Shameless:
The Complete Series
review by Bobby Blakey
I have been a fan of Shameless since it debuts on Showtime back in 2011. Not only is it filled with chaos, sex, violence and a lot of just bad people, there is an element to it that is relatable to real life. Like all shows there were numerous changes in tone and cast throughout but still managed to be Showtime’s longest running scripted series. Now all eleven seasons are finally coming home in one complete set.
Shameless follows Frank Gallagher, a proud, working-class patriarch to a motley brood of six smart, spirited and independent kids who, without him, would be…better off. In Frank’s booze-addled view, parenting just eats into his hard-earned bar-crawling time around Chicago – so he leaves it to eldest daughter Fionna to hold down the fort. Bearing the de facto parent badge/burden, she’s donned the proverbial apron and makes sure her younger siblings do their chores, keep a clean-ish home, and everyone (no matter how small) works to keep the house lights on, as well as food on the table. Brothers Lip, Ian, and Carl use their intellect to break every rule in the book to survive and make the bank, while younger sister Debbie would sooner steal her share, and toddler Liam, the youngest, is just happy to be along for the ride. The
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Gallaghers are irreverent, endearing, resilient – and they’re absolutely, wildly and unapologetically Shameless.
This is one of the few shows that really sucked me all in. Every episode is a mixed bag of frustration, shock and hilarity wrapped in real life. The stories were over the top sometimes, but that is just how life is often. It has a strange dynamic that with all the drama early on the series injected a bit more of a dark comedy tone which slowly shifts out in later seasons to focus on more drama. The comedy elements are still there, just not as front and center. While the show focuses on the Gallagher’s, it became a bigger ensemble as new people were pulled into their chaotic family with each of them getting their own arc to give depth.
Every season took them all in new and often darker and humorous directions. I loved this series more each season and seeing these kids grow into adults makes you feel more invested. It’s a bit off putting in general seeing these adult situations that some of them are in, but like any parent or adult you must remember that they have grown up and were adults. This is another sign of great writing and performance to get that connected to the characters and their journey. Every season was crafted with numerous intertwining stories that push the boundaries of these characters and the show to deliver yet another great season every time.
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I’m not going to lie, when Emmy Rossum left the show at the end of the ninth season, I was concerned this might be the end of the series. While this was always firmly planted on the Gallaghers as a whole, she was always the glue that held it all together. It became clear after a few episodes that this season was not going to lose a single step. The entire cast are as strong as ever and once again show that this show is bigger than one character. My only real complaint pe is that she didn’t return for the finale and there are a couple of stories early on that kind of just fazed out without a bigger resolve I had hoped for.
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Overall, the show is dark, dirty, uncomfortable, and a load of fun. I never got to see the original show it was based on, but this one stand all on its own and it is worth checking out whether you are revisiting it or seeing it for the first time.
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Return to Chicago to hang with the Gallaghers when Shameless: The Complete Series collects all 134 episodes of the 11 seasons on DVD for the first time on March 18th from Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment.