Next year will bring the end of Nurse Jackie, three years after it should have come

Showtime announced today that the upcoming seventh season of Nurse Jackie will be the show’s final run of episodes. It had been renewed back in March, but this was the first indication that the show would be ending. Season seven will air sometime next year.

In related news: Nurse Jackie is still on the air. Did you know that?

The show was an initial success for the network, winning kind reviews and an Emmy Award for Edie Falco’s work on the show. (She remains the only woman to win the prizes for Lead Actress in a Comedy — Nurse Jackie — and a Drama — The Sopranos.) It won another Emmy in 2013 for Merritt Wever’s supporting performance on the show. (She played the warm, funny nurse Zoey.)

In some ways, Nurse Jackie ends its run as the prototypical Showtime show. It had its moments and some fine performances, but it also extended its run well past the point when it had any stories to tell. The show’s central idea — that Jackie was a self-destructive addict whose lies would inevitably be found out — quickly led to diminishing returns, before the show’s fourth season finally put her in rehab and did its best to wrap up many of the show’s stories.

But then Nurse Jackie just kept going, even after the creators and showrunners exited the show, and the storytelling repeated itself more and more. Falco and Wever were always good, and there were some lovely instances of deeply humane storytelling scattered throughout the run (particularly early on). But for the most part, the series was slightly centerless, and it ran far too long. So, again, the prototypical Showtime show.

Also, the opening credits were among the worst in TV history.