From time to time a TV show, movie, book (who am I kidding, a book?), comic book, music or piece of pop culture gets lost in the shuffle. There are only so many hours in the day and I have yet to perfect the art of never sleeping. This is my chance to take a look back and see whether it was good or bad that I missed the boat the first time an item came around. Today’s topic:
Shameless, (Showtime TV series) - Season 1
As you may have noticed, I like to rank things. With its cast of characters and multiple storylines, Shameless lends itself perfectly to a Top 10 Characters Power Ranking each season. I’ll keep the spoilers to a minimum until we get to the Rankings at which point all bets are off. You’ve been apprised of the rules. Enjoy…
Initial Take:
I’ve been urged by many people to watch Shameless, no more so than by my girlfriend, who have been telling me that I will love the characters, the humor and just how screwed up the Gallagher family is. The problem? If I wanted to see broke people scrounging around, having life shit on them and wondering how they’ll make it through the day… I’ll just look in a mirror and save myself 50 minutes a week. Nevertheless, I agreed to watch the first episode, if only to shut the old lady up and to see what all the fuss was about.
Now, if you people (YOU PEOPLE!?) would have just described the show better, I’d have been all-in since day one. The log line should have just said, “A total smoke-show, and girl you’ve never seen before, Emmy Rossum is naked and screwing guys while William H Macy (one of the top five underrated actors) does WHM-things.” I wouldn’t have waited this long to check it out.
Normally, I’m not a Showtime guy. Aside from Masters of Sex (probably the MOST underrated show on TV) and the new Penny Dreadful (second season starts soon and the jury is still out), I find most of their shows enjoyable but formulaic once they get past the first season or two. I know Weeds and Dexter have diehard followings and everyone assures me that as the seasons go on, the shows get better. The key word there is SEASONS. Breaking Bad wasn’t BREAKING BAD until halfway through the second season but the first year was only six episodes and I’d put the worst Breaking Bad episode up against the best Weeds / Dexter episode in a Pepsi Challenge any day. If you want me to watch SEASONS before it gets a slot on my dance card, it better be “Awesome with a capital A, baby!” (sorry, it’s getting near NCAA tournament time - props to my man Dickie V!).
The first word I thought of while watching Shameless was “frenetic”. From the storytelling to the directing to the writing, the show moves fast and furious. It’s hard work keeping up with the Gallagher clan. They cram more into six episodes than most series will do all year. By the 12th and final episode, you’ve forgotten many of the smaller storylines that helped build the main characters. This isn’t a throwing shade on Shameless because you know what other show does this, Game of Thrones. Granted both are about dysfunctional families, I certainly wouldn’t put the two shows in the same league, ballpark or even sport. But both take the same muscle memory to keep track of who’s who and what they’re up to. The key is that the important arcs stay and the ones that don’t matter get resolved, usually with a fist or a drink. It’s an excellent show, that once you’ve gotten your sea-legs and know who everyone is, every episode is very enjoyable. The show burns through so much, so fast that you don’t have time to tire on any one plot. Everyone is so beautifully fucked up on this show.
I present to you the Top 10 characters of Shameless - Season 1:
- Frank Gallagher (William H Macy) – Oddly, he’s not the “star” of this show but he’s the character and actor that keeps his foot on the gas of the show’s engine and makes up for the young cast’s inexperience. The producers, writers and show runners were smart to fill in the more outrageous parts and storylines with veteran actors. There’s no way that Frank would be a functioning, let alone accepted, person in society but WHM sells you to the fact that he’s still everyone’s best friend (even after screwing them all over at some point) and that he’s able to still fuck his way across town. He’s William ‘fucking’ H Macy for christ sake. When has he not been great?
- Fiona Gallagher (Emmy Rossum) – Every time I would see Emmy Rossum on a Red Carpet event or in the gossip rags, I’d have no idea who she was but thought she was a cute girl. Everyone would always say, “That’s the girl from Shameless.” Okay, fine, but every show has some hot young girl on it, what makes her so special? Maybe it’s because she can act the fuck out of some of the series most emotional sequences. When she goes toe-to-toe with actors that have more experience than she is old, it’s Fiona that is the MVP. There was one scene when the entire Gallagher clan confronts the mother who abandoned them years ago and it’s not WHM who carries the load but Rossum who does all the heavy lifting. From happy to sad, from sober matriarch of the house to 21-year-old party girl, from looking like a crazed hungover homeless person to the sexiest woman in the room, Rossum can flip the switch and pull it off. The oft overused term “revelation” is the only word that fits when talking about Rossum’s performance. She’s as good as advertised. Oh, and did I mention she’s SUPER fucking hot. That’s never a bad thing. My only gripe is that she could work on her Windy City accent. She sounds like she’s from the Bronx part of Chicago.
- Phillip ‘Lip’ Gallagher (Jeremy Allen White) – This is the guy everyone who knows me said that I would love. I’d never heard of this actor before. At first glance he’s odd looking and didn’t seem all that interesting. Well… everyone was right. Lip is the shit and I love him. At times I worried that he’d fall into the trap of being the reluctant genius and Shameless would repeat tropes that we’ve seen before. It’s hard to avoid a few threads of that archetype in Lip’s storylines but White and the writers do a great job of always making you feel there are 1,000 unspoken thoughts running through is mind while he’s silently staring though someone or off into space. The show runs through these tropes, not around them. It would be easy to repeat a theme like Prof. Gerald Lambeau wanting to “help” Will Hunting. Unlike in Good Will Hunting, Lip doesn’t need to prove he’s the smartest guy in the room. Although that could come from Lip being told / treated like he’s white trash vs Will being beaten and abandoned like trash. Don’t get me wrong, I love Good Will Hunting. This is the first time a “genius” character has been played like a regular human since Good Will Hunting. White plays Lip as someone who embraces being smart and uses it to help people in need and of course if it can put money in his pocket, all the better. Lately we get train wrecks like Scorpion on CBS (aka McPhee and The Nerd Herd) where they’re all a bit kooky but they have to tell you how smart they are every 10 minutes and each genius knows their exact rank on the MENSA pop charts.
- Sheila Jackson (Joan Cusack) – We all know she can play the oddball character but Cusack takes it to the next level in Shameless. As an agoraphobic, emotionally beaten down, sodomizing, BDSM and Food Network obsessed housewife, she’s the ying to Frank’s yang. While not completely aware of the destructive consequences of allowing Frank into her house and bedroom, she’s also not completely stupid. There isn’t a character on this show that doesn’t have their issues but Sheila is the one with the most sincere heart. Even if that heart is locked inside a box of Martha Stewart brand dildos.
- Debbie ‘Deb’ Gallagher (Emma Kenney) – I couldn’t stand Deb through the first few episodes but then you realize that she might be the most savvy Gallagher of them all. For every glimpse we see that Deb is smarter and wiser beyond her years, we’re also reminded that she’s not even a teenager yet and cannot comprehend the emotional spectrum of the adult world where nothing is truly black or white.
- Karen Jackson (Laura Wiggins) – Initially we’re to believe she’s the wholesome daughter of Sheila and Eddie Jackson, and friend to Lip, but it immediately becomes apparent that she might be more screwed up than any of the Gallaghers. She will be remembered for two thing; 1) making every man run to IMDB.com to verify that she and her beautiful body are over 18 (because she too is naked… a lot) and 2) had one of the best throwaway lines by calling WHM’s character “Daddy Frank” after he takes residence with Sheila Jackson. Just like Rossum, she isn’t just a pretty face. She’s tasked as the centerpiece of the Jackson family in this first season.
- Steve / Jimmy Lishman (Justin Chatwin) – There’s an alternate universe where Justin Chatwin plays Jessie on Breaking Bad and Aaron Paul plays Steve / Jimmy. The “Steve is really Jimmy” twist isn’t so much of a surprise but the fact that Shameless didn’t play it safe by making Jimmy’s family a cookie-cutter affluent family is. We only see a glimpse of Jimmy’s family but as Steve / Jimmy put it, they’re the Gallaghers of north-side Chicago. We’ve only scratched the surface on the Fiona & Steve / Jimmy relationship. By the end of the first season, all you want is for Fiona to run off with Steve and leave the Gallagher tribe forever. Alas, Fiona chooses family over passion. The good news is that IMDB.com tells us this is not the last we see of Steve / Jimmy. The bad news is that once you get past his charm, what dark secrets are we going to find and will they be yet another burden to Fiona. But like the great romances of years gone by, such as Angela Chase and Jordan Catalano, all We want is to see them together.
- Veronica ‘V’ Fisher (Shanola Hampton) – As Fiona’s best friend and neighbor to the Gallagher family, V is also a jack-of-all-trades which includes being the purveyor of a fledgling online fetish porn website. She’s also Fiona voice of reason but she would be wise to listen to her own advice at times.
- Kevin ‘Kev’ Ball (Steve Howey) – V’s long time boyfriend is the only character with a steady job. I supposed it’s easy to keep a job as a bartender in a town full of drunks. I can’t tell if Steve Howey is the best actor on the show or the worst. While he plays V’s big dumb boyfriend with the heart of gold during the day, he’s acts as the wise sage at the Alibi Bar where he is often seen taking confessionals from the likes of Frank and the other drunks at night. He and V are the closest thing Shameless has to a stable relationship, which isn’t setting the bar high considering in the same episode in which Kev proposes to V, you find out he’s still married from a previous relationship.
- Ian Gallagher (Cameron Monaghan) – The Gallagher that wants to do right is also the Gallagher that has the most secrets. He finds solace and purpose in the ROTC. He’s got a job and doesn’t fool around with any girls. He’s the well adjusted one, right? NOPE. He’s gay and is having sex in the freezer with his married Muslim boss. He comes to an agreement with his best girlfriend, Mandy, that they’ll pretend to be a couple to hide each of their various indiscretions and have alibis for each other. Let’s not forget in a weird twist of fate, the youngest Gallagher, Liam (who is black), turns out to actually be Frank’s son while Ian turns out NOT to be Frank’s biological son? Yeah, don’t hurt yourself trying to wrap your brain around that, you’ve just got to watch. Meanwhile, Mandy’s brothers and father are lunatics but in yet another strange twist, Mandy’s most lunatic brother, Mickey, is also a closeted homosexual. While you see Ian slowly come out to a few of his family members, Mickey cannot afford the same luxury. At the end of the day, The Gallaghers love each other no matter what. Monaghan's acting isn’t on the level of some of the older cast members but I assume his skills grow as the show continues.
Honorable Mentions:
Carl Gallagher (Ethan Cutkosky) – Other than Liam, Carl doesn’t really have much to do in the first season. It took me a few shows to even realize who he was and that he was one of the Gallagher children.
Monica Gallagher (Chloe Webb) – The biological mother to all of the Gallagher children. At first, I thought no matter how screwed up she was, the backstory of her leaving her family would make me feel sympathetic towards her. It turns out she’s a cancer to this family and even with Frank as the sole parent, they’re much better off. Her lesbian lover “Bob” has a few dark comedic moments (no pun intended). Baby Liam isn’t winning an Emmy anytime soon but being dangled as a prop was much more dark than comedic. I suppose you’re going to have to be a truly heinous person to out Shameless the Gallaghers. Seeing her drive off couldn’t come soon enough.
Eddie Jackson (Joel Murray) – I’ll always love Joel Murray as George from One Crazy Summer. It’s funny to see the circle of life in Hollywood because 30 years ago he was playing John Cusack’s best friend and now he’s Joan Cusack’s husband. Maybe Hoops introduced them after their big win at the regatta race? Wouldn’t it be great if Hoops is now a struggling comic book artist and is forced to move in with Sheila after his divorce from Cassandra? Okay, if you’re reading this and understand the connections I’m making, you’re just as big of a loser as I am and we both need to get a life. But seriously, it’s not like Hoops was going to move in with the Stork brothers and for sure Uncle Frank burned through all his radio call-in winnings by now, right… RIGHT?!
Well, that’s it for season 1. I’m excited for season 2. I’ll let you know how that goes. Until next time…
WK
@wkbear
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