When Edie Falco played damaged corrections officer Diane Wittlesey in Showtime’s OZ she was involved in murder, manipulation to eventually deserting Tim McManus ( Terry Kinney ) around September of 1999, her Carmela Soprano character, involved in manipulation (leaving the murders to be committed by her husband Tony) becoming an iconic comedic/tragic pop culture figure, The Sopranos launching its pilot episode on January 10, 1999.
On June 8, 2009 Showtime delivers this new series with Falco appearing to be a drug-addicted good Samaritan nurse. The program is getting a major push from Showtime with preview clips airing the week before and free advance screenings at movie houses on June 3.
Check your local Landmark Cinema for free passes, first come first served:
http://www.sho.com/site/nursejackie/landmark.do
She’s got her own Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Nurse–Jackie/7306439477 and the viral onslaught seems to be only beginning.
Peter Facinelli, fresh out of his appearance as a benevolent vampire in “Twilight” (reviewed on TMRZoo some months back) is Dr. Fitch “Coop” Cooper who appears to be a manic depressive with lots and lots of issues. As the p.r. says, ” when he gets nervous he acts out with inappropriate sexual touching.” Yikes, didn’t he do that same sort of thing (only with the help of superpowers) in the James Spader film “Supernova”?
Nurse Jackie’s boyfriend is another piece of work, Eddie Walzer, the hospital pharmacist who feeds Percocets to the star of the show. The dark comedy of Sopranos and the failure to abide by rules and regulations that was the core of OZ appears to be the formula for this extremely complicated nurse.
Allen Coulter directs episode 101, the series premiere, where the press people at Showtime say “veteran ER nurse Jackie Peyton bends the rules to create something good from a patient’s senseless death, while concealing her addiction to a pain killer she gets from her secret boyfriend, hospital pharmacist Eddie.”
It’s written by Linda Wallem and Liz Brixius and TMR Zoo will have a full review of what seems to be an interesting program a.s.a.p.
