Postmodernism

Postmodernism is a way of thinking in which there is no one truth. There is no one way of life, there are many. It’s a mixing of styles and beliefs. There can be so many different styles that make sense, they are only different from one another. In relationship to popular culture, postmodernism is seen through many ways. There is a loss of metanarratives and a focus on smaller and local narratives. There is also an importance on the fiction, other than the reality. Fiction is very important because it gives us an easier way of understanding things, other than dealing with the real truth. Style is definitely more important than substance.
Nip/Tuck has an important subject that is closely tied to a postmodern approach. Fiction being more important than reality is completely obvious in Nip/Tuck. Because the entire show is based on plastic surgery, there are many characters that create a way of looking in order to hide the reality. The plastic surgery also shows how style is more important than substance. As Christian was going through a mid-life crisis, he got liposuction in order to hide the fear that he was getting old. Kimber got a lot of plastic surgery in order to have the perfect body. She does this to get the attention of Christian. She tries to live in the fantasy of two perfect people, with a perfect car, and a perfect apartment. Another character of Nip/Tuck, Escobar, who has appeared on the show twice is a criminal who gets plastic surgery to look like a completely different person. He almost takes his entire identity away to get on a plane and out of Miami.
By living in a fiction world, these characters hide from the reality that is too hard to live with. The fiction is more important and creates a perfect world. Even the theme song of the show says the worlds “A perfect life”. Also, the style of their lives, Christian’s car and Kimber’s perfect body, is more important than the substance, which is their own identities. Christian creates his own identity with his style of luxurious things, like his car, apartment, and clothes. Kimber creates her own identity with her perfect body to become important, better than everyone else, and to make her career as a model and a porn star the way for people to remember her.