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88
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Shameless

Shameless is a comic drama about the impoverished Gallagher family living in suburban Chicago. Alcoholic-absentee father Frank is nominally patriarch of the family but the real work is done by daughter Fiona. Then Lip, Ian, Debbie, Carl and Liam make up the rest of the family. Showtime 2011 - ???

Seasons

Season Overview #Episodes Score Viewer
score
Season 1 2011 1 64 100
Season 2 2012 12 52 82

Top episodes

Season
» Episode		 Episode Overview Score Viewer score
Season 1
» Episode 12		 Father Frank, Full of Grace Lip and Ian spend the night in jail...
Lip and Ian spend the night in jail and Lip tries to take the blame. Debbie tells Steve's mother the truth about him. Frank tries to manipulate Karen to keep recent history a secret and loudly attempts to justify himself at the bar. Steve offers Tony the house he bought. Fiona has a difficult decision to make when Steve asks her to run away with him to Costa Rica.
 64 100
Season 2
» Episode 1		 Summertime The Gallagher extended family are all working on...
The Gallagher extended family are all working on their Summer money-making ventures. Fiona works in a club at night and sleeps in the day. Debbie looks after neighbourhood kids, Lip manages local amateur fighters while also selling weed out of an ice cream truck with Kev. Kev has been growing weed in the basement but the electric bill is now enormous. Frank makes a bet with a local muscle head and has to make ten grand or start losing toes. Sheila is slowly taking more steps out of the house and Karen is attending a sex addicts group.
 64 -
Season 2
» Episode 9		 Hurricane Monica Monica and Frank are back together with passion...
Monica and Frank are back together with passion and she is determined to spend time with her children. She pushes hard and partially wins them over. Lip seeks refuge with Steve and works out that Estefania has a lover elsewhere. Sheila and Jody become convinced that the house is haunted as Frank sneaks in looking for Peg's money.
 64 -
Season 2
» Episode 3		 I'll Light a Candle For You Every Day Lip investigates options for Ian and agrees to...
Lip investigates options for Ian and agrees to work on a military project. Jody plans on proposing to Karen but Frank steals the ring. He proposes to Dottie and she agrees. He then picks up a page offering her a heart and tells the hospital that she died. She is so depressed when she learns about the heart going to someone else that she asks Frank to sleep with her. Fiona finds a purse on the train and spends all the money. She returns the bag and then feels guilty when it belongs to a girl like her. She also begins seeing her high school crush Craig, who is now married. Debbie becomes preoccupied with death and Kev begins to worry about his Dad.
 60 -
Season 2
» Episode 2		 Summer Loving As Sheila grows in confidence Frank seeks out...
As Sheila grows in confidence Frank seeks out a new home. When he learns of former bar-fly Dottie's sick heart he swoops in and tries to win her over. Debbie kicks Liam out of her room and refuses to let Fiona put him back. Jasmine's rich friend David brings a friend for Fiona but she isn't interested. Mickey gets out of jail and Ian hooks him up with a job at the grocery store. Lip becomes concerned that because Karen isn't sleeping with her new boyfriend Jody she must be falling in love with him. Veronica drives the old folks around on their weekly shopping trip but they beg her for something more exciting.
59 -

Credit Showtime

ORIGINS
John Wells began working on an American adaption of British show Shameless (created by Paul Abbott) in 2009. He originally worked with HBO but eventually Showtime took over development. The show debuted on January 9th, 2011.

CONTENT
Although Shameless is a full length drama series it is very much built around comedy. The poverty and dysfunction of the Gallagher family is played for both laughs and emotion in a way that most drama shows don't attempt.

THETVCRITIC
I watched the first season of Shameless in about ten days and enjoyed it a lot. I wrote a blog post about it which you can now read on the Season One page. I then began to cover season two episode by episode in January 2012.

January 2012