Watch out! "Nip/Tuck" returns for a second season tonight at 11 on FX.
Please note that the above paragraph began "watch out!" and not "watch it!" This is a show that, quite frankly, has become more frank than ever. And by "frank" I mean overtly, over-the-top in its sexual content.
The dialogue is as adult as anything you'll find on HBO. Oh, they don't use the f-word, but the discussions of sex are graphic beyond belief.
The amount of nudity in "Nip/Tuck" makes "NYPD Blue" look like "Barney" in comparison. There's not a lot of difference between what you'll see on this show and what you might happen across on some soft-core porn movie on Showtime that airs late at night.
Well, you'll see a lot more male butts and a lot fewer female breasts, but you get the point.
What's particularly frustrating is that there's so much that's so good about "Nip/Tuck." The drama here is often top-rate.
The stories continue to revolve around plastic surgeons Sean McNamara (Dylan Walsh) and Christian Troy (Julian McMahon). Sean is a family man who, after suffering through enormous marital problems in Season 1, has hit a happy groove with his wife, Julia (Joely Richardson).
Christian, on the other hand, remains a lothario whose sexual escapades belie his attempt at creating a family of his own. He's co-parenting the baby it turns out he didn't father with a woman whose sexual history is at least as sordid as his.
To their personal dramas are added the dramas of Sean and Christian's patients, one of whom is Sean's mother-in-law — played by Richardson's real-life mother, Oscar-winner Vanessa Redgrave.
The dynamics of that situation make for fascinating, compelling drama. And it's nothing short of a television event to see Richardson and Redgrave play their scenes together as two women with a seriously dysfunctional relationship.
(Tonight's second-season premiere is presented without commercial interruption on FX.)
There were a lot of storylines like that in the first season of "Nip/Tuck." And there are a lot more in the first three episodes of this new season.
Which is not to say that, dramatically, the show is perfect. When Sean's career is threatened because he's suffering from uncontrollable spasms in his hand, it looks like umpteen plots of umpteen medical shows we've seen before on TV.
And one of the better storylines that remains from last season involves Sean and Julia's teenage son, Matt, who was involved in a hit-and-run accident that nearly killed a teenage girl. Matt is barely seen in tonight's episode; he (and that storyline) play a major part next week; and the week after that he pretty much disappears again.
Those are hiccups that can be overlooked. You can't watch an episode of "Nip/Tuck" without being taken aback by the sex and nudity, however.
It almost appears that, in success, the show's producers have been given license to do just about anything they want. And what they want undercuts their own talents, to be honest.
"Nip/Tuck" could be equally effective as a drama without being anywhere near as graphic as it is.
And, don't forget, this is the most graphic medical drama on TV, with depictions of surgical procedures that are so realistic they're stomach-churning. The amount of gore makes "ER" look like, well, "Barney" in comparison.
The argument would be that, as a cable channel, FX has more latitude in its content than the broadcast networks. Which is true, at least in terms of the Federal Communications Commission.
I would argue, however, that there's little — if any — difference between the broadcast networks and basic cable channels in most American homes. Most kids and teenagers can't even tell you which stations are cable-only and which are not — CBS is just Ch. 2 and FX is just Ch. 23.
While viewers are making a conscious choice to allow R-rated material into their homes if they subscribe to HBO or Starz or Showtime or other so-called "pay-cable" channels, basic cable has become, well, basic in the majority of American homes.
"Nip/Tuck" would be a perfect fit on HBO or Showtime. It's too much for a basic-cable channel like FX.
E-mail: pierce@desnews.com