It's always rewarding--and exceedingly rare--to see a show have such a sense of itself right out of the gate and to continue to mine its central premise and its characters for new depths (and highs) as the seasons pass by.
Showtime's dark and hysterical dramedy Nurse Jackie returns tonight for a sensational third season with its sense of self firmly intact. Revolving around in-denial drug addict Jackie Peyton (Edie Falco), her family, and her memorably offbeat emergency room co-workers, the show is a winning blend of emotional highs and lows. Jackie still can't function without the assistance of prescription painkillers, but the walls have closed in on her after the intervention at the end of last season, thrown on her by husband Kevin (Dominic Fumusa) and best friend Dr. Eleanor O'Hara (Eve Best).
But rather than get the help we all know she needs, Jackie lashes out at those who would help her; there's a lesson inherent within her reaction that we can only help those who want our help. It's something Jackie knows from her time at the hospital, but it's a hard truth to swallow. What we see instead this season is Jackie pulling the wool over everyone's eyes but her own, as she sinks deeper and deeper into the embrace of addiction.
Jackie's entire existence has been about compartmentalizing: she's a woman who took her wedding ring off at work and pretended to be single; who maintained an ongoing affair with a coworker who later befriended her husband; who can't bring...
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