Nurse Jackie, "Nosebleed": The point of no return?

Quick thoughts on tonight's "Nurse Jackie" coming up just as soon as I send you some lice shampoo...

"Fun? This is not fun. This is f--king hard." -Jackie

We're now in the home stretch of season one, with only three episodes to go after this one, so it's time for Jackie to start experiencing the consequences of her reckless behavior. The most obvious physical one is the bloody nose she's gotten from snorting all that Vicodin. But beyond that, she has Grace (who's savvy enough to know that something bad is happening with her mom at work that Jackie brings home with her) acting out, and the ever-diligent Zoey's notebook showing that Jackie may have been at fault for Mr. Everett losing his foot, not to mention however Coop will react when he finds out that Jackie lied about him confirming time of death for the bogus organ donor.

Simply put, Jackie is out of control, and there's only so long she can get away with that before someone in her work or home lives recognizes all the lies, all the juggling, all the rules being broken. When Eddie explains the concept of parallel universes to her, it's funny to think of Jackie trying to live in two parallel worlds at once. But she's living one single life, and it's a mess, and things are likely going to get much worse for her and the people in that life.

But as good as the Jackie material is (Edie Falco being brilliant, natch), "Nurse Jackie" as a whole still has some tonal problems, particularly when it tries to be funny. Now, Merritt Wever is hilarious as Zoey, and Falco and Peter Facinelli and Haaz Sleiman have their moments of deadpan comedy wonderfulness, but so many other comic scenes are way, way too broad, whether it's the stereotypically snooty rich lady with the lice kids, or Mrs. Akalitus with the baby (and then with the baby's idiot parents).

As you're reading this, I'm at a combined CBS/Showtime/CW non-party party for press tour, and I hope to talk to Linda Wallem and Liz Brixius about the show. If nothing else, I want to get a sense of what they feel the strengths and weaknesses of this first season have been -- which, if they roughly overlap with my own, would make me feel more confident about season two.

What did everybody else think?