'Nurse Jackie' review

Edie Falco returns to TV with a pill-popping habit

By Michael O'Connell

Posted June 4, 2009

Special to Metromix

Paging Dr. House. Wait, he’s stuck in reruns. Are there any other hospital workers with a knack for spot-on diagnoses and an opiate dependency?

Well, there’s “Nurse Jackie.” Showtime’s latest dark comedy about an overworked and overwhelmed ER nurse gives us a heroine struggling to balance her responsibilities as the lone non-idiot at her job with a list of personal dramas that includes—but aren't limited to—infidelity, absentee mothering, an addiction to pain-killers and a serious case of sarcasm.  

Jackie (portrayed by Edie Falco of “The Sopranos” fame) leads the kind of double life that makes Don Draper look like he’s got everything under control. At any moment playing a mentor, friend, lover, junkie or wife and mother, she’s a different person to almost every one of her supporting characters, and not a one of them seems to know who she really is. And we’d be lying if we said we were any less in the dark.

The buzz: Casting coup! After nearly a decade of playing stoic, sympathy-inducing mob wife Carmela Soprano, Showtime snatched TV MVP Edie Falco from HBO for her first solo vehicle. Jackie is a far cry from Carmela, though—except for that wandering eye—so the real challenge of the series is whether or not she’ll be able to make viewers forget her career-defining past role.

The verdict: The troubled-yet-brilliant medical professional premise makes the first glimpse of “Nurse Jackie” feel a bit familiar, but sometimes television series are best appreciated just for what their stars can do with less-than-appealing material. Falco does all the heavy lifting for “Jackie,” giving the series the same appealing whimsy and ambiguity she brings to her character.  

Did you know? Falco is the first woman to ever sweep the top three dramatic television awards, having earned trophies for lead female performance at the Emmys, the Golden Globes and the SAG Awards in 2000 for her work on the freshman season of “The Sopranos."

"Nurse Jackie" premieres Monday, June 8, at 10:30 p.m. ET/PT on Showtime.