# Nurse Jackie (2009)

> A chronically pained New York ER nurse bends every rule to keep her addiction and her family life from collapsing.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/16723

## Facts

- Seasons: 7
- Episodes: 80
- Episode runtime: 30 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: drama, comedy
- Created by: Linda Wallem, Liz Brixius, Evan Dunsky
- Network: Showtime
- Cast: Edie Falco, Peter Facinelli, Eve Best, Merritt Wever, Paul Schulze, Haaz Sleiman, Dominic Fumusa, Anna Deavere Smith
- TMDB rating: 7.9/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1190689/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: mild
- Tone: darkly comic, frantic, wry, tense, sincere

## What critics say

Audiences broadly rate Nurse Jackie positively, valuing its darkly comic tone and Edie Falco's lead performance while its later seasons draw a softer response.

## Synopsis

Nurse Jackie (2009-2015) is a American dark dramedy series created by Linda Wallem, Liz Brixius and Evan Dunsky for Showtime. Edie Falco stars as Jackie Peyton, a skilled and sharp-tongued nurse at a hectic New York City hospital, whose chronic back pain has pushed her into secret painkiller use. Around her, Peter Facinelli plays Dr. Fitch Cooper, Eve Best plays Dr. Eleanor O'Hara, and Merritt Wever plays Zoey Barkow, each pulling Jackie into new entanglements. Her engine is simple and relentless: she needs a white lie here, a bent rule there, and a fresh strategy to keep her pain managed and her personal life from collapsing. Each episode unfolds as a sequence of ward emergencies braided with domestic tension at home, and the seven seasons form one continuing serialized story rather than standalone cases. The show is set in present-day New York City, with the hospital corridors and the Peyton household as its two main locations. Its tone is darkly comic and frantic, mixing gallows humor with sincere unease about dependence, denial and the cost of keeping up appearances. Fans of Scrubs, Weeds and Dexter will find resonance in its blend of hospital bustle, morally compromised protagonist and sharp, wry cable-network bite.

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- [New Amsterdam (2018)](https://ember.film/tv/68936)
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- [Mental (2009)](https://ember.film/tv/7551)

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