fb-pixelWill ‘Nurse Jackie’ finally save herself for real? - The Boston Globe Skip to main content
Buzzsaw

Will ‘Nurse Jackie’ finally save herself for real?

Merritt Wever as Zoey and Edie Falco as the title character in “Nurse Jackie.” M. Russell/SHOWTIME/SHOWTIME

People sometimes ask, “What’s the best show I’m not watching?” There was a time when my automatic reply was “Breaking Bad,” which began under the radar on AMC, or “Friday Night Lights,” which couldn’t grow an audience on NBC. Now my response, depending on who’s asking, is a dark drama such as “The Fall” or “Luther” — some disturbing murder tale classed up with British accents. Or “Togetherness” or “Rectify” or “Shameless” or “The Knick.”

Or “Nurse Jackie.” Always in my heart, I am eager to endorse “Nurse Jackie,” which finishes its extraordinary seven-season run at the end of the month. The Showtime drama-with-comedic-elements has been among the finest, most original, and most uncompromising series on TV since 2009. It has also provided TV with its sharpest female antihero, the compelling Jackie Peyton, whose behavior has challenged the loyalties of even her most avid sympathizers. “Nurse Jackie” is an unvarnished portrait of a pill addict, and Jackie has tested everyone who knows her: her ex-husband, her two daughters, her hospital colleagues and friends, and, of course, her viewers.

Advertisement



One of the great strengths of the show is its tight focus. Conversations about series TV often revolve around the idea of story arcs, and “Nurse Jackie” has had one of the most clearly defined series-long arcs that I can think of. There have been plenty of short comic subplots involving the supporting characters, notably the pathetic romantic life of the lovable Coop and the drug dabblings of Jackie’s older daughter, Grace. But the centerpiece of the series has been relentless: Jackie slowly but surely destroying her life in order to use, a downward spiral interrupted only by false bottoms. Addiction often shows up on TV, but it’s generally over in a few episodes and neatly resolved. “Nurse Jackie” has honored the brutal realities of addiction, as it leeches her soul year in and year out.

The single-minded power of the show’s long-form arc adds weight to the series finale, which is on June 28. After all the build-up, I’m as curious about how “Nurse Jackie” will end as I was about the “Mad Men” finale: Will Jackie finally save herself for real? Will she continue her long pattern of betrayal, lying, alienation, and drug abuse, culminating in disaster? Will she lose her battle? Is the series going to be a tragedy, ultimately, or a comedy? I have no idea what the writers will choose to do, but I know that Jackie is a stubborn lady with a ferocious disease, and I know that her pattern has not been pretty. Because she has been so damn functional, and such a heroic nurse, I fear she will continue to go down the tubes.

Advertisement



So far, despite many efforts, no one has been able to nurse Jackie as effectively as she nurses her patients.

And Edie Falco. People never ask, “Who’s the best actress on TV I’m not appreciating?” But if they did, I wouldn’t hesitate. We knew Falco was a revelation as Carmela on “The Sopranos,” with her sideways denial, her fierce anger, her complaining New Jersey accent, and her sprayed hair. She carefully showed her character ping-ponging between avoidance and awareness of her husband’s work; she turned the fight scenes with Tony into conflagrations; she brought comedy, with Carmela’s bourgeois aspirations and epic fingernails, but she never let her character be reduced to kitsch.

Advertisement



But as Jackie, she is equally remarkable — fiercer, and yet even more mired in denial of the truth of her situation. At this point in the series, Jackie has squandered her family, a boyfriend, and possibly her job and her profession, all with an emotionally violent flair. And yet she still believes she is entirely different from other addicts, that she will prevail, that everyone else is wrong. Falco plays that contradiction perfectly. Her Jackie is sinking low, but in her mind, she is just trying to survive.

And Merritt Wever. She has been unforgettable as Zoey, a bashful student nurse who has blossomed into a heroine. She has created one of TV’s most endearing and original characters, with a touch of physical humor and a unique delivery. Talk about arcs: She has brought Zoey from sweet innocent to tough-loving friend across the years, with an incremental development that has been unswerving and believable. While Jackie has fallen further and further, Zoey has risen to the occasion of her professional commitment to help others. Once a kind of little sister to Jackie, she is now her more mature sibling. To me, Jackie and Zoey are the Don and Peggy of “Nurse Jackie,” the dual leads.

I have no idea where “Nurse Jackie” will leave us. Jackie has already paid for her sins, which have been many and have been driven by her disease. There’s no sense, as there might have been for “The Sopranos” or “Mad Men,” that a moral judgment needs to be revealed at last. What I hope is that the show sticks to the honesty and authenticity that have been its great strengths over the years. If it can stay true to them, if it can keep its lens free of gauze, it will end beautifully.

Advertisement




Matthew Gilbert can be reached at gilbert@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewGilbert.