Nurse Jackie

Edie Falco’s dark new show is a deliberate throwback to the ’70s hit ‘M*A*S*H’

I used to say that TV shows try not to have the star character in every scene, the way older shows like The Fugitive or The Rockford Files did. Even a show built around its title character, like House or Chuck, will try to work in some kind of subsidiary story thread to give the star some time off; it’s good for the star (because the schedule, while grueling, is not as bad as it could be) and good for the rest of the cast, giving them some scenes where they don’t have to play second banana.

Odds n’ ends:

Tonight is the premiere (on TMN in Canada, Showtime in the U.S.) of the Edie Falco vehicle Nurse Jackie, which looks to be one of the more interesting new shows of the summer.