Nurse Jackie is an American medical comedy-drama television series that aired on Showtime from June 8, 2009, to June 28, 2015. Set in New York City, the series follows Jackie Peyton (Edie Falco), a drug-addicted emergency department nurse at the fictional All Saints' Hospital.
The show was well received by critics, with specific praise directed towards the acting (particularly that of Falco and Merritt Wever) and the show's portrayal of addiction. Nurse Jackie received 24 Primetime Emmy Award nominations. Falco received six consecutive Emmy nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, winning in 2010. Wever received two Emmy nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, winning in 2013.
In May 2023, it was announced that a sequel series was in development with Falco attached to star and executive produce.
Development and production The series was first conceived by executive producer Caryn Mandabach after being told various stories from an ER nurse about her experience on the job. Using the nurse's stories as an inspiration, Evan Dunsky developed a script for Showtime. By this time, the series had been under the title Nurse Mona and was a considerably darker version of the show with vague supernatural elements. Edie Falco initially passed on the project, but was very intrigued by the main character. Liz Brixius and Linda Wallem had written a pilot about addiction for Showtime titled Insatiable; the two were asked to rework Nurse Mona and infuse it with more comedy. Nurse Jackie was officially ordered by Showtime in June 2008, with Falco attached to star and the season to begin filming later that year. Co-creators Brixius and Wallem served as showrunners.
The story of Jackie's addiction was personal for Falco, Wallem, and Brixius, as all three were recovering alcoholics. According to Brixius, "There are massive consequences to addiction, that in order to keep using, you have to keep rationalizing and tell yourself a different story and underplay the damage that you're doing, and that is the interesting part of Jackie... And it's also where a lot of our comedy comes from. It's not that it's funny, it's that it's absurd." Producer Liz Flahive recalled the writing staff of Nurse Jackie was majority female and half-consisted of individuals from the LGBTQ community.
For the show's fourth season, which saw Jackie enter rehab and attempt sobriety, Falco said "the last thing I wanted was to give the impression that it's all fun and games, and isn't it funny what she gets away with. It's important that we are accurate as far as showing the ramifications of this kind of behavior." Wallem claims that she and Flahive were long opposed to the idea of Jackie entering rehab until it just seemed right for them: "It just hit me and it was like our own experiences of sobriety...during the break in between [seasons] three and four we had this long talk. We started to talk about what that would look like. I had to divorce myself from my own experience of rehab."
After the fourth season, Wallem and Brixius departed as showrunners. The two, who had been in a relationship prior to the start of the series, were said to be having major disagreements that were affecting production. Nurse Jackie was renewed for a fifth season on May 31, 2012, and Clyde Phillips was announced to be taking over as showrunner. In discussing his hiring, Phillips recalled that Showtime "wanted [the show] darker and funnier and with a greater sense of consequence. Jackie's been a drug addict trying to live a triple life and basically threw a hand grenade into everybody's lives. They wanted to see the effect of what happens when the shrapnel goes flying around."
On March 31, 2014, Showtime renewed Nurse Jackie for a seventh season, which was announced in September as the show's final season.<ref>‘Nurse Jackie’ Ending After Season 7, Final Episodes To Air In 2015 – Inquisitr News Nurse Jackie' Ending After Season 7, Final Episodes To Air In 2015] inquisitr.com, 10. September 2014</ref> The series finale saw Jackie overdose on street-grade heroin, though her fate was left ambiguous. According to Phillips, "It is left to the viewers to figure out... We had a long conversation with the network about it, and one of the things we wanted to do was to keep the conversation going after the show ends with a good and healthy debate because this is really a show about the effects of a ferocious disease—drug addiction—on an otherwise healthy person."
Plot
Jackie Peyton (Edie Falco) is an emergency department nurse at the fictional All Saints Hospital in New York City. She has two daughters and is married to her husband Kevin (Dominic Fumusa), although she is having an affair with the hospital pharmacist Eddie (Paul Schulze) in exchange for pills. Her allies at the hospital include Dr. Eleanor O'Hara (Eve Best), new nurse Zoey Barkow (Merritt Wever), and hard-lined administrator Gloria Akalitus (Anna Deavere Smith). Over the course of the first season, she spars with Dr. Fitch Cooper (Peter Facinelli), whom Jackie finds obnoxious, and tries to help her anxious daughter Grace (Ruby Jerins). Other All Saints staff members include Momo (Haaz Sleiman), Thor (Stephen Wallem), Sam (Arjun Gupta), Dr. Ike Prentiss (Morris Chestnut), Dr. Carrie Roman (Betty Gilpin), and Dr. Bernard Prince (Tony Shalhoub).
