Showtime's "Shameless" (1 Viewer)

[Adam Lenhardt]

Three episodes in, and three episodes where Debbie broke my heart. With none of the children is it more apparent the damage wrought by Frank and the missing mother than with Debbie. Fiona, Lip and Ian have all buried it in a much deeper place.


The cop story line is fascinating. Clearly, Fiona doesn't have the same spark with Tony that she has with Steve. At the same time, the fact that she chooses the car thief over the cop says a great deal about her self-esteem. How much about the ending was Fiona running to Steve, and how much was her avoiding facing Tony's mother?


I've read that this episode was the first big departure from the original series, with only Ian's subplot being taken from the UK third episode. Arguably the larger change is making the thieving Maguire clan Polish instead of Irish. From a demographic standpoint, it makes sense since Polish is third only behind Irish and German as the most common ancestry in Chicago. Going from two Irish families to one Irish family and one Polish family will have to have an impact on some level.

 

[mattCR]

The fourth episode was very close to the british version, but still it was played so well. William H Macy is great in his role, he really goes out of his way to sell it. And Joan Cusak is perfect.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I loved the camaraderie between Frank and Joan Cusack's onscreen husband. It's such a surreal and ridiculous situation, but the husband is just sort of happy to have Frank tell him, yes, your family is bat shit crazy.


Meanwhile, Karen is courting trouble with Frank, and Frank's trying very, very hard not to fuck things up like he always does. But judging by what we've seen so far, he probably will.


Poor Kev.


And Debbie walks the line between really imaginative and mentally ill very well. If I was growing up with a father like Frank and a mother like where-the-hell-is-she I'd probably prefer a fantasy world, too.


"Fuckin' Gallaghers."

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

"Here's what you missed on Shameless last week: I got really drunk and... I'm not sure what happened after that."


This episode had some real howlers, especially everything involving Frank's apparent third testicle.

 

[mattCR]

"Think of "U" not as "U" but as in "F"" "Like Fail?" "More like f---ed!" Very close to the UK, but I do love it when they go off script, and there are some really great moments in this. William H Macy kills in his role, I was laughing hard in the entire second act

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

"Have you ever been with a black man?" "Does rape count?" Sometimes I can't believe the exchanges this show comes up with.


It was nice to see the SAT investigator's treatment of Lip, perhaps the first undamaged, responsible adult we've seen yet on this show. While he was incredulous at first that Lip took the test for real, he wanted to nurture Lip's academic ambitions once he found out that the performance, at least, was legit.


The look on all of the kids' faces when they saw their dad show up for the other girl's parent-teacher night was brutal, and unlike most of what happens I think it affected Frank a bit. He certainly looked guilty in bed with Joan Cusack's agoraphobic wife, as she lists all of her faults and they all apply to him, except unredeemed by her yearning desire to do right by her daughter. Frank just doesn't give enough of a shit.


I don't think the baked principal's too far off on Carl. It looks like a lot of his psychopathic tendencies are the result of deep-seated anger at the family's situation rather than a true psychopathic personality, but I still wouldn't any kid I cared about in a classroom with him. Everybody in the family was cheering him when he took a bat to the football player's knee, but I bet it will have pretty serious consequences down the line.


Whenever Robert Knepper shows up on a show, you know your protagonists are in deep trouble.

 

[Patrick Sun]

The resiliency of the kids in this family currently knows no bounds (only a few shows in, and many of them have already had heartbreaking situations confront them on a weekly basis, wonder where rock bottom really is.

 

[mattCR]

"Jesus I'm raising 5 kids and I didn't miss last week, what's your excuse.." This show has some of the best intro moments of any.

 

[Patrick Sun]

What was up with the knowing glance between Steve and the bar owner dude (the married one) at the end of the episode, right before Frank demolished the music contraption/jukebox or something near the flatscreen TV?

 

[mattCR]

Originally Posted by Patrick Sun

What was up with the knowing glance between Steve and the bar owner dude (the married one) at the end of the episode, right before Frank demolished the music contraption/jukebox or something near the flatscreen TV?

When she wondered where the 55" flatscreen was.. it was in the bar, he bought it because he destroyed the old one. What the knowing glance was seemed to be: he's going to end up financing all new s-- for the bar.

 

[Garrett Adams]

I'm amazed by how many plot points they are able to manage each week and not feel rushed or disjointed. Unlike many other shows there is no padding in Shameless. I especially enjoyed Joan Cusack this week and I am rooting for her character.

 

[ScottH]

Originally Posted by mattCR

When she wondered where the 55" flatscreen was.. it was in the bar, he bought it because he destroyed the old one. What the knowing glance was seemed to be: he's going to end up financing all new s-- for the bar.

The knowing glance was Steve's acknowledgment to Kevin for helping him out with getting Fiona to the hotel. Kevin told him, "All she does is make decisions all day...she needs someone to make them for her."

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I agree with Scott. It was thanks for the good advice.


Just when you think things can't get any more deplorable, they do. If characters on just about any other show I watch did any of the things these characters do, I'd turn it off in disgust. Maybe because the pilot set the bar very low for Frank, but now I'm just along for the ride.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

What I liked about this episode is that it showcased where the kids' intelligence comes from; when sober, Frank's a pretty brilliant guy. The flip side of that is that seeing him as a piano player and all of these other talents really made me angry when Fiona walked out of the PowerPoint class because she simply didn't have the background knowledge to tackle it. Frank's alcoholism, present for the last 15 of Fiona's twentysomething years, deprived her of everything that Frank himself benefited from growing up.


It's easy with this format to just have a laugh with crazy drunk Frank and the antics of the Gallagher clan, but it's nice that the show highlights the tragedy underlying those laughs every once in a while and really calls the audience out on it.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Inteview with William H. Macy about the show


It's strongly hinted that he's the reason they didn't pursue the Frank having an affair with Lip's underage girlfriend story line. Which frankly, I'm just as happy about.


EDIT: Warning, there is one pretty large spoiler from an as yet unaired episode in there. Otherwise, it's a pretty good interview.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Shameless meets Big Love...heh.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Good news: Renewed for Season Two

 

[Browboski]

What song was playing when Fiona and Steve were having sex in the pool in episode 7???

 

[ScottH]

So Steve is living some sort of double-life. Can't really say I didn't see it coming. Is that faithful to the original?

 

[mattCR]

Yeah, kind of.. the "double life" gets way more complicated. There has been a lot of talk that they won't follow the S2 "Steve and Fiona run away and don't come back" storyline. I hope that is true.