Shameless: NSFW Review

This Shameless review contains spoilers.

So, it looks like the Gallaghers are keeping the house. While I cannot say I’m surprised, it is still a disappointment that the show which was so eager to throw its formula to the wind found a rather incredulous way to reverse that direction. Yet, despite the last three episodes amounting to two steps forward and one step back, I must admit tonight’s episode was quite enjoyable. And that’s because even if that Shameless attitude of changing things up turned out to be more faux-Frank bravado than Mickey Milkovich gusto, the way the events played out were sharply funny and appropriate for the characters we’ve been watching for six years.

Take the scene where Fiona Gallagher returns to the childhood home that she seemingly left forever last week. Whereas the previous episode had the classic TV moment of a character walking through their beloved home/set again, having Fi smash her own kitchen window to sneak in and steal a closet door is a so much more proper Gallagher goodbye. There is no time for schmaltz or longing looks at her siblings’ measurements here—she has shit to do and burglaries to pursue.

Of course, this is when TV logic intervenes and the man who was so happy to buy this house two weeks ago decides to rescind his purchase from the bank, because it would cost $150,000 to renovate. On the one hand, he looked like he knew was buying a fixer-upper in previous episodes, and he already had his children picking out bedrooms last week. On the other hand—well at least it makes for a good joke to discover that in addition to Frank’s desolation of the copper wiring in the toilets, that the pipes freeze in the winter, there are mice and probably rats, and they also have termites.

Yeah, I wouldn’t want to move in there either.

Of course, this all precedes an hour of hand wringing involving Fi not being sure if she can get the loan to rebuy the house, because she needs Gus’ signature as a husband. But no matter how dickish Gus tended to be, knowing that the possibility of retrieving Villa de Gallagher made it a done deal for audiences. We were just waiting for the characters to catch up. Nevertheless, who couldn’t enjoy the perfectly Valentine’s Day moment where Gus (after standing Fi up twice) pours coffee on her contract?

This is a curious moment, because it is quite clear that Gus is behaving like an intolerable asshole. Just because his rushed (and stupid) marriage didn’t last a fortnight does not mean that he should stand in the way of her getting a house when it requires his signature. Obviously, we’re supposed to despise his pettiness. But take a step back for a moment. Fiona promised him that she put his grandmother’s holocaust ring into a safety deposit box that she’ll go and open in the morning.

For starters, Gus has every reason to be wary of this snake oil since when in the hell would Fiona Gallagher open up a safety deposit box!? Especially for a wedding ring to a man she “ghosted” out of her life. Additionally, we know she pawned that ring and that if she did get his signature for the house, she would be giving him a load of crap in return. Ergo, Gus is probably in the right to want nothing to do with Fiona, because she would have screwed him over without a second thought.

So is Fi or Gus the bad guy? Eh, I think it is the kind of ambiguity that Shameless is great at implying but, other than season 4, then tries to avoid confronting. Whatever the case might be, Fiona would have been up shit’s creek until Carl heard her crying to Sean.

This is actually a potentially awesome development, and not just because they get the house back. Fiona, out of desperation, is indeed taking some of the drug and/or gun money that Carl has been earning over the past several months. But in the process, she is going to implicitly condone his life choices as good ones. At this point, is Carl now a major head of the household?

For so many seasons, Carl has been treated as amusing comic relief and like a high school burnout in the making. It always seemed likely that Carl would one day end up in juvenile hall, but he at this point looks to be so far down the rabbit hole that Fiona will never pull him out of it. Even worse, she now has no moral high ground to stand on since he bought back their house. All of a sudden, Carl can call the house his personal property and have a role in the decision making greater than Ian or Debbie have ever enjoyed—understandably since the latter is desperate to be a 15-year-old mother.

The dynamics have definitely shifted in a fascinating way, and Carl losing his friend to the cops (in a story development that we all saw coming, even though apparently his bike was stolen from Lakeshore Drive and deposited conveniently in the Southside) means he will invest more greatly into his family and want stakes in what happens next. I have honestly waited a season for Debbie to take a more mature and responsible position in the family hierarchy, and I am disappointed to admit that I don’t think it will happen now (we’ll get to it in a minute). But surprisingly, Carl is asserting himself in a way half of his siblings never have.

There is a wonderful potential here that will hopefully not be squandered in future weeks.

Meanwhile, Debbie is very much on course to keep her baby. I was suspecting a dramatic and shocking turn of events where Fiona would decide to keep her child at the last minute after Debs has already pulled the trigger. But since Fi definitely got her abortion this week—and remarkably the show avoided a spat between her and Sean over it, even though he was quietly agonizing over her removing a fetus that would one day be his child. And since the rules of storytelling almost demand that there be narrative diversity, it looks like Debs is on track to deliver her bun in the oven.

It seems almost impossible for her not to after this week saw her learn the sex of the baby. On the first count, I was shocked that Frank wanted a granddaughter, albeit he already has a grandson of sorts in Chucky. But more importantly, when all the frivolous “bougie” stuff about filling stale cupcakes with pink frosting is put behind us, it means the baby has an identity now. As Frank says, Debbie went from being a tumor to being Debs after he knew her gender.

Granted, Frank and Monica are terrible parents, but that part of the lesson is never going to sink in for Debbie until it’s too late. Nevertheless, this will also provide new storytelling possibilities. Such as this week when the suburban family subplot took a drastic turn toward creepy-town. Admittedly, it somehow seems less likely to run somewhere dangerous since it is the mother, and not the father, that wants to turn Debbie into a nanny-mistress. And indeed, she is obviously planning on it with veiled threats about being sad to see Debbie leave them now that she is in remission.

However, I know (and hope) Debs won’t fall into this honey trap if for no other reason than she is too stubborn to sell herself like that—even if she was delusional enough to think it was okay with the father. At this point, it is a twisted Frank scheme like “Butterface” from season 2 with Debbie being used as a proxy.

It’s also living up to its Shameless title more than Lip’s professor drama, which hopefully came to an end. To be clear, Lip seems no more in love with his professor than he was (or was not) with Mandy Milkovich, Karen, or maybe even Amanda. It simply was yet another sexual conquest for Lip Gallagher. I am not certain if we are supposed to feel heartbroken for him to lose this woman in his life, or frustrated with him because he doesn’t realize this was inevitably going to be a dead end road.

However, the truth is that I just hope he can have a new storyline that is about more than who he is sneaking into his dorm room next week.

Still, it was a mostly satisfying hour of television and featured great moments for Fiona, Frank, Debbie, and suddenly Carl, who even with his ridiculous cornrows is on track to possibly being a season 6 MVP. Who knew?

Most Shameless Quotes of the Week:

“A woman’s sexuality is as fluid as the Mississippi.” – Frank

“I can’t wait to get them sucked out.” – Fi on pregnancy hormones.

“The quickest way to a woman’s heart is through her lala, but if your way works, more power to you.” –Frank