Nurse Jackie

Went over to the Coreys last night to watch the first episode of Weeds and caught the premiere of Nurse Jackie.

Very dark, VERY funny.

SPOILER ALERT





The opening (with its reference to Eliot's "Love Song..."), depicting both her bad back and her consequent addiction to pain-killers (she snorts the granules from the capsules) felt pretty real... but it had me thinking, "Where's the funny?"

That was only increased by the opening medical sequence in which we see her prowess (and the ineptitude of the ER doc...) which ends in the patient's death. Uh, but where's the funny?

That begins with her forging of his organ donor card (yeah, I know, it doesn't sound funny, but it was, ironically so [especially with its followup with his family])... and her followup with the inept doc (and his bizarre sexual gesture Tourett's).

Zoe the new nurse... funny... then it was great to see Anne Deveare Smith working again... "Quiet and Mean... those are my people." ... Jackie-pharmacist-sex with the bad back... [the fact that it's with the actor who was Carmella Soprano's priest makes it ]even funnier... (but when the sex begins to look like she's whoring herself out for pain meds, it goes dark again...)... then darkly comic again "Puke away from the ear, Zoe"... her lunch with the English doctor was hilarious ("Dr. Cooper grabbed my tit today." "Did your tit make the first move?"...the discussion of healing=nurses and cutting up bodies=doctors... the reluctance to save the choking old woman)... third-degree burns on the scrotum (and Zoe's phone-picture taking of it... the ironic "I like to have a clear head." ... ) ... then the dead patient's girlfriend sends us back into dark territory, as does a scumbag prostitute cutter... then the ear in the toilet brings us darkly back into the funny... "cole slaw"... dating a severed head... "I think you're a saint..."

But the final twist... her daughters and (WTF?) husband? Brilliant.

The episode was tightly written:
The final St. Augustine discussion links back to the beginning and its discussion of "those with the greatest capacity for good are those with the greatest capacity for evil."
The pancakes from loving significant others.
Her "saintliness" vs. her infidelity.
Her prowess vs. her mistakes.

"Make me good, God, but not yet."

For your (edited) enjoyment:


It was damn good. Not The Soprano's good, not Deadwood good, not The Wire good... but pretty damn good.