Haaz Slieman and Edie Falco
Here's what I learned about my new best friend Jackie Peyton (Edie Falco) from watching Monday's premiere of Nurse Jackie:
Jackie has a bad back — and a prescription-drug problem. "What do you call a nurse with a bad back?" Jackie asks. "Unemployed." As such, she's a highly functioning pill-popper who'll take whatever she can get her hands on. Literally take.
Jackie is dedicated. From the get-go, it's clear that Jackie owns the ER. She hits all the right notes with doctors, other nurses, cops and patients. She's knowledgeable, courteous, but not exactly what you'd call nice. Read on to see what we thought of Edie Falco's new show...
read more
Nurse Jackie
You're Edie Falco. You've got a rec room full of shiny acting awards. Everyone in town wants to work with you. What do you do next? For Falco, the answer is Nurse Jackie (premiering Monday, 10:30 pm/ET, Showtime), a dark dramedy about Jackie Peyton, an unconventional nurse at a New York City hospital who works unauthorized double shifts, robs from the rich to give to the poor and uses sex to get what she wants. Oh, she's also a highly functioning pill-popper.
read more
Edie Falco, Nurse Jackie
In Nurse Jackie, Edie Falco said she had much more input into her character than she did while starring as Carmella Soprano.
It wasn't that The Sopranos writers didn't welcome her ideas: "They were totally open to input, but I didn't have any," Falco told TVGuide.com. "Partially because I wasn't used to looking at it that way, but also because we were all so in-sync. Every line that they wrote for her was right on."
read more
Edie Falco as Nurse Jackie by Christian Weber/Showtime
Breaking news! Edie Falco is an awesome actress. This reporter learned this — definitely not exclusively — when he saw a sneak peek at Falco's new half-hour Showtime dramedy (tentatively titled Nurse Jackie) on Friday. Falco plays a complicated nurse in an inner-city hospital. "What do you call a nurse with a back problem?" she asks in the preview. (Pause.) "Unemployed." As a result, the wisecracking, potty-mouthed, maybe-promiscuous Nurse Jackie also has a bit of a painkiller problem. It looks very promising.Ditto for Toni Collette, who plays a suburban mom who suffers from multiple-personality disorder on United States of Tara. Here's what makes this show interesting to me: Tara's family (including husband John Corbett) is aware of her illness, tolerates it and even knows and has relationships with each of her personalities. Weird, right? Wait until you meet them. My particular favorite is "T," and I'm guessing she'll be yours too.Neither show has a solid premiere date y...
read more
Edie Falco on 30 Rock by Nicole Rivelli/NBC
The secret to 30 Rock's guest-casting success? Reversing the formula employed at Saturday Night Live. "With the exception of Jerry Seinfeld, who volunteered [to guest-star] and we leapt at it, every other time we have written the part first and then [cast it]," Tina Fey tells TVGuide.com. "Then it's coming organically from the stories. Doing the reverse of SNL — where you say, 'We have this person. What can we do with them?' — has worked well for us."What sort of guest stars does the Rock have lined up for Season 2's return on April 10? "Will Arnett is back," Fey confirms, "and Dean Winters will be back.... And I hope Edie Falco will be back," as Jack Donaghy's uberliberal ex-lover. It was then that I suggested that 30 Rock pull Ashley Dupré out of hiding and engage in some stunt-casting that would put Britney-on-Mother to utter shame. "We should get her!" Fey laughed, before sharing: "Small world — one of our writers used to live in the same apartment building a...
