Nurse Jackie - Sky Atlantic.

So we are coming to the end of Nurse Jackie Season 3 on Sky Atlantic and I have to say it’s great to watch the show on a channel that treats it with the respect it deserves. It’s no longer shown late on a Saturday night and there’s certainly no chance of it being bumped for ‘book week’ or the golf. But I have to say as much as I love the show, and I really, really love it, Nurse Jackie is starting to annoy me. I still think it’s as funny as ever, entertaining as ever and strong as ever but I worry how long Nurse Jackie can continue with the way it’s going.


We’re currently three seasons in and Jackie is still an addict yet no one has a clue who she really is. At the end of last season we saw Kevin and Dr O Hara confront her about her addiction, but besides from a few comments here and there it’s been pretty much swept under the table. Yes her colleagues know that she’s married with children and a couple of them know she had an affair with Eddie but it’s not exactly ground breaking stuff, and, as far back as season, 1 we saw that Male nurse Sam knew she was an addict (just like him) but they never mention that either.

It feels like something has to happen before the end of the season otherwise we’re just watching a normal show set in a hospital, albeit a very good show set in a hospital but still nothing we’ve not seen before. If something serious doesn’t happen to Jackie before the last few episodes are out, then her being a drug addict is hardly even worth mentioning any more.

Thankfully we’ve a little drama in the fact that she now has a drug dealer and he seems determined to ruin her. But a couple of episodes back he mentioned that she’s nowhere near rock bottom, so what does that mean? How many more episodes/season do we have left of Jackie popping pills with nobody noticing?

Don’t get me wrong, I love a show/film where nothing much happens. My favourite show is Mad Men and my one of my favourite films is Adventureland. I mean you don’t get much slower then that! But with Nurse Jackie you get the feeling something SHOULD be happening and it’s not. I worry the show runners and producers are afraid of taking a big risk by having her exposed as a drug addict, which would completely change the whole dynamic of the show. But if Nurse Jackie is continue being as good as it is, something big needs to happen and by big I’m thinking we either need to see Jackie in AA, breaking up with her husband or having some kind of drug overdose. It’s a bit dramatic but that’s what this show needs right now. If that doesn’t happen and doesn’t happen by the end of the season then I don’t know what the future holds for Nurse Jackie, which is a shame because it is excellent.

Thankfully what it does have going for it is a great cast. Perhaps one of the best casts out there. Each character is strong and funny in their own way and I would be happy to watch the show whether Jackie was a drug addict or not. But Nurse Jackie needs to figure out where it's going and soon.

Nurse Jackie To Sky Atlantic - Are The BBC Mental?

So it seems that in just one week non Sky viewers have lost two great shows, Glee and Nurse Jackie.

Sky Atlantic has poached the show from the BBC and will be showing season 3 from July 5^th. Just weeks after the second season finished on BBC 2.

Now I’m not going to go into the pros and cons of shows going behind pay walls. I did all that on Monday with Glee. But what I will question is why do the terrestrial channels not want good quality shows? Nurse Jackie is quite frankly one of the best half hour dramas on the TV (if you haven’t watched it go buy it on DVD immediately) and I don’t understand why they wouldn’t fight to keep it. Poor ratings has been sited as the reason the BBC didn’t renew it but they only have themselves to blame for that by putting it on at 10pm on a Saturday night.

Up until 6 months ago the BBC was home to Mad Men and Nurse Jackie. I mean it’s one thing giving up Nurse Jackie but they gave up Mad Men! It’s almost farcical. So instead of having two of the best shows in America on the BBC, we pay our license fee for endless episodes of Family Guy, Eastenders and My Family.

I didn’t really agree with Glee moving to Sky 1. I felt like you were taking a great show away from its core audience but with Nurse Jackie moving to Sky Atlantic, well I’m pleased! It now means we can watch the new series in two weeks time and it will be treated with the respect it deserves. Not taken off for ‘book week’ mid season. True story, one week it was taken off for Book Club the week after that taken off for the Golf. If it weren’t for Chris Lilly’s Angry Boys I would be demanding my license fee back!