Nurse Jackie Season One
Blu-ray | DVD
Starring Edie Falco, Eve Best, Peter Facinelli
Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Release date: February 25, 2010

On the surface Nurse Jackie looks a lot like another doctor show on television right now. Starring Edie Falco as the titular Nurse Jackie Peyton, viewers get a glimpse into the life of a strong, loving, and yet also hard to love nurse and her rather complicated life. When she is not busy saving lives and making sure idiot doctors don’t get in the way, she is doing her best to keep her rather messy work life from colliding with her already hectic home life. She is also nursing a killer painkiller addiction she is keeping from everyone she knows, as well as another pretty big secret (which I won’t reveal here).

I have to admit, other than this show, I haven’t seen any of Falco’s work on the Sopranos. However, I do know that when an actor from a popular TV show ventures off to headline his or her own series, it is a pretty big deal. Will the show work? Will viewers be able to disconnect them from their previous work and focus on this show? Can this actor even hold a show on their own after being a part of an ensemble this whole time? Luckily, in this case, all these questions can be answered with a resounding yes, thanks in part to a great writing and great acting one-two punch.

It appears that director Oliver Stone will be branching off into the world of documentary film making with a new 10-part series called Secret History of America, which will air on Showtime in a one-hour episodic format. The show’s content is all-but-guaranteed to stir up controversy and get people fumed and debating.

The series will be narrated by Stone, and will cover many different hugely-important and “under-reported” events in American history of the last 60 years, revealing many “newly discovered facts and accounts” that we never knew about before. Of the project, Stone stated that “through this epic 10-hour series, which I feel is the deepest contribution I could ever make in film to my children and the next generation, I can only hope a change in our thinking will result.”

Topics that will be covered range from the Cold War and the decision to drop the bomb on Hiroshima, to the Vietnam war, the Kennedy administration, and America’s impact on the world since Communism fell.

Weeds
Season 4
Created by Jenji Kohan
Starring Mary Louise Parker, Justin Kirk, Kevin Nealon, Elizabeth Perkins, Hunter Parrish, Alexander Gould
Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Release Date: June 2, 2009

Last year at about this time, when I reviewed Season Three of Showtime’s Weeds for this very website, I complained about how the DVD case trotted out that it was made from 100% recycled materials. I wondered who they could possibly market that fact to. People who hadn’t seen the show who felt they HAD to buy it because, well, those seasons of Six Feet Under wouldn’t allow them to be better people by having ITS packaging made from recycled shit? People who like the show and were gonna buy it anyway, even if the packaging were made from poodle ass and baby seal hymen? The point eluded me then and it eludes me now. I’m not saying you can’t make your stuff out of other folks’ leftovers, but quit being a dick about it.

Sure enough, another year, another packaging issue. Not with the packaging itself, I don’t give a fuck about that anymore, and yet I am mystified by the pull-quote from The Miami Herald that they put on the back of the box:

“Smart… Smug… And habit-forming.”

“Smug?” That’s what you’re saying to pull folks in? They… They know what that word means, right? I’m not necessarily saying the show isn’t smug (as mentioned, the show actively markets that its DVD sets are recycled), but there’s some shit you just don’t share with the rest of the class.

Dexter
The Complete Second Season, Blu-ray Edition
Starring: Michael C. Hall, Julie Benz, Jennifer Carpenter, Erik King, Lauren Velez
Paramount Home Entertainment
Release date: May 9, 2009

One of the most original and entertaining shows on TV returned for a second season with vigilante serial killer Dexter Morgan (Michael C Hall). After following Dexter’s journey of self-discovery in the first season, this time around viewers watch Dexter struggle with new, complicated emotions as he tries to evolve as a person and a killer.

The second season of the hit Showtime series has some serious strengths and weaknesses. First and foremost, the plot goes to the obvious logical step in exploring Dexter’s world by seeing what would happen if Dexter’s crimes were discovered. When a group of scuba divers discover the bodies of Dexter’s victims, he must struggle with keeping up appearances while trying to cover tracks he never thought would be uncovered.

All the while, Sgt. Doakes (Erik King), who was simply suspicious of Dexter in the first season, is now convinced Dexter is hiding something, and stalks him everywhere. This makes Dexter’s usual nighttime activities impossible. The stress of controlling his impulses, avoiding suspicion, and coming to terms with having killed his own brother, Dexter’s internal turmoil is increased ten-fold.

I don’t usually care for stuff that makes the gossip headlines, but I do enjoy reading about celebrity hook ups — but not enough to write about it here. But this latest celebrity wedding had me giggling so much, I just had to share the news.

You guys know the ShowTime series Dexter, right? Yeah, sure you do, it’s awesome. Well, the actor who plays the title role, Michael C. Hall , secretly eloped in California on New Year’s Eve with his co-star Jennifer Carpenter — who plays his sister, Debra, on the show.

What makes this news even cooler is that the couple was able to keep their year and a half long relationship under wraps while portraying the Morgan siblings on the SHO series for three seasons. Ok, maybe not totally under wraps, as the tabloids did try to out them back in September, saying that they’d moved in together and that their TV bosses were pissed. But the news really didn’t spread or even make a splash, so you gotta admit, for a Hollywood couple on a hit show, pulling off this relationship AND a secret wedding — that’s pretty crafty.

Look out for the newlyweds this Sunday when they walk the red carpet together at the Golden Globe Awards, which will be their first public outing as a couple.