Shameless Season 3 (1 Viewer)

We are off to a heck of a start for Season 3! Late to add the thread, but here we go. Just a great start to the season I thought. Whoever is running Showtime needs a big pat on the back for how well they are doing with programming; their Sunday nights are consistently good in a way that few networks can manage. We get done with Dexter/Homeland and we get some of the better dramadies on TV in Shameless/House of Lies back to back.

mattCR said:

We are off to a heck of a start for Season 3!    Late to add the thread, but here we go.  Just a great start to the season I thought.

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I agree 100 percent! I didn't think the show could possibly be any more insane than it's already been, but this season premiere topped it. The storyline with Frank trying to break into the United States as a drug mule with the pay off line -- "Thank you, Sheila!" -- was absolutely great stuff. As was the very fate of Steve's wife's lover. The contrast between Steve's wife pissing away boundless opportunities and Fiona literally shoveling shit for a living couldn't have been any more stark. With Debbie, I guess absence really does make the heart grow fonder. I wonder how long it will take her to grow disillusioned with Frank again? Is Laura Wiggins still a series regular? I didn't mind Karen's absence one iota.

This show rotates between the joys and sorrow of their life so well that it is one of the few shows I think earns the 'drama-dy" title. I mean, if you were to say that an episode would feature a drug-related murder, drug smuggling, a television return for BattleBots and the realities of being a late life parent.. BTW, her crack "get up you fabio-ponytale having-mf!" killed me. Biggest laugh of the night, and there were several.

Originally Posted by Adam Lenhardt
Is Laura Wiggins still a series regular? I didn't mind Karen's absence one iota.

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Now that you mentioned it, I noticed they added a bit to the opening - two guys fighting then one peeing in the toilet and the other in the sink. I was trying to think what was taken out and I think it was her scene. So, yeah, she might be out.

Decent opener. So I guess the baby does indeed have Down Syndrome (wasn't there some question about that last season?)

Originally Posted by mattCR
Whoever is running Showtime needs a big pat on the back for how well they are doing with programming; their Sunday nights are consistently good in a way that few networks can manage. We get done with Dexter/Homeland and we get some of the better dramadies on TV in Shameless/House of Lies back to back.

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Between Showtime, HBO, AMC, F/X, Starz & Audience, the major networks could just disappear for all I care. I'm down to one major network show (Parenthood) and I don't even like it all that much.

This show manages to float between completely out of control hijinx and some pretty touching moments. The fake setup wedding and the attempt to get funding for a cancer kid.. as well as Fiona's new job with sicko manager and the local "kid f----er" were some pretty funny storylines that would leave you wincing. But the storyline around Kev was brilliant and touching, and how it impacted Fiona was great. The end fight scene brought a combination of funny and sad, and Fiona's moment with Steve was great. I also love how they are playing up the change in childhood with Debbie, how she's just trying to figure things out. There were so many plates spinning in this episode and yet, it all worked. I can't think of many shows that would advance at least six storylines in one ep and be remotely this successful.

Frank's depravity sometimes reaches a point where I don't find it funny any more, it just makes me angry. Him shutting turning down Butterface's transplant was such an example. Scamming a program for dying children in last night's episode, even though it didn't come off for him, is another. I much prefer the self-destructive Frank with 18 kilos of coke shoved up his ass to make it back across the border. I liked Mandy's solution to the teacher who lusted after the young; you can tell Mandy was hurt by Lip's betrayal, but she's used to being disappointed by those around her, and so she doesn't get hurt -- she gets even. On the flip side, you have the scene where Fiona tells Steve/Jimmy that she trusts him, right after he's just given her a reason not to trust him. Justin Chatwin's reaction shot was exactly right, that perfect level of existential self-loathing. He didn't make his green card wife do what she did, but his actions are directly responsible for putting him in the position of sitting in that car. I love that even the drug cartel enforcer's on Fiona's side. And I've got to say, that was one of the more unique ways of getting hired... The next episode in two weeks looks good:

Originally Posted by Adam Lenhardt
Frank's depravity sometimes reaches a point where I don't find it funny any more, it just makes me angry. Him shutting turning down Butterface's transplant was such an example. Scamming a program for dying children in last night's episode, even though it didn't come off for him, is another. I much prefer the self-destructive Frank with 18 kilos of coke shoved up his ass to make it back across the border.

