Five Reasons You Should Be Watching Shameless
You Will Appreciate What Struggle Really Is
Despite the fact that we’re all struggling out there and the economy stinks, you’ll appreciate the plight of the Gallagher family. Hell you almost root for some of the crazy things they’ll do for money just to stay together and survive since their father doesn’t do jack. You can see what a toll Fiona takes trying to keep the family together. Hell they even run a babysitting service run by Emma who is only 11 years old. And yet you feel for this family as you see how hard they work keeping all their money in a giant jar in the kitchen to keep them through each season. Every day is a struggle. And every day they have to work that much harder to stay together. When you talk about day by day, this is living it to the extreme.
How Terrible a Person Frank Gallagher is
I practically can’t even get into all the stuff that Frank Gallagher does. By the way William H Macy does a tremendous job as Frank. Hmm. Let’s see a couple of the things. He gets is toddler son kidnapped by a drug dealer, almost on purpose. He tries to get pension money from a woman who has cancer by sabotaging her telling an agency on the phone that she’s “fine.” He steals from his own children. He goes to the same bar every single day to get trashed. And yet…..you still root for him.
Sexual Situations are Used Appropriately
This show has a lot of gratuitous sex in it. However. Somehow it all fits into the lifestyle of the Gallagher’s. Therefore you almost appreciate it and realize that it’s not just being put in there for the sake of it. And granted it’s a little graphic, again, it just fits.
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.
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).
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.
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
Couldn’t agree more with Treznor. The casting is also much better (David Threlfall is an amazing Frank).
Scatter!
The UK series is also available on Netflix streaming and it truly is boss.
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.
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?
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.