wow, anyone who has followed the show all season and still cant appreciate any of its many mesmerizing qualities simply cannot appreciate show business itself. if you fancy TV dramas, not to mention shows involving hospitals, nurse Jackie will quite possibly be your favorite show of all time. with some of the best acting in a TV show possibly ever and a nail biting, creative plot, anyone can be easily captivated by this 10star TV show and have them begging for the next season. watch this show! You will not regret it. one last note: complements to the supporting cast of Edie Falco, they were truly superb. never before have characters been so likable.

Yes, I watched all seasons. At first it was okay. It wasn't really funny, there are a few spots that I laughed. It got a little "broken record" for my liking. I am honestly glad that ended it because I was begining to hate Jackie. Everybody bent over backwards for her and she didnt care. I felt like she broke Zoey's spirit in the end. I honestly think they could have wrapped this up after a couple seasons. They didn't need to drag this on for this long.

The premise of this show is a study of addiction in a Nurse who can function while still being an addict. The focus is supposed to be on the characters and their interaction with one another. The problem is that it's set in a hospital where the medical situations are totally implausible and unbelievable. Many of the things that the nurse does in the series would just not be possible in a hospital. She knows more than the doctors, speaks to people like she's in charge etc. While I'm all for strong female leads in series, they have to be put in believable situations, not constantly living in a fantasy world. This departure from reality gets worse as the series progresses. If attention had been paid to detail, and maybe the show had a medical consultant to advise on the situations, it might have a bit more credibility.

I watched the first five seasons on cable and watched the last two on Netflix. I am a registered nurse (for 39+ yrs). I was a huge fan of the show's initial seasons. I had great hopes for it. I give the series high marks for realism, with the exception of Jackie's ability to be a super clinician when high. I worked with impaired nurses throughout my career. I have been manipulated, used and lied to. I have been set up. I have had to fire a nursing aide for coming to work drunk in a hospice for a night shift. I have been Thor, Zoe and Akalitus. Their roles are painfully accurate beyond description. The performances are five-stars throughout. I could go on and on about individuals but I think giving everyone an A+ in the ensemble is as big a compliment as I can give. My major disappointment is with the writing. The humor and repartee of the earlier seasons were the perfect counterpoints to Jackie's selfish depravity. In fact, when I have worked with impaired nurses, the atmosphere tended to be just that. Some impaired nurses are masters of distraction by way of entertainment. They hook their coworkers on the drugged personality, not so much on the quality of the nursing. I think the ending of the series would have much more effective if the train had bustled along those quick-witted rails with less kudos for Jackie's nursing expertise. In fact, it would have been truer to life if she had gradually screwed up more often on the job.

Good premise. Decent first season. Then, not unlike too many other shows that start out with a lot of potential Nurse Jackie quickly runs off the rails and never gets back on track. This show suffers from the all-too-typical "caricatures rather than characters" syndrome. There are simply too many one dimensional cartoon characters in this show to even begin to take it seriously. "Coop". Zoey. Thor. All cartoonish immature 1 dimensional clowns. And that's simply unacceptable. So is its schizo nature of taking itself way too seriously then not taking itself seriously enough. And so is the problem of having no one to really care that much about. So in short, this show is neither here nor there, and as such, the net result is a big waste of time. Furthermore the continuity from one season to the next is hands down THE WORST of any TV series I've ever seen. It's like the writers/directors/editors/producers were all on PCP. The gaps and unexplained events from one season to the next are appalling and any semblance of suspension of disbelief is totally destroyed. But possibly the biggest problem with this show is that it SEEMS to be focusing on addiction, when in fact, it's the lead character is a sociopath who is also an addict. Jackie has no conscience whatsoever, and her persistent incorrigible behavior makes it impossible to want anything for her except incarceration. Rarely has one TV character generated so much hatred. My suggestion? Please...pull the plug on this rotting comatose vegetable already.

I have seen this show a couple of times and it is somewhat interesting. I like the side-stories they actually are pretty good. I am not a big fan of most shows and movies directed at women...but this one has more than potential, it has pace and seems to be well written and well acted. I guess the most irritating part about this whole story is also the most captivating. It seems Junkie-Jackie is always screwing up her life at every turn. If she is not main-lining, she is selling her 'woman-hood' for dope, and other odd (but real) stuff. The screwing around and drugs has been going on for a long time. I think it is time to make some changes (and we want to keep this real). She needs to dump her family, they are not important anyways. The only thing important to her is her job – very noble – just as noble as the executive who stays at work late at night with the sex-retary. Once troublesome husband is out of the way, she can now try a new way of getting drug…Junkie-Jackie can do it all the old fashion way and peddle her femininity on the streets. Not only will she experience 'variety is the spice of life', but she could really get some excellent drugs. This show has too much potential to cancel.

