I taped the new show Nip/Tuck the other night and thought it was actually pretty good. But, just before we were about to watch it, Michelle asked me if I’d taped an hour and a half rather than just an hour. The answer was no. I didn’t realise that it ran an unusual length of time. I looked back to the TV guide again and, sure enough, absolutely no mention of this was made anywhere – either in the listings or in the review of the show.

I still don’t know how she knew that it ran longer than normal. If it wasn’t in the TV guide, she must have heard it from someone or somewhere.

As we approached the point where the tape was going to stop, one of the doctors had left the practice. Michelle said that now we wouldn’t know what was going to happen. I told her that of course he’d return to the practice – after all, that’s what the series is about. So, I don’t expect any surprises there. The only things that really got left unresolved were what ended up happening to the pedophilic gangster, and whether or not the doctor’s son got his circumcision. However, I’m sure that those resolutions aren’t very unpredictable either – the answers being, in order, he went away at the end of the show, and no, he worked through his confidence issues.

While the show is enjoyable, and well produced, it certainly didn’t offer any surprising twists or exploration of new material. More like a kind of high class soap opera – entertaining, but far from intellectually engaging. Unlike Six Feet Under (to which it’s been compared), which is enjoyable, well produced, excellently acted, and thought provoking. Nip/Tuck has the trapping, but is short on substance.

But, back to the thing about not letting people know how long it is. Since it’s on relatively late, I’m sure that at least a few people elected to go to bed and tape it. It makes me wonder how many other people lost the last 3rd of the episode, and whether or not the network (or the TV guide) is going to apologise for this blunder and/or rebroadcast it.