Jackie Peyton herself takes drugs to get her through the day's long hours, trading sex with pharmacist Eddie Walzer (Paul Schulze) for the pills she needs, and believing her first-hand experiences puts her in a better position to treat patients than her superiors. In this opening episode, handsome "golden boy" Dr. Cooper (Peter Facinelli) fails to heed Jackie's diagnosis of a bicyle courier with a leg injury, leading to his preventable death from a brain bleed.
Nurse Jackie clearly wants to put a female spin on the medical drama, a genre often told from the male perspective, while keeping things edgy and controversial through the outrageous behaviour of hospital staff. British medical drama has already ploughed that field (Cardiac Arrest, Bodies, No Angels), but it's still a rich vein for contentious drama. Beyond the misfit behaviour going on, the characters are similarly sharp; there's Jackie's English best-friend Dr. O'Hara (Eve Best), who argues with her about who's going to give a Heimlich to a choking diner; chubby, naïve Nurse Zoey (Merrit Wever), who vomits when passed a human ear; the aforementioned Dr. Cooper, who claims he has a form of Tourettes that means he grabs women's breasts when nervous; and her gay coworker and confidant "Mo-Mo" (Haaz Sleiman).
The "Pilot" did a solid job of introducing these people and giving us a flavour of the show, if ultimately resembling a series of blackly amusing anecdotes, held together by Falco's genial iciness as she goes about her day –manipulating events for the "greater good", like forging the signature of a dead patient so the hospital can harvest his organs. Falco appears good in the role, even if the character and the episode itself felt a little caricatured and silly at times.
Overall, I wasn't particularly excited or caprivated by Nurse Jackie's "Pilot", but it moved swiftly as a half-hour piece and was constructed well as an introduction. I'm just not all that bothered about these medical comedy-drama's with their flawed anti-heroes at the centre, even if this one has a modicum of originality simply by casting an unapologetic, pragmatic woman in the lead. Nurse Jackie could very easily finds it feet and built on the solid work laid out here, but I'm not sure I really want to take this medicine.
8 June 2009
Showtime, 10.30pm
written by: Liz Brixius, Linda Wallem & Evan Dunsky directed by: Allen Coulter starring: Edie Falco (Jackie Peyton, R.N), Eve Best (Dr. Eleanor O'Hara), Merritt Weaver (Zoey Barkow), Haaz Sleiman (Mohammed "Mo-Mo" de la Cruz), Paul Schulze (Eddie Walzer), Peter Facinelli (Dr. Fitch "Coop" Cooper), Dominic Fumusa (Kevin Peyton) & Anna Deavere Smith (Mrs. Glorua Akalitus)