Type of Pilot: Medical Drama Similar Shows: St. Elsewhere The Inner Light: Small victories in a crap day. Strengths: Edie Falco. She's really good. Really likable (much more than the character is). She is the show, and the show is her. Like her and you'll probably like the show. Also: Paul Schulze. He only has a couple of scenes but he makes a strong impact. I like the guy. He was on 24 and Journeyman. Weaknesses: It's not the first grim and gritty medical drama and - except for Edie Falco I'm not sure why I'd care about this one. If you aim for the same territory as St. Elsewhere you are aiming pretty darn high, so you'd better have the goods to back it up. Impressive Characters: Jackie Peyton herself is the only really interesting character. And the pilot is really a character portrait of her. We watch her get through a day. Cope with patients dying due to inept doctors, cope with her own weaknesses, cope with grieving family members and find ways to do some good (mostly by bending the rules). She's basically a good person, I think, but seriously flawed which is what makes her interesting and worthy of a TV series to follow her 'adventures'. Her flaws are shown, I think, as flaws and the pilot certainly offers up no excuses for her. She's not perfect and that's it. But, at least, she tries to do a few good things along the way. Impressive Actors: Edie Falco and Paul Schulze stand out. I never watched The Sopranos past the pilot, but I saw her on 30 Rock. The woman has star quality. And she could do better than this show. Less-Than-Impressive Characters: The rest of the characters are ignored in this opening episode. Which is fair enough. The first episode is about Jackie. I understand that. We get brief character sketches of the others: smart-talking female doc, over-eager student nurse, gay best friend, nice guy lover, pretty-boy idiot doc and stern hospital administrator. Nothing in the pilot to interest me in any of these. Early days. I'm sure the show will flesh them out. The priority is making Jackie interesting and they managed to do that. Less-Than-Impressive Actors: Seems like a solid cast all the way through. Continuity: Probably be mild. Rewatchability: Zero. Watched this once. I'll either watch Episode Two next or nothing. No real reason to go back and watch this specific half-hour pilot again. Three Things I Really Like About This Pilot: Edie Falco Paul Schulze Jackie Peyton Three Things I Really Don't Like About This Pilot: It's yet another grim, gritty medical drama. Not enough fleshing out of the supporting characters. Yes, I know it's a pilot and only a half-hour long, I'm just saying, that's all... Not enough Paul Schulze. Seriously. The guy is barely on camera. Yet his is the closest thing the show has to a genuinely nice character. Although he has flaws, too. Miscellaneous Comments: I like Edie Falco and I like the lead character. I'm not sure I'll go back to this hospital, though, to see the (grim) daily grind. Jackie is likable because of Falco. I'm not sure another actress could make me care about the character. And if it's not in the writing, should I bother going back for more? GRADE: B+ http://yetanothertvreviewpodcast.blogspot.com

Don't get me wrong, the premise for Nurse Jackie is great. Edie Falco plays Jackie Peyton, a Vicodin addicted nurse whose whole world (and this series, it turns out) are held together by the hope that nobody will discover her dirty little secret. During the day, she's the Champion ER Nurse of All Time, showing both compassion and brains while bucking the system that promotes and protects profit-hungry hospitals and rock star egomaniac doctors at the expense of the everyday working man and woman. Bravo Jackie. Not so much so to the show's creator's Liz Brixius and Linda Wallum, who, it seems, had every good intention when they dreamed up this little show, which has, since season one, devolved into a horribly solipsistic mishmash of retreads from all the most forgettable network TV hospital dramas and bad nighttime soaps. See, NJ has one card to play --- the one stated above --- and after that ace is revealed, the rest of the show goes on life support. Season two ended promisingly enough (after 85% of it was recycled St. Elsewhere hubris) with some much needed suspense revolving around that ace. I've only watched a few episodes of season three but it is mind numbingly horrific. One of the big problems is the roster of bland, two-dimensional supporting characters (not the actors, with the exception of teeth-grindingly cutesy Merritt Wever). They run the gamut from Thor (not fleshed out enough...really just a gay cardboard cut-out) to Ackolidas (Anna Devere Smith utterly wasted in the 'bad boss with a heart of gold shtick' --- did I actually see her talking to a monkey in one episode or did I dream that?) to unbelievably dense (Falco's husband on the series....just a weak-willed cypher who's decades too young to play opposite Falco, at least in appearance). The first season had some interesting subplots, including the one about the OCD daughter. The newer episodes have as subplots: 1) Will Wever get together with her hunky slob of an EMT boyfriend? 2) Will Peter Facinelli (another great actor in a wastoid role) make up with the male nurse who punched him after he screwed his girlfriend? Add in the Xanax-induced doze of all the hacky "zany" ER episode-length plots that try so earnestly to win our hearts and funny bones. They get neither. It's too bad Showtime didn't see the broken railroad tracks at the end of this speeding freight train when they green-lighted it. I'm sure they thought Falco alone could save it. Sorry....pull the plug and DNR it if you value your time and sanity.

I saw an ad for this series and didn't think I would like it. And it turned out it has the most brilliant pilot in my opinion. I love the subtle, undertone jokes. The drama is quite real, unlike, soap-opera "grey's anatomy." You get enough taste of every character and the things that nurses would have to deal with their job. I think the script is brilliantly written. If you expect typical hospital drama, you may not like this show. The humor is off-beat and quirky. This is the only show that I eagerly wait each week. Great characters and casts. I just wish the episodes are longer than 30 minutes and more than 10/12 episodes a season. I'm a big fan.

I totally hated this show. Couldn't stand it. Just fast-forwarding two episodes. Poor actress, going from the worlds best TV show to the worlds worst. And i seen A lot of TV shows. They are really trying to ride the doctor wave. Its getting so boring, and everything seems so unrealistic. They are just throwing stuffs at us to make it look like an interesting show but its pathetic. Wont even last 1 season. It seemed like a good idea when i heard about it, and i can assure everybody that it probably looked awesome on paper, it had to do so they could lure in such a great actress, but it was very untasteful, after seeing two episodes i didn't just dislike it, I hated it. Watch Royal Pains or something else instead, I'm not used to hate TV-shows so this really feels wrong but it was awful. Please don't let them do two seasons