We don't have many shows depicting nurses these days. This is one of the reasons I started watching Nurse Jackie. This, and the fact that it's not your usual medical procedural. On the other hand, the reason I started watching HawthoRNe was my crush on Michael Vartan. I got hooked on both, and both have disappointed me in some way. So, which one wins?
The Premise. With HawthoRNe's tagline being "Every patient needs a hero", one would think the show is about a nurse advocating for her patients, right? Well, it definitely started off as that. However, down the line, HawthoRNe became less of a medical procedural and more of a soapy drama. Nevertheless, it started off as the story of a widowed Chief Nursing Officer with a teenage daughter, who does her best to be a mother while also doing her best at her job. However, she goes above and beyond at work, by getting her hands dirty almost every day.
Nurse Jackie starts by depicting the life of a drug addict nurse who cheats on her husband with the pharmacist. She is also good at her job and often goes to extreme measures for her patients, whether she likes them or not. This might mean helping them with more than her job requires or, if she doesn't like them, applying her own justice system to make them miserable. Point goes to: Nurse Jackie. Yes, HawthoRNe is more of a moral show. Yes, it's about the real life problems of a woman who struggles to make a life for her and her daughter after her husband's death. Nevertheless, Nurse Jackie's story is more entertaining. I don't care much for every day drama Christina Hawthorne brings. On the other hand, Jackie's life is unique and gives room for a lot more things happening.The Main Characters. Jackie vs. Christina is actually an easy one. Jackie is lying, manipulative, an expert in hiding her personal life at work and her work life at home. She's able to juggle a family, a lover, a drug addiction, which makes her - in the first two seasons - a complex and interesting character. It's true however that she doesn't evolve much throughout the series and season 3 doesn't bring anything new about her. She pretty much stays in the same place and the only question about her is what will her next low look like. As for her job, she sometimes knows more than the doctors, but she also makes mistakes. She is a professional though and usually doesn't let her personal stuff interfere with it. She's not the friendliest of colleagues, but the staff respects her decisions, and for the most part, she does everything in her power to help her patients.Christina starts off as a hero. She knows everything, challenges every doctor, knows every patient and has time for every little thing except for her daughter. Unrealistic? Yes, even more than Jackie's drug usage. She's a CNO - essentially and administrator -, but does more nursing stuff than her nurses. As seen in the first two seasons, her job is always more important than her family and boyfriend. On a personal level, she is emotionally immature, neglects her daughter when she goes through hard times and blames everyone but herself for her failures.In a nutshell, they are both great nurses, they both go to extremes for their patients often in blatant disregard for the law, they both ignore their families most of the times, they both cheat on their husbands. So what's the difference? While Christina wants to appear as a saint in every little aspect of her life, making her a pretty boring character after the novelty of the hero complex disappears, Jackie is not afraid of showing her flaws, of which she has many.Point goes to: Nurse Jackie. They both end up being unlikable by the end of season 3, but Christina is also incredibly annoying in her hero act.The Boys. Tom/Steve/Ray vs. Kevin/Eddie/Coop. This is a hard one. I'm a fan of Michael Vartan's and I loved his character at the beginning, though he usually gave in to Christina's opinions. I loved Steve from the first minute and he is one of the most reliable characters on the show. As for Ray Stein, he was a great supporting character in the first two seasons and offered comic relief to an otherwise dramatic show. The Nurse Jackie boys are a bit more developed as characters, they evolved quite a bit since season 1. Kevin and Eddie reliable as supporting characters although they could use some more air time. Coop is great as the funny guy on the show, the situations he gets himself into as a result of his child-like behavior are some of the best moments Nurse Jackie has given us.If we look at the character development, I'd go with Nurse Jackie. As for the eye-candy, I'd have to say Hawthorne. Let's call this a draw.The Supporting Characters. With Nurse Jackie being essentially a dark comedy, there's more room for likable supporting characters. O'Hara brings a unique perspective about life; Zoey is quirky and fun; Mo-mo and Thor, though giving into the gay male nurses cliche, are good reliable scene stealers. Some of the newer additions, like Sam and Kelly, could be more developed but I hope this will happen in season 4. HawthoRNe's supporting characters are not very complex. We have Candy, the blond barbie who never seems to get the chance to prove she's more than that; Kelly Epson starts off as Zoey's counterpart, as a new and very emotional nurse, but doesn't evolve much from season 1, despite numerous tries to portray her as strong and reliable. Brenda Marshall starts off as interesting, but gets lost along the way. Bobbi has good potential, but is never more than Christina's friend, not even when trying to fill her shoes as CNO.Point goes to: Nurse Jackie.The Acting. Edie Falco is a genius. Say what you may about her character, but she portrays Jackie so well that you love to hate her. Eve Best as O'Hara is always at the top of her game, Peter Facinelli shows that he really knows how to act, despite the disaster that is the Twilight series, Merritt Wever should receive an Emmy nomination fro her portrayal of quirky Zoey and Ruby Jerins and Mackenzie Aladjem are perfect in the roles of Jackie's daughters. Dominic Fumusa and Paul Schultze are ok as Kevin and Eddie.
As for the HawthoRNe cast, honestly, they are bad. Jada Pinkett Smith starts off well and actually delivers a good role throughout the first season, but then starts to fade and become quite hard to watch as the show goes on. As much as it pains me, Michael Vartan is disappointing, though he has some good moments. The others are just plain, I can't relate to any of their emotions. David Julian Hirsh was ok before he left, Hannah Hodson made Camille more bearable than she would have been otherwise and Anne Ramsay was pretty reliable. Marc Anthony isn't even worth mentioning.Point goes to: Nurse Jackie.
The Story Progression. They both start off as medical procedurals centered on nurses, with a personal component. They both lose some of the medical focus, but we still see patients in Nurse Jackie, while the last season of HawthoRNe gives us only soap-opera drama, and bad one, at that.
Point goes to: Nurse Jackie.
Given all these, I think Nurse Jackie makes a much better show than HawthoRNe. There's better acting, better characters, better story, more realism. I got really annoyed by the path HawthoRNe took in season 3, while Nurse Jackie, though it didn't provide much character development this year, manages to stay more interesting in other aspects.
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