Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

Nurse Jackie: Season Six Blu-ray Movie Review

Been there, popped that.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 11, 2015

She’s baaaaack. Was there ever any question that Jackie Peyton (Edie Falco) would ultimately fall off whatever precarious wagon she had managed to hoist herself onto in her sometimes desperate attempts to wean herself off of various substances? Jackie hasn’t exactly been a virtuous battler for sobriety over the several seasons that Nurse Jackie has occupied its Showtime slot, and in fact the series has come under fire from real life nurses who object to the show’s depiction of a medical professional gulping down rather large quantities of various prescription drugs and then more or less going about her business, often without that many (professional) side effects. As the sixth season of Nurse Jackie kicks off, it seems for a moment that maybe Jackie has managed to wrest the monkey off of her back. She’s at a gym, obviously relishing an early morning swim where she has the Olympic sized pool all to herself. Jackie seems calm, refreshed and— happy. Soon enough, though, at least one reason for that calm and happiness is revealed. She’s getting a regular supply of pills from the gym’s towel attendant, in a little gambit that sees the worker folding the drugs into a towel and Jackie reciprocating with several bills stashed inside the folds of the towel when Jackie brings it back to the attendant’s desk. Obviously all those meetings Jackie’s been attending in the so-called “program” haven’t made that much of a difference, and in a way Nurse Jackie is more or less right back where it started, with Jackie attempting to balance her personal and professional lives all within the context of a debilitating drug addiction.

For those wanting to catch up with the Nurse Jackie story thus far, or at least have a little refresher course, our reviews of previous seasons 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

Nurse Jackie: Season Five Blu-ray review

The premiere episode of this sixth season is not so coincidentally titled Sink or Swim, and while that may be a bit too “on the nose,” given the recurring pool motif the wends through not just this opening episode but others as well, it more or less aptly sums up Jackie’s struggle during this year. She is once again seemingly placid and unperturbed on the outside, at least for the most part, though there are signs of the “old” Jackie and her tendency to unravel, signs which early on at least are not recognized by her family, friends and/or co- workers.

As I mentioned in the review of the fifth season of Nurse Jackie, the show’s segue from “addiction chic” to “rehab chic” may have been inevitable, but it was doubtful it could continue, for in a way Jackie in rehab undermined everything the show had been built upon for its previous years. On the one hand, then, it’s perfectly understandable that Jackie is back as a user for the sixth year, though that in and of itself means the show is going to travel over territory it’s already crossed, sometimes repeatedly.

Some of the more disturbing addictive behavior this season comes not from Jackie (since we’ve already been down this path already with her, several times in fact), but Jackie’s eldest daughter Grace (Ruby Jerins), a girl with her own heavy baggage who seems to be living proof that there’s a genetic propensity toward substance abuse running ramptant through the Peyton bloodline. Grace is following in Jackie’s dubious footsteps throughout this season, including little gambits like hiding her drugs and imbibing (which typically means snorting) at any even momentary opportunity. The friendly if awkward dysfunction between Jackie and ex-husband Kevin (Dominic Fumusa) only plays into this sad state of affairs. In fact, Jackie is so intent on keeping her addictions secret that she never has time to notice her own daughter’s.

Nurse Jackie tends to go down what I would term a Grey's Anatomy route with regard to its large and sometimes ungainly cast of supporting characters. This season that includes the continuing troubles with Dr. Roman (Betty Gilpin), whom Jackie rather ironically ends up “shadowing” after the maybe not so good doctor is taken off probation. Also on hand is the romantic entanglement between Ike Prentiss (Morris Chestnut) and Zoey Barkow (Merritt Wever), in what may be the arc most reminiscent of the long running ABC soapy doctor show. Of course, Jackie has her own romantic entanglements with sweet policeman Frank Verelli (Adam Ferrara), a relationship that is tested when some of Jackie’s more outrageous behaviors backfire on her.

I ended my review of Nurse Jackie’s fifth season by hoping for a relapse, as politically incorrect as that may have sounded. The good news (if it can be called that), is that the “old” prevaricating, scheming, machinating but weirdly professional Jackie is back in full force this season. The bad news is—well, the “old” prevaricating, scheming, machinating but weirdly professional Jackie is back in full force this season. There’s a “been there, seen that” element to this season that can’t be denied, despite the series’ continued emphasis on sharp writing and expert performances. Things do come to a rather hyperbolic end as the season culminates, however, with an obvious crossroads that needs to be addressed in the coming final year of the series. There are only a couple of alternatives here. Either Jackie is never going to change, and the series will just play out in a chain of vignettes detailing her drug addicted demise (or at least fall). Or, she will once again attempt to climb on the wagon and stay there this time. It’s probably not best to place bets on either outcome offering much of a happy ending at this point.

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

Nurse Jackie: Season Six is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This season continues the series' generally excellent video presentation, with one notable exception. For the first time since I've been reviewing the series, a light dusting of noise creeps into several of the more dimly lit or downright dark scenes. It's never overly problematic, but some may find it at least momentarily distracting. Otherwise, this continues Nurse Jackie's nicely sharp and well detailed presentation, one that emphasizes naturalistic lighting sources like the glaring fluorescence of All Saints Hospital or the effulgent sunlight peeking through the Peyton family home on the weekends. Close-ups offer great detail and fine detail, especially in more brightly lit scenes. The color space is sometimes marginally toyed with, as with an emphasis on blue in the pool scenes.

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

As with previous seasons, Nurse Jackie: Season Six features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 mix that some may feel is a bit of overkill, given the fact that so much of the series tends to play out in smaller scale, more intimate, dialogue scenes. The 7.1 rendering does offer nice spatial differentiation and ambience in some of the more chaotic hospital scenes, especially when several things are unfolding simultaneously and discrete channelization can help to establish where characters and events are positioned. Fidelity remains top notch and dynamic range is quite wide for this kind of generally unshowy soundtrack.

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

• Audio Commentaries are available on the following episodes with the following participants:

  Sink or Swim with Anna Deveare Smith, Clyde Phillips and Tom Straw

  Super Greens with Edie Falco, Richie Jackson and Liz Flahive

  Sisterhood with Edie Falco, Richie Jackson and Liz Flahive

  Flight with Anna Deveare Smith, Clyde Phillips and Tom Straw

• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 10:32)


• Deceit, Descent, Destruction: Jackie's Fall (1080p; 11:57) is a spoiler laden look at Jackie's trials and tribulations this season.


• Growing Up Peyton (1080p; 8:32) profiles the Peyton kids.

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

It's probably a good thing that Nurse Jackie has announced that its upcoming seventh season will be its last. The series struggles at times this year to say something new with its now repetitive displays of Jackie's self-destructive tendencies. Still, the beautifully nuanced performances and generally smart writing help the show to rise above some if its more patently soap operatic elements. Jackie is a mess again, and that weirdly means Nurse Jackie still manages to be compelling in a "train wreck" sort of way. Video quality took a slight downturn this year, but overall Nurse Jackie comes Recommended.