Nurse Jackie

I must say give a big thumbs up for the new hit Showtime series "Nurse Jackie" which features one of the best and most hard working TV actresses around Edie Falco. Unlike Edie's award winning days as Carmela Soprano the elegant and naive mob housewife on HBO's "The Sopranos" this time her character is more blue collar yet she still has a dark nature to her no matter how caring she is. Edie is Jackie Peyton a nurse who charms and lights it up in this dark natured and raw funny comedy series one of the better made for TV in a long time.

Jackie is tough and outspoken and tells the doctors like it is in the ER she certainly has a caring heart for all patients. Yet she's hardly a saint her life and work doesn't come without problems for one she's trying to cope with a bad back that gives her chronic pain. This problem has lead her to become a pill popping and snorting addict which the scenes vividly display. Also she's having a bump and grind love affair with the hospital pharmacist(Paul Schulze)who's also her pill provider. Also the drama is always at an interesting and tense pacing while she deals with Dr. Cooper(Peter Facinelli)who's a cocky young hotshot who thinks he knows it all. Plus juggling a friendship with a gay nurse and fellow co worker Mo-Mo(Haaz Sleiman)as with most jobs she also puts up with a wicked witch of a supervisor who's watches her every move and turn while she trains up and coming nurses. And to top all that off she has her marriage to manage with hubby(Dominic Fumusa)and plus raise her two daughters.

So that sounds like some interesting stuff for the goings and happenings of a New York city hospital and it shows that this is one nurse with a complex and mixed up life. As always Falco shines and the supporting cast blends in well, it looks like Showtime has found another winner for a TV series. This is one drama that shows the pains and drama stress of real life and it shows how it's connected with work life something that many can relate to. So big thumbs up for this smart, outspoken, and visually raw and emotionally affecting new series.

I will admit, I didn't have much hopes for this show, due to my own ingrained prejudices. Halfway through season one, I was hooked and now I genuinely think it is one of the best shows I have seen (nothing will ever quite match up to The Wire however). This show is SO funny, dark, serious and perfectly blends gritty drama with laugh out loud comedy.

It is an important show for me for many reasons, Nurse Jackie, played by Edie Falco (incredible) is the first female protagonist I have seen in a while who isn't incredibly hot and 2 dimensionally fleshed out as a character. She is attractive but regular, and most importantly flawed. She is a real woman, a sort of anti-hero. She compares to typical protagonists like Tony Soprano, Walter White and Jimmy McNulty, but is female and it is so refreshing to see realistic representations of women on screen, (along with the support cast).

I've watched it all now, and I can say she does some despicable things, and we get to learn how she works which makes you squirm, but she also does amazing things for her patients. She's an addict.

For me this show wins out on it's portrayal of women as real people with real lives and personalities, and real/representative faces and bodies. Men are also portrayed well, with screen time showing them concerned with their futures as husbands/fathers as well as their careers. This show does really well to subvert the patriarchal traditional stereotype of how we see women and men portrayed on the screen, and I for one have been crying out for a show like this. Amazing! I only wish more shows could be as progressive as this.

I thought Showtime's new series"Nurse Jackie" started off with good intentions and held promise but truth be known, I had little faith in it. It felt like a vehicle for its star, Edie Falco and though I respect her work, I couldn't understand how she could allow herself to get involved with a show that felt a little half baked.

