Shameless Season 4 (1 Viewer)

Anybody else watching this year? I finally caught up with the first two episodes.So far this season has been a real Greek reunion with Jake McDorman, Paul James and Johanna Braddy all making appearances in the first two episodes.Joan Cusack just about broke my heart with Sheila saying grace eating an immaculately prepared dinner for one in her empty house. The small details, like Sheila putting her napkin on her lap, just kill me.Debbie's storyline is going in a very icky direction.They've really made William H. Macy look like shit this season.The mystery of Frank's heretofore unmentioned oldest daughter Samantha intrigues me.

I thought I had already started a thread. I definitely am. Rossum remains spectacular, but Macys work is fantastic.

mattCR said:

I thought I had already started a thread. I definitely am. Rossum remains spectacular, but Macys work is fantastic.

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I looked for one from you and didn't see one. If there is one and I missed it hopefully this thread can be merged into that one.Agree about both actors. They're the two poles that the show revolves around, and they're both terrific.Fiona's finally happy and relatively successful, and she doesn't know how to handle it. Without the chaos of clinging to the bottom rungs of the economic ladder, she doesn't know how to stay focused. Unfortunately, it appears she's self-sabotaging in much the way Lip has throughout the show.In the early episodes of the first season, Macy had trouble modulating his drunkness, but by now he's able to calibrate Frank's inebriation with the finesse of a fine watchmaker. You see his innate intelligence, but also his crass overriding self-interest.I'm wondering if his oldest daughter was also with Monica and they gave her up for adoption or something, or if she was the product of a relationship or affair before Monica came into the picture. Does Frank have any relationship with her at all? If so, is she as done with Frank and Lip and Fiona are?Speaking of Lip, I'm absolutely loving his college story. He's so used to being a big special fish in a tiny pond, but now he's a tiny unremarkable fish in a big pond. As someone who always excelled in high school without much effort, I know what a disadvantage it can be. You enter college without any of the study skills or discipline that college requires. On top of that, he's got all of culture shock that comes from entering a middle class to upper middle class environment after a lifetime in the ghetto. He's seeking to recreate his previous lifestyle in an environment that doesn't support it. The scene where he ran into the girl from the neighborhood and was faced with her very different conception of what going to college means. She was someone who probably worked really hard in high school to escape, and then had to work even harder once she had. She doesn't share his nostalgia for home, and she's certainly not going to subject herself to his preconceptions of who she should be.

Thought Lip was a goner there... Looking forward to him finding his groove in college, though.

What's the song at the end of shameless season 10 episode 4 uk version?

Emanuel1 said:

What's the song at the end of shameless season 10 episode 4 uk version?

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That's almost too long ago for me.. I can't remember; I kind of gave up on the UK version early, as too many key actors split (Fiona is gone after Season 2 I believe?) and it lost it's real engine. It's one of the few shows where (IMHO) the US version really works in a way the UK version doesn't.

mattCR said:

That's almost too long ago for me.. I can't remember; I kind of gave up on the UK version early, as too many key actors split (Fiona is gone after Season 2 I believe?) and it lost it's real engine. It's one of the few shows where (IMHO) the US version really works in a way the UK version doesn't.

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I agree with you there. The UK version got more and more cartoonish over the years.

This might be the first 'Shameless' season where I'm not really feeling most of the story lines. I wasn't into the Deb story line and now it's gone downright creepy. While Macy is doing a phenomenal job, I think I prefer Frank out and about. Curious to see where they go with the "quadruplets", but not really down with that plot line either. And why in the world would Kevin agree to pay Stan's son $500/month without even looking at the books?

The Fiona and Lip plots are really the only ones I'm interested in at this point.

And why in the world would Kevin agree to pay Stan's son $500/month without even looking at the books?

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I think it's been well established he's a fool long time ago.

That said, the idea of buying a business outright for $500 a month for years (or $12,000) isn't that foolish, not in Chicago. Even if the bar isn't making money now, it could, and the property has value too.

mattCR said:

I think it's been well established he's a fool long time ago.

That said, the idea of buying a business outright for $500 a month for years (or $12,000) isn't that foolish, not in Chicago. Even if the bar isn't making money now, it could, and the property has value too.

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True on Kevin not being very bright, but Veronica was right there and I would have thought she would have the sense. And there was no legal ground whatsoever for him to do that.

Scott Hanson said:

True on Kevin not being very bright, but Veronica was right there and I would have thought she would have the sense. And there was no legal ground whatsoever for him to do that.

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Legal ground for him to do what? Accept the decree of a will and then, in order to stay a protest of the estate offer a payout? It happens -all the time-. Just went through this almost exact situation in our family (though no bar/etc. but definitely land)

mattCR said:

Legal ground for him to do what? Accept the decree of a will and then, in order to stay a protest of the estate offer a payout? It happens -all the time-. Just went through this almost exact situation in our family (though no bar/etc. but definitely land)

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I just meant that the will clearly stated the bar was to be left to Kevin and the son had no legal grounds to demand anything. I could see Kevin doing it in good faith, but frankly the son seemed kind of douchey so I was surprised when he agreed to it so fast.

Scott Hanson said:

I just meant that the will clearly stated the bar was to be left to Kevin and the son had no legal grounds to demand anything. I could see Kevin doing it in good faith, but frankly the son seemed kind of douchey so I was surprised when he agreed to it so fast.

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I think if Kevin thought the bar was worth something, but knows he didn't know any attornies, what seemd like a 'small' payout would pop to mind. I don't know, I didn't have a lot of trouble with that sequence

On another note, am I the only one that thought Lip's tutor was a dead ringer for a young Gwyneth Paltrow?

Scott Hanson said:

On another note, am I the only one that thought Lip's tutor was a dead ringer for a young Gwyneth Paltrow?

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Hah I had that thought. Damn hot.

So glad for an original episode of Shameless tonight.

It was a good episode, and I loved the final beat with Lip and his professor.My only pet peeve was Lip's frustrated outburst of vandalism. As someone who's had his car senselessly vandalized (and had to pay the repair bill) it made it really hard for me to stay in his corner.

Clearly the whole Gallager clan are experts in self-destructive behavior. Fiona is not only going to ruin a relationship, she's going to ruin a good job with benefits.

And good for Kevin for calling out Lip on his behavior. "This is not your home, this is just where you grew up. You don't belong here."

Carl's jump off the ladder to Frank's knee was brutal. Frank should've waited for the results of the doner match first.

Lots of awkward scenes this week. Fiona is just self-sabotaging herself, and Veronica is happy to point it out. At this point, though, she may be figuring the damage is done.

I can't think of a worse way of bottoming out than being thrown out of a trailer with a fractured leg, and with a wheelchair chaser ...all being done by your daughter. But then just when you think Frank has hit a new low, the bottom moves south ... as in the final scene.