Shameless Season 6 (1 Viewer)

[Adam Lenhardt]

Previous Season Threads:

Season 1

Season 2

Season 3

Season 4

Season 5


The sixth season starts next Sunday, but the season premiere is available now on the Showtime Anytime app and On Demand. The network has also posted a free version (with nudity and profanity censored) on YouTube:




Despite a small time jump, it picks up like we'd never left. What struck me most about the premiere is how little the show relies on plot for its narrative engine. Debbie's pregnancy storyline moved forward, and so did both Lip's academic storyline and his romantic entanglement with Sasha Alexander's professor character. Otherwise, it was just sitting back and watching slices of these characters' lives.


Frank is back to being humorously pathetic and self-absorbed, as opposed to the usual cruelly mercenary and self-absorbed. He's taking Bianca's death hard, and finding a way to make it all about him.


We get to see Mickey one last time, as Svetlana utilizes his incarceration to open a new entrepreneurial sideline.


Kev tries to mediate a dispute between his noisy Greek American neighbor and the lesbians that moved in across the street, but only escalates the situation further.


The Alibi Room has become a hipster hangout, and Kev and Svetlana upcharge accordingly.


Carl's out of juvie and back home, and he brought a friend with him.


It's a pleasure to have this one back.

 

[mattCR]

The story with Deb is just heartbreaking. This seasons is picking up far more "shameless" then the past, as Carl's outrageous school behavior is likely to really creep a lot of people out (guns in schools push some buttons).. but there are some great moments in the first two episodes.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Carl now looks like a boy version of Miley Cyrus...

 

[Patrick Sun]

I remember Sasha Alexander from her Dawson's Creek days, and I'm appreciating her current full-bore embrace to her character and her kinky subplot with Lip (Yeah, I remember her from last season too). It's just so weird considering her other well-known role as Isles being so much more uptight about things (sure, some people remember her as Kate on NCIS way-back when).

 

[John Lee_275604]

I remember Sasha Alexander from her Dawson's Creek days, and I'm appreciating her current full-bore embrace to her character and her kinky subplot with Lip (Yeah, I remember her from last season too). It's just so weird considering her other well-known role as Isles being so much more uptight about things (sure, some people remember her as Kate on NCIS way-back when).

Nothing like watching Rizzoli and Isles with family like "I got-ta see-cret'

 

[ScottH]

Not really feeling some of the storylines this season, especially the Deb one which just seems like more of the same from last season. And now a preggers Fiona? Really?

 

[Walter Kittel]

Holy crackers! Kate (NCIS) is on Shameless.


I may have to jump back into this series. I dropped it a few years back and need to play catchup.


- Walter.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

The opening sex scene between Fiona and the diner manager was really uncomfortable. Fiona, worried about Debbie, clearly wasn't in the mood for sex, yet he pushed on anyway. It wasn't something either of them would define as rape, and he was ostensibly doing it to make her relax, but it would meet the college campus affirmative consent standard either. It just really seemed out of character from what we'd seen of the character previously. And then we find out he was high on heroin during that scene, breaking a long bout of sobriety, and it all clicks into place. The mirroring sex scene at the end, with the roles reversed, only further muddied the waters for a relationship that I mostly like even though it seems like a terrible idea.


I keep waiting for the moment when Debbie realizes that this future she's imagined for herself and Derek is all in her head. The reveal that he wants to be a air force pilot was a nice tip of the hat to An Officer and a Gentleman, in which some of the townie girls would get pregnant to trap the aspiring navy pilots. With Debbie, it's even more tragic, because while that is definitely what she intended, there's a level of self-deception that prevents her from seeing it. I thought Tanya (who, if I recall correctly, is Derek's brother's baby mama) was about as kind as she could be delivering some harsh truths to Debbie. While what she had to say clearly shook Debbie up, it still didn't quite break her free of her delusion.


I hope they have a good explanation for how Fiona got pregnant. Given her history, I can't imagine her not being a stickler for contraception. I was frankly shocked that she wasn't on the pill.


The subplot with Lip and his professorial lover continues to get stranger by the episode.


I actually enjoyed Carl's subplot with Nick, as he puts his juvie knowledge to work. I particularly liked that he screened his potential gun customers, and wouldn't sell to kids with bad reasons for wanting a firearm. As much as the early seasons hinted that he was a budding psychopath, Carl had always had his own moral code; it doesn't align very closely with mainstream morality, but he sticks pretty close to it. He certainly values loyalty, and is loyal in turn to the people he accepts into his life.


Really enjoying Kev and Svetlana's accommodation of the hipsters at the Alibi Room.


Frank luring in another terminal cancer patient, getting her high, and then having her die on her hit was horrifyingly hilarious.

 

[mattCR]

Really enjoyed the contrast in storylines this week. I'm still wondering where Debbie storyline goes

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I fell behind on this one, with all of the competition on Sunday nights, but I finally caught up. A few quick thoughts:

When you're going to take on a topic as serious as eviction, especially in an era where there's an eviction crisis in this country, I think you owe it to the audience to play out the consequences honestly. Having everything back to a version of the status quo in three episodes or so felt like a cop out.

