edie falco

With their second seasons just off the starting blocks, Showtime has already ordered a third for both 'Nurse Jackie' and 'United States of Tara,' according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Monday-night's season opener snagged 'Jackie' it's highest numbers to date (1.5 million over two airings) and 'Tara' was on par with its first season debut.

Her bang-on portrayal of a jaded E.R. nurse whose unmanageable back pain leads her to abuse pain pills (and the man who dispenses them) earned star Edie Falco her seventh Golden Globe nomination (she won two for 'The Sopranos'). 'Tara' lead Toni Collette, meanwhile, nabbed both the Globe and an Emmy statues at last year's ceremonies.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to recognize that Showtime is the home of two of the best comedies currently on the air, 'Nurse Jackie' and 'United States of Tara.' Having been fortunate enough to enjoy the season two premieres of these two shows last Sunday, it came as no surprise that Showtime announced today that both 'Jackie' and 'Tara' are coming back for a third season.

Actually, it is a bit of a surprise ... that it happened so fast! Showtime could have saved the news for a few weeks or even the end of these second seasons. But you have to figure the premium cable channel is pretty happy with the ratings these shows have generated and the enthusiasm is palpable. Another season, twelve more episodes of each, and for the creators of these shows that just has to be a great validation.

We wouldn't really want Jackie Peyton's life, because it sort of sucks. On the other hand, we wouldn't mind having her chutzpah to say or do exactly what we wanted at any particular moment.

Like if some punk was trash-talking in front of our kids, we'd like to knock him over like Jackie did on 'Nurse Jackie' (Mon., 10PM ET on Showtime). That would be a blast.

Watch the video after the jump.

(S02E01) Remember seeing the variety shows where a guy was spinning plates and the point of the trick was to keep all the plates spinning so that nothing fell to the ground and crashed into a million pieces? That's the ongoing life of Nurse Jackie.

Season two commenced not unlike the season one premiere, with Jackie flat on her back and a 1960's tune underscoring the moment. Instead of 'Valley of the Dolls,' it was 'Say A Little Prayer," but the sentiment remained the same. Jackie's a high wire act even when she's on her ass.

'Nurse Jackie' is one of those shows that keeps audiences in a love-hate relationship with its main character -- and that's exactly why we adore it.

The unapologetic titular character, expertly played by ,a href="http://www.aoltv.com/celebs/edie-falco/1954797/main">Edie Falco, is surrounded by a group of ragtag coworkers, including Coop, a breast-grabbing socially awkward doctor (Peter Facinelli), and Zoey (Merritt Wever), an enthusiastic nursing student perpetually clad in bunny rabbit scrubs.

I sat down with the three stars to hear all about the "rollercoaster ride" that is season 2, big guest stars, new romances and what makes this show so special.

'Nurse Jackie' (10PM, Showtime) season 2 premiere
The titular, pill-popping nurse (Edie Falco) has nothing but the best intentions to put her extracurricular life behind her as the second season begins, but a glitch with boyfriend Eddie puts a crimp in her plan to devote herself exclusively to hubby Kevin and her daughters. Meanwhile, Jackie is also unnerved by the familiar face Akalitus hires to replace Mo-Mo. And the fact that Coop can't handle her working style, and takes his complaint to Akalitus. And the fact that Akalitus has discovered some discrepancies in the Pill-O-Matic. Thanks goodness Jackie has good friends like Dr. O'Hara and Thor to see her through. Of course, they've got some pretty big issues of their own ...

Drugs on TV have had a strange history. There have been after-school movies, very special sitcom episodes and even entire dramas based around illegal substances.

Sometimes, drug abuse on TV is used to teach the audience a lesson, while other times writers have characters develop an addiction as a way of making them more human in a flawed sense.

One of the most recent drug abusers comes to us in the form of Edie Falco's title character on 'Nurse Jackie.' The medical drama is back with a vengeance (Mon., March 22 10PM on Showtime), and to celebrate the return of our favorite no-nonsense RN, we're taking a look at TV's other famous pill-popping characters we've come to love (despite their issues) over the years.

We're not endorsing drug abuse of any kind, but it's a fact of life for some people, including these TV characters.

Find out who made our list after the jump.

I still haven't gotten used to the seasons that cable shows have. Mad Men's on in the summer, shows like Burn Notice and Psych split their seasons into two half-seasons. Is Arlis$ still on?

The second season of Nurse Jackie premieres on Showtime March 22 at 10PM. Here's the trailer. Twitter is involved.

Lock those medicine cabinets: Showtime announced that 'Nurse Jackie' will return March 22, 2010, at 10PM.

Now in its second season, the Edie Falco-driven dramedy follows the exploits of Jackie Peyton, a nurse at New York City's All Points Hospital. The show got off to a hot start last year with Showtime's highest rated debut -- more than one and a half million viewers tuned in for the June 2009 premiere. By bumping it up a few months, Showtime seems to be thinking 'Jackie' has more potential than a summer series.

Controversy arose after the premiere, when subsequent plots revealed a lead character who often violated ethical codes for her patients. At the same time, it depicts a woman who struggles with her own prescription pill habit, and the less than admirable ways in which she obtains drugs.

(S01E12) "I've never been a fan of movies where idiots talk to people in comas." - Mrs. Akalitus to a comatose Mr. Nutterman

Well, things didn't go as wrong as I thought they might have, with the whole Eddie hanging with Kevin at the bar business. Yeah, it wasn't good, and Jackie downing three vials of morphine was just ... not sure what to think of it. Was she trying to kill herself, or just numb the pain from everything?

My favorite part of the episode was Zoey and her sweetness at wearing the gray scrubs and being all mopey after getting sacked from dealing with patients. I was glad when she put on the bunny scrubs again, but things don't look good for movie critic guy losing his memory. "Oh my god, I broke him," she says.

(S01E11) Nothing really jumped out at me about this episode ... well, ok, the spider scene. And the end scene. That opened up a big can o' worms for Jackie that I'm sure will have big consequences for her one way or another. And I appreciated seeing Victor Garber as the movie critic patient, and the mess Zoey made while caring for him.

But that's how Nurse Jackie operates. There usually aren't any major "wow" scenes; the episodes just sort of float along, one playing off of the other in more of a real-life fashion.

In case anyone hasn't seen the episode yet, I'll get into more details after the jump.

(S01E10) "Just for the record, I'm officially questioning your judgment." - O'Hara to Jackie

This episode of Nurse Jackie drove me a little nuts. All through my notes are little messages to Jackie, like I think she's going to see my notes and take my advice -- before she ruins her life even further.

I mean, I've commented before how difficult it must be keeping her personal life completely separate from her work life, and this episode was like a time bomb waiting to go off.

You just know that sooner or later, she's going to be so fried that she'll forget who knows what, and say something to reveal her secret -- just like she almost did to Mo-Mo when she started talking about the mother-daughter tap dance class.

I watched the feature film In the Loop the other day, a documentary-style comedy that looks behind the scenes of the British and U.S. governments. James Gandolfini plays Lt. Gen. George Miller, and all I could think was, "Hey, there's Tony Soprano in a U.S. military uniform." I think his character may have even said something along the lines of, "I'll break your kneecaps if..."

I know James Gandolfini has done a lot of projects since The Sopranos, but Tony Soprano is so cemented in my mind, I wonder if I'll ever see him as anything else. I have the same reaction when I see Steve Schirripa playing Leo on The Secret Life of the American Teenager. "Hey, that's Bobby Baccalieri!"

(S01E09) "She's just a nurse." - Dr. Cooper to Melissa, talking about Jackie

Sometimes I think Dr. Cooper is starting to be a human being, and then he turns around and says something really stupid. Females are naturally more empathetic than guys, so I would think that having two moms would have made him a little bit more sensitive. Guess not.

He really was a jerk in this episode, and I imagine Jackie having to make the decision about the organ donor (the PETA card!) will come back to haunt her. But what's a nurse to do? Get another doctor maybe? I don't care if he DID stay awake for 53 hours once.