Doctors Without Boundaries

IN THE CUT Nip/Tuck stars Walsh, Joely Richardson, and McMahon

NIP/TUCK Photograph by Justin Stephens

All About

Nip/Tuck

Doctors Without Boundaries

When we last left the hot-shot plastic surgeons of FX's Nip/Tuck in October, Sean (Dylan Walsh) was mending another victim of the Carver — that highly creepy, plastic-surgery-hating serial slasher who played such a large role in the second-season cliff-hanger — while a very paralyzed Christian (Julian McMahon) was about to become one. On a recent visit to the show's Los Angeles set, however, there is no sign of the Carver: Walsh is prepping to overhaul someone's face, while McMahon and costar Kelly Carlson (who plays Christian's feisty frequent bedmate Kimber) run through some atypically tender dialogue. Despite the calm surroundings, the actors' fear of the Dresden-mask-wearing, knife-wielding psychopath is still palpable.

''They're all terrified they are the Carver,'' laughs creator Ryan Murphy. ''Everyone has come to me, closed the door, and asked if he or she was it. The show has been set up where any one of them could be the Carver, which is the fun of a whodunit.''

Fun is an understatement. With its fraught love triangles, so-crazy-they-must-be-true plastic-surgery cases (indeed they all are, says Murphy, from the male patient who wants breasts to a female genitalia reconstruction), absurdist story arcs (we're still agape over Famke Janssen's Crying Game turn as a transgender life coach last season), its boundary-pushing sexuality, and its parade of unexpected guest stars (everyone from Joan Rivers to Alec Baldwin to Emmy nominee Jill Clayburgh), Nip/Tuck has solidified itself as the frothiest, wildest soap on TV. And it's got the ratings to show for it: The killer finale attracted an FX record 5.2 million viewers, and the show was the most popular basic-cable series among adults 18-49 last year.

In preparation for the drama's third-season premiere (Sept. 20 at 10 p.m.), we grilled Murphy and the cast about the Carver, who's coming and going from the Miami plastic-surgery office of McNamara/Troy, and whether the sexually charged drama is guilty of going too far (back to you, Famke!).