Five Reasons You Should Be Watching Shameless

In case you haven’t watched Shameless yet, the series follows the dysfunctional family of Frank Gallagher, a single father of six children. While he spends his days drunk, his kids learn to take care of themselves.

That’s the simple premise.   What you need to see is the actual show.  Because what the kids actually do to take care of themselves as well as what Frank does to survive is borderline insane.     Here’s a quick rundown of the Gallagher’s:

Emmy Rossum as Fiona Gallagher – the eldest of the Gallagher children (21). Most of the responsibility and child-rearing falls on her shoulders. She works a few dead-end, minimum wage jobs to bring in money and enjoys going out dancing with her girlfriends.

Jeremy Allen White as Phillip “Lip” Gallagher – the second Gallagher child (17) and the most academic. He is a straight A student. He uses his intelligence in various odd jobs to make money, such as running an ice cream truck in the summer that sells beer and marijuana, or taking the SATs for fellow students (often scoring a 2400, a perfect score). Despite his above average intelligence he is not to be considered responsible he is consistently shown smoking cigarettes, frequently using marijuana, and casually drinking alcohol.

Cameron Monaghan as Ian Gallagher – the third Gallagher child (16) and (according to Frank) the most like their mother. He participates in Army ROTC at school and works at a local grocery store. He is gay, but only a handful of people – including Fiona and Lip – know about it. He is not the son of Frank, but of Monica and one of Frank’s brothers.

Emma Kenney as Debbie Gallagher – One of the middle Gallagher children (11), Debbie is helpful and has a good heart. She’s willing to bring her baby brother to school for show and tell when there’s no one else to watch him, put a pillow under her father’s head when he’s passed out on the floor, and collect money for charity year round – only some of which she keeps for herself.

Ethan Cutkosky as Carl Gallagher – the second youngest Gallagher child (10). He shares a room with older brothers Lip and Ian, who try to keep their more adult interests from him. Carl is often in trouble at school for attacking other students, and his hobbies include bringing stray animals home and killing them.

Brennan Kane Johnson & Blake Alexander Johnson as Liam Gallagher – The youngest of the Gallagher children, he is black despite having two white parents.

So anyway, here are five reasons you should be watching the show……

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9 Comments

  1. Did the article just end abruptly? Seemed like it.

    No interest in this show- just an other show that glorifies ridiculousness and awfulness. Plenty of that on TV already, thanks. Sure, normal families don’t make compelling TV, but it seems like lately networks are struggling to outdo each other for the most messed up family. Plus, you have to pay extra for that show. All negatives. Just my opinion.

  2. I dont think it ended abruptly. It did however end on what sounds like a spoiler. Perhaps he’s channeling his inner Frank?

    I have seen a few episodes and enjoyed what I saw but I’ve heard the BBC version is better (as always).

  3. Although I do like this show, it’s not an accurate depiction of struggle. The creators said they wanted to show what it’s like for poor/working class and said they wanted to avoid humorizing poverty like “My Name is Earl” and “Roseanne”.

    Where “Roseanne” was a comedy it was pretty realistic about the working class. The parents work a variety of shitty to demeaning jobs, they try to open their own stores and it fails, they try to get their oldest daughter to go to college, she ends up marrying a loser and never succeeds. It’s way more realistic. Whereas Shameless treats poverty as this plot device to get characters in ridiculous situations, that sometimes boarder on absurd. Instead of showing how the characters struggle because of their class, it more’s showing that poverty makes gets you involved in crazy hijinks.

  4. I’ve not seen the US version but the UK one is ace (shown on Channel 4, not BBC tho)… Go to http://www.4od.com or use the 4od viewer on XBox Live to see all 8 (I think) series.

    As for realism… The guy who originally wrote the series actually came from the town where I live and it’s based on the estate where he grew up… You’d be surprised at how many of the ‘situations’ are based on reality.

    Mat

  5. I’ve not watched any of the US version of Shameless, so I can’t judge, but I personally think the series shouldn’t have been imported to the US.

