Nurse Jackie: Season Three

Television thrives on damaged heroes. Showtime's Jackie Peyton (Edie Falco)—head nurse in a New York hospital emergency room—is an extreme example: wife, mother, fiercely dedicated professional, and wickedly vindictive woman, Jackie is also addicted to pharmaceutical painkillers. The 2011 third season opens with TV's most functional drug addict walking out of an intervention arranged by her husband, Kevin (Dominic Fumusa), and her best friend, Eleanor (Eve Best)—the flinty doctor who was also one of her reliable drug sources—after which she takes more desperate measures to secure her supply while the walls of her once-compartmentalized life come falling down. Nurse Jackie is ostensibly a comedy, although the humor is often painful, with Falco's character both resilient and flawed, at once generous and self-centered. “We have got to stop trying to save people who don't want to be saved,” complains Jackie at one point, saying more about herself than her patient. The repercussions of her actions reverberate through her marriage, her friendships, and finally (causing the most hurt) her relationships with her two daughters, Grace (Ruby Jerins) and Fiona (Mackenzie Aladjem). Serving up a perceptive take on the nature of addiction, this set compiling all 12 episodes from season three also features select audio commentaries, behind-the-scene featurettes, and a gag reel. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)