Set in New York City, the series follows Jackie Peyton (Edie Falco), a drug-addicted emergency department nurse at the fictional All Saints' Hospital.

Liz Brixius and Linda Wallem had written a pilot about addiction for Showtime titled Insatiable; the two were asked to rework Nurse Mona and infuse it with more comedy.

[6][7] Nurse Jackie was officially ordered by Showtime in June 2008, with Falco attached to star and the season to begin filming later that year.

According to Brixius, "There are massive consequences to addiction, that in order to keep using, you have to keep rationalizing and tell yourself a different story and underplay the damage that you're doing, and that is the interesting part of Jackie... And it's also where a lot of our comedy comes from.

"[4] Producer Liz Flahive recalled the writing staff of Nurse Jackie was majority female and half-consisted of individuals from the LGBTQ community.

[9] For the show's fourth season, which saw Jackie enter rehab and attempt sobriety, Falco said "the last thing I wanted was to give the impression that it's all fun and games, and isn't it funny what she gets away with.

"[16] Jackie Peyton (Edie Falco) is an emergency department nurse at the fictional All Saints Hospital in New York City.

She has two daughters and is married to her husband Kevin (Dominic Fumusa), although she is having an affair with the hospital pharmacist Eddie (Paul Schulze) in exchange for pills.

Her allies at the hospital include Dr. Eleanor O'Hara (Eve Best), new nurse Zoey Barkow (Merritt Wever), and hard-lined administrator Gloria Akalitus (Anna Deavere Smith).

Over the course of the first season, she spars with Dr. Fitch Cooper (Peter Facinelli), whom Jackie finds obnoxious, and tries to help her anxious daughter Grace (Ruby Jerins).

Other All Saints staff members include Momo (Haaz Sleiman), Thor (Stephen Wallem), Sam (Arjun Gupta), Dr. Ike Prentiss (Morris Chestnut), Dr. Carrie Roman (Betty Gilpin), and Dr. Bernard Prince (Tony Shalhoub).

After her dealer is hit by a bus in a freak accident, Jackie begins going through withdrawal and resorts to taking medication prescribed to her anxious daughter.

All Saints is bought by a conglomerate called Quantum Bay with the new hospital administrator being Dr. Mike Cruz (Bobby Cannavale).

Her personal life begins to fall apart as Kevin, upon learning she had an affair with Eddie and he supplied her drug habit, serves her with divorce papers and wants primary custody of their daughters.

Several months later, Jackie is still committed to her sobriety and has her job back at All Saints, along with Eddie and Akalitus, with Dr. Cruz having left after Charlie's death.

Meanwhile, O'Hara moves back to England and Jackie begins dating a police officer named Frank (Adam Ferrara).

Akalitus demands that Jackie comply with a urine test or enter the hospital's diversion program, which includes the temporary suspension of her nursing license.

After her arrest, Jackie is fired but, through the efforts of a cunning lawyer (Mark Feuerstein), she's able to enter the hospital's diversion program until the board can convene to discuss the reinstatement of her nursing license.

As the hospital throws a going away party, Jackie snorts several lines of street-grade heroin and overdoses in the middle of their shindig; her fate is left ambiguous.

Showtime called Jackie Peyton a "strong-willed, iconoclastic New York City nurse juggling the frenzied grind of an urban hospital and an equally challenging personal life," noting that she had "an occasional weakness for Vicodin, Percocet, and Xanax to get her through the days.

[17][19] Other characters include the officious hospital administrator Gloria Akalitus (Anna Deavere Smith),[17] Jackie's bar owner husband Kevin (Dominic Fumusa),[18] their daughters Grace (Ruby Jerins) and Fiona (Daisy Tahan in season 1 and Mackenzie Aladjem in seasons 2 through 7), and Thor (Stephen Wallem), Jackie's kindhearted confidant and the real-life brother of show creator/executive producer Linda Wallem.

"[29] Robert Bianco of USA Today gave the season a perfect score, stating: "What's remarkable is the fine balance producer/writers Linda Wallem and Liz Brixius maintain between the comic and tragic.

Club was more mixed in her review of the season premiere, praising the actors but criticizing some of the dramatic elements: "Despite the rather lame drama swirling around her, Edie Falco's coolly exasperated Jackie still somehow rises above.

True, she is a great nurse, if you overlook the fact she's whacked out of her head as she dispenses her unorthodox brand of healthcare, but it's getting increasingly hard to see Jackie as a sympathetic character.

The people around Jackie made me stick with this show even when its main storyline was going nowhere, but now that it's committed to really engaging with its title character, it's become appointment TV for me again.".

"[38] Alan Sepinwall of Uproxx offered mixed opinions on the season, claiming "I don't want to call this a safe version of Nurse Jackie, but it was certainly a comfortable one: a fairly straightforward hospital show that sometimes tilted towards comedy, sometimes towards drama, but pretty meat-and-potatoes overall, albeit with the usual strong performances from Falco, Merritt Wever and company.

"[39] Brian Lowry of Variety gave a mostly positive review, stating "Jackie remains watchable thanks primarily to Falco, although the best moments are almost invariably dramatic, not humorous.

"[40] Reception for the sixth season was more positive, with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 69% based on 13 reviews and the critics consensus reading: "Nurse Jackie matures into a disturbing chronicle of insurmountable addiction as Edie Falco's tragic protagonist hits rock bottom, but the sixth season's commitment to the repetition of drug abuse may prove too monotonous for some viewers.

Several articles have since been written addressing this question, with some writers even calling for an overhaul of the Emmy categorization process as well as a "Comedy-Drama/Dramedy" category for the awards.