There's obviously an artificial quality to the drama present throughout this episode. Brendan McNamara, until this point, never existed, and his presence is ridiculously jarring. It's another example of the writers pulling faux drama from their collective butts to create some kind of standalone storyline... and that sucks. However, there are sparks of intrigue here and there, things that render Christian once again an interesting character.Christian's grey moralism has never been more evident than here. His reaction to Benny Nilsson, a victim of appalling sexual and psychological abuse, is to attack his father Bjorn, blackmail him and give the money to Benny to flee and start a new life. It's a noble act, given that signature Christian twist with the criminality and violence. But at the same time Christian entirely destroys Sean's relationship with his brother, pinning various crimes on Brendan and destroying any chance of rehabilitation. We don't know for sure if Brendan had a chance, but Christian's behavior is really, really sleazy.
But I guess that's what makes him such a strong character. He can do the right thing in one instance, and then do something calculating and horrible minutes later. It's a fascinating contrast, and I applaud the writers for bringing that characterization back to the forefront.
There isn't a whole lot more to Benny Nilsson, but it's an intriguing character study. There are moments that don't work (the song selections are hilariously on-the-nose), and the entire Brendan character feels lazy and tossed together, but generally I enjoyed this one. Great make-up work, too, especially Brendan's friend. Yikes. B+
Credits
Guest stars Luke McClure (Benny Nilsson); Neil Hopkins (Brendan McNamara); Hans Tester (Bjorn Nilsson); Chad Todhunter (Jay); Erin Cummings (Jessie)
Writer Sean Jablonski Director John Scott
First off I've really been enjoying these reviews as I've been watching the whole Nip/Tuck series for the first time. And of course I comment now with an alternate opinion. I think this is the first episode where I truly felt they destroyed core character aspects of Christian. I would give this episode an F! The one redeeming core of the show has always been the brotherly love between Sean and Christian and Christian's willingness to destroy his brotherly rival and forge Sean's signature for a loan against the business compromises that too much. Does he use women? Yes. Is he an asshole? Yes. But does he screw Sean over? No. Not until now. It is good Season 6 is the last one.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, thanks so much for finding the blog and writing a little something. It's really rewarding to hear that there are people out there reading my stuff, so thank you.
ReplyDeleteAs for your comment itself, I'm a little foggy when it comes to this particular storyline, but the Sean/Christian friendship is one of the major arcs that is more than a little derailed in the show's final season. The last run of episodes in particular go that way, so be warned because I'm not sure you're going to like it based on your feelings here.
Personally, I found a lot of this season to be contrived and hacky, but so much of the writing was in the end. It was like the writers lost track of the characters' personalities constantly, and it was hard to care anymore, everyone acting so differently to how we knew them.
Thanks again for commenting, and I'd love to hear what you think later on.