Nurse Jackie

Nurse Jackie is an American medical comedy-drama television series that aired on Showtime from June 8, 2009, to June 28, 2015. Set in New York City, the series follows Jackie Peyton (Edie Falco), a drug-addicted emergency department nurse at the fictional All Saints' Hospital.
The show was well received by critics, with specific praise directed towards the acting (particularly that of Falco and Merritt Wever) and the show's portrayal of addiction. Nurse Jackie received 24 Primetime Emmy Award nominations. Falco received six consecutive Emmy nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, winning in 2010. Wever received two Emmy nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, winning in 2013.
In May 2023, it was announced that a sequel series was in development with Falco attached to star and executive produce.
Development and production
The series was first conceived by executive producer Caryn Mandabach after being told various stories from an ER nurse about her experience on the job. Using the nurse's stories as an inspiration, Evan Dunsky developed a script for Showtime. By this time, the series had been under the title Nurse Mona and was a considerably darker version of the show with vague supernatural elements. Edie Falco initially passed on the project, but was very intrigued by the main character. Liz Brixius and Linda Wallem had written a pilot about addiction for Showtime titled Insatiable; the two were asked to rework Nurse Mona and infuse it with more comedy. Nurse Jackie was officially ordered by Showtime in June 2008, with Falco attached to star and the season to begin filming later that year. Co-creators Brixius and Wallem served as showrunners.
The story of Jackie's addiction was personal for Falco, Wallem, and Brixius, as all three were recovering alcoholics. According to Brixius, "There are massive consequences to addiction, that in order to keep using, you have to keep rationalizing and tell yourself a different story and underplay the damage that you're doing, and that is the interesting part of Jackie... And it's also where a lot of our comedy comes from. It's not that it's funny, it's that it's absurd." Producer Liz Flahive recalled the writing staff of Nurse Jackie was majority female and half-consisted of individuals from the LGBT community.
For the show's fourth season, which saw Jackie enter rehab and attempt sobriety, Falco said "the last thing I wanted was to give the impression that it's all fun and games, and isn't it funny what she gets away with. It's important that we are accurate as far as showing the ramifications of this kind of behavior." Wallem claims that her and Flahive were long opposed to the idea of Jackie entering rehab until it just seemed right for them: "It just hit me and it was like our own experiences of sobriety...during the break in between [seasons] three and four we had this long talk. We started to talk about what that would look like. I had to divorce myself from my own experience of rehab."
After the fourth season, Wallem and Brixius departed as showrunners. The two, who had been in a relationship prior to the start of the series, were said to be having major disagreements that were affecting production. Nurse Jackie was renewed for a fifth season on May 31, 2012, and Clyde Phillips was announced to be taking over as showrunner. In discussing his hiring, Phillips recalled that Showtime "wanted [the show] darker and funnier and with a greater sense of consequence. Jackie's been a drug addict trying to live a triple life and basically threw a hand grenade into everybody's lives. They wanted to see the effect of what happens when the shrapnel goes flying around."
On March 31, 2014, Showtime renewed Nurse Jackie for a seventh season, which was announced in September as the show's final season. The series finale saw Jackie overdose on street-grade heroin, though her fate was left ambiguous. According to Phillips, "It is left to the viewers to figure out... We had a long conversation with the network about it, and one of the things we wanted to do was to keep the conversation going after the show ends with a good and healthy debate because this is really a show about the effects of a ferocious disease—drug addiction—on an otherwise healthy person."
Cast and characters
Showtime called Jackie Peyton a "strong-willed, iconoclastic New York City nurse juggling the frenzied grind of an urban hospital and an equally challenging personal life," noting that she had "an occasional weakness for Vicodin, Percocet, and Xanax to get her through the days." The main characters include Dr. Eleanor O'Hara (Eve Best), a British doctor and Jackie's best friend at work; Zoey Barkow (Merritt Wever), a spunky, inexperienced nursing student from a community college, "the perfect foil for Jackie's sharp angles"; Dr. Fitch Cooper (Peter Facinelli), "a likable 'golden boy' whose calm façade hides a nervous disposition"; and Eddie Walzer (Paul Schulze), a pharmacist with whom Jackie is having an affair at the beginning of the series.
Other characters include the officious hospital administrator Gloria Akalitus (Anna Deavere Smith), Jackie's bar owner husband Kevin (Dominic Fumusa), their daughters Grace (Ruby Jerins) and Fiona (Daisy Tahan in season 1 and Mackenzie Aladjem in seasons 2 through 7), and Thor (Stephen Wallem), Jackie's kindhearted confidant and the real-life brother of show creator/executive producer Linda Wallem.
