Title: Nurse Jackie
Genre: TV Sitcom, Hospital, Drama, Dark Comedy, 30 minute episodes
MPAA Rating: TV-MA
Year: 2009-2015 7 Seasons
Produced by: Showtime.
Top Billed Cast: Edie Falco, known for “The Sopranos,” and array of big star regulars/guest stars.
Brief Synopsis: A nurse who juggles her family and pain-killers. Not a good combo but makes for a laugh here and there. Not realistic on all levels, hallucinogenic, trippy, strange when its not.
My Word to the Wise: It’s anyone’s guess how we “should” portray functional drug addicts working in an ER unit. I have no judgment for that reason. But I kept asking myself this question: should it be so funny in between the darkness?
The rest of this review may contain spoilers.
I just finished binge watching all the “Nurse Jackie” episodes. She reminds me of a trainer I had at Pizza Hut years ago who was bitter my education brought me in to the company above her. She was addicted to cigarettes and happy hour. Some addicts feel they work so hard we shouldn’t ever question them, What a crock of shit. Nurse Jackie embodies this type of what I call “Tweaker” thinking.
This is a good show in many ways because it dares to look at functional addiction with no sugar coating in the end.
I didn’t like every aspect of it though, which is likely in a show that runs this long, there have to be some experiments made to see what the audience bites on. If a character gets under your skin it’s for one of two reasons: 1) They remind you of a true life character or 2) it’s a terrible script with back and forth implausibility. I’d say both are true at different points.
If you like ER shows and/or you liked “Breaking Bad” you’ll enjoy the hybrid. There’s a bit more dark humor in “Nurse Jackie.” A spoonful of humor helps the medicine go down I suppose. But is this medicine? How else can a show present such dark subject matter?
