A Public Service Announcement.

A short post today, as I still have 500+ words to crank out before I feel satisfied enough to sleep, and boy do I need sleep.

Despite my oft-repeated and clearly accurate statement that I should be in charge of tv, I really don't watch that much of it. There are a few shows that are articulate, thoughtful, well acted, and all around good quality, but most of them fail to hold my interest. This is a fault of mine, not these shows. The rest of tv panders to either the lowest common denominator, or at least the second lowest. Whenever I say this, I always feel very superior and pretentious, but I DO NOT like these sorts of shows. And clearly someone does, because they are often the shows that do well enough to linger, while the truly unique shows (The Unusuals, Wonderfalls, to name some off the top of my head) never do well, particularly on mainstream prime time. Some of the shows I dislike, in case you were wondering, include Ghost Whisperer, CSI, 99% of reality programming and talent shows, and South Park.

On to the point of this diatribe; I have discovered a show that not only do I enjoy, but I make sure I see every single episode, some more than once (praise the DVR!) That show, dear friends, is Nurse Jackie.

I hear your objections already:

Wait, what is this? I've never heard of it!
Puh-lease, another show about a medical professional addicted to painkillers?
Puh-lease, another show about medical professionals?
But I don't really like Edie Falco...

Ok, a) It's a show about a nurse. Named Jackie. And her friends and patients and husband and children and boyfriend and crippling back pain.
b) She could stop if she wanted too! Shut up!
c) Well, SOMETHING had to take the place of ER. It left a void (admittedly the void was there several years before they finally pulled the plug, but I digress.)
d) You are a crazy person. Watch it and have your mind broadened.

These clips will conclude my (hopefully convincing) recommendation: