Shameless | Season 1-6 Review | Explained

Shameless | Season 1-6 Review -

 

Shameless The show is categorized as a comedy-drama, otherwise known as a dramedy, and it airs on Showtime. It's also a remake of the British version of the same name.

I haven't actually seen the British version yet, I know I'm sorry I hear it's really good, please don't hate me, I'm definitely going to watch it one day. Approaching its seventh season, the show was actually airing in October this year instead of January.

Speaking as someone who's actually born Halloween, that is a really exciting early birthday present for me. Now the premise of the show surrounds the family of Frank Gallagher, who's a single parent of six kids. Many of the episodes focus on how the family gets by while Frank's out getting drunk. The effect of Frank's alcoholism plays a significant role in the lives of his children, otherwise known as the Gallagher crew.

That's all you really need to know leading up to watching this show, other than that it creates a truly realistic atmosphere, has fantastic character development and very, very good shock value. Now the setting of the series takes place in the South Side of Chicago, so viewers really get perspective on the struggle of these families that we get to know.

Now I will say guys I've never invested so much emotion into one show before, it's one of those shows that will suck you in, and once you start going and you get really into it you pretty much are stuck, and you just have to ride that roller coaster until events.

The main reason why? Its characters. So William H. Macy plays Frank in this show... and that's really all I have to say about Frank honestly. His oldest daughter that we know of his Fiona. She is played by Emmy Rossum, she's one of the best characters in the show. She's kind of the anchor to the whole family, she's the one parental figure that we get in this show.

But while Fiona has a very caring nature and really wants to make sure her brothers and sisters live a good life and everything works out she has her own flaws as well. As you'll notice with pretty much every single character in the show.

The next sibling in line is Philip a.k.a. Lip Gallagher, probably my favorite character in the show. He really develops as a great character as the seasons go on. He is one of the smartest characters, he has this gift, he's just a brainiac. However he tends to let that get the best of him and sometimes doesn't always make the right choices, and often goes down the wrong path instead of going the right, however he is one of those characters that really shines at certain moments of the show.

Then there's his brother Ian portrayed by Cameron Monaghan, another really strong character. He is a very complex character of the show, he's got a lot of things going on for him. He has to deal with trying to hide from people the fact that he's gay, however he's got a very supportive family, people that he actually can get along with so there isn't huge issue there. It's more about how he gets through his day-to-day life. What makes him stand out is his relationship to another character, which I'll bring up later.

Then there's Debbie, affectionately known as Debs, portrayed by Emma Kenny. She starts out as a very innocent and very sweet girl when she's growing up, and turns into that teenager girl who goes to being kind of crazy and her character changes tremendously throughout the show.

Then there's Carl, one of the youngest. He is just full of surprises, you don't see much of him early on, but as the seasons go on he becomes one of the funnest characters, just does the craziest things. You never know what to expect from Carl. Oh, and then there's Liam! I almost forgot about Liam. Well thing is Liam is just kind of there, he's not really a huge character.

There is some story arc to his, well parentage, that you'll learn, because as you might look in these pictures here, it's not quite clear whether he's really a Gallagher or not based on how he looks compared to Frank. Then again, you guys don't know anything about Monica yet, the mom. I won't say much about Monica, just know that she's around, you might be seeing her at some point, she's quite an interesting character, and that's all you're gonna get. Well the show definitely focuses on the family members, it's got plenty of great side characters.

Steve portrayed by Justin Chatwin. Wait, Steve, is it? Wait, is it Jimmy or Jack or something? Okay, I don't even know, I'm just going to have skip him all together. Then there's probably one of the best couples on the show everybody loves, we got Kevin Ball and Veronica Fisher, a.k.a. Kev & V, portrayed by Shanola Hampton and Steve Howey.

One thing I love right off the bat about Kev is he reminds me a lot of like a Bam Margera type of guy with his mannerisms, and just the way he talks and sounds. Shanola, she's just all over the place, she's very funny, very bubbly and eccentric. So together they make quite a comedic pair, they're very fun, they're kind of like the best friends, neighbors of the Gallagher's and they show up all the time to help out and do their own little thing, and they have their own significant storylines.

Then we have the Jackson family, specifically Sheila Jackson, who's played by Joan Cusack. Very fun character, very interesting, definitely a fan favorite. She shows up throughout most of the series and she's a very fun character mostly due that she has this the agoraphobia, which means she is terribly afraid of being outside, so she has a bit of a comfort zone, if that makes sense.

You'll see. Then I'll say two very underrated but very special characters in the show are the Milkovich characters, the two brother and sister combo of Mickey Milkovich and Mandy Milkovich. Mickey's portrayed by Noel Fisher and he's definitely one of the fan favorites of the show. At first you see this guy and you're like "I hate him, I don't understand him, he's violent, he's crazy, I don't ever want to see him on the show anymore," and then as seasons go on he has probably the best character development of any character on the show, and he just becomes almost completely different from what you see in the beginning.

Not only that but, as I talked about earlier, Ian, they're the two couple that pretty much everyone in the fanbase absolutely adores. Gallavich forever! Then we got his sister Mandy portrayed by Jane Levy in the first season ,then later seasons we have Emma Greenwell. She's a very interesting, complex character, you learn a lot about her.

She starts off basically as a good friend to Ian, and then later you find out different things about her in relating to Lip and it gets really interesting. Combine every single person here, all these characters, and you just get this crazy rollercoaster of a ride.

The roller coaster that is Shameless. Now if you're not sure if you'll like the show, let me recommend a few others that might seal the deal for you. First I will say even though I haven't seen it, you probably want to check out the UK version. I'm sure it's a very good show,

I've heard people tell me that they can't even watch the US one because I how much they love it. I think I probably won't see until the US version is completely finished though. Then there's a very popular show on Netflix, I'm sure most you have heard of Orange is the New Black. I'd say it's very similar in it's sort of dramedy aspect with tons of characters and supporting characters.

It's got lots of fan favorites, it's got drama, it's got a story to be invested in as well, so I think that one may be the most similar show that I can think of.

The third show I’ll bring up is Skins, another UK show, very interesting coming-of-age kind of teen and college-age student drama. There's a lot of character development in the show and it's kind of an anthology as you'll notice with the different seasons. The first two consist of a certain cast of characters and the next one consists of a different cast and so on and so forth, but they are all very similar and at certain points related.

So these recommendations really just based on that sort of dramedy aspect, because there aren't too many shows I can think of that really compare to Shameless. Orange is the New Black is on Netflix, but for those are don't know Skins and the UK version of Shameless are also Netflix. They actually just added the US version, however, it only has the first four seasons, so if you really want to get the full impact of Shameless you want to check it out on Showtime.

And then you can get all six seasons that have been released, right then and there. That'd be my first way to go and then if you can't do that then you go with Netflix way until they eventually add more if you need to save a little money if you don't have a Showtime subscription, and if you want the more pricey route, I pretty sure they have most of it available on Amazon. So again, Shameless, an incredibly under the radar show that simply continues to surprise and delight viewers even into a long-running seven season.

I can't wait to see how they wrap up the show, I've been watching it for years and years, it gets better and better. Every now and then they have a few moments where you're not sure where it's going to go, but once the season finale or the last couple episodes show up you can tell they were really planning on bringing it to a certain point, and it just delivers every time.

What you think of the article in the comments. Alright guys, that's about it for me, I'll see you all next time!