Sky nab NURSE JACKIE from BBC

Showtime's medical comedy-drama Nurse Jackie has aired two seasons on BBC2, but Sky have swooped and outbid the BBC for the rights to season 3, which is currently airing in the US. Nurse Jackie will now be added to Sky Atlantic's exclusive line-up, which includes Game Of Thrones and Mad Men. This acquisition comes days after Sky likewise outbid E4 for the UK rights to Glee, which will air on Sky1 later this year.

Elaine Pyke, Director of Programmes, Sky Atlantic HD

"Sky Atlantic HD has already established itself as home to the most iconic, exceptional and talked about shows, and Nurse Jackie is the perfect new addition to our slate. It's sharp, witty and has an edge which we're sure our viewers will love. We look forwarding to welcoming Jackie's fans, old and new."

I won't bother asking what you think about this, as I've asked that question too many times this year! Obviously it removes Nurse Jackie from the majority of British eyes, and squirrels it away on a Sky-only channel where I predict it'll struggle to get the 700,000 viewers it's capable of on terrestrial TV.

The upside is, if you have Sky Atlantic, the show will most likely be treated with greater respect—a regular, primetime slot that's promoted well. In contrast, BBC2 were airing Nurse Jackie around 11pm on Saturdays and, for awhile during season 2, only broadcast one new episode every fortnight.

So what's best? Sky Atlantic (less viewers, better treatment) or BBC (more viewers, worse treatment)? That's down to personal opinion, but I'm sure most British fans of the show will be annoyed they're expected to get Sky to see a TV show that was once freely accessible.

NURSE JACKIE 1.3 - "Chicken Soup"

I reviewed the first two episodes last summer when Nurse Jackie aired on Showtime, but now that it's arrived on BBC2 I made an attempt to resume my viewing. "Chicken Soup" ended up reminding me why the first few episodes did little to endear me to this show, sadly. Half an hour isn't long enough to form any connection to the guest-stars, or even to pull off much of an interesting story. So far, we're just getting little vignettes (most with a dark, twisted take on life), like this episode's patient who suffered terrible scratches to his scrotum when his cat attacked his testicles as he cleaned his bath naked...

And that's fine, I guess. It's wryly amusing black comedy fare. But a lot of Nurse Jackie reminds me of an unfunny episode of Scrubs -- like intern Angela (Merritt Wever) spending the episode trying to get her "borrowed" stethoscope back from Dr. O'Hara (Eve Best). Right now, the show feels quite smug to me, too -- as if it believes it's the first series to hit upon the idea that nurses are the backbone of the medical profession and doctors are overpaid, academic, uncaring cultural figureheads who just diagnose. Or that medical staff sometimes have -- gasp! -- quickie sex in their offices and store rooms. Maybe in America that's true, but there's been quite a few of these hospital dramas in the UK -- from Cardiac Arrest, through No Angels, to Bodies -- so it feels less "shocking" to me.

Still, it was nice to see 94-year-old Eli Wallach on our screens; here playing a Jewish man dying of a heart problem, who believes his wife's chicken soup has kept him alive longer than any medication could.

I'm going to keep watching for awhile longer, to see if it finds shape, but I'm not too impressed right now. Is anybody else watching every night? Or are you addicted to Celebrity Big Brother already? Would it be worth posting about Nurse Jackie on a purely "open thread" basis for discussion, perhaps? Let me know. Also, I've noticed that the term "black comedy" is being replaced with its synonym "dark comedy" more often now, to describe shows like Nurse Jackie. Political correctness gone mad?


6 January 2010
BBC2/BBC HD, 10pm

written by: Mark Hudis directed by: Craig Zisk starring: Edie Falco (Jackie Peyton), Eve Best (Dr. Eleanor O'Hara), Merritt Wever (Zoey Barkow), Haaz Sleiman (Mohammed 'Mo-Mo' De La Cruz), Paul Schulze (Eddie Walzer ), Peter Facinelli (Dr. Fitch Cooper), Eli Wallach (Bernard Zimberg), Dominic Fumusa (Kevin Peyton), Ruby Jerins (Grace Peyton), Daisy Tahan (Fiona Peyton), Anna Deavere Smith (Gloria Akalitus), Lynn Cohen (Mrs. Zimberg), Daniel London (Mr. Batali), Anna Koonin (Bonnie), Jay Wilkison (Terry), Stephen Wallem (Thor) & Mark McDonald (EMT)

Will you prescribe to Nurse Jackie?

BBC2 started showing dark comedy-drama Nurse Jackie last night at 10pm, starring The Sopranos' Edie Falco as the eponymous, maverick hospital worker. The series is also simulcast on BBC HD, and it's being shown every night for the next few weeks. I already reviewed episode 1 and 2 here when it aired in the US last summer, and I'll probably make an effort to watch more -- my digibox has it series-linked, at any rate. I'm not sure if I'll blog about Nurse Jackie every day, but there's a chance. But what did you think, British readers? Did you watch it? If so, did you like it?

