In
the pilot, Liz is threatened at gunpoint by a patient,
and temporarily quits the practice because she is so disgusted
with Christian's lack of moral standards. She agrees to return
in the second episode, however, when Sean offers to double her
salary and provide benefits for her partner, Jean. Liz accepts
the raise but not the benefits, revealing that she broke up
with Jean because the gun incident made her realize she wanted
to make some changes in her life, including selling her condo
to buy a beach house instead and finding someone she can fall
madly and deeply in love with.
Like
Det. Greggs on The Wire,
Liz also seems to serve as a moral center of the series. She
frequently chastises Sean and Christian for their ethical lapses,
as she did in episode five ("Kurt Dempsey") when she
didn't like the fact that they are helping a white man look
asian. "Am I the only one," she asked, "who thinks
it's morally reprehensible that a white man is trying to pass
himself off as a victim of the American racial hierarchy?"
Since
Liz is not destined to be a love interest for either Christian
or Sean, and since most of the adult relationships on this show
revolve around their sexual conquests, Liz will probably remain
a background character with minimal screen time. But she is
a memorable and well-defined character nonetheless, and a welcome
change from the majority of lesbian characters on television
who are young and white (Maffia is of West Indian, English and
German descent).
For
a series to have two regular lesbian characters who are
not dating each other (and are of different ages and ethnicities)
is unprecedented on television. Vanessa's lesbianism is central
to Matt's character arc, but the character of Liz could easily
have been heterosexual without really impacting the storyline,
so it's surprising that she was written as a lesbian.
Perhaps
this means television is finally starting to move beyond the token-lesbian-character
plot device to embrace the diversity within the lesbian community.
Or maybe the series is just trying to be as controversial as possible
to get the highest ratings it can, and figures the more lesbians
the better. While the former would be more encouraging, lesbian
viewers win either way.
The
series has generated significant controversy
due to its explicit sexual content and profanity. The Parents
Television Council (PTC) has recently launched a campaign to convince
advertisers to refrain from supporting the show, and they have
had some success so far: Orbitz, Castrol, and Carfax.com have
all pulled their ads from the series after being targeted by the
PTC.
But
this doesn't appear to alarm FX, who just renewed Nip/Tuck
for a second season even though the series is still only halfway
through its first season. The fact that the show has consistently
drawn record-breaking ratings for a cable series likely outweighed
the threat of a few advertisers backing out.
Just
as the success of The Shield challenged conventional
television practice and forced network cop shows to
embrace edgier storylines, the success of Nip/Tuck may
cause network dramas to re-examine their policies around acceptable
sexual content. If Nip/Tuck proves that viewers are comfortable
with and even interested in storylines involving realistic lesbian
characters and frank depictions of lesbian sexuality, the networks
will be less likely to censor these kinds of storylines and characters
on their shows in the future.
Do
I think we'll be seeing threesomes on Alias or ER anytime
soon? No. Nor am I suggesting we should--there are plenty of problems
with that kind of storyline, particularly when it's the only depiction
of lesbian sexuality on the show (like reinforcing the public
misperception that bisexuality equals promiscuity, or that lesbian
sexuality still somehow involves men). But the fact that Nip/Tuck
showed a threesome (which has never been seen on television before)
makes more traditional depictions of lesbian sexuality seem less
controversial; a kiss between two women in a committed relationship,
for example, just doesn't seem that risque on television after
watching Nip/Tuck.
So
while you might not agree with some
of its storylines or depictions of lesbian sexuality, the fact
that the show offers two different representations of lesbianism
while simultaneously exploring issues related to sexual orientation
(Vanessa) and treating it matter-of-factly (Liz) differentiates
Nip/Tuck from almost all television shows we've seen
before.
If
the show continues to succeed, perhaps we won't find this so unusual
a year from now.
Find
updated info on the show's lesbian characters in our Nip/Tuck
section
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