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I agree on Frank. And don't forget about taking the Down Syndrome kid to the bar instead of getting him his shots...and pricking him with a thumbtack to make it look like he did. But hey, at least he sterilized the thumbtack.

Frank is pretty easy to hate at times. One of the best (and simultaneously worst) moments of the season was Debbie clocking Frank with the bag of soap bars. That duality (as Matt describes in post #6) is one of the things the show does just about as well as any thing I can recall. The sheer emotion of the moment balanced with the absurdity of the situation. The old saying about "I don't know whether to laugh or cry" takes on an entirely different meaning when applied to Shameless. - Walter.

Fantastic news!

Adam Lenhardt said:

Renewed by Showtime for a fourth season

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That article confirms why I pay the dough each month for every channel Directv offers...(except for NFL/NBA/MLB)

Was it just me or did the store manager seem a little shell shocked after V left the office?

I agree the USA/Showtime Frank is somehow more despicable than the UK Frank (David Threlfall). UK Frank can be as big a jerk but he always seems to pull back just in time when his antics get too mean spirited. US Frank just seems to go over that edge all the time. Not sure that that is a good idea. What was a good idea was keeping Fiona and Steve as characters past the middle of the second season unlike the UK version. Another interesting change and perhaps not for the better is the character of Mickey Maguire/Mickey Milkovitch. These character are so different in the two versions. Mickey Maguire is a kind, dopey soul that is very likeable. Mickey Milkovitch just seems a jerk to me. Although the two series had very similar plot lines during the first season, no more. Although occasionally there is something from the UK version pulled back into the Showtime version. UK will be airing the last series of Shameless--Series 11--sometime this year. Except for Frank there is virtually no one left in the cast who was in the first series. Hate to say it, but it's probably time for it to go.

Brings new meaning to the term "half-sister." Last night's episode had to have the highest fucked up situations per minute of every episode so far. And unlike some episodes, there was nothing mean spirited about it. In his own fucked up way, Frank was even being a good dad to Carl and Debbie. Loved the shot from next week's preview where:

Yeah, thought that was hilarious. The organized vote in the livingroom cracked me up

This weeks episode had some real heartbreakers in it. The entire sequence at the pool of being picked on by girls was brutal and it rang with real authenticity. The struggle to deal with the discovery of your father as a gay man, etc. Flip trying to figure out what to do with Mandy and coming to terms he hadn't moved on from Karen. Struggles at Fiona's work as her fellow employees seek revenge for her not pulling her weight.. the young boy being told his mother had treated him as a girl his whole life because she was a meth head who lost it and couldn't handle men. Really there were a lot of dark beats in this weeks episode. But when the comedy came in, damn did it hit.. The reveal that the nun was in-home blogging about the sexual habits of her caretaker. The intro with Fiona had some of the funnier takes on her sex life in a while. Frank's underhanded call to CPS to get back his room last week came back in spades at the end of this episode, and it looks to setup a very dark episode next week.

You about summed it up. Lots of really dark serious stuff, and lots of huge laugh-out-loud beats, culminating in that perfect disaster scene at the end as the DSS child protective services woman walks in. It captured what the show does best: the warm, safe cocoon of gleeful chaos that is the world of "Shameless." The biggest disappointment for me was Steve cheating on Fiona with his wife. I hate when shows go there with the main couple, because it makes it impossible for me to root for them any more. It's one of those red lines that can't be crossed back.

We continued the dark and downward trend, and the final scene tonight where Fiona realized what had happened was like a bomb going off. Her facial expressions in that scene are what set this show apart. This show also goes into it's own category for creepiest sex scenes imaginable.. and not one of them, three of them. Wow. Too tired to write up a lot, but I really look forward to next weeks episode and a showdown

Just another normal day in the Gallagher universe. Loved Sheila as 'Monica'; the role playing at Parenting School was terrific. I thought for certain that Lip was going to get tuned up at the group home. "Send over the Russian." Kevin and Viv's mom. Carl watching porn and mentioning fisting. Man, the show just never lets up. - Walter.