Television - Out of the Mob, Into the E.R. - Edie Falco in "Nurse Jackie" on Showtime - NYTimes.com

Her hair is shorn, her face unadorned, her nails bare. I'm not thinking of Carmela at all," said Steve Buscemi, who directed four episodes, comparing Ms. Falco's virgin incarnation to the role with which she'd come identified for almost a decade.

This complex is so strong, and Edie's such a athletic actor, that I don't envisage for a mo the audience is going to esteem approximately Carmela when they flash Jackie." Fix in the fictional All Saints Infirmary on the Lower East Side, "Nurse Jackie" testament corner its premiere on Jun 8, nearly two second childhood to the lifetime after "The Sopranos" left viewers hanging.

A caustically comedian homage to the overworked, undersung heroes of a disintegrating health apprehension system, the series marks Ms. Falco's full-time repay to television. The ensemble toss features Previous evening Best, Peter Facinelli, Merritt Wever, Haaz Sleiman, Anna Deavere Smith and Paul Schulze; John Melfi, whose credits cover "Sex and the City," the series and the movie, is an executive producer.

Whether "The Sopranos" was a men's club in which women were however associate members, "Nurse Jackie" is a globe dominated by women. And while there is a recurring cameo for a brace of Manolo Blahniks, the display is neither girly nor fainthearted. Blood, thing parts and revenge are cut of the equation.

And Jackie is constantly testing ethical thresholds: an organ-donor card is shod so a dissolution won't be a waste; a wad of cash belonging to a prostitute-slashing diplomat is stolen and redistributed; a severed ear is tossed into a toilet and flushed. Then there's Jackie's narcotic habit, enabled by her druggist boyfriend, played by Mister

Schulze, who did hour on "The Sopranos" as Dad Intintola, Carmela's priest and unwitting arouser. Sixteen grains of Adderall up the nose or a hasty Percocet ground into coffee sweetener helps anesthetize back spasms caused by her 80-hour business weeks; Oxycontin goes a extensive habit toward relieving the aftereffects of a sexual interlude on a metal gurney.

Nevertheless it took her a while to jewel a long-term project. Working with advanced data was paramount to her; so extremely was catering to a shift in her personal being and a inclination to assignment in Dewy York. In the remain year she adopted a moment youngster and has grown fond of afternoons strolling the metropolis with her blooming sonny and daughter.

Is it harder having kids and working?" It definitely is, on the contrary the payoff is you pay for to birr familiar to your kids, and it all balances out. And I recognize I'm a improved immense when I'm busy in something away of the house." Richie Jackson, Ms.

Falco's administrator and a co-executive producer of "Nurse Jackie," helped her navigate the offers that poured in after she announced her availability. She lone would letter on once a script was written," he said. She wouldn't indication on to an concept or a enlargement deal. She actually responds to a script, and once she reads it can tactility in her entity in a kinetic approach if it's honest for her."

A script by Evan Dunsky, about an emergency extension encourage on the brink, captured Ms. Falco's interest on the other hand was sometime rejected as career further bleak. Liz Brixius and Linda Wallem, who wrote "Insatiable," a Showtime flyer about addiction that never got off the ground, were summoned to good with Ms. Falco, deliberate the appearance Mr. Dunsky had created and reimagine her.

We all got in a period together, and the chemistry was so brilliant that we were fair-minded category of like, & 8216;We're going to be working together, we're going to act this,' " Ms. Brixius said. We wanted to disclose a apologue that was a dwarf bit black and in reality relevant. It's a crumbling globe elsewhere there." In appendix to lifetime what Ms.

Brixius called "truly a bunch of ladies in our 40s" - Ms. Falco and Ms. Brixius, 45 - there was the and potent bond of alcoholism. Ms. 1, we miss it. 2, it's very interesting since you are duplicitous, you are complete of contradictions, you are living vitality on the edge." Brixius elaborated. Jackie is a woman who is living on two aboveboard compasses at the equivalent time," she said.

She is a lifesaver at work, but she is destroying her own life. It's love her co-op is on bonfire and she's sitting in it." Still, it's anybody's guess whether the poignancy and gallows humour inaugurate in Jackie's unvarnished actuality are sufficiently to deposit Carmela Soprano to rest.

You never know, but what I've always commence is that as high as I am dedicated to playing somebody else, I don't deem the power to stay with an debilitated badge is there anymore," Ms. It was sort of endlessly fascinating and deeply saddening when I was struggling myself. I don't appetite to hold a holier-than-thou entrance to Jackie. I discern what it's coextensive to be cast away in addiction."

Extended Articles in Arts & x00bb; A narration of this article appeared in print on May 31, 2009, on chapter AR24 of the Latest York edition.