BBC2 prescribe Nurse Jackie

BBC2 have picked up the UK rights to Showtime's Nurse Jackie, starring Edie Falco as the eponymous, drug-addicted hospital worker. The series is expected to air early next year.

Janice Hadlow, Controller of BBC2:

"It's great to be able to bring one of the best quality, intelligent US comedies featuring actors of the very highest calibre to a discerning British audience."

Sue Deeks, Head of Programme Acquisitions:

"Nurse Jackie is at turns outrageous, heartbreaking and funny - Edie Falco brings to life a compelling, complicated character that I'm sure BBC viewers will warm to and want to get to know better."

I reviewed the first two episodes earlier this summer (here and here), but ultimately I didn't find it interesting enough to continue watching. But, I'll perhaps dip in again and see how far I get.

NURSE JACKIE 1.2 – "Sweet N' All"

For me, there's one thing in Nurse Jackie's favour as a summer show: each episode only lasts half an hour. It's easy to pass some time watching this, you don't need much commitment, and I don't feel much attachment. I also don't feel much empathy for Jackie (Edie Falco), just yet...

Like all the best second episodes, "Sweet N'All" continues elements from the pilot while fleshing the characters out. The ear that Jackie flushed down the toilet resurfaces, prompting an investigation into misconduct by bureaucrat Mrs. Akalitus (Anna Deavere Smith), even after Jackie blames the incident on newcomer Zoey (Merritt Weaver). A little later, a sachet of Jackie's Sweet N' All (containing ground-up Percocet), is accidentally drunk by Mrs. Akalitus, who then wanders around the hospital in a euphoric daze.

We were led to believe Dr. Cooper (Peter Facinelli) was a dangerously inexperienced idiot last week, but he proves otherwise here by diagnosing a patient's aneurysm simply by listening to their abdomen through a stethoscope. It was a remarkable show of medical intuition that half-irritates Dr. O'Hara (Eve Best), who doesn't want to inflate the new doc's ego with too much praise.

Right now, my primary interest is trying to get a handle on Jackie herself. She appears to have a healthy, sexually-active relationship with attractive barman Kevin (Dominic Fumusa) and two cute kids, but is having an affair with pharmacist Eddie Walzer (Paul Schulze), who supplies her with drugs. Is that the sole reason she's playing away, or is there more to it? Is she just easily bored? Maybe she finds Walzer more intellectually stimulating? Here, he regales her with details of the Large Hadron Collider's search for the "God Particle"; later, Kevin just looks perplexed by a news report about it.

Jackie's job is definitely tough and exhausting (necessitating her drug use to keep her going), but it should also be rewarding, too -- no? Jackie is quite cynical and hardnosed about her role and the challenges staff face each day; as she tells Zoey: "this job is wading through a shitstorm of people on the very worst day of their lives. And just so you know, doctors are here to diagnose, not heal. We heal." She's way past Zoey's days of bringing muffins in to share amongst colleagues, clearly.

However, Jackie's not entirely past caring about people: she helps a man who had slapped her across the face earlier, getting him a bed for the night when he explains the reason for his bad behaviour; then she helps revive a cab driver suffering chest pains that she pulls out of his taxi after he fails to stop for an invalid.

The best moments of the show so far has been seeing Jackie refuse to mollycoddle patients and family members, instead preferring to give them a reality-check. Here, Jackie discovers that the mother of a boy who suffered a brain injury (as a result of not wearing a bicycle helmet), was actually told to remove his helmet by her -- and gets both barrels in the face from Jackie over her mistake. We're accustomed to hospital staff turning the other cheek and ranting in private after hours, so it's quite cathartic to see someone speak the truth in a face-to-face situation. In that respect, Jackie's a fun character to watch -- doing and saying things unexpected of a medical professional.

Overall, this wasn't terrible and it had a few nice moments, but I'm not yet convinced Nurse Jackie's anything very special. Falco keeps me interested, even if I'm not very fond of Jackie herself right now, but I'm really only sticking around because each episode floats by in a breeze and there's not much else on.


15 June 2009
Showtime, 10.30pm

written by: Liz Brixius & Linda Wallem directed by: Craig Zisk 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)

NURSE JACKIE 1.1 – "Pilot"

A dark medical comedy from Showtime, Nurse Jackie stars Edie Falco (The Sopranos) as an iconoclastic ER nurse working at All-Saints Hospital. It's a show that subverts expectations of a workplace perceived as being beyond reproach (given the fact staff are literally dealing with life-or-death situations), by showing that it's a job like any other – full of inexperienced people making fatal mistakes, staff taking photos of embarrassing injuries, and nurses flushing cut-off ears down toilets to spite their owners...

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)