Weeds, Nurse Jackie: Showtime’s Must See Monday Night Lineup

“Life is full of little pricks”, don’t I know it

Showtime is becoming the network to beat with hits like Californication, The Tudors, Dexter and Weeds. In fact, I saw Evan Handler (formerly of HBO’s Sex & the City, currently on Showtime’s Californication) say in an TV interview that HBOver is how he describes his former network, which has failed to bounce back with blockbuster TV series since the end of The Sopranos and Sex & the City. After a 2 year hiatus, Showtime lured Edie Falco back to the small screen to star in “Nurse Jackie,” a dark comedy series which premieres on the Showtime cable channel on June 8 and a splendid addition to network. Falco, who is best know for her role as Carmela Soprano on The Soprano’s, plays Nurse Jackie Peyton, a working mother who gets through her long shifts in the ER by snorting painkillers and having extramarital affairs.

In the first half-hour of the show, Edie Falco’s Jackie Peyton barters sex for drugs, gets slugged in the face and figures out how to even the score with a sneering punk who thinks his connections put him above the law. It’s also revealed that Jackie is having an affair with the pharmacist at the hospital, Eddie Walzer (Paul Schulze). It’s a convenient affair considering Eddie provides Jackie with Vicodin, Percoset and Oxycontin. Jackie is a likeable character, who does good, admirable things, but break rules that need to be broken. She’s good with people who are innocent victims, merciless with people who are not. Just like an Italian mother….

If you aren’t a fan of weed it doesn’t mean you won’t love Showtime’s Weeds because to watch this show doesn’t require you to be stoned, although you’ll laugh so hard you’ll feel like you. After a long winter, Weeds is back! If you haven’t caught on to this brilliantly, creative dramedy, rent the series on DVD because I guarantee you’ll laugh your butt off watching the antics of suburban mom / marijuana dealer Nancy Botwin (Mary Louise Parker), her hilarious brother-in-law Andy (Justin Kirk), former accountant Doug (Kevin Nealon), dope dealing son Silas (Hunter Parrish), level headed son Shane (Alexander Gould), neighbor Celia…I could go on and on.

Now, where were we? Season Four ended with just a few cliffhangers:

-Celia’s daughter, Quinn, had drugged and kidnapped her in Mexico

-Andy is on the brink of realizing that he is in love with Nancy.

-As Nancy dives deeper into the drug business, her boyfriend, the corrupt mayor of Tijuana, found out that Nancy betrayed him to the DEA. Surrounded by his henchman he was about to off her – until she told him she’s pregnant with his baby.

Season five continues to follow the relationship of Nancy and Esteban as he contemplates whether or not to kill her after she gives birth to their child. Recovering addict Celia (Elizabeth Perkins) finds the son she never had in Rodolfo, a domestically abused rebel leader who can never find the right caliber bullets in his cave when he needs them. An addition to the cast is Jennifer Jason Leigh as Nancy’s homemaker sister Jill, who Nancy decides to have her youngest son live with temporarily since her business has become more dangerous.

It sounds like Season five will not disappoint and continue to provide intoxicatingly funny story lines, stoned or not.