pretty poignant commentary on the current state of television and, specifically, the quality (or lack thereof) of freshman network series.
See, Globes voters are notorious for being all about hot new shows—preferably big-buzz and big-audience (read: network) new shows. But this season, the only network newbies voters deemed worthy of attention were Pushing Daisies (God bless that genius show and its three nods for Best Comedy Series and Best Actor and Actress Lee Pace and Anna Friel), Christina Applegate (Samantha Who?) and Donald Sutherland (Dirty Sexy Money).
Save for a possible nod for something or someone related to Private Practice (and really...meh), there simply aren't any first-season comedies or dramas that jump to mind as having been royally snubbed. Yes, I love Gossip Girl and Chuck as much as the next guy, but they just aren't the type of shows that normally get taken seriously by awards voters.
Perhaps it's time for the networks to up their A game and get more competitive with cable. And maybe give show runners and writers more creative control, like they have over on the now-lauded cable nets, who appear to be kicking their keisters.
Just a thought.
Chewin' the fat with Nip/Tuck's creator
12.12.07 (5:57 pm) [edit]
Mira Nair's The Namesake on NBR's best Indie pics list
12.06.07 (10:01 pm) [edit]
Indian filmmaker Mira Nair’s film The Namesake has earned a place in the National Board of Review (NBR) awards’ list of best indie films of the year.
The film, based on Pulitzer Prize winning author Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel of the same name, was among the four Fox Searchlight Pictures films that made it to NBR’s indie list.
The other three were Tamara Jenkins’ The Savages, John Carney’s Once and Adrienne Shelly’s Waitress.
Grim crime thriller No Country for Old Men, from brothers Joel and Ethan Coen, was named best film of 2007.
"We screened 328 films, and the diversity of these narratives is reflected in our 2007 ten best films. No Country for Old Men is a "brilliant convergence of extraordinary directing, a masterful screenplay and incredible ensemble performances,” Variety quoted NBR President Annie Schulhof, as saying.
George Clooney won best actor for his role as a conflicted attorney in Michael Clayton and Julie Christie earned the best actress honour playing an Alzheimer's disease sufferer who puts herself into a nursing facility in Away From Her.
The best director prize went to filmmaker Tim Burton for his dark retelling of Sweeney Todd starring Johnny Depp.
Oscar-winning actor-producer Michael Douglas was honoured with the career achievement award.
The NBR's list of top 10 films includes Assassination of Jesse James, Atonement, Sean Penn's Into the Wild and The Kite Runner, as well as action film The Bourne Ultimatum.
Julian Schnabel's The Diving Bell and the Butterfly won the best foreign film award. Body of War won best documentary and Ratatouille was named best-animated feature.
Awards will be handed at a gala dinner at Cipriani in Gotham on Jan. 15.
Paris, je t'aime
12.03.07 (6:50 pm) [edit]
Can't wait to see this movie!
Paris, je t'aime is about the plurality of cinema in one mythic location: Paris, the City of Love. Twenty filmmakers will bring their own personal touch, underlining the wide variety of styles, genres, encounters and the various atmospheres and lifestyles that prevail in the neighborhoods of Paris. Each director has been given five minutes of freedom, and we, as producers, carry the responsibility of weaving a single narrative unit out of those twenty moments. The 20 films will not appear in the order of the arrondissements, from one to twenty, but rather, in a pertinent narrative order, initially unknown to the audience. They will be fused together by transitional interstitial sequences, and also via the introduction and epilogue sequences of the feature film. Each transition will begin with the last shot of the previous film and will end with the first shot of the following film, and will have a threefold function: 1) The first is to extend the enchantment and the emotion of the previous segment, 2) The second is to prepare the audience for the surprise of the next segment, and 3) The third is to provide a general, comfortable and cohesive atmosphere to the feature film. The delightful and brief interludes of these transitions will enable the viewer to slide from one world to the next, featuring a recurring and unexpected character. This mysterious character is a witness to the Parisian life and helps create a continuous narration. It appears both in and in-between the films. In addition to the information these transitions will provide about the city and its people, their tone will be intentionally light often referring to famous scenes easily attributed to the history of Paris cinema. Similar specifications will be followed by the composer who will supervise the musical fusion between the films and the transitions as he creates the musical score of Paris, je t'aime. Considering the common theme of Paris and Love, the fusion between the films and the transitions, the fast pace of a fluid and complete storytelling, Paris, je t'aime will not be just another "anthology" picture. It will be a unique collective feature film that will constitute a two-hour cinematographic spectacle whose original structure will make for a dramatically different experience for its global audience.
Evening
12.01.07 (7:17 pm) [edit]
Kind of depressing flick. Lots of heavy messages about regret, death, and love... but definetly NOT an uplifting movie. Fantastic performances though.
An all-star cast of the greatest actresses of our time - including Academy Award winner Vanessa Redgrave, Academy Award winner Meryl Streep, Toni Collette, Claire Danes, Natasha Richardson and Glenn Close - come together in this passionate and heartwarming story. As Ann (Redgrave) reflects on one beautiful and life-changing weekend with the one true love of her life, her daughters (Collette and Richardson) come to their own understanding about the power of the past and the unbreakable bonds between mothers and daughters, family, and the loves of their lives.
Overcome by the power of memory, Ann Lord reveals a long-held secret to her concerned daughters; Constance, a content wife and mother, and Nina, a restless single woman. Both are bedside when Ann calls out for the man she loved more than any other. But who is this "Harris,"wonder her daughters, and what is he to our mother? While Constance and Nina try to take stock of Ann's life and their own lives, their mother is tended to by a night nurse as she journeys in her mind back to a summer weekend some fifty years ago, when she was Ann Grant, a young woman who has come from New York City to be maid of honor at the high-society Newport wedding of her dearest friend from college, Lila Wittenborn. The bride-to-be is jittery, and turns to her maid-of-honor, rather than her own mother, for support. Ann stays close to her friend, yet is even closer to Lila's irrepressible brother Buddy. Unexpected feelings surge forth once Ann meets wedding guest Harris Arden, a lifelong friend and intimate of the Wittenborn family. Ann's love for Harris will change her life, and those of her daughters, forever.