‘Jackie’ makes the medicine go down

All doctors are cranky — and some are addicted to drugs, too (at least that’s what television teaches us). “Nurse Jackie” uses the personality traits we’ve come to expect in TV doctors but transplants them to a nurse. Although it sometimes feels like a retread, “Jackie” has characters that seem real and just dirty enough to be fun.

The show basically operates as a vehicle for Edie Falco, who plays Jackie, a nurse with a short temper and an addiction to painkillers. Jackie often finds herself skirting (or leaping over) ethical boundaries. Jackie’s clueless nurse-in-training, Zoey (Merritt Wever), provides most of the comedy in what is usually a dark show.

The other actors aren’t as successful. Like other Showtime programs, casting is a problem; although some of the actors mature over the season, others have no chemistry and go nowhere.

The early episodes are sometimes scattershot, but later episodes find a stable path. “Nurse Jackie” still has some room to improve, but it’s a step up from the standard medical show fare.