Surgery Gone Bad

HBO debuts a new documentary tonight at 10 p.m. ET titled Plastic Disasters. The film is an indirect sibling of reality shows such as The Swan and the original Extreme Makeover, as it “follows three people recovering from surgeries that went horrifically wrong.”

Those surgeries were “relatively minor tweaks (a face-lift, liposuction and a nose job),” The Hollywood Reporter says in its review, noting that the one-hour film shows the results “in graphic detail” as “surgery scenes are gory and frequent. But they are worth acknowledging even with averted eye, to convey the message that plastic surgery is surgery — with no promises of results or guarantee of repair of mistakes.” The paper calls the film “required viewing for anyone contemplating voluntary plastic surgery today.”