Distaff diagnoses of the newest television nurses

June 13, 10:12 PMSan Diego Pop Culture ExaminerVincent Ripol

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 AP photo Showtime, Ken Regan

Following years of televised testosterone in medical dramas based on macho doctors and virile administrators, two new summer shows offer a refreshing change of pace centered around strong and slightly rebellious female nurses.  Showtime's Nurse Jackie and TNT's Hawthorne should be able to coexist successfully, especially since the former already has been approved for a second season thanks to its winning premiere on 06/08/09.  Yet despite the obvious similarities between these exaggerated melodramas, there are an equal number of distinctions as black and white as the actresses portraying the titular characters.  Edie Falco stars as Jackie Peyton each Monday night on Showtime.  Jada Pinkett-Smith will soon be seen as Christine Hawthorne Tuesday evenings on TNT.  Both are headstrong nurses determined to provide the level of care they believe each patient deserves, even if it means locking horns with rival colleagues and breaking the rules as needed.  However, if Hawthorne is to match the immediate success of Nurse Jackie, it will need to overcome some significant disadvantages.

One reason Nurse Jackie seems to have already found its audience is due to the high number of Showtime viewers already addicted to the popular lead-in show Weeds, which means it won't be long before Nurse Jackie incorporates medical marijuana in a future plot.  It remains to be seen whether Hawthorne will benefit from a similarly established audience, although TNT boasts two other star-powered heroine shows in Kyra Sedgwick's The Closer and Holly Hunter's Saving Grace, either of which could be scheduled to precede Pinkett-Smith's pilot (although it currently seems Hunter's show will follow Hawthorne).  But the biggest disadvantage for Hawthorne if it indeed suffers from comparison to its RN rival can be summed up in three words: network versus cable.

Just as HBO's  Sex and the City used all sorts of commercial-free nudity, profanity, and ultra-controversial subject matter that ABC's Desperate Housewives could never hope to include between advertisements, Nurse Jackie will be able to address a variety of uninterrupted issues that Hawthorne and its sponsors won't dare to air.  Anything Hawthorne can show, Nurse Jackie can match, while upping the ante beyond TNT's capabilities.  (And speaking of the women of Wisteria Lane, here's a memo to the Showtime casting director if ever the need for a cameo by Jackie's sister should arise: Felicity Huffman was not only born to play Edie Falco's sibling, it's possible they were separated at birth.)

The non-stop syndication of Sex and the City on various networks following its HBO finale illustrates the dilemma facing TNT.  Originally, Kim Cattrall's character, Samantha Jones, flaunted her naked physique while offering explicitly sexual advice on everything from sour semen to tea bagging, but her part (and body parts) were so severely edited for the constraints of network television to the point that she became less threatening than the feminine hygiene advertisements that replaced her truncated scenes.

It's easy to envision the same symptoms when comparing the unrestricted Showtime nursing drama to its TNT counterpart.  The opening episode of Nurse Jackie makes great use of a soundtrack including Lily Allen's otherwise impossible to broadcast "Fuck You", while Falco's character snorts drugs, forges an organ donor signature for a deceased bicycle messenger, flushes the amputated ear of a prostitute slasher protected by diplomatic immunity, then steals his money clip and slips it into the purse of the bicycle messenger's pregnant widow.  A literal climax is reached when Jackie commits adultery during her break in an unoccupied hospital room with the doctor who supplies her oxycontin habit in exchange for the graphic quickie.  (In an interesting side note, Jackie's heretofore unsuspecting husband is played by Dominic Fumusa, whom Sex and the City viewers may recall from an episode in which he dates Miranda years after Carrie dumped him.)

Christine Hawthorne has about as much chance of competing with such blatant sensationalism as most of Will Smith's characters would have in a showdown with James Gandolfini's Tony Soprano.  Imagine the same storyline on TNT, where only the post-coital cigarette moment can be shown, with Pinkett-Smith's breasts covered by a blanket, to the strains of Lily Allen's "(Bleep) You", followed by an abrupt segue to one of those ubiquitous Sonic commercials that far outnumber the total locations of that fast food franchise in San Diego County.

Of course, it's possible TNT won't attempt to emulate such extremes, and Hawthorne may succeed on other merits in its limited network setting.  Perhaps the only edge for the series over its Showtime contemporary lies in the current recession.  Many viewers cannot afford premium channels, thus they may settle for the network offering.  Even the subsequent Nurse Jackie DVD may be outside most household budgets.  Ultimately, the playing field will be leveled once Falco's show goes under the knife for removal of problem areas to make room for the transplanted messages of its future syndicated sponsors.