Reviews
By Multichannel News Staff -- Multichannel News, 6/8/2009 2:00:00 AM
NURSE JACKIE
(Showtime, June 8, 10:30 p.m.)
Nurse, mother and wife, Edie Falco's Jackie Peyton is quick.
Quick to tell a self-absorbed Dr. Cooper (Peter Facinelli) to get on the stick after his incorrect diagnosis costs a life; and quick to slide around hospital protocol when it comes to improving a patient's condition.
But Peyton is an anti-heroine with her own flaws. She's popping or snorting various pharmaceuticals to get through her back pain and the pressures of the day; cheating with hospital pharmacist Eddie Walzer (lust finally requited with Paul Schulze, Father Phil in The Sopranos); and in letting her husband Kevin (Dominic Fumusa), who owns a bar in Queens, handle most of the parenting.
This moral dichotomy and duality — her compassion and duplicity — play out quickly in a half-hour bursts that end storylines more abruptly than most dramas and keep the action bouncing back to Falco.
That's a good thing because the other characters don't play to her standard, save for nursing newcomer Zoey (Merritt Wever). She brings and amusing professional and social naivete to the jaded hospital world, exemplified by comments referring to Jackie as a saint.
A devil, too, which made this reviewer quickly screen through all six installments that were made available.
— Mike Reynolds
HAMMERTIME
(A&E Network, Sunday, June 14, 10 p.m.)
Most people remember MC Hammer for his flashy dance/rap performances of the 1990s. In A&E Network's new reality series Hammertime, Hammer, aka Stanley Burrell, looks to introduce himself as a family man to a new generation of viewers.
The series focuses on Hammer as the patriarch of a Tracy, Calif.-based, upper-class household that includes wife Stephanie and six kids — one of whom is a nephew.
Unlike most celebrities-turned-reality stars, Hammer is tolerable and actually likable as a doting dad who, in the premiere episode, attends son Jeremiah's take-your-dad-to-school outing and discusses the youngster's slipping grades with his teacher.
Hammer also takes time during the show's introduction to revisit his career, but to his credit does not excessively fawn over his numerous accomplishments or completely gloss over his past financial woes. The episode also shines a light on his current business endeavors, catching up with Hammer as he's training several dancers working to create a music video.
Fans of Hammer will no doubt tune in to see the popular rapper, but it'll be the audience appeal of his family members — including Hammer's humorous and crazy cousin Marv — that will determine whether Hammertime successfully dances on the ratings stage.
— R. Thomas Umstead
Review: 'Nurse Jackie'
06/08/2009'Hammertime' For A&E
02/18/2009USA’s Hammer: Still Building
06/12/2005
