History Series / NurseJackie

** Taken even further with Dr. Roman, who provided the series first topless scene. And goes into bra and panties often.

* RecycledINSPACE: ''Series/{{House}}'', but with a nurse.

* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: Dr. Coop in regards to Dr. Roman. Dr. Roman has proven to be at least borderline incompetent, but, courtesy of an audio recorded liason with Coop, blackmails All Saints into letting her stay. Cut to the opening of Season 6, where Coop, while at least having the intelligence to know that he has to keep far and away from her, firmly believes that if she wasn't working with him would be a viable candidate for a relationship.

* AllAbusersAreMale: Averted; one patient is a man whose girlfriend managed to crack his skull and kicked him in the chest out of anger. He hit her back in self-defense, but she only suffered some bruises while he was on the vomiting blood.

* MoralDissonance: Jackie, whose patients consider her to be a good nurse and an "angel", but who is also an addict whose family is coming to hate her and who has done things like [[spoiler:stealing drugs from a man who was having a heart attack before calling him an ambulance]].

* MissFanservice: Dr. Roman.

It attracted some overstated initial hype in the USA about how [[DarkerAndEdgier dark and edgy]] it is, although that is true only by comparison to more sentimental hospital dramas. The strengths of the show are the way it combines (often dark) humour with subtle drama, its rounded characters and how it avoids being preachy. Jackie is bitchy, cheats on her husband and is addicted to all sorts of medication, but is still a sympathetic character.

* {{Adorkable}}: Zoe is generally cheerful, happy-go-lucky, sentimental and a bit of a goof.

* BiTheWay [[spoiler:O'Hara]]; it doesn't come up until Season 2, and then it's treated like a non-issue.

* FirstEpisodeSpoiler: At the end of the first episode, we find out Jackie is married with two daughters.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nurse-1_4392.jpg]]''Nurse Jackie'', to which some fans fondly refer as "Nurse Series/{{House}}", is a {{Creator/Showtime}} half-hour drama/comedy about Jackie Peyton (Edie Falco), a nurse in an inner-city hospital in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity who manages to be both a mega-bitch (with a heart!) and a life-saving Jesus in a skirt. Or scrubs, whatever.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nurse-1_4392.jpg]]''Nurse Jackie'', to which some fans fondly refer as "Nurse Series/{{House}}", is a {{Creator/Showtime}} half-hour drama/comedy about Jackie Peyton ([[Series/TheSopranos Edie Falco]]), a nurse in an inner-city hospital in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity who manages to be both a mega-bitch (with a heart!) and a life-saving Jesus in a skirt. Or scrubs, whatever.

* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Momo, who was a prominent character and one of Jackie's closest friends unceremoniously vanishes from the show without explanation after season 1. His role as gay confidante is replaced by Thor.

* DrJerk: Coop, in his worse moments.

* HospitalHottie: Averted with the nurses, in that they all wear practical shoes, have their hair short/tied up, and do not wear make-up, just like real nurses. This illustrates the difference in work between nurses (who work long hours on their feet) and doctors.

* KarmaHoudini: Inverted, with a protagonist who does questionable things. Executive producer Liz Brixius even used the name Houdini to describe her. Understandable as Jackie is the main character, but nearly every season ends with her getting off scot free. In season two [[spoiler:Keven and O'Hara find out she's an addict, but she's given near free rein in season 3 until her new supplier bites the dust. She then gets clean, but not by choice]]. Season 3 has [[spoiler:Keven revealing that he had an affair because he felt distant from her, and Jackie planning to divorce him. Simultaneously (and unbeknownst to Jackie), Gloria tosses Jackie's urine sample in the trash rather than giving it to HR, getting her out of hot water at work]].

* KarmicJackpot: Arguably Jackie. She saves lives, is considered a good person by most of her co-workers, and as a result is able to hide her secrets almost flawlessly.

*** They're all rehired at the start of season 5

* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: Jackie all the time, and, to a lesser extent, O'Hara.

* {{Expy}}: Zoey is an expy of Alice Chantrey from ''{{Casualty}}''.

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nurse-1_4392.jpg]]''Nurse Jackie'', to which some fans fondly refer as "Nurse Series/{{House}}", is a {{Creator/Showtime}} half-hour drama/comedy about Jackie Peyton ([[Series/TheSopranos Edie Falco]]), a nurse in an inner-city hospital in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity who manages to be both a mega-bitch (with a heart!) and a life-saving Jesus in a skirt. Or scrubs, whatever.

* AsYouKnow: Season 5 opens up with Jackie explaining to the audience [[spoiler: Cruise was let go, Gloria and Jackie were re-hired after a union lawsuit, O'Hara is back from maternity leave, a new doctor has been hired,]] and that 4 and a half months have passed since the end of Season 4.. all within a single conversation while running down the hall.

* BigApplesauce

* ManChild: Coop is bratty, petty, insufferable, and completely incapable of thinking beyond anything immediately focused on him. He is also utterly oblivious to how much everyone in the hospital hates his guts and is convinced he's the most popular person there.

* AllAbusersAreMale: Averted; one patient is a man whose girlfriend managed to crack his skull out of anger. He hit her back in self-defense, but she only suffered some bruises.