I hate how all of Debbie's storylines the last couple seasons revolve around sexualizing her in one way or another.

I think Carl's storyline is the strongest right now. He's always been the family member most likely to turn out a psychopath, so it's interesting to see him encounter a true psychotic horror show. One thing the last couple episodes have made clear is that Carl is not a psychopath. And given that, having experiencing something unimaginable, it only makes sense that he can't process it. Ethan Cutkosky is doing his very best work of the series right now. Victor Onuigbo also deserves a lot of kudos for his performance as Nick. He took a character that could have been one-dimensional, and who did something truly appalling, and imbued him with real humanity and depth. When he's sitting quietly on that porch, having bashed a child's skull in with a hammer, you get the sense that he is as much a victim of his psychology as his victim. He is broken in a manner that can't be fixed.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Well, that was my first mid-credits four-way scene...

I really liked Carl's storyline this episode, especially when he came clean to Fiona and she told him she was proud of him. Great acting from all involved.

Sean walking in on Will with one of Carl's illicit guns was one of those moment where the show forces us to snap out of the subjective, skewed Gallagher view of the world and take in what is going on objectively. Sean was absolutely right to be furious at Fiona for what happened, and acknowledging that his ex-wife would be justified in being furious at him. It's easy to say it's just a freak thing, but the truth is that it was a predictable consequence of the chaos that is a constant companion of the Gallagher family. It's easy to say that nothing would have happened, but Liam almost overdosed on coke that was left sitting out not that long ago. Fiona is a great mother figure to her siblings in a lot of ways, but she's just as damaged by their collective upbringing as they are -- perhaps more so because she didn't have Fiona of her own to steer her right. She's got a long road to go toward being a fully functioning adult.

Yet another Debbie storyline centered around sexualizing her. I'm glad she at least told this pervert off.

I kind of like Ian's current relationship. The firefighter looks to actually be good for him, despite the rocky start. It still seems pretty obvious that it's all going to go very wrong, sooner rather than later. I can't imagine stealing a helicopter from the U.S. Army is something municipalities are looking for from their EMTs.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Frank's new storyline is so ridiculous, and yet so Frank at the same time.

Glad Lip got his mojo back...

 

[mattCR]

This show surprises me every season with some pretty complex storylines of who people are and yet makes them funny at the same time. Kudos to the show runners.

 

[ScottH]

I hate how all of Debbie's storylines the last couple seasons revolve around sexualizing her in one way or another.

I despise all things Debbie the last 2 seasons. I wish it was her in that wheelchair instead of Yanis.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

The mid-credits scene with Chuckie getting chased by the mountain lion he so feared was my laugh-out-loud moment of the week.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

As frustrating as it's been watching Lip throw away his immense opportunities and burn every bridge he comes across, it was nice to see a show take seriously the idea of a female teacher entering into a sexual relationship with one of her students. There is a reason these things are against the rules, and Lip crashing and burning -- feeding into a genetic predisposition to alcoholism -- is a showcase example.

It broke my heart when he basically pissed in the face of the alcoholic professor who'd taken Lip under his wing. It made me cry when that professor saw the behavior for what it was and still did right by Lip even when Lip gave him every reason not to. At the start of the season, Sasha Alexander's professor looked sexy and sophisticated while Alan Rosenberg's professor looked like a worthless burnout. How gratifying to see the former revealed as the selfish coward she was and the latter revealed as the kind of person you want to populate your life with. I really hope Lip walked in through the front door.

After all of the drama with Frank hiring a hitman, I was braced for some real melodrama and somebody caught in the crossfire. The way they went instead was far more gratifying. And while Frank has many, many faults, and he did it for all of the wrong reasons, he ultimately did Fiona a favor by revealing the truth before it was too late. My sincere hope for next season is that she doesn't get seriously involved with anyone.

 

[ScottH]

The whole "Frank wanting to have Sean killed" thing didn't fly with me at all so I'm glad it ultimately didn't go that route. We all know Frank is a horrible, selfish human being, but one thing we've never saw him be in six seasons is vengeful. I wasn't buying that from his character at all.

This show seems to get a bit more "out there" every season, but I keep coming back. I enjoyed the Lip, Ian & Carl stuff, and the Kev/V/Svetlana stuff was good comic relief. HATED HATED HATED the entire Deb story line.

 

[mattCR]

I thought the Kev/V/Svetlana storyline actually ended up pretty touching and enjoyed it a good deal.
I really liked the storyline around Ian, and thought it was pretty solid.
I also liked the Carl storyline, and I too thought Fiona again killed it this season. it is one of the deepest roles on TV with real heart in it..

I also hated the Deb storyline, but I have to admit, I also found it unfortunately believable, and that is what made me hate it.

 

[John Lee_275604]

Hated the entire Sean reveal for its weak storytelling. The whole 'the guy who looks like a good guy is revealed to be the bad guy at the last minute because of a secret barely even hinted at until now' is so, so, so tired and lazy.
What's next, Sean's evil twin with an eyepatch and secret lair?

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Season 7 will premiere Sunday, October 2nd at 9 p.m. ET/PT

Isidora Goreshter has been promoted to series regular.