For a show that was circulated to actors as the “Edie Falco Untitled Project”, Nurse Jackie is certainly all about her.

Previously the eternally frustrated Carmela Soprano, Falco as Jackie Peyton, generally gets what she wants, when she wants it.

Following on from the dark comedy’s promising first season, Falco digs deeper into the drug-addicted New York City hospital nurse as she tries to juggle patients, doctors, fellow nurses and her own indiscretions, while still being a functioning addict, wife, mother, and first-class carer.

The extent of her addiction is laid bare in Season 2 as we find out the extent of her pain and drug use.

At the outset, the series presented Jackie as dedicated and righteously driven, and not averse to rule-bending for the greater good of the patient.

Season 2 takes that apart, demonstrating how easily that explanation turns into excuse-making.

Writers Lix Brixius and Linda Wallem, along with Falco, have done a thorough job of presenting how Jackie uses her pressures as the ultimate answer to any demand that she must change, and how she's mastered the art of combining her lies with enough truth and confession to mask her addiction.

However, though the show is developing into a true ensemble piece, with the excellent Brit actress Eve Best as best friend Dr O’Hara and fine work from supporting characters such as Merritt Wever's Zoey and Peter Facinelli's Coop, some of the characters are sketchily drawn. And the show treads a fine line on soapy melodrama.

It is redeemed by angry social comment over the US medical system, as in one instance when a woman is told to divorce her ill husband to save on patient costs.
But it’s still addictive - pardon the pun – viewing and its breezy humour is well worth another dose.

DVD Extras

Gushy interviews with Eve Best (Dr O’Hara) and Peter Facinelli (Dr Cooper). Weak gag reel. Audio commentaries.