Nip/Tuck as the new Pilgrim's Progress?

I'm going to make this short today. Someone emailed me last night and asked me to slow the pace a bit so they could catch up on my posts from the past week. So granted. I might post a picture later tonight.

If you haven't seen the F/X Network's drama, Nip/Tuck, now in it's third season, you really should. The overall narrative and the individual episodes grapple with some of the most important issues in our culture. I am arguing that this show is the honest successor to John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progess. If Bunyan were alive today, he would be a writer for this show (and I doubt he would still be a Baptist).

Now I know what you're about to say: isn't this the same writer that last week was bemoaning the hyper-sexualization of culture? (See my post, Teenage Pop Sluts) Well, yes, and if you read my follow up post, Teenage Pop Slus, Part 2, you'll see that my intent in making those comments was to identify what was happening in our culture SO THAT Christians cannot only respond to the challenge in positive ways (unlike the ham-handed condemnations by Dobson, et al.), but also prepare the next generation to understand and overcome the challenges that present cultural trends create by becoming culturally savvy and self-aware (epistemological self-conscious for those Van Tilians among us).

But back to Nip/Tuck. The overall narrative presents one of the best critiques of the cult of perfection in our culture. The quest for perfection leads to the paradoxical result of self-loathing. The story centers around the two partners of a plastic surgery practice, longtime friends, set in Miami. I think the most important character of the series is that of Christian Troy. Yes, his name is Christian (get the Bunyan connection?). A notorious womanizer and one of Miami's most sought-after bachelors, he actively struggles with his desires that push him farther away from what he really seeks - relational intimacy with a woman. He constantly finds that his lifestyle directly conflicts with his dreams. And he constantly struggles to do the right thing and sometime succeeds.

His partner, Sean McNamara, is a man constantly struggling with the Sturm und Drang of cultural forces that are tearing his family apart. The moral conscience of the show, he finds that he is unable to keep his family together, and yet he courageously tries in vain to salvage his marriage and his relationship with his children because he realizes that family is the only thing that matters. He rages against the dying of the light.

For Christians, I think one of the most important themes found in the series is the pervasive effects of sin. And this is not karma; it is the biblical view of sin. Virtually every adult character in the show suffers from the direct consequences of their sin, sometimes decades subsequent. I don't know how many times I have found myself watching the show, and saying to myself, "That is me." Rarely do I see an episode where I don't start to cry in sympathy with these characters. The end of the program last night, when Christian brings himself to tears as he sees how he treats others savagely to cover the rage of his own wounded heart, I could feel his pain, because I've been there to. And how they handled the issue of hate last night was masterful.

Now be warned that this is not a family program; certainly not one to let the kids stay up and watch. Sexual themes and adult situations are presented in stark detail. But they're always presented truthfully. The present pleasure of sin invariably leads to the bitterness of despair. This material could easily have been lifted from St. Augustine's Confessions of City of God. Love of God, or love of self.

Nip/Tuck is on F/X on Tuesday evenings at 10 p.m. Eastern time, and replayed immediately afterward at 11 p.m. Episodes are also rebroadcast on F/X throughout the week.