Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Nurse Jackie: Season Five Blu-ray Movie Review

Can 'Jackie' recover?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 15, 2014

Can a show which has been built around a nurse who is a major substance abuser survive if that substance abuse is supposedly no longer an issue? That’s the most salient question facing Nurse Jackie as it enters its fifth season. The series has been built on the conceit that Jackie Peyton (Edie Falco) is able to perform her nurse duties in a rather spectacularly professional way despite having “issues” with various pills. At least the first two seasons of this now long running series dealt with the tightrope act Jackie performed, teetering precariously between dangerous bouts with prescription medication, a reckless sexual appetite, and her continuing duties as an emergency room nurse at All Saints Hospital. The third season seemed to finally take Jackie over the edge, figuratively speaking, as parallel addictions—to sex and to drugs—finally undermined her to the point where even longstanding allies were no longer willing to simply look the other way while her various bad behaviors spilled over into her professional life. The fourth season of the show seemed to mark a turning point for Jackie, who managed to endure a fairly rocky road through rehab, but whose continuing struggles ultimately led to her at least temporarily lose her job and it would seem permanently lose her long suffering and almost annoyingly supportive husband Kevin (Dominic Fumusa). And so we come to the fifth season of Nurse Jackie, where instead of a lingering drug or sex issue (which still do lurk just beneath the surface), we get more of a soap operatic journey for the character as she attempts to live a clean and sober life while also adjusting to her newly single state. Whether this defeats the show’s entire purpose remains to be seen, but this is a somewhat different Nurse Jackie than we’ve been used to seeing. For those who want to catch up on some of the story threads from previous years, our reviews can be found here:

Nurse Jackie: Season One Blu-ray review

Nurse Jackie: Season Two Blu-ray review

Nurse Jackie: Season Three Blu-ray review

Nurse Jackie: Season Four Blu-ray review

My previous reviews of Nurse Jackie have charted the course from what I termed “addiction chic” to what I termed “rehab chic”, and it’s obvious now that the show is firmly ensconced in that latter camp—at least for the time being. Jackie’s journey has not been an easy one, and the character continues to be a kind of prickly, occasionally distasteful, presence, certainly one of the odder “heroines” to populate a series. One of the interesting things about this season, though, is that suddenly Jackie actually seems vulnerable in a way she never has been before. There’s no denying that previous seasons of Nurse Jackie offered moments when the character’s various torments assuredly engendered sympathy, but those moments were often negated by Jackie’s incredibly bad decisions and self serving lifestyle. Now, as she attempts to keep herself off pills and on the straight and narrow behaviorally, there seems to be more of an “opening” for the audience to really empathize with what she’s going through, rather than to simply react in disgust or dismay (what I would term the “Walter White Syndrome” from Breaking Bad, though in this case Jackie doesn’t even have the excuse of cancer to motivate her bad decisions.)

And so without substance abuse, where does that leave Nurse Jackie and Jackie Peyton herself? The series spends quite a bit of time dealing with the aftereffects of Jackie’s divorce, as Jackie and Kevin attempt to navigate their post-marital waters and deal with co-parenting their children. Jackie also starts to get back into the dating scene, with perhaps predictable results. The series also has a virtually season long subplot dealing with some health issues on the part of Gloria Akalitus (Anna Deveare Smith), a gambit which smacks of a perhaps noble attempt to get Smith an Emmy nomination.

In some ways, many episodes in this season go down a bit more easily than those of previous seasons, as there isn’t the recurrent issue of Jackie resorting to anxiety management with pharmaceuticals. But this also means the series has lost one of its most distinctive features. Will people continue to flock to a series that now features a supposedly “kinder, gentler” Jackie Peyton? There’s certainly still snark in this character, especially when she’s confronted by what she sees as a hopelessly out of step hospital bureaucracy, but the series seems to be treading water at times, giving Jackie more everyday issues to wade through than the previous seasons’ more hyperbolic elements.

The series continues to mine its large (and growing larger) supporting staff for quite a bit of its color and humor, two aspects that nicely contrast with some of the now mundane tribulations Jackie is facing. Morris Chestnut and Betty Gilpin join the cast as two new doctors at All Saints, while Adam Ferrara plays a police officer who becomes Jackie's new love interest (if only Kevin would stop showing up at inopportune moments). This is in some ways the most pivotal season for Nurse Jackie, and in my opinion not an entirely satisfactory one. It's absolutely laudable that the show's writers want to stretch the character's wings and have her experience recovery. But as politically incorrect as it may sound, for the sake of the drama alone, I can't but hope for a relapse.

Nurse Jackie: Season Five Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Perhaps because this season gets Nurse Jackie out from under those annoying fluorescent lights a bit more than in previous season, the AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1 (courtesy of Lionsgate Films and Showtime) is marginally though noticeably nicer looking than in previous seasons. Directors this year have a few stylistic flourishes up their sleeves, like some careening overhead shots (see screenshot 5). As with previous seasons, the image is nicely sharp and well defined and close-ups in particular provide excellent fine detail. Contrast and black levels are both solid and consistent throughout the season and there are no overt compression artifacts to speak of.

Nurse Jackie: Season Five Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

I frankly continue to be just slightly baffled by Nurse Jackie's DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 mixes, though truth be told this season presents a few more noticeable opportunities for discrete channelization. The show certainly has well above average surround activity, but without any spectacular chase scenes, bare knuckle fight scenes or horrible car crashes (well, okay, there is a fender bender in this season), the series hardly seems like appropriate fodder for such an over the top sonic array. As with previous seasons, the busy hospital activity provides some nice use of the side and rear channels for ambient environmental effects, and dialogue continues to be presented very cleanly and clearly. But this is frankly one series that would have sufficed perfectly well with a 5.1 surround track.

Nurse Jackie: Season Five Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Lost Girls Audio Commentary with Executive Producers Clyde Phillips and Tom Straw. The two discuss the evolution of Jackie's character, where she has a brief "fling" with happiness before more trauma intrudes.


• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 12:08)


• Gag Reel (1080p; 2:44)


• Walk of Shame Audio Commentary with Edie Falco, Executive Producer Richie Jackson and Co-Executive Producer Liz Flahive. This is a little more sporadic and anecdotal, with the three tending to discuss things like the aging of the kids playing Jackie's children as well as some of the shooting conditions.


• Heart Audio Commentary with Edie Falco, Executive Producer Richie Jackson and Co-Executive Producer Liz Flahive. Flahive wrote the episode and this commentary is a bit more on point with some interesting information, including aspects of production some might not think much about, like what a ninth episode does structurally in the course of a season.


• Soul Audio Commentary with Executive Producers Clyde Phillips and Tom Straw. The two discuss setting up the finale of the season and how many disparate plot threads were set to explode as the season comes to an end.


• A Sober Jackie (1080p; 9:17) deals with the radical change in Jackie's lifestyle.


• New to the Floor (1080p; 12:41) profiles some of the new additions to the cast.

Nurse Jackie: Season Five Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It's understandable why Nurse Jackie has gotten to this point, but it's also undeniable that the character has lost at least a little of what made Jackie so compelling (if reprehensible at times). The series continues to offer some great writing, brought to life by a dedicated and appealing cast. I personally could have lived without the protracted subplot involving Akalitus, but Jackie's halting romance with Frank hits some awkwardly sweet notes. It's hard to see Nurse Jackie maintaining much momentum if the character doesn't experience some kind of major trauma next season, which may send her scurrying back to those pharmaceutical remedies. This Blu-ray release continues to offer the solid technical merits of previous seasons, and comes Recommended.