TUCKING IN FOR A BIG FUTURE
By TONY JOHNSTON

Nine must be kicking itself that this excellent, subversive series about vanity, plastic surgery, sex, murder and mayhem, this week runs out of episodes. But you can be sure the second series of Nip/Tuck, will screen during the ratings period.
The series, starring Australian Julian McMahon and American Dylan Walsh as a couple of high-flying Florida-based plastic surgeons, is more outrageous soap than reality, and can certainly polarise viewers and opinions.
Prominent LA plastic surgeon Dr Garth Fisher, who features on Extreme Makeovers, admits to being a fan of Nip/Tuck.
"I think it's quite entertaining, although in one hour they show the top 10 moral dilemmas we might face in a lifetime', he says.
In this two-part finale to series one, surgeons Sean McNarmara (Walsh) and Christian Troy (McMahon) are forced by a ruthless drug lord, Escobar Gallardo (Robert LaSardo) to extract herion-filled implants from hugh-breasted Colombian women.
Their next ethical dilemma comes in the form of a dog breeder who wants to pay them $100,000 (money they need to escape Escobar) to do a hair transplant on his top breeding dog.
Meanwhile, the surgeons' private lives unravel around them, with Troy's narky and pegnant lady friend Gina (Jessalyn Gilsig) demanding sex to induce the labour, while Julia kicks hubby out of home and takes solace from a new transexual friend.
It takes Escobar to succinctly sum up proceedings, as he threatens the docs:
"We both help people deal with the hate they feel about themselves."
Nip/Tuck pillories many of the absurdities of modern life, and manages to make it wickedly enjoyable.