Are You Ready? Nurse Jackie’s Final Season Starts 4/12

Nurse Jackie Peyton (Edie Falco) has to rebuild everything she lost during a spiraling phase of drug addiction. And the seventh and final season is set to do anything but disappoint fans.

Showtime’s announced that the seventh season will be last for dark comedy series Nurse Jackie and time’s just about up.

Jackie Peyton (Edie Falco) is in the middle of a spiral: arrested with a suspended nursing license. That means this season will be a rebuilding of everything the ER addict lost. A meaty storyline positioned to make audience cheer for Peyton. Starting with a major demotion at All Saints and inability to do what she’s spent a lifetime learning.

Season 7 is set to humble the fiery, cynical nurse.

Huffington Post’s Jackie K. Cooper describes Emmy-winning Falco’s portrayal as “all the nuances and shading it requires.” With the complexity of character, “Falco has to convince the audience to love her in spite of her shortcomings.”

And those convincing skills, the art of creating an addict in the medical community, earned her a Primetime Emmy in 2010. For the past four years, the Television Academy has nominated Jackie Peyton and Edie Falco’s work.

The series began in 2009 and has gained quite a bit of traction for the star, which was quite a different role than Camela Soprano. Camela was the high school sweetheart of Tony Soprano, the one who stood by the underboss as mafia life turned life dangerous in the HBO crime drama. Meanwhile, Nurse Jackie’s irreverent, dark humor shows a less dignified, messier character for Falco to really sink her teeth into.

Cooper also calls Merritt Wever as Zoey Barkow the “master re-actor” and perfect foil for Falco. The critic claims that “Wever took what could have easily been a minor secondary role and made it a co-starring part” is also supported by the Academy since the actress won Best Supporting Actress in 2013.

When the two actresses face off in a scene together, there’s a balance that will be greatly missed on the small screen when the season ends and the curtains close.

Thankfully, fans have three months and 12-episodes to watch the character grow, evolve, and find peace with the ending.

When the network announced the final season last fall, Deadline reported that Showtime Networks President David Nevins held nothing but high praise for the actress. “She creates indelible characters, and Nurse Jackie Peyton is no exception.”

Showtime’s description of Jackie as an addict strikes a nerve with anyone who has live with someone in the middle of a spiral. “She lies, she cheats, she steals, she hurts, she bamboozles friends, fools family, pops pills and breaks hearts” but she’s the face audiences want to see at end of the day. 

The cutting edge of humor and drama offers fans the chance to see a side of life without the constant woebegone storytelling in long, drug out season framing devices.

Nevins also promised that audiences would enjoy the final time inside the nurse’s mind.

“I know this final season will bring her story to a close that will satisfy the ever-growing number of loyal viewers who have been entranced and, at times, appalled by Jackie through the years.”

Nurse Jackie’s final season premieres April 12 on Showtime at 9 PM ET/PT.

Sources: Deadline, Huffington Post, Showtime