What We're Watching

REVIEW
We love Nurse Jackie. We get an unexplained lump or a cerebral contusion or a myocardial infarction she's the one we want, pinging her latex.

No-nonsense, partisan, passionate and fiery. A genial, battle-scarred matriarch who'll take our case to heart till we get the best deal going.

She's human too, with all the flaws that come with that fickle bag of contradictions.
For Nurse Jackie, queen of a New York City emergency room, is also a pill-popping adulterer with a wonky kid and a habit of breaking rules as well as balls.

But still, when she's good, she's very, very good. Which is much the same as Falco's exquisite performance in this half-hour comedy-drama that is Scrubs (for the whimsy) meets Desperate Housewives (for the dark irony) meets ER (for all the tubes, lotions and gore).

The bitter-sweet cameos circling Edie Falco's shipwreck of submerged indignation are pin-sharp too. From hard-edged Brit doc Elenor O'Hara (Eve Best) to teddy-bear-and-hugs newbie nurse Zoey Barkow (Merritt Wever), there's not a false step to be found anywhere.

Half an hour is a difficult length. This isn't a gag-fest sitcom and the story stops before we're ready. But with the box set, the appetite can be whetted and sated in a single sesh. All better now.