There Is Nothing Shameful About Watching and Enjoying Shameless

There Is Nothing Shameful About Watching and Enjoying Shameless

 The messiness in Showtime’s Shameless is one of the reasons it has had its best season yet. Every week the show consistently gets better and has not hit a lull yet. Being on cable, the show experiments with pushing the boundary lines with profanity and nudity so watching it with your mom can be awkward at times.  While the crude humor is not attractive to some people, the creativity in which the show presents it is what makes it interesting. The show follows the “show don’t tell” example so rather than laughing at one-liners like most sitcoms, you are laughing at entire scenes of Shameless.

Shameless is an American adaptation of a British show that follows a Chicago family. The family of six lives in squalor because of their father’s alcoholism and their mothers drug addiction. Although the show has the workings for a great drama, it is written as “dramedy”. The heavy tones of the show are often broken up by crazy antics and hilarious jokes. For example, one scene when they could not afford to have a traditional thanksgiving because they couldn’t afford a turkey, one of the sons went out and killed an exotic bird. It is sad scenes like that that get turned into comedy gold with the family’s actions.

Their great ensemble cast easily delivers the dark and light tones. William H. Macy who is a trained stage actor but has acted in movies such as Fargo and Seabiscuit plays the alcoholic father, Frank Gallagher. Emmy Rossum, mostly remembered for her role in Phantom of the Opera, plays his oldest daughter Fiona who is the surrogate mother to her siblings and often her own father. Joan Cusack delivers pure craziness with her characters obsessive-compulsive disorder and agoraphobia with her character Shiela. The roles of their characters is far from what the actors usually play and it is startling how well they perform out of their comfort zone. Although some of the cast is seasoned, for the majority of the cast this is their breakout role.

            We have now watched the Gallagher’s crazy dysfunctional family on screen for 3 seasons on Shameless. Although the Gallagher’s are dysfunctional, they accept their family for who they are.  They may be dirty but we are rooting for them. They do not pressure their homosexual son into dating girls. They only want the best for the alcoholic father. They wish the best for their genius son who is ruining his acceptance to MIT with his life of doing crime.  The viewers are able to see that deep-rooted in the filth is that love of their family that is their driving force.

            Although the Gallagher’s may be the extreme case of dysfunction, we all have a little Gallagher in our families. We have the crazy neighbor, drunk cousin, gay brother. We live in America and the Gallagher’s are the new example of the American family. This American family will be on Showtime for a lot longer if they continue with their shameless antics.