Blind actor appears on "Nip/Tuck"

Rick Boggs appeared in the Jan. 22 episode of the plastic surgery drama, Nip/Tuck, as a blind person training Bradley Cooper's actor character to "play blind." It was a fun scene because Cooper played it over the top with his interrogation of Rick's "blind experience" that he wanted to bring the role. In typical Nip/Tuck ridiculousness, Cooper's character was supposed to be an actor playing a doctor who became blind but was still performing surgery. Kudos to Rick for landing the role, which I wish had been bigger or could become a recurring role.

I have long watched Nip/Tuck, but I think it has gotten a bit creepier of late with the introduction of a devious underage character who beds the Sean McNamara character, is progressively poisoning Julia McNamara, who was her mother's lover for awhile, and even tries to convince Sean and Julia's daughter, Annie, that she should become anorexic. Nip/Tuck would be better served to go for campy, rather than creepy, IMHO.

And. . . .the show totally wasted an appearance by Academy Award-winning deaf actress, Marlee Matlin, in the Jan. 29 episode. She played a studio executive, who has to make a decision about Bradley Cooper's character after he, too, beds the devious underage character, which she videotaped. It was a ridiculous scene in which Matlin had no sign language interpreter and lots of characters were talking at once. Matlin's character had about four lines, but because she played a studio executive, I can only hope that she is coming back for more episodes to explore her character, and maybe they will remember to provide an interpreter next time.

Nip/Tuck has explored a few really good disability story lines in the past. The brilliant LP actor, Peter Dinklage (of The Station Agent), appeared in a number of episodes as an artist who works as the male nanny for Sean and Julia's new baby son, who was born with disfigured hands. Dinklage's character gives the disability perspective when Sean and Julia argue about surgery to "fix" the baby's hands. Peter Dinklage's character also has an affair with Julia, which was a step forward in TV images, because so many disabled characters are presented as asexual.

Come on Nip/Tuck, you have all these wonderful actors with disabilities on the show, let's see some ongoing story lines that don't demean them.