‘Botched Up Bodies’ On Netflix Unflinchingly Focuses On Plastic Surgeries Gone Very, Very Wrong

The desire for physical perfection is universal. We want to look younger, skinnier, healthier, more attractive. Society places a great deal of pressure on us to live up to these imagined ideals. Plastic surgery promises to bring those goals within reach, and it’s a massive industry — one that serves millions of people each year. Implants, augmentations, reductions, facial modifications, nips and tucks, liposuctions and myriad other procedures can indeed change the lives of people troubled by insecurities with their bodies.

Unfortunately, not all of these procedures go as planned. Sometimes, they leave patients far worse than they when started off. This is the focus of Botched Up Bodies, a British medical reality show available for streaming on Netflix. The show profiles real-life patients who have had plastic surgeries go terribly wrong, and follows them as they seek to correct these life-altering medical issues. “I just wanted to look neat and pretty,” one subject laments. “I wish I’d never gone through with it.”

Grisly and medically honest, the show is not for the squeamish and definitely not safe for workplace viewing — unless, perhaps, you work at a hospital. The cameras don’t shy away from the issues, and they don’t rely on computer animations or other subtleties. When we first meet Sherri-Lynn, an adult performer with painful scarring after a series of failed labiaplasties, we see what she’s talking about, close-up and right away. “I’ve been mutilated and devastated,” she says, in expressing her deep regret over a medically-elective procedure that she expected to give her more confidence, but has instead wrecked her self-esteem. “I was talking about having a designer vagina, but he left me with a dustbin.”

There’s a wide range of medical conditions on display here, too. A failed breast reduction surgery left a woman with painful necrosis, as the cells around her nipple died from lack of oxygen and began to turn black. A woman who underwent gastric bypass surgery is left with a bulging ridge in her groin. Facial implants have begun to shift and sink within a woman’s face. A man who sought to have a simple breast reduction — to get rid of his “man boobs”, as he terms it — has seen it go horribly awry, and five surgeries later, he bemoan the results: “I look like I’ve been attacked by a shark – I’ve got two big hefty, angry scars on my chest.” What’s worse, one of his nipples has died and had to be removed. “I’ve got one nipple, and the other one looks like a piece of pepperoni.”

The show isn’t judgmental about its subjects’ reasons for having undergone the plastic surgeries in the first place. It gives them room to speak about the insecurities they sought to allay – childhood traumas, lifelong shyness or embarrassments. Through its unflinching approach to depicting the unintended consequences, it’s also sensitive to the pain and suffering that these people have gone through. It’s not mocking them, or sensationalizing their pain – it’s exposing traumatic issues that might otherwise have remained private, and doing in a way that hopes to first destigmatize, and then remediate.

It calls to mind a home renovation show like This Old House or Holmes on Homes– they’re not here to judge, they’re here to help. A team of experts, described by the show as “Britain’s top plastic surgeons” diagnose the root of the issues — generally, the problems are acute and troubling enough that what’s gone wrong is painfully evident — and plan surgeries that will set things right. The cameras go right into the operating room with the subjects; if you’re not one for the sight of flesh and blood, you might find yourself turning away. If you can bear to stomach the sight, though, it’s fascinating to see how a problem that’s haunted someone for a decade or more can be fixed in a 90-minute operation.

Naturally, there’s plenty of drama during the surgeries; complications arise, and the show enhances the tension by reminding us of the potential stakes — including further scarring, amputation, or even death. There’s also the looming fear that surgeons might simply not be able to correct the problems — that the damage done might be irreversible.

When the surgeries do succeed, however, it’s a moment of triumph for people who’ve long been denied that. “The procedure has left her bursting with confidence – ready to face the world, and reclaim the life she lost,” the narrator intones, as the victim of the failed gastric bypass has the misshaped remnants removed for good. The failed breast reduction is corrected, and the subject beams with relief. “She’s pain-free, and ready to face the future, now that she’s gotten what she always wanted.”

In that sense, Botched Up Bodies is an optimistic show. Sure, there’s gawking at the titular cosmetic disasters. Ultimately, though, we’re seeing years of pain and suffering wiped away at the hands of capable surgeons; we’re seeing happiness recaptured and lives rebuilt.

Just with a lot of blood along the way.

Scott Hines is an architect, blogger and internet user who lives in Louisville, Kentucky with his wife, two young children, and a small, loud dog.

Stream Botched Up Bodies on Netflix