Someday, when aliens arrive on earth and began skimming through the bazillions of minutes of television stored digitally somewhere, they will come upon Nip/Tuck and wonder what in the world had become of our society. While Ryan Murphy has gone on to write the wonderfully clever and entertaining musical Glee, his plastic surgery creation is the stuff of nightmares and fantasies, of love and of hate, of safety and of danger. While watching episodes of the sixth and final season, which was my first dabble in the superficially-altering show, I discovered the insight and the wavering morality of a show that certainly shone a light on the poorer side of the American dream.

When I say "poorer," I mean the sadly deflated side of the American dream, the one where we believe we must look younger, own more, and have more money to spend as we grow older, lest we be left behind by those who we continue to compare ourselves against. Sean McNamara (Dylan Walsh) and Christian Troy (Julian McMahon of Fantastic Four) have preyed on the desires of those who lack internal strength, who see themselves as lesser, and who desire to be like the person next door than the person they are. That's how McNamara-Troy succeeded for six seasons: they provided optional surgery for those who didn't like how they looked or answered the question, "What do you like least about yourself?"

Season six is a clear crash and burn for the antiheroic Sean and Christian who have seen their tidy practice and their tidy lives go up in smoke, as their families completely come undone and the recessive downturn financially drives away the majority of their business. Who can pay for elective surgery when there isn't enough money for the food on the table? That's the less-than-romantic crash that accompanies the realization that their relationships with each other and those with others are largely built on lies and superficiality. (Seriously, how do you get married thinking you're going to die, find out you're not dying, and then get divorced? Wow, that's cheery!)

Nip/Tuck lends a critical eye to the world we live in and lives in the realization that most people don't recognize who they really are and how much they are really loved. What that world misses is an understanding that God created us in his image, and we've suffered through the fall of humanity. Is that harsh? Yes. But it also points to a reality that too many people try to hide from, whether it's through unnecessary plastic surgery, drugs, sex, violence, or whatever else. Hopefully, Nip/Tuck isn't just a junk-ridden soap opera, hopefully it's the kind of show that will grab your attention if you've lost yourself, and you can see your life is better than you thought.