A Spoonful Of Sugar
Show: Nurse Jackie.
Premiered: Summer 2009.
Why Was It Made? After Weeds, Nurse Jackie is Showtime's second most famous half-hour not-that-funny sitcom about a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown -- a genre that has also included The Big C, The United States Of Tara, and that one about the hooker.
Why Did I Stop Watching? There wasn't any big cataclysm, though I never found it that easy to watch what amounted to a series of self-destructive decisions on the part of the titular Jackie (Edie Falco), which I tend to find stressful. I hung in until Jackie's secret painkiller addiction exposed to her best friend and colleague O'Hara (Eve Best), who told Jackie's husband Kevin (Dominic Fumusa), who insisted that Jackie go into rehab. And then by the time the show came back the next season, I guess decided that I wasn't that interested in seeing where the story went from there.
Why Give It Another Shot? I'm not going to lie: Showtime sent me screeners for the better part of the season. And because it's a show I drifted away from more than I quit in a rage, coming back to it is not that big a deal.
What Aspects Of The Latest Episode Would Seem To Invite Further Viewing? Edie Falco's many Emmy nominations for her role as Carmela Soprano were no accident: the lady can act, and putting her in the position to be righter than almost everyone around her and remove her secret shame so that she has all the more reason to act superior to the entire staff of All Saints is pretty satisfying to watch. That Eddie (Paul Schulze) is coming back, just as Jackie's marriage has decisively ended, is interesting. Finally, Merritt Wever is still secretly the best thing about the show as young nurse Zoey.
What Aspects Of The Latest Episode Discourage Further Viewing? I like Jackie's vendetta against this bitch Roman (Betty Gilpin), who clearly must be stopped, and quick, and I hope this tough new doc Prentiss (Morris Chestnut) is the one to destroy her. Sure, Jackie could destroy her, but that ain't new! However: O'Hara's leaving the country so she can spend more time with her stupid baby? BOOOOOOO. (That said, the moment after O'Hara's just broken the news to Jackie, who's understandably upset, when their tearful confrontation is cut short by the arrival of said stupid baby made me cry too. I'm not a monster!)
Final Verdict: Hooked again! Goes down smooth. And other addiction analogies.