‘Nurse Jackie’ finale to finish strongly

Edie Falco is 'Nurse Jackie'

Edie Falco was such a pivotal character during her years in The Sopranos that many wondered if she could ever find another role with equal weight or impact. But Showtime's comedy/drama Nurse Jackie has managed in its inaugural season to create a fresh, complex and fascinating role for Falco.

Nurse Jackie is efficient, capable and a great leader, yet she's also a drug abuser and adulterer. Sometimes she's remarkably intuitive, while other times she's incredibly naive and reckless. In short, she's a real human being, and the half-hour show will be back on Showtime next year.

Monday night at 9:30 p.m. Nurse Jackie ends its first year with Falco's character doing everything in her power to prevent her husband and her lover from meeting each other. There are also the usual hospital problems and odd situations to navigate, plus a powerhouse event coming near the show’s end that promises to catapult everyone into the second year with a bang.

Another first-year show that's been a surprise hit is USA Network's Royal Pains, which has its season finale Thursday night at 9 p.m. with a baffling case about a woman suffering unexplainable hallucinations. Mark Feuerstein's portrayal of a likable but often unsure doctor trying to make his way in the Hamptons while treating some of the nation's richest and most difficult patients has achieved a loyal and growing audience in its initial year. The show has also given USA a compatible program for Burn Notice and turned Thursday into a very big night for the network.

More season finales
TNT's Raising The Bar concludes what's been an improved second season Monday night at 9 p.m. with a strong episode that once more features on-again, off-again lovers and lawyers Jerry (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) and Michelle (Melissa Sagemiller) opposing each other in court. The stakes as usual are extremely high, and the resulting tensions will lead to some major events that will affect the series both Monday and into the third season.

TNT's biggest hit The Closer ends yet another huge season Monday at 8 p.m. with the return of Kevin Bacon, husband to series star Kyra Sedgwick, for his fourth go-round directing an episode. This The Closer finale might be the most intricate yet, with Brenda (Sedgwick) pursuing a serial killer and running into personality problems with a Texas detective anxious to close a case in his jurisdiction.

Meanwhile, Chief Johnson also has problems on the home front. Her 17-year-old niece Charlie (actually the couple's real daughter Sosie) has done everything from monopolizing the phone to lacing brownies with marijuana, and now a decision must be made regarding her future. With a weekly average of more than 7 million fans, The Closer has been outdrawing plenty of network shows by healthy margins all summer.

Dark Blue hasn't been quite as successful in its first year, but it ends on a high note Wednesday night at 9 p.m. as the team turns its eye toward a corrupt cop and tries to end a domestic reign of terror.