Main
Edie Falco as Jackie Peyton, RN; a senior ER nurse
Eve Best as Eleanor O'Hara, MD; an ER surgeon, later Chief of Emergency Medicine
Merritt Wever as Zoey Barkow, RN; an ER nurse, later ER charge-nurse
Haaz Sleiman as Mohammed de la Cruz, RN; an ER nurse
Paul Schulze as Eddie Walzer, PharmD.; the ER pharmacist
Peter Facinelli as Fitch "Coop" Cooper, MD; an ER physician
Dominic Fumusa as Kevin Peyton; Jackie's husband
Anna Deavere Smith as Gloria Akalitus, RN; the ER administrator
Ruby Jerins as Grace Peyton; Jackie's elder daughter
Daisy Tahan (season 1) and Mackenzie Aladjem (season 2–7) as Fiona Peyton; Jackie's younger daughter
Bobby Cannavale as Miguel Cruz, MD
Morris Chestnut as Ike Prentiss, MD; a trauma surgeon and the Chief of Emergency Medicine
Stephen Wallem as Thor Lundgren, RN; an ER nurse
Betty Gilpin as Carrie Roman, MD; an ER physician
Adam Ferrara as Frank Verelli; an NYPD Sergeant
Recurring cast
Rene Ifrah as Officer Ryan (seasons 1–3)
Arjun Gupta as Sam (seasons 1–4)
Lenny Jacobson as Lenny (seasons 1–4)
Michael Buscemi as God (seasons 1–4, 7)
Jaimie Alexander as Tunie Peyton (season 3)
Gbenga Akinnagbe as Kelly Slater (seasons 3–4)
Jake Cannavale as Charlie Cruz (season 4)
Marcy Harriell as Marta (season 5)
Laura Benanti as Mia Peyton (season 6)
Julie White as Antoinette Mills (season 6)
Michael Esper as Gabe (season 6–7)
Tony Shalhoub as Bernard Prince, MD (season 7)
Jeremy Shamos as Johanes Karlsen (season 7)
Mark Feuerstein as Barry Wolfe (season 7)
Episodes
Reception
Critical reception
The premiere of Nurse Jackie was met with generally positive reviews from critics, and received a Metacritic rating of 76 out of 100. Entertainment Weekly gave the first episode a B+, stating "Edie Falco brings a genial forcefulness to Nurse Jackie." New York magazine called the Showtime series "smart, acrid, alternately sharp and sentimental" and "the best series yet in the cable channel's ongoing meditation on the nature of addiction ... and the setting for a truly breakthrough female character." James Poniewozik from Time magazine ranked Nurse Jackies episode "Tiny Bubbles" (106) as 5th on his Top 10 Episodes of 2009 list. Variety and Salon struck the primary sour notes, with Variety noting, "The series increasingly feels like all style and limited substance – a star showcase that's less 'triumphant return' than 'Nice to have you back, but...'"
The second season also received positive reviews, with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 83% based on 24 reviews and the critics consensus reading, "While the tone begins to falter slightly in the second season, Nurse Jackie still triumphs due to Edie Falco's outstanding performance." Robert Bianco of USA Today gave the season a perfect score, stating: "What's remarkable is the fine balance producer/writers Linda Wallem and Liz Brixius maintain between the comic and tragic. Jackie can be a dark show, and it's going to get darker. But there isn't an episode that doesn't leave you yearning to see the next." Amelie Gillette of The A.V. Club was more mixed in her review of the season premiere, praising the actors but criticizing some of the dramatic elements: "Despite the rather lame drama swirling around her, Edie Falco's coolly exasperated Jackie still somehow rises above."
The third season also received positive reviews from critics, though less positive than the previous two. The season has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 76% based on 17 reviews, with the critics consensus reading: "The upheavals at All Saints Hospital still make for addicting television, but this third season suffers from formula fatigue as Jackie's actions continue to escape meaningful consequences." Kathy Sweeney of The Guardian said of the season, "You can't help feeling the show is treading water. True, she is a great nurse, if you overlook the fact she's whacked out of her head as she dispenses her unorthodox brand of healthcare, but it's getting increasingly hard to see Jackie as a sympathetic character." Verne Gay of Newsday was more positive, giving the season a B: "Comedy or drama? Drama or comedy? Nurse Jackie continues to have it both ways in the third season, which is certainly a smart strategy."
