Nurse Jackie was a show I always meant to give a try, simply because I'm a big fan of Edie Falco (most memorable as Carmella Soprano in... well, come on, do I have to spell it out?). OK, so saying I'm a "big fan" may be misleading, because I am relatively sure that The Sopranos is the only thing I've seen her in. The good news is, if you are a fan of her Sopranos work, you will get to see her basically just play Carmella in a different setting. The bad news? well, she basically plays Carmella in a different setting. In fact, this show is really, REALLY heavy on borrowing elements from other shows. Let me break it down for you:
Edie Falco plays a tough as nails nurse in All Saints Hospital, New York City. Life is tough when you are clearly the only person in the hospital who knows their elbow from their asshole, but fortunately, she has a coping mechanism. Every time life gets a little challenging, she goes in to the bathroom, sticks a straw up her nose, and snorts up whatever painkillers happen to be on hand. Wait... a medical practitioner in a hospital full of morons who constantly let their personal lives get in the way of work who copes by taking massive doses of painkillers... this notion is ringing a bell.
And that bell's toll sounds suspiciously like Hugh Laurie
Painkillers aren't the only thing getting Jackie through her day, though. She also has her resident hunk of man, Eddie, with whom she engages in on-hours nookie. He also happens to be the hospital pharmacist who supplies her with her painkillers. The twist comes (minor spoiler alert here) when she leaves work for the day, kisses Eddie goodbye, then returns to her house where we see that, lo and behold, she has a spouse and two children! Wait a minute... I'm pretty sure I saw THIS exact scenario play out somewhere else, too.
Oh, right.
At this point, you probably think I hate the show. You are wrong, and furthermore, should not make assumptions, because it makes an ass of u and mptions. Unfortunately, we live in a world with a lot of ideas out there, and sometimes those ideas overlap. If Nurse Jackie was going to steal elements from other programs, at least they picked programs that are (or in the case of House, WERE) good. The thing is, I have almost no sympathy for Jackie as a character. She's selfish, she's a bitch, and she's whoring herself out to a pharmacist for painkillers while her husband constantly takes care of her two daughters, one of whom has an anxiety disorder. No, what makes this show good is the supporting cast, including Zoe, the overenthusiastic nurse in training who begins almost every sentence with a cringe-inducing "um... so..."; Dr. "Coop" Cooper, the fresh out of med-school hotshot too obsessed with how awesome it is telling people that he's a doctor to actually be a doctor; and my personal favorite, Dr. O'Hara, Jackie's fashion savvy, snarky, and British confidante who performs surgeries in 5 inch heels and intimidates waiters at restaurants into letting her smoke indoors.
If you don't let her light up, she will snark you to death.
The three supporting characters I mentioned above are obviously not the only faces apart from Falco in the show, but I chose those 3 for very specific reasons: they are incapable of getting anything in their personal or professional lives right. Like, ever. The level of awkwardness in the interactions between these heavily dysfunctional people makes me as a viewer physically uncomfortable in ways that only later episodes of The Office have been able to do in the past. As the season progresses, Jackie's wall of sex, drugs, and lies begins to crumble around her, and watching this cast of social retards try to wrap their heads around it hurts so badly it's good.
The show is most certainly not for everyone, given that the characters can be very difficult to actually like (save Dr. O'Hara and Jackie's husband). However, cringe-humor enthusiasts will definitely find themselves laughing up a storm when they aren't avoiding looking at the screen from embarrassment for whoever occupies it. The story takes a little while to get going, but then again, the episodes are only a half hour long and there are only 12 of them, so should you find yourself feeling the inclination to fill the void of "no good programming until September", I can recommend giving Nurse Jackie a try, though you may find yourself needing some painkillers just to numb yourself to the sheer doses of concentrated awkward.
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