Now in its third season, Nip/Tuck has consistently offered up some of the most gruesome and scandalous scenes on television. The plastic-surgery-themed show is a bonfire of violence and vanity, raunchiness and absurdity--basic cable’s answer to premium-channel envelope-pushers like Six Feet Under. The hit series has drawn a record-breaking audience for FX and condemnation from groups who don’t take kindly to all of the boob jobs and blow jobs. The show also pushes the boundaries in its refreshingly fluid portrayal of gender and sexuality while serving up a generous portion of queer characters.

While it’s no Oz--the violence is more medical than criminal and the eye candy often comes in female form--the show is about to provide a little more for the boys. This season, which premieres on Tuesday, September 20 at 10 PM, Miami plastic surgeons Sean McNamara (Dylan Walsh) and Christian Troy (Julian McMahon) invite a third partner into their practice. Dr. Quentin Costa, who appeared last season as the rival surgeon who repaired Dr. McNamara’s slashed face, is played by Bruno Campos.

In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, McMahon hints that he will discover that Quentin is bisexual when the pair--in typical Nip/Tuck fashion--wind up together in a foursome.

The series has had no shortage of queer factor. Last season, Sean’s son Matt (John Hensley, bearing a creepy resemblance to the surgically enhanced Michael Jackson) has an affair with an older woman (Famke Janssen) who he later learns is transgendered. The teenager also discovers that his girlfriend Vanessa (Kate Mara) is a dyke after walking in on her and a cheerleader.

Hensley has hinted that his character will continue to explore new sexual terrain this season, telling The Advocate in a recent interview that "I'm not saying [it's] man-on-man or man-on-girl, I'm not saying it's even man on she-male…I'm just saying that he explores."

The show’s lesbian anesthesiologist, Dr. Liz Cruz (Roma Maffia), has gotten very little action thus far. In the second episode of the first season she outs herself by mentioning that she has left her girlfriend, and she hasn’t had a regular love interest since. But she does share an evening of makeovers and making out with a patient (typical of the show‘s questionable ethics) about to have sex reassignment surgery.

Christian’s sexual escapades always feature prominently, and last season his derriere got quite a bit of screen time itself.

When Entertainment Weekly recently asked the actor how he gets through his character’s raunchy sex scenes, McMahon answered that he tries not to focus on the fact that he’s naked: “You know, man, I don't think anybody in their right mind wants to hang around with a c--- sock on, which is what I do quite often. But instead of being embarrassed, I just stand next to everybody and kind of rub their noses in it. I feel like Dirk Diggler.”

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