    Don’t get me wrong. There is a lot of US comedy I like. But the situation of the characters in the UK version of Shameless does not translate easily to the US in my personal opinion.

    I’m prepared for any critique of my opinion before I continue here.

    The UK version succeeds so well because it outlines the difficulties faced by integrating differing faiths and ethnic groups in one big melting pot of a housing estate.

    Despite what you may think in the US, you still live in a more segregated country than the UK. Despite the fact that your entire country is made up of émigrés from the four corners of the globe, you are more divided in terms of ethnic lines and more importantly, the areas those ethnic groups inhabit.

    Yes, there are areas in the UK which would be described as a ‘ghetto’ in the US. But, the people living in these ghetto areas are not predominantly one ethnic background or religion.

    In the US there are clear territories drawn out among certain ethnic-centric lines. That is not the case in the UK version. They all live within kicking or punching distance of one another, and like it or not, they have to live with one another.

    The UK version never veers into outright racism, but it is clear from the interaction of certain characters that racism is there, even if hidden under the surface.

    I don’t know if the US version features any episodes where the third youngest Gallagher male, Carl, is best friends with a Muslim who enjoys smoking weed, drinking, having sex and has relatives in Pakistan who want to recruit him into a Jihad?

    And I’m betting it does not have a Muslim shop-keeper who ends up having a gay affair with Ian?

    Another criticism of NattyB’s opinion here is that it is OK to do some of the things that the family do to survive. In the UK version, the Gallagher family represents everything that is wrong with the benefits society in the UK.

    I’m pretty sure this is something that Americans in general resent; people being given something for nothing?

    There are so many reasons why this show should not have been imported from the UK to the US, but the main reason is because it is a uniquely British premise. We can understand the Gallagher’s because we know families like that over here. I’m sure it happens in the US, but with the UK benefits system, the Gallagher’s are able to profit.

    As I’ve pointed out, I’ve yet to watch the US version. If it turns out that the show is basically about the comings and goings of a dysfunctional family who have an alcoholic father and an absent mother, and deals with none of the underlying social issues that the UK version deals with, well then, unlike NattyB, I think this will be a show that I avoid.

  6. The show looked edgy, sexy and fun at first. Until I realized it was nothing but wholesale heavy-handed titillation manipulation from one scene to the next. I was exhausted from being pandered to death by phony, shallow characters so desperate to prove to me how outrageous, how dirty, how kinky, how illegal they could act that they would stop at nothing until I either got physically ill or became sexually aroused, or both. This is Speedlearn meets Porn Speed-Dating meets Clockwork Orange meets Pavlov. Why not just attach a 12-volt battery to your nethers and be done with it?

  7. I think the US version of Shameless is OK. I watched the first season and liked it a lot, but given the time before season 2 I forgot about it and have since watched series that far surpass it. I don’t think too highly of the UK version either. And about the person who said Shameless can’t translate from British to American I think it translates just fine. Then I don’t think their reasoning makes any sense. We do have a dependence system in America called Wellfare. Also America has a very large population of non-Whites and they are not all segregated into ghetto’s, there are plenty of mixed communities of various class. And yes, Kash is Muslim in the American version as well, his wife is White though. Then Veronica is Black and Liam is Black for whatever reason. The US Ghalager’s seem to live in a pretty racialy diverse city.

    Pretty much I find both versions of Shameless to be OK, the UK version would be great if it didn’t drag out so much and become boring and I can already see that’s where the American version is going unless it gets canceled. Neither of them are bad shows though they just aren’t great enough to hold my attention for very long. Both have good acting and likeable characters but I don’t sense anything deep about the stories of either show. They pretty much have a lot of drama, tend to show horrible people doing horrible things and can be funny on occation. Then there is the excesive amount of sex scenes that serve no real purpose other than to be a lazy way to attract viewers. Both shows can be fun, but I don’t find either to be worth my time these days.

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