read more
Edie Falco by Steve Granitz/ WireImage.com
Showtime is really racking up the classy actresses, eh? Edie Falco is the latest Emmy bait to get her own show on the cable network, following in the prestigious, high-minded footsteps of Mary-Louise Parker (Weeds) and Toni Collette (the upcoming The United States of Tara). Falco's as-yet-untitled show is described as a dark comedy about a strong-willed inner-city nurse whose competence on the job contrasts with her disastrous personal life.I'm intrigued. After The Sopranos, of course, it's difficult to imagine Falco in any role that doesn't call for a severe manicure, a pan of ziti, and a potty mouth. But she has played un-Carmela-like roles in her celebrated stage work and in small films like Judy Berlin and Sunshine State. And she demonstrated some zingy comic timing with Alec Baldwin ("I love that we both treat sex as a competition") during her too-brief guest run on 30 Rock as a whale-torture-opposed congresswoman. So I'm in. How about you? — Mickey O'Connor
read more
Cast of "The Sopranos" courtesy Michael Caulfield/WireImage.com
Cheers to the Screen Actors Guild Awards for paying proper respect to The Sopranos. True, it would've been exciting if SAG had chosen up-and-comers like Mad Men or Damages, but those shows will have many more years to win prizes. (Fresh blood was rewarded with Tina Fey's and Alec Baldwin's well-deserved comedy wins for 30 Rock.) By honoring James Gandolfini, Edie Falco and the entire mob ensemble, it acknowledged the importance of HBO's landmark drama for one last time. Even after The Sopranos' swan song, SAG didn't fuhgeddaboudit.Check out TVGuide.com's Screen Actors Guild Awards coverage:• Winners & Nominees• Live Blog: Show Recap, Backstage with the Winners and More• Photos of the red carpet's hottest fashions• Exclusive red-carpet videos
read more
30 Rock's Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin by Mary Ellen Mathews/NBC Photo
I suppose I could dwell on the fact that a major Hollywood guild has once again ignored the very existence of TV's finest acting ensemble, Friday Night Lights — in favor of the mugging and posturing on Boston Legal. As they'd say on another SAG favorite, Grey's Anatomy: Seriously? Is it wrong to want to form our own picket line?Also: What's up with snubbing Pushing Daisies and its fantastical cast?And yet the Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations, announced Thursday morning, did shower love on my favorite new show of 2007, AMC's Mad Men, and its terrific star, Jon Hamm (who has just joined the cast of the remake of the sci-fi classic The Day the Earth Stood Still, with Keanu Reeves as Klaatu, which sounds appropriately robotic). So while not all may be forgiven, the wound stings a little less.My favorite part of the SAG Awards is the ensemble-cast category. Because let's face it, most great TV shows rely on cast chemistry. Even The Closer, which on face value looks like a vehi...
read more
Edie Falco and Alec Baldwin in 30 Rock by Nicole Rivelli/NBC Photo
Every week, after laughing myself silly at the warped lunacy of 30 Rock on Thursday nights and then being greeted by the stubbornly low ratings on Friday morning, I’m more than ever convinced that this inspired comedy is the new Arrested Development. (And not just because it’s a dark-horse Emmy winner, also taking home the best-comedy trophy after its first season.) Here’s another cult classic that is apparently too off-kilter to be more than an acquired taste, unfortunately destined to fly under the radar.This view isn’t coming from a comedy snob. I get a kick out of most of CBS’ more mainstream Monday comedies, including the new Big Bang Theory, which gets funnier and more confident by the week. On Thursdays I’m still delighted by 30 Rock’s time-period rival, the sweetly campy Ugly Betty. But 30 Rock strikes me as something special, something to treasure, firing on all burners with a wild and hilariously absurdist sensibility.This week’s epi...
read more
This episode had a lot to live up to with no less than Emmy-fave Edie Falco guesting as Jacks new lady love CC so its not surprising that in my opinion at least it fell juuuuuuust a bit short Its almost as if the funniest parts of the Falco story were played by Kristin Wiig in the Lifetime movie based on that horrible sad and you would hope preventable accident involving a dog and misplaced hunting rifle That said that is a Lifetime movie I would watch even though it involves neither a kidnapped nor sickly baby I want to go into politicsHere I must note that due to an inexplicable recording glitch my bullets and quotes from last nights show may be a bit off and not verbatim So rein in the snarky retorts thanks For good measure I will remind you that I am paraphrasing by slapping an asterisk on paraphrased bitsI actually think the Liz suspects the neighbor is a terrorist story played out rather well though you had to suspect she would be
read more
