TV's Naughty New Nurse

Summer television doesn’t have to revolve around Heidi and Spencer on I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here. Caryn James writes that Nurse Jackie, Showtime’s latest foray into the medical field, is well worth watching—if only for Edie Falco’s “piercingly good” portrayal of the inventive, self-righteous, pill-popping titular character. NBC is trying their hand with Mercy, and Jada Pinkett Smith comes to the small screen in TNT’s HawthoRNe this summer, however, neither have characters that elevate the shows above their contrived plots. Still, James writes, “There is something satisfying and cathartic in watching these simplistically defined nurses and doctors echo what we love and hate about the medical profession.”