{"id":575,"date":"2009-07-13T19:16:00","date_gmt":"2009-07-13T23:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/clients.chrisvanpatten.com\/theatreaficionado.com\/2009\/07\/nurse-jackie.html"},"modified":"2009-07-13T19:16:00","modified_gmt":"2009-07-13T23:16:00","slug":"nurse-jackie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theatreaficionado.com\/?p=575","title":{"rendered":"&quot;Nurse Jackie&quot;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I have a new favorite TV show.<\/p>\n<p>About three years ago I discovered the Showtime series <span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Weeds <\/span>starring Mary Louise Parker and Elizabeth Perkins (ooh wouldn&#8217;t she make a great Barbara in <span style=\"font-style: italic;\">August<\/span>? sorry, I&#8217;ll get to the point). Since devouring that first series, I&#8217;ve looked into other cable series with particular favorites among <span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Entourage <\/span>and <span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Six Feet Under. <\/span>I have to admit here I&#8217;ve never seen <span style=\"font-style: italic;\">The Sopranos, <\/span>but was intrigued to hear that its Emmy-winning star Edie Falco would be starring in a brand new series.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Nurse Jackie <\/span>is an offbeat dark comedy centering around the goings on of All Saints, a fictional hospital in NYC. Falco is the inevitably flawed protagonist, a woman leading two lives; she kisses her husband and children goodbye and takes off her wedding ring before entering her realm: the ER of this hospital. Add to the mix, a pain pill addiction and an affair with the pharmacologist supplying her with drugs. The writing is sharp and shows considerable promise for a long run. Jackie may be the most interesting character on TV since Nancy Botwin, helped considerably by Falco&#8217;s fully realized performance that is simultaneously hilarious and unnerving. Jackie isn&#8217;t above eviscerating a doctor for making an inept call or flushing the ear of a UN delegate down the drain after he slashed a prostitute. For all of her problems and questionable choices, she is a compassionate nurse who genuinely cares for her patients and is brilliant in her job as a healer.<\/p>\n<p>The emergency room is chock full of colorful characters. Under Jackie&#8217;s wing is Zoey, a narive nurse in training played with utter whimsy by Merritt Wever. Tony award nominee Eve Best is delectably droll as Jackie&#8217;s best friend and confidant, a narcissistic doctor somewhere between <span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Sex and the City <\/span>and Emma Thompson (give this woman an Emmy already). Peter Facinelli is the new doctor, insufferable yet completely likable (with a unique form of Tourette&#8217;s). Anna Deavere Smith is the stern hospital administrator; Dominic Fumusa is Jackie&#8217;s devoted husband. The series is shot in NY and there have been a slew of appearances from theatre actors including Eli Wallach, Swoosie Kurtz, Blythe Danner, Judith Ivey and Erin Dilly.<\/p>\n<p>The show airs Monday nights at 10:30 on Showtime or you can also catch the episodes On Demand. If you don&#8217;t have Showtime, you can go to their website and watch episodes for free on there. It&#8217;s a new that&#8217;s worth checking out, and if you&#8217;re anything like me, you&#8217;ll be obsessed in no time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have a new favorite TV show. About three years ago I discovered the Showtime series Weeds starring Mary Louise Parker and Elizabeth Perkins (ooh wouldn&#8217;t she make a great Barbara in August? sorry, I&#8217;ll get to the point). Since devouring that first series, I&#8217;ve looked into other cable series with particular favorites among Entourage &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatreaficionado.com\/?p=575\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">&quot;Nurse Jackie&quot;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[2280,2282,2278,2277,2279,2281],"class_list":["post-575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-anna-deavere-smith","tag-edie-falco","tag-eve-best","tag-merritt-wever","tag-nurse-jackie","tag-peter-facinelli"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theatreaficionado.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theatreaficionado.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theatreaficionado.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theatreaficionado.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theatreaficionado.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theatreaficionado.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theatreaficionado.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theatreaficionado.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theatreaficionado.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}