Nurse Jackie

Falco's performance never loses a weary, trudging toughness and, at the core two hard kernels of anger and sorrow. [16 Apr 2012, p.50]

With Falco front and center, you don't really care if Nurse Jackie gets silly, as with the patient whose cat attacked his scrotum.

What has been ramped up in this season are Jackie’s unexpected kindnesses and cruelties. And this is what makes the show so great. She constantly sidesteps all expectations and usually for the worse.

The fantastical creation of Jackie Peyton, perhaps surprisingly, has shades of gray that make her very real indeed. Both show and character are something wonderful to behold -- and worth taking multiple doses of.

At times, there's a dangerous undercurrent of anti-sentimentality, a risk of sentimentalizing curmudgeonliness itself. But for all these flaws, I still found the series excitingly ambitious--funny, sexy, strange.

The series too often relies on oddly placed broad humor, which entirely deflates the weightier moments.

At one time, it was possible to enjoy Nurse Jackie even for viewers who were over Jackie's drama because the supporting cast was so much fun. There's something less entertaining about them these days, too. Their plots sometimes feel like a stretch, as if the writers are grasping for stories for them.