The fourth season received critical acclaim from critics, with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 94% based on 17 reviews and a critics consensus reading: "Nurse Jackie stages an intervention on the series' status quo, resulting in an exhilarating fourth season that restores the element of discovery and surprise." James Poniewozik of Time wrote: "This season's changes have really invigorated the series... The people around Jackie made me stick with this show even when its main storyline was going nowhere, but now that it's committed to really engaging with its title character, it's become appointment TV for me again.". June Thomas of Slate called the season a "triumph", singling out the final minutes of the season as "one of the most beautifully choreographed climaxes I've ever seen".
Season five received mixed-to-positive reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, the season has a 62% based on 13 reviews with a critics consensus reading: "All Saints Hospital remains staffed with some of the most dependably terrific actors on television, but this fifth season feels bereft of new places to go and instead relapses back into the series' worst habits." Alan Sepinwall of Uproxx offered mixed opinions on the season, claiming "I don't want to call this a safe version of Nurse Jackie, but it was certainly a comfortable one: a fairly straightforward hospital show that sometimes tilted towards comedy, sometimes towards drama, but pretty meat-and-potatoes overall, albeit with the usual strong performances from Falco, Merritt Wever and company." Brian Lowry of Variety gave a mostly positive review, stating "Jackie remains watchable thanks primarily to Falco, although the best moments are almost invariably dramatic, not humorous."
Reception for the sixth season was more positive, with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 69% based on 13 reviews and the critics consensus reading: "Nurse Jackie matures into a disturbing chronicle of insurmountable addiction as Edie Falco's tragic protagonist hits rock bottom, but the sixth season's commitment to the repetition of drug abuse may prove too monotonous for some viewers." People magazine offered a positive review: "Jackie crosses the line from a show about a woman struggling with a pill addiction to simply a show about an addict. Jackie will either get clean—she's using again—or lose everything... Edie Falco makes the stakes scarily real." Matthew Gilbert of The Boston Globe praised the season's portrayal of addiction: "Nurse Jackie has grown into one of TV's most uncompromising series, a portrait of addiction that refuses, and then refuses all over again, to soften the truth or give viewers a comforting way out." Joel Keller of IndieWire criticized the season as derivative of the show's early years.
The seventh and final season received critical acclaim from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the season has a 94% based on 16 reviews and a critics consensus reading: "Nurse Jackie concludes with a harrowing and ultimately moving final season, granting the ensemble multiple grace notes while never diminishing the difficulty of addiction." Michelle Newman of Entertainment Weekly praised the final episode as "Heartbreaking. Because despite its complications, addiction is sad. And I think that's the only certain thing left to feel." Margaret Lyons of Vulture praised the show's portrayal of the main character, claiming: "That refusal to soften Jackie, that resistance to bend towards likability, is the show's most impressive feat." Variety ranked the final episode as one of TV's best series finales.
Controversy
Soon after Nurse Jackie premiered, the New York State Nurses Association decried the unethical behavior of the title character, and the detrimental impression regarding nurses that such a portrayal could have on the public, stating, "In the first episode, Nurse Jackie is introduced as a substance abuser who trades sex with a pharmacist for prescription drugs ... She has no qualms about repeatedly violating the nursing Code of Ethics."
Genre
On August 29, 2010, at the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards, in her acceptance speech for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, Falco exclaimed "I'm not funny!" Later, while speaking to the press, she expanded upon her statement and said that she felt her performance was dramatic. Several articles have since been written addressing this question, with some writers even calling for an overhaul of the Emmy categorization process as well as a "Comedy-Drama/Dramedy" category for the awards.EMMYS: Do We Need A Dramedy Category? . Deadline.com. Retrieved on 2012-10-09.
Awards and nominations
Broadcast
The June 8, 2009, series premiere was Showtime's most successful ever, with one million viewers for the premiere and over 350,000 for the repeat broadcast. Showtime immediately picked up the series for a second season.
Home media
Foreign versions
The Netherlands: Charlie': A Dutch remake of Nurse Jackie began production for Dutch TV Network, Nederland 3. Starring Halina Reijn, Katja Schuurman, and Benja Bruijning, the show began airing on March 13, 2013.
References
External links
2009 American television series debuts
2015 American television series endings
2000s American black comedy television series
2010s American black comedy television series
2000s American comedy-drama television series
2010s American comedy-drama television series
2000s American medical television series
2010s American medical television series
2010s American LGBT-related drama television series
Showtime (TV network) original programming
Primetime Emmy Award-winning television series
Television shows filmed in New York (state)
Television shows set in New York City
English-language television shows
Fictional nurses
Fictional painkiller addicts
Works about nursing
Lesbian-related television shows
Television shows about drugs
Television series created by Linda Wallem
Television series by CBS Studios
Television series by Lionsgate Television