Here at AU, we are lucky enough to have HBO streaming into our humble cinderblock cells. Sure, we enjoy “Entourage,” “True Blood” and “Big Love” once a week, but what we really desire are the big guns. So listen up, Housing and Dining: we, the suburban private school kids, would like to complain about one more thing. We want Showtime.
Even a standard cable watcher can recognize the discrepancies between VH1 and finer television. Networks create shows about house cleaning or octomoms because they can; they think they have the money to waste and they recognize that American taste has practically fallen off the map. That’s why, as students, we worship anything that Home Box Office or Showtime creates. I look forward to the next way Jenji Kohan can hide her name in the opening of “Weeds” because treats like that remind me that artists, not Twitter or the American public, are behind this show, making it for me and anyone else who appreciates quality entertainment.
Series on Showtime and HBO tend to have a lasting impression. Do the words “The Sopranos” sound familiar? “Sex and the City” continues to make residuals on television and the big screen. And watching shows like “Dexter” or “The Tudors” can take you back to a place in your own mind — maybe you really enjoyed that summer you had a “Dexter” marathon, and every time you see that show you get to relive that small moment of happiness.
For me, that happiness came last summer with the premiere of Showtime’s “Nurse Jackie.” Edie Falco, who we all know and love as Carmela Soprano, is a trauma nurse at New York’s All Saints Hospital. Her busy days are always exciting to witness, but as viewers we’re thinking, “Shit, I’m glad that’s not me.” Jackie works all day at the hospital to come home to a loving, but bland husband and an elementary school-aged daughter who already has anxiety disorder.
In the first season, Jackie had an ongoing affair with Eddie, the hospital pharmacist who was her source for both afternoon delight and prescription drugs. Jackie conceals her family from her co-workers at the hospital, removing her wedding ring daily. In one episode, the ring wouldn’t come off, so she sawed it off and then busted her ring finger with a hammer to use as an alibi.
“Nurse Jackie” is so enticing because it is more human than reality TV. Jackie can save a life in the emergency room and then snort oxy in the bathroom because she’s just as fragile as the rest of us. In last season’s finale, Eddie stumbled into Jackie’s husband’s bar and discovered that she had a family.
Most of these problems, like an extramarital affair and a drug addiction, Jackie has brought upon herself, yet we forgive her because she is a warrior for the weak. Jackie will conceal her co-worker’s diabetes so he can stay employed or bargain with a health insurance provider on the phone for hours so a surgery will be approved.
I find myself becoming attached to nearly every HBO and Showtime show because each one is so thorough in its own right. The costumes on “The Tudors” and every line delivered on “Extras” are so strong that they deserve their own pricey network. So give in AU, or Neil Kerwin, or whoever manages our little tellies. You want us to change the world, and we will — but first appease us. We want to be entertained and we want Showtime. That’s not too much to ask, is it? Not even for $50,000?
You can reach this columnist at thescene@theeagleonline.com.
