Watch and Discuss: Check out the first episode of "Nurse Jackie"

If you took a gander at our Summer Gay Television Guide, you may have noticed mention of a 30-minute dramedy arriving on Showtime next month called Nurse Jackie. Not much was known about the details of the hospital-set series other than it stars the sublime Edie Falco (The Sopranos, OZ) as a seriously flawed nurse trying to actually help people in the even more seriously flawed NYC healthcare system, and that her character would have a gay BFF named Mo-Mo, played by super-dreamy Haaz Sleiman (The Visitor).

Showtime has a pretty awesome reputation for gay-inclusive programming (Queer As Folk, The L Word) and quirky, quality original series (Dexter), so we were cautiously optimistic about Jackie. And now that the net has put the first episode online for free (details below), I don't think we had reason for caution. In fact, my only regret in watching the premiere ep is that I'm actually going to have to suck it up and order Showtime. CURSESSSSSS!

Check out the ep below, and our thoughts on the series.

To watch the free ep, go here and enter "SHIFT HAPPENS" when prompted. Then come back and discuss!

Haaz Sleiman and Edie Falco

Okay, as a caveat (which I'm prone to, I realize, but it's mostly because I'm generally a bit of a grinch when it comes to genres I don't like), I really am not a fan of hospital dramas. I've never made it through an entire episode of ER, Grey's Anatomy, etc., and the only show that I've seen more than a handful of times that takes place within spitting distance of a nurse's station is House, because the cases are so damn clever and Hugh Laurie is amazing.

So let's say I went into Nurse Jackie with low expectations given the genre. Oddly, though, the hospital setting didn't feel like a TV hospital setting, because the tone isn't that of a soap (which most hospital dramas are) and the cast is fairly limited, which sets it apart immediately. It actually feels more like a funnier version of Scorcese's Bringing Out the Dead (a movie so subtle and profoundly moving to me that I actually had to duck into the theater bathroom afterward to cry in a stall - no joke) than it does Chicago Hope.

Anyway, enough about me. I love that Jackie the show, much like Jackie the colossally effed-up central character (um, that ending? Whoa!), is all about the system. The pilot episode focuses on the struggles of people who want to help others at the expense of their own happiness and in the face of considerable obstacles from the healthcare system and other caregivers. Sure, the inter-ER love affairs and drama are there, but they're a means to an end (in this case, Jackie getting her fix), not the focus of the show. The only "Mc" in this ensemble is "McAsshole". 

In the first episode alone we see Jackie fake an organ donor card to atone for the needless death of a bike messenger at the hand of a selfish doctor, flush a psycho's ear down the toilet (and steal money from him), and fake a back injury during sex with a doctor in order to score painkillers. Basically she does everything that we ourselves wish we could do but won't because it crosses a line. She makes uncompromising decisions in her work, but as we suspect from her flagrant painkiller use and are made certain of from the final scene's twist, as a woman Jackie is nothing BUT compromise. 

I'm fascinated by Jackie, by Falco, and by the system. Oh, and it doesn't hurt that her gay bestie is cute and seems to be a fairly decent guy thus far (he seems to be in a somewhat abusive relationship, but at least he's not out cutting up hookers like some other characters). This kind of monumentally conflicted character is an actress's dream, and Falco is going to knock it out of the park.

While the show's sibling in terms of tone and format, United States of Tara, is similar in that it places a very complicated woman at the center of a small group of decent but seriously flawed people, Jackie may be an easier sell in that it doesn't ask its lead to jump through so many hoops to get the job done, and puts the action in a proven, familiar setting (well, proven to everyone but me, anyway). 

What did you think? Were you as taken by this lady as I was? Sound off in the comments...