For Jackie, at what age is it appropriate to throw drugs at a problem?

I’m not a fan of the show (though I’ve hidden it well, right?), so clearly these things don’t sit particularly well with me, but what in the world is with this ridiculous storyline on Nurse Jackie? Grace (Ruby Jerins) may have some sort of emotional (or whatever) problems, so Jackie and Kevin are called in to discuss options for therapy and medication?

Sure, the show’s been “building” towards this, but are we meant to feel sympathy for a mother whose focus is so stretched? Or for a woman who deals with life and death at work, and must now worry for her daughter on top of that?

Or, should we just be disgusted with the whore who gets disgusting text messages (“me so horny”) from her lover while she’s with her husband? So much so that she gets a second “cheater” cell. Wow! What a symbol of the modern-day woman! So evolved. So much growth.

And so much love for her husband, that when both phones ring at the same time, she answers them simultaneously, telling both men that she loves them. No triage, no putting your partner in life and the father of your children above the pharmacist you sleep with to get drugs. Nope, both on the same level. Classy.

I’d say that this was a wasted episode for Steve Buscemi to direct, but I’m not quite sure what would have been a better choice. Then again, the art of directing is lost on me, so I can’t really say something like, “Wow, the movement in that scene was awesome; too bad I can’t stand her.” No, I can only process the fact that he “directed” the episode, whatever that means. Therefore, my only lament is that he connected his name to this series in the first place. Unfortunately, he chose to do it at least twice more, so what can you do?

Did anyone else notice that the show has apparently chosen to do a slow motion montage whenever any kind of powder appears onscreen? Before the meeting at Grace’s school, Jackie stopped in the bathroom to apply some makeup. The way it was done, we all could have been excused for thinking that she was about to snort something, until we saw her place her makeup brush in the substance. Is that really the thing this show wants to be known for?

The one part of this episode that spoke to me was when Mo-Mo (Haaz Sleiman) was telling Zoey about the twin brother that he lost as a baby. I actually felt, for a moment, that someone on this series might end up having some depth to them, something beyond the ugly exterior that could hold our interest, and leave us feeling at least the slightest bit of empathy. Of course, he shot that to hell by moving right on to discussing hair styling, but I can excuse him for trying to protect his own emotional well being. At least this time.

You know, there are many languages out there that are not meant for saying, or singing, soothing words and sounds. The Semitic languages, along with the Baltic and Slavic ones, are high on that list of no nos for sweet nothings. I wonder at the thought process there; maybe the moment where Mo-Mo sings to the kid speaks to his own longing for his twin, and he’d only do something like that in his native tongue, which I guess is an Arabic language. That’s all well and good. However, Arabic doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. It has a lot of harsh consonants … just saying.

On the other side of the emotional spectrum was O’Hara, not surprisingly. I’m just not clear on why the writers feel it important for the doctors on the show to be so opposite of what we’d want caretakers to be. Do they fear that without the stark contrasts, we won’t get that Jackie’s supposed to be a wonderful healer? I mean, I won’t anyway, because of how despicable a person she is, but still. O’Hara has to be either autistic (which she’s not), or emotionally stunted (which, believe it or not, is not so likely, since bedside manner actually is something that’s evaluated before a doctor gets licensed), to be so uncomfortable as a human.

I know you could easily say that I’m making a big deal out of nothing, or blowing a funny moment out of proportion, but her almost fear at being hugged by a little boy whose twin brother she’d just saved? Come on. It’s okay if O’Hara has some idea of what type of life form a child is. The writers really shouldn’t be afraid that upping O’Hara’s child understanding will lower Jackie’s; it’s not a finite thing.

Anyway, that’s my two cents. Anyone else have something to say?

Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Jun 30, 2009 @ 17:00 EST5EDT