Nurse Jackie

Series Similar to Nurse Jackie

If you enjoyed Nurse Jackie, these series share similar themes, tone, and quality. Each recommendation is scored on genre overlap, tonal match, and critical acclaim.

1. Scrubs

   2001 · Drama, Comedy, Medical · ended

   Recommended for similar Drama / Comedy profile, highly rated (8.4).

   Fresh out of medical school, new doctors John "J.D." Dorian, his best friend Christopher Turk, and Elliot Reid start their internship at Sacred Heart Hospital. There, they meet the harsh Chief of Medicine Dr. Bob Kelso, J.D.'s reluctant mentor Dr. Perry Cox, nurse Carla Espinosa, and the deceitful and prankish Janitor. Also at the hospital are the wide range of personalities of Sacred Heart's staff, including the religious nurse Laverne Roberts, incompetent lawyer Ted Buckland, and spiteful board member Jordan Sullivan who also happens to be Cox's ex-wife. Other interns make the cut, such as the high-fiving Todd Quinlan and nervous Doug Murphy. Over the next 9 years they face personal and professional highs and lows, realizing that they can't make it through life - much less a hectic job as a doctor - on their own.

2. The Big C

   2010 · Drama, Comedy · ended

   Recommended for similar Drama / Comedy profile, also on Paramount+ with Showtime.

   The Big C follows Minneapolis Westhill High School teacher Cathy Jamison – a reserved, suburban wife and mother – who is diagnosed with melanoma. The realization of this forces her to really begin to live for the first time in her adult life. At first she chooses to keep her diagnosis from her family, behaving in ways they find puzzling and increasingly bizarre. She finds new freedom to express herself. As the show progresses, Cathy allows her family and some new friends to support her as she copes with her terminal prognosis, and finds both humor and pathos in the many idiosyncratic relationships in her life.

3. United States of Tara

   2009 · Drama, Comedy · ended

   Recommended for similar Drama / Comedy profile, also on Paramount+ with Showtime.

   She's got a husband, two kids and multiple personalities. Emmy® and Golden Globe® winner Toni Collette never knows what or who will happen in this smart, unique and totally unpredictable Showtime Original Comedy Series from executive producer Steven Spielberg. Tara's Alters include "T" the wild-child teenager, "Buck" the rough and tumble biker dude, and "Alice" the type-A homemaker. But with a family that loves her just the way she is. Tara never gives up hope that someday she can just be herself.

4. St. Elsewhere

   1982 · Drama, Comedy, Medical · ended

   Recommended for similar Drama / Comedy profile.

   St. Eligius Hospital in South Boston was not exactly the world's best health care center. Despite its flaws, it featured some of the most caring doctors and nurses you could ever meet. Led by Dr. Donald Westphall (and later by Dr. Benjamin Gideon), St. Eligius became a sanctuary for the underdog and the downtrodden. St. Elsewhere ran on NBC for six seasons. Originally a ratings flop, NBC picked it up for a second season for the sole purpose of grabbing some additional Emmy nominations. It eventually became a minor hit for The Peacock, until burnout by the writers resulted in its 1988 cancellation. The series was nominated for 63 Emmy Awards and won 13.

5. M*A*S*H

   1972 · Comedy, War, Medical · ended

   Recommended for similar Comedy profile, highly rated (8.5).

   Loosely based on the real-life M*A*S*H unit 8055, life at the 4077 revolved around the day-to-day routines of Captain "Hawkeye" Pierce, Captain "Trapper" McIntyre, Lieutenant Colonel Henry Blake, Major Margaret Houlihan, Major Franklin Burns and Corporal "Radar" O'Reilly. Through these characters, viewers traveled beyond the long hours and the horrors of the operating room to a place where friendships were forged, laughter was found and drinks were served.

6. Getting On

   2013 · Comedy, Medical · ended

   Recommended for similar Comedy profile.

   From creators Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer, the series follows the daily lives of nurses and doctors as they struggle with the darkly comic realities of caring for the elderly in an overwhelmed healthcare system, skewering the petty bureaucracies of modern medical practice in America.

7. Nathan Barley

   2005 · Comedy · ended

   Recommended for similar Comedy profile, highly rated (8), hidden gem.

   Nathan Barley is 26. He is a webmaster, guerrilla filmmaker, screenwriter, DJ and in his own words, a "self-facilitating media node". He is convinced he is the epitome of urban cool and therefore secretly terrified he might not be, which is why he reads Sugar Ape Magazine - his bible of cool. Dan Ashcroft writes searing columns for Sugar Ape. He's considered astonishingly cool, but only by those he despises. He is surrounded by idiots and practically worshipped by Nathan (whom he considers to be their king). He is 34. Why has he failed to move on? Claire Ashcroft, 27, is Dan's sister. Like Dan she despises "cool". Unlike Nathan she despises novelty, trash, irony and gadgets. She is furious that no one will fund her hard-hitting documentary about a choir of reformed junkies.

8. Happyish

   2015 · Drama, Comedy · ended

   Recommended for similar Drama / Comedy profile, hidden gem, also on Paramount+ with Showtime.

   Happyish is a scathing examination of our pursuit of happiness, a pursuit that might just be the very thing causing our unhappiness in the first place. The new half-hour pilot stars Steve Coogan as Thom Payne, a 44 year-old man whose world is thrown into disarray when his 25 year-old "wunderkind" boss arrives, saying things like "digital," "social" and "viral." Is he in need of a "rebranding," as his mentor insists, or does he just have a "low joy ceiling," as his corporate headhunter suggests? Maybe pursuing happiness is a fool's errand? Maybe, after 44 years on this ludicrous planet, settling for happyish is the best one can expect.

9. Enlightened

   2011 · Drama, Comedy · ended

   Recommended for similar Drama / Comedy profile, hidden gem.

   Enlightened focuses on a self-destructive woman who has a spiritual awakening after a meltdown. Determined to live a more enlightened existence, the former career executive's new lifestyle wreaks havoc both at home and at work.

10. House

    2004 · Drama, Mystery, Medical · ended

    Recommended for similar Drama profile, highly rated (8.7).

    Sink your teeth into meaty drama and intrigue with House, FOX's take on mystery, where the villain is a medical malady and the hero is an irreverent, controversial doctor who trusts no one, least of all his patients.Dr. Gregory House is a maverick physician who is devoid of bedside manner. While his behavior can border on antisocial, Dr. House thrives on the challenge of solving the medical puzzles that other doctors give up on. Together with his hand-picked team of young medical experts, he'll do whatever it takes in the race against the clock to solve the case.