Jackie's affair with Eddie comes to an abrupt end when Eddie is fired and subsequently discovers that she's married. Despite this, he continues to try to ingrain himself into her life by becoming friends with Kevin. Eddie eventually returns to the hospital and he and Jackie remain friends, although she needs a new source for drugs. She begins faking back pain and asks that O'Hara provide her with medication. Meanwhile, O'Hara is left with a windfall of cash after her mother dies and insists on financing Jackie's daughter's education. Although Kevin refuses, Jackie secretly takes the money and uses it to pay off debts she's accrued from her drug habit. After inquiring about a fake MRI, O'Hara discovers that Jackie lied about her back pain and Kevin discovers she took the money without consulting him. Furious, he discovers Jackie's debt and comes to the conclusion that she's a drug addict. Kevin and O'Hara stage an intervention on Jackie but she insists that these expenses were for their daughters. Although she's able to repair her relationship with O'Hara, the Peyton marriage remains on the rocks.
Running low on pills, Jackie steals several thousand dollars' worth of drugs off an epileptic man having a seizure. He survives and meets with Jackie: he's an AA sponsor who begins supplying Jackie with pills in exchange for cash. He also gives Jackie AA coins that she's able to present to Kevin, falsely claiming to be seeking treatment for her addiction. After her dealer is hit by a bus in a freak accident, Jackie begins going through withdrawal and resorts to taking medication prescribed to her anxious daughter. This devastates O'Hara. Jackie also steals several fentanyl patches from the hospital and blames a temp nurse. This results in an investigation and Jackie's urine is collected, although Akalitus disposes of the specimen because she knows what the result will be. Meanwhile, Kevin reveals to Jackie that he had a brief affair. Although he's willing to work things out, she demands that he move out. Her addiction continues to worsen until she brings a junkie into her home who dies after they smoke heroin together. After calling O'Hara for help, Jackie breaks down and agrees to go to rehab.
All Saints is bought by a conglomerate called Quantum Bay with the new hospital administrator being Dr. Mike Cruz (Bobby Cannavale). Meanwhile, Jackie goes to rehab and connects with a young addict named Charlie. Although she leaves halfway through and returns to work, she remains committed to staying sober. Her personal life begins to fall apart as Kevin, upon learning she had an affair with Eddie and he supplied her drug habit, serves her with divorce papers and wants primary custody of their daughters. Jackie also spars with Dr. Cruz and his abrasive management style. After Charlie relapses, Jackie learns that he's the son of Dr. Cruz, and Cruz learns that she's his friend from rehab. Incensed, Cruz fires Akalitus and Eddie for covering up Jackie's addiction. As the All Saints staff begins to revolt against his increasingly rigid management, Jackie snaps and Cruz fires her. Charlie overdoses and is admitted to the ER; he dies as Jackie attends the birth of O'Hara's child.
Several months later, Jackie is still committed to her sobriety and has her job back at All Saints, along with Eddie and Akalitus, with Dr. Cruz having left after Charlie's death. Jackie is also going through divorce proceedings with Kevin. They're able to come to an agreement regarding the custody of their daughters as they finalize their divorce. Meanwhile, O'Hara moves back to England and Jackie begins dating a police officer named Frank (Adam Ferrara). Jackie learns that her increasingly rebellious daughter Grace is using drugs. Her relationship with Frank continues to develop. As she approaches one year of sobriety, everything in Jackie's life appears to be on the mend—however, on the day of her anniversary, she takes a pill.
Jackie reverts back to her old ways but has everyone in her life fooled into thinking she's still sober. To keep up the facade, she regularly attends AA meetings and even takes on a sponsor named Antoinette (Julie White). Frank catches her using and, naive to what addiction entails, Jackie's able to convince him it was a one-time thing. However, when Antoinette discovers this, she becomes increasingly worried about Jackie. After a failed attempt at detox, Antoinette continues insisting Jackie go to rehab. Ultimately, Jackie convinces Antoinette, an alcoholic, to fall off the wagon so they can both enter rehab together. As they both enter the rehab clinic intoxicated, Jackie abandons Antoinette there. She also breaks up with Frank and ramps up her drug use. Zoey, who has become Jackie's increasingly-astute protege over the seasons, suspects she's using after almost killing a patient. Akalitus demands that Jackie comply with a urine test or enter the hospital's diversion program, which includes the temporary suspension of her nursing license. Instead, Jackie attempts to leave town with a carful of meds to help hurricane relief victims in Miami. On the way to the airport, Jackie crashes her car into an ambulance and is arrested for drug trafficking.
After her arrest, Jackie is fired but, through the efforts of a cunning lawyer (Mark Feuerstein), she's able to enter the hospital's diversion program until the board can convene to discuss the reinstatement of her nursing license. Until then, she mops floors, wears beige scrubs, has her urine tested daily, but cannot touch patients. Zoey in particular is devastated by this arrangement as she's forced to supervise her former mentor. Akalitus also fires Eddie for supplying Jackie with the drugs she got arrested with. Eddie and Jackie rekindle their romantic relationship and begin selling drugs to pay for Jackie's expensive lawyer. After purging their stash at a pill mill, the two get engaged. Meanwhile, All Saints is bought by Norwegian developers set to convert the building into luxury condos. The nurses, particularly Zoey, begin protests to try to generate public outrage to block the deal. Jackie makes a deal with the Norwegian developers to dissuade Zoey from leading more public demonstrations in exchange for their help in reinstating Jackie's nursing license. Ultimately, the efforts of the nurses are futile, and the deal goes through.