Review by Cate McVeigh
Stars Edie Falco, Eve Best, Pater Facinelli, Paul Schulze,
Dominic Femusa | Created by Evan Dunsky, Linda Wallem & Liz Brixius
UK certification 15 | UK RRP £24.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 315 minutes
Nurse Jackie Peyton is a "pill-popping, rule-bending medical renegade." She is also a married mother of two that is having an affair with pharmacist Eddie, whilst having to cover up (financially and professionally) her prescription drug addiction. No wonder this show got such bad press from the New York State Nurses Association, as the main character doesn't so much violate the nursing code of ethics; she rips them up and snorts lines of crushed up oxycontin from them.
The show does what it says on the tin; it is a darkly comedic hospital drama, that shows some of the seedier sides of day-to-day patient care. But despite a competant show, Nurse Jackie fails on 2 very distinct levels; there are other hospital shows that do it better and despite a fine performance from Edie Falco, the title character is thoroughly loathsome. Hospital dramedies have been creating storylines around the drug addiction of hospital staff for years; House and ER allowed you to empathise with the characters and didn't base the entire storyline around it. Grey's Anatomy also does sex and relationship conflict better than almost all dramedies out there, not just the ones set in hospitals. It may not be fair, but it is inevitable that viewers will draw comparisons. Coming back to the fact that Nurse Jackie herself is a pretty lousy person, it did really put me off watching the rest of the season. Her husband (Kevin) and lover (Eddie) are also pretty tedious.
However, where the character of Nurse Jackie fails; the supporting cast of characters come in to save the day. Here we can salvage some likeable misfits from the abhorrent heap and thank God for the big-wigs who know that if you hate all of the characters you will simply turn off. Novice nurse, Zooey, follows Nurse Jackie
around like a puppy dog, but thankfully only picks up her bad-ass traits in a funny, naive way. Zooey is a ray of sunshine in an otherwise relatively dark world and her interactions with a wise-cracking patient who thinks he is God and her fears that she is pregnant are some of the gems of the series. Eve Best; who plays brilliant, British, heiress Dr O'Hara, is comic relief to Jackie's vitriol. Dr O'Hara's romps with her famous lesbian on-off girlfriend and with novice Sam (and former drug addict - yes another one) are a lot more believable than the Eddie/Jackie relationship. My favourite character has to be Peter Facinelli's Dr Cooper. Known for his turn in the Twilight franchise as Carlisle Cullen, vampire foster father to the younger Cullens; this is quite a welcome departure from the teen melodrama. Facinelli has turned around this obnoxious, self serving, narcissistic idiot into a hilariously clueless, loveable fool. Despite being the good looking face of the hospital, he has brilliant quirks; such as his incessant tweeting in the aptly named episode "twitter" and his hilarious Tourette's twitch of touching women in a sexually inappropriate way when he gets scared or nervous. I would be a lot happier if the show decided to take a heavier turn towards fleshing out these characters in the already commissioned season 3.
It's not a terrible show, but it also doesn't live up to the hype or the potential that it could do. Finally getting rid of Eddie and permanently replacing him with the more competant pill-o-matix machine would be a great improvement. The show is only in season 2 and it looks set to continue for at least a few years to come, so it's work watching and hoping that they will be able to iron out some of the hiccups from the first two seasons. If you like hospital dramas in general, this is another one to add to the ever-expanding list; just take it with a pinch of salt when drawing comparisons, it's still in it's early days.
EXTRAS ★★? Audio commentary, "All About Eve" - Interview with Eve Best, "Perfecting an Inappropriate Touch" - Interview with Peter Facinelli, Nurse Jackie Main Title Montage, Gag Reel