Now a little over a month since its premiere, I'm warming up to a lot (but not all) of "Nurse Jackie" and it's not just because of Falco. The eccentricities are feeling less forced and more integrated. A lot of the actors are really coming into focus and are more appealing. I particularly like Merritt Wever's Zoey Barkow, a trainee nurse under Falco's seasoned Nurse Jackie. She's soft, likable and sincere without being cloying. She's cute in an unforced way. We root for her through our understanding of being in her shoes more than once (the newbie amongst the vets). Wever gets us on her side subtly without forcing any of her bits. She's a real charmer. Eve Best's Dr O'Hara is another winner. Like a lot of my initial reaction to "Nurse Jackie", I thought her character being British was just too much "odd-ballness" for one show that seemed to be trying too hard to be offbeat. But like Wever, she's showing shadings in her character without over doing it (i.e. the episode where she saved the twin brother. Her acceptance of the twin's artwork was priceless. She showed that she understood how clueless she was in how to handle the situation but handled it anyway.) And the dinner conversation between her and Zoey was inspired. Her reaction to Zoey's revelation about her father being in prison for manslaughter was priceless and made me laugh out loud. I'm not completely sold on Anna Deavere Smith's Gloria Akalitis but I think I'm getting there. The shrill, office administrator part can be a difficult one to play. It can become one note very quickly. I don't really like her pratfalls such as her being zapped by the taser. They seem beneath her and don't work. On the male side, "Nurse Jackie" has been even more of a mixed bag. Haaz Sleiman's 'Mo-Mo' is fine. He's a solid, believable presence. Anyone who has worked with a homosexual man knows that he's getting it right. Peter Facinelli's Dr. Fitch Cooper (or "Coop", as he's insisting people call him) is a good, live wire. Unlike Noah Wyle's Dr. John Carter on "ER", (who seemed to be falling asleep even as his stories became more and more super melodramatic) "Coop" is very much alive and seemingly off kilter. Like Dr. O'Hara, I didn't (and don't) like his supposed tourette syndrome habit of grabbing women when he was stressed as it felt (and feels) too forced. But as a character (and thanks to Facinelli's performance), he's more than one note. I'm not thrilled with the other two male characters in the show: Paul Schulze's Eddie Walzer and Jackie's husband, played by Dominic Fumusa. Schulze's Eddie is the hospital pharmacist who is "prescribing" Jackie the drugs (painkillers) that she's seen taking at regular intervals and is having a sexual relationship with. There's something about Jackie's drug habit and her affair that doesn't ring true in the show. Perhaps it looked good on paper, to give Jackie a very specific quirk. But as played, it's feels out of place. Eddie's role is underwritten: we're not sure what Jackie's real feelings are for him: drugs, sex, both? When none of them really seem to be that important to her, his role feels unnecessary. As for her husband, Kevin, Dominic Fumusa is too good looking to be believable. He's a romance novel authors idea of a husband rather than the reality that someone in Jackie's situation would likely be in. He's too much the stay at home father (though he owns a bar), painfully aware of his eldest daughter's anxieties and trying to make Jackie aware of it. I think the writers were trying for a gender role reversal here by having Jackie be the one who is cheating while Kevin is the doting, attentive caregiver but it's not really working. It's not Fumusa's fault (though he's bland) but more Falco's. Falco's Nurse Jackie may well have been envisioned as a depiction of a flawed but human women trying to balance so much in her life that she's resorted to drug use to get through her day. The show as well as the role, has the feel of being workshopped: the actors might have been able to work with the writers in developing all the elements of their respective characters. While that's fine, what one actor thinks might make for an interesting character to play doesn't always project that way to the audience. Nurse Jackie's no slouch. We're with her right from the start. She's strong, committed and human to us and it is immediately apparent. We don't need the additions of obvious flaws like the drug use and the affair to tell us that. All of this is thanks to Falco. With those expressive, yearning eyes, she's got the weary look of someone who's been through (and seen) a lot but still has the time and patience to care even if she's spent.

Watching "Nurse Jackie" is like watching a tight rope walker: I'm hoping for the best, that the show will make it across while at the same time, I won't be surprised if it falls apart because the whole show is trying something new and not conventional. For that, we should be thankful. I'm just hoping it does not turn out to be a one season wonder.

I work with Nurses and Edie Falco does Nurse Jackie perfectly. Earthy, gritty, with hard hitting humor and heartbreaking drama. Sure, it may be derivative but it's seriously well done, and realistic, too.

I loved the first episode and they had me five minutes in. That's pretty amazing. I already feel like I've known Nurse Jackie for years, I understand her, I feel what she feels, and I know why she feels that way.

You guys did that with one episode. I'm impressed.

Even the supporting characters seem real, as well as the patients, and nothing comes across as rushed or hurried. The director is taking his time, getting it right.

I'm sure this will be an instant hit.

I absolutely love this show, there is a little of everything in it, and the acting and writing is top notch. I quite liked the new characters coming in as the seasons progressed, but did notice the stories quality declining.

I am sorry to say that I was left wholly disappointed in the final (7th) series, especially the final episode. To me it felt as if the show needed a more deserving ending. I'm not sure if the writers had changed or if they just didn't have any better ideas for the show to end. Such a shame.

The acting throughout is top notch, and Edie Falco's and Merrit Wever's Emmy awards were so deserved.

Definitely a show to watch, just don't expect to get the ending it (and we) deserved.