Oh, Edie Falco, you’ve got me crushing like a crushed up Percocet.
Nurse Jackie is almost as addictive. Everybody and their doctor (and my fave, Belinda Acosta) has written about the new Showtime show, so I’ll spare you… save for my ear-to-ear grins realizing, for example, that Eddie, the hospital pharmacist, Jackie’s lunch-hour shag pal, is played by the same dude who played Father Phil in the Sopranos. And that the guy who plays her husband once had a small part in one episode as a Moltisanti. And that in the premiere, when we first see Jackie and her BFF, the droll Dr. Eleanor taking a meal at a fancy restaurant, it could have been Carmela at Vesuvio. And the mere sight of Anna Devere Smith wasted, with her face smooshed up against a window made me guffaw. Out loud. Very loudly. Almost as much as the Valley of the Dolls theme.
And that recurring food stuff, what’s that about? Pancakes happen twice in the pilot, and Heineken and pudding make two appearances each in the second eppy. (UPDATE: Third episode: Chicken Soup!) Food stuffs and product placements, I have my eye on you.
I’m hooked. Sure, we all nurse our own brands of dysfunctional and lonely: No OC. No Veronica Mars. No Strangers With Candy. True love is so fleeting, yes? And somehow, I always manage to fall for these bleak, gorgeously flawed, huggably fucked up creatures… like Nurse Jackie.
This article appears in June 19 • 2009.