Of course, it’s all about Jackie in the end, including her crusade to stay a nurse, seek help and make sure she and those around her are at the top of their respective games. Still standing in her way though is ER Administrator Gloria Akalitus (Anna Deavere Smith), a woman whose disdain and (mostly) professionalism offers both intense confrontations and hilarious awkwardness.
That Nurse Jackie is coming to a close hangs over the entirety of the season, with the show trying to figure how various stories will wrap themselves up. While we watch Coop and Carrie proceed with their naïve, almost silly relationship, the humour surrounding Jackie runs a shade darker, and it’s Akalitus who returns her to the grave matters ahead. “People like that you have to let go of,” says Akalitus of Jackie. “You spend a lifetime trying to fix them, and you can’t fix them.”
That is where the seventh season of Nurse Jackie triumphs. It’s not the sudden cases that come through the central hospital, nor the romantic reunions or divisions; it’s Jackie’s struggle with reality that really rivets. She engages in awkward, uncomfortable and heartbreaking conversations and professions and confessions of bold-faced lies, even while staring inconvertible evidence of her failings in the face – and it’s hard to look away.
That stunning, honest picture of addiction has long carried the show and in its final season, continues to do so. However, like other Showtime series, most notably but certainly not exclusively Weeds (which happens to share certain themes and dark sensibilities with Nurse Jackie), you can’t help but feel that with the seventh season, the cast and crew have probably stretched things a little bit too far.
Nevertheless, in thirty minute intervals, Nurse Jackie is able to run the gamut from absurd comedy to pitch-black humour, and from cringe-inducing encounters to sudden elation. So much is crammed in with plot too, that once in a while there is barely enough time to consume all the balls being juggled in the air, all the comings and goings and ups and downs.
That being said, even halfway through the season Nurse Jackie is still earnest and tragic, a careful mix of real life issues and TV whimsy all carried by the worthy and talented Edie Falco.
