TV Review: Edie Falco Brings Showtime’s ‘Nurse Jackie’ to Vibrant Life

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CHICAGO – Showtime has done it again. The network has carved out a fascinating niche by focusing on unique characters and hiring talented actors to portray them. Michael C. Hall in “Dexter,” Mary-Louise Parker in “Weeds,” and Toni Collette in “United States of Tara” gave some of the best performances of the last year. Edie Falco in “Nurse Jackie” has the potential to beat them all.

Television Rating: 4.0/5.0

Falco gave one of the best performances in the history of television on “The Sopranos” and she brings her incredible ability to the fully-realized title character in Showtime’s dark comedy. Jackie Peyton lives a daily existence that most of us couldn’t possibly relate to directly but Falco makes this woman one hundred percent believable. It’s an amazing performance.

Edie Falco as Jackie Peyton in Nurse Jackie (Episode 3)
Photo credit: Ken Regan/Showtime

Peyton is a nurse in the ER at New York City’s All Saints Hospital. Based on a journal by a real-life Manhattan ER nurse, “Nurse Jackie” portrays daily life in one of the most unusual places in the world. A day’s work for Jackie (and the cast of patients in the premiere) includes a stoner with third degree burns in a very private place, a man with a missing ear, and a bike messenger with a broken leg. Future episodes include a woman whose oxygen tank explodes when she tries to smoke with it on and an elderly man (Eli Wallach) who refuses any more care for his failing heart.

Edie Falco as Jackie Peyton in Nurse Jackie Photo credit: Courtesy of Showtime Networks

Life in a NYC ER would be crazy enough but it’s just the beginning of Nurse Jackie’s unusual existence. Recurrent back problems have led to a serious addiction to painkillers. Jackie takes enough prescription drugs on a daily basis to knock most people out but she needs them just to get from patient to patient.

How does Jackie get her drugs? An affair with the hospital pharmacist (former “Sopranos” co-star Paul Schulze) helps with that little problem. Other daily issues include dealing with the cocky new doctor (Peter Facinelli), having lunch with her best friend at the hospital (Eve Best), butting heads with the ER administrator (Anna Deavere Smith), and even monitoring a wide-eyed student (Merritt Wever). Only her fellow nurse Mo-Mo (Haaz Sleiman of “The Visitor”) can possibly understand her daily grind.

One more thing - Jackie’s married. Her husband (Dominic Fusana) is a bartender and one of her two daughters (Ruby Jerins and Daisy Tahan) appears to be cracking under the pressure of life.

Every week, for half an hour, Showtime will present a day in the life of “Nurse Jackie” as she juggles patients, doctors, an addiction to painkillers, and her own family. As her student implies, it takes a saint.

How does a woman with that much on her plate function? “Nurse Jackie” expertly brings the chaos of the lead character to life without making it feel forced. Just as a real nurse can move from patient to patient and case to case, it’s as if Jackie has segmented the problems of her life and just takes them one at a time.

Clearly, it’s a great role and you won’t find a much better actress on television than Edie Falco. She is simply spectacular here. And the supporting cast is nearly as strong. I could easily see any of them, particularly Best and Sleiman, handling their own significant plotlines as the season progresses. Of course, it’s Falco’s show at first, but just as other characters were eventually allowed to share spotlights with Dexter Morgan and Nancy Botwin, I expect the same thing will happen with “Nurse Jackie” and the ensemble is talented enough to pull that off.

As for the writing and directing, I think the premiere episode feels like it’s trying a little too hard to juggle too many things at one time, but the next few episodes settle into a consistent tone that makes it feel like this could be appointment television for years to come. Like “Weeds,” “Nurse Jackie” is a wonderful balance of tones, segueing seamlessly from drama to comedy. As she proved by going from “The Sopranos” to an incredible arc on “30 Rock,” Falco has proven she can do both with ease. And now she’ll get to do so week after week. You won’t soon forget the name “Nurse Jackie”.

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com brian@hollywoodchicago.com