Nurse Jackie


Nurse Jackie is an American medical comedy-drama series. It premiered on Showtime on June 8, 2009, and its seventh and final season premiered on April 12, 2015. The series finale aired on June 28, 2015.
The show stars Edie Falco as the title character, Jackie Peyton, an emergency department nurse at All Saints' Hospital in New York City. For Jackie, "every day is a high wire act of juggling patients, doctors, fellow nurses, and her own indiscretions."
The show was well received by critics, winning five Primetime Emmy Awards out of 24 nominations, including one win for Falco and Merritt Wever each.

Development and production

Nurse Jackie was created by Liz Brixius, Linda Wallem, and Evan Dunsky. Brixius and Wallem served as showrunners for the first four seasons and shared executive producer duties with Caryn Mandabach and John Melfi. Showtime ordered an initial 12 episodes. Before the premiere, Brixius told the New York Daily News that "Guys' stories tend to be about conquests—getting the job, winning the Olympics, whatever. Women stories aren't as immediately climactic, so they need to play out over the course of three months... And every medical show out there has been about doctors. Doctors are absolutely unable to do what they have to do without nurses. We want to tell those stories."
The June 8, 2009, series premiere was Showtime's most successful ever, with 1 million viewers for the premiere and over 350,000 for the repeat broadcast. Showtime immediately picked up the series for a second season. Season Three premiered on Showtime on March 28, 2011. On May 23, 2011, Showtime ordered a fourth season. A fifth season was ordered on May 31, 2012, and production began in late 2012. The season 4 finale aired on June 17, 2012. Season 5 premiered on April 14, 2013, with new showrunner and executive producer, Clyde Phillips. On June 6, 2013, Showtime renewed the show for a sixth season, which premiered on April 13, 2014.
On March 31, 2014, Showtime renewed Nurse Jackie for a seventh season, which was announced the following September as the show's final season. It premiered April 12, 2015.

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, a British doctor and Jackie's best friend at work; Zoey Barkow, a spunky, inexperienced nursing student from a community college, "the perfect foil for Jackie's sharp angles"; Dr. Fitch Cooper, "a likable 'golden boy' whose calm façade hides a nervous disposition"; and Eddie Walzer, a pharmacist with whom Jackie is having an affair at the beginning of the series.
Other characters include the officious hospital administrator Gloria Akalitus, Jackie's bar owner husband Kevin, their daughters Grace and Fiona, and Thor, Jackie's kindhearted confidant and the real-life brother of show creator/executive producer Linda Wallem.

Main

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 Jackie's episode "Tiny Bubbles" 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...'"
Reviews of subsequent seasons varied. The second season achieved a Metacritic rating of 75 out of 100 from 16 critics, the third season received 79 out of 100 based on 7 reviews, the fourth received 83 out of 100 out of 9 reviews, the fifth season received a 66 out of 100 based on 10 reviews, and the sixth season received a rating of 64 out of 100 based on 4 reviews. The seventh and final season did not receive enough ratings to warrant a score.

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.

Awards and nominations

Golden Globe Awards
Screen Actors Guild Awards
Primetime Emmy Awards

Home media

Foreign versions