DVD: Nurse Jackie (15)

Part Florence Nightingale, part Nurse Ratched, Nurse Jackie is a bundle of contradictions in pale blue scrubs.

She's brilliant at her job but behind the Brooklynite efficiency she's hooked on painkillers – and on the pharmacist who doles them out, with whom she's having a lusty affair. The magnificently aquiline Edie Falco, better known as Carmela Soprano, is perfect casting as Jackie. The 30-minute episodes are pacey, the dialogue sharp but Jackie's druggy stupors lend proceedings a lightly surreal air, setting it apart from the usual hospital drama. Supporting are Peter Facinelli as a jumped-up new doc on the ward and Eve Best who plays the obligatory plummy Brit. Falco's Golden Globe-nominated turn, though, is the real reason to watch.