Edie Falco, such a great mob wife on "The Sopranos," here does a turn as "Nurse Jackie" in this series, with each episode a half hour.
Jackie works at All Saints Hospital in New York City. She's a wife and mother of two daughters. Her husband Kevin (Dominic Fumosa) owns a bar. Jackie is well liked, in fact beloved, by patients and staff alike at All Saints. There's her boss Gloria (Anna Deveare Smith), Eleanor (Eve Best), Zoey (Merritt Weaver), Thor (Stephen Wallam), Fitch (Peter Facinelli), and her some time boyfriend, the pharmacist Eddie (Paul Schulze).
What most people aren't aware of is that Jackie is a major drug addict who pops pills constantly - she steals them, fakes prescriptions, buys them, suckers people out of them, whatever she has to do. She hides them at home. The sad thing is, she's an excellent nurse, a caring person, and a loving mother.
As her condition worsens, her life falls apart.
We follow Jackie through detox and 12-step meetings and watch her go through a series of friends and lovers. Her ability to lie right to people's faces is shocking, and the way she compartmentalizes her life is striking. When her husband visits her at the hospital, Zooey says to him, "Jackie isn't married." Even those who work closely with her don't really know her.
Edie Falco is amazing as Jackie, who has you believing there is nothing wrong with her when she's high as a kite, and when she's clean, makes you suspect she's high.
She is surrounded by a wonderful cast, the best being award-winner Merritt Weaver as Zooey, a nursing student who idolizes Jackie. Most of the actors have a background in stage work: Eve Best is from the British theater, Stephen Wallam from musicals, Anna Deavere Smith does remarkable one-woman shows, besides TV, stage and film.
I was really sorry to see Eve Best go, with her insane Manolo Blahnik shoes and vivacious British humor.
The series is filled with humor, sadness, surprises, darkness, with realistic hospital situations, though the show doesn't revolve around the hospital.
Through it all, Falco gives an honest performance in her portrayal of a woman who lives a destructive secret life but puts on a normal face. It's so realistic it's chilling.
Jackie works at All Saints Hospital in New York City. She's a wife and mother of two daughters. Her husband Kevin (Dominic Fumosa) owns a bar. Jackie is well liked, in fact beloved, by patients and staff alike at All Saints. There's her boss Gloria (Anna Deveare Smith), Eleanor (Eve Best), Zoey (Merritt Weaver), Thor (Stephen Wallam), Fitch (Peter Facinelli), and her some time boyfriend, the pharmacist Eddie (Paul Schulze).
What most people aren't aware of is that Jackie is a major drug addict who pops pills constantly - she steals them, fakes prescriptions, buys them, suckers people out of them, whatever she has to do. She hides them at home. The sad thing is, she's an excellent nurse, a caring person, and a loving mother.
As her condition worsens, her life falls apart.
We follow Jackie through detox and 12-step meetings and watch her go through a series of friends and lovers. Her ability to lie right to people's faces is shocking, and the way she compartmentalizes her life is striking. When her husband visits her at the hospital, Zooey says to him, "Jackie isn't married." Even those who work closely with her don't really know her.
Edie Falco is amazing as Jackie, who has you believing there is nothing wrong with her when she's high as a kite, and when she's clean, makes you suspect she's high.
She is surrounded by a wonderful cast, the best being award-winner Merritt Weaver as Zooey, a nursing student who idolizes Jackie. Most of the actors have a background in stage work: Eve Best is from the British theater, Stephen Wallam from musicals, Anna Deavere Smith does remarkable one-woman shows, besides TV, stage and film.
I was really sorry to see Eve Best go, with her insane Manolo Blahnik shoes and vivacious British humor.
The series is filled with humor, sadness, surprises, darkness, with realistic hospital situations, though the show doesn't revolve around the hospital.
Through it all, Falco gives an honest performance in her portrayal of a woman who lives a destructive secret life but puts on a normal face. It's so realistic it's chilling.