I’ve often spoken casually throughout my reviews of this show about the fact that Showtime has a reputation for extending series beyond their natural endpoints. It’s a problem that I’ve discussed when writing about both Shameless and Weeds before it, and you could easily apply it to other Showtime shows (Dexter! Homeland! Californication!) that kept airing past the point where they felt creatively and culturally relevant. Now, obviously, these shows still have viewers and fans, and so it’s not that Showtime’s decisions are indefensible. But the fact that Showtime has never had a show end with any kind of creative momentum is a byproduct of decision-making that prioritizes longevity over anything else.
However, not every show achieves longevity the same way. Weeds, for example, kept blowing up its own premise and reinventing itself, ditching much of its supporting cast. Weeds may have run longer than it should have, but it did so by abandoning the stability of the show’s early seasons and searching for momentum elsewhere. The result was some strong seasons—I’ll die on a hill for season six—and some awful ones, but there was at least the chance that something new and dynamic could be discovered.
This has not been the approach taken by the writers of Shameless. Now, I don’t blame them for this: it would mean abandoning every story engine the show has developed over its ten seasons, and as an hour-long show there’s more at risk if you abandon the structure of your series in such a dramatic way. But the longer the show runs, the more it becomes a liability to demonstrate zero willingness to change the structure or focus of the show. Fiona’s gift of $50,000 should have given the Gallaghers some stability and a platform for growth, but the show immediately has Debbie and Frank piss it all away, because how could it be Shameless if Debbie isn’t suing the family of her dead ex-boyfriend who she tricked into getting her pregnant for his death benefits after his drunken tank ride to the bottom of the Suez Canal?
There’s a running joke throughout “A Little Gallagher Goes A Long Way” about a crack addict who keeps trying to steal from Kev’s buy-and-sell business he’s running out of the Alibi. It’s a weak joke, without a meaningful punchline beyond “look, it’s a crack addict,” but the way he just admits that he’s stealing to buy crack is sort of like Shameless right now. It isn’t trying to hide the fact that any forward progress will have to be undone for its story to continue. From the moment the season began, it was clear Debbie was squandering Fiona’s money, and just in case you thought Lip was in a place to get his life together Debbie’s insistence on getting them debit cards has destroyed his ability to make a living wage while burdened with student debt. When Vee’s new friend Mimi offers her a chance to work as a pharmaceutical sales rep—what is this, Work It!?—we’ve been conditioned to read this as a futile exercise with no long-term impact. The show’s patterns have made it so it feels impossible to take the show at face value, rather than cynically presume that everything we’re seeing is just the latest in a long line of soft resets that will be erased this time next year. (Okay, honestly, that crackhead joke wasn’t even really useful as a metaphor, I was wrong to try to salvage something from it).
Recently in the comments, someone accused me of doing a disservice to the efforts the show was taking in Liam’s storyline exploring his African American heritage, citing—among other moments—the powerful shot of Liam in front of the Barack Obama mural. And while I could say that my lack of focus on Liam’s storyline was due to my past few reviews having clear theses that didn’t really connect with that narrative, the truth is that I fundamentally distrust any effort the show makes to deal with issues outside of its core storytelling. That’s deeply cynical of me, I’ll admit that, and in light of that comment I did make note that the show was introducing a collection of characters of color in last week’s episode that the pictures from tonight’s episode indicated were sticking around: Liam’s mentor Mavar is joined by Lip’s sober parent support group leader Sarah, Carl’s co-worker and love interest Anne, and Vee’s instant friend Mimi. That is significant for a show that has never really been that invested in the intersectionality of class and race in Chicago, despite Liam’s presence within the story, and I do think it warrants discussion.
But everything that happens with these characters in “A Little Gallagher Goes A Long Way” fuels the distrust I’ve felt for multiple seasons, as I am unconvinced the show plans to invest in any of these characters or storylines in a significant way. Liam’s storyline has had potential, but the way it plays out here feels like a sudden dismissal of that potential. Suddenly small details about Mavar—like the fact he still plays Nintendo Wii—explode into a collection of uncool character traits that make Liam question his motives, and whether he really represents the South Side identity Liam values. After Liam runs a scam on the grieving relatives at his Great Great Aunt’s memorial, Mavar rightfully flips out on him for having no moral center, but Liam is content knowing who he is, which is…a Gallagher from the South Side, who happens to be black, which is exactly where this story started in the first place? It felt like the show giving up at trying to say something about blackness and social class to instead dismiss this particular person as a stifling influence on the essential trait of the show, despite a good-faith effort to educate from an admittedly boring dude. It’s a deeply muddled moment that I’m still puzzling over, and which sadly reaffirms my distrust of the show’s efforts to address such issues.
The same goes for Carl’s relationship with Anne, which lacks development: the character is too underwritten to have inspired Carl’s romantic interest in her, and way underwritten to inspire Carl suddenly acting like an anti-immigration activist the second ICE shows up at her family’s door. While Carl’s stint as a drug dealer reinforced he is a gentler soul than not, I struggled with how quickly he accused ICE of racial profiling—there’s a link to be made between the distrust of authority in poor white communities and poor Latino communities, but the show never makes that link, instead artificially elevating Carl’s level of concern in order to rush forward with the love triangle that the show leaves us with as Kelly arrives wondering why there are so many Mexicans in the Gallagher kitchen. Again, I appreciate that the show is thinking about ways to explore contemporary social issues, but there’s just never the feeling that Anne is a part of the show’s long-term trajectory, or that Carl really cares about immigration issues, which fundamentally limits what the storyline is able to accomplish emotionally.
Part of the reason these soft resets are utilized by a show like Shameless is that “conclusions” create a false sense of stakes, and a brief moment of instant resonance if used properly. We see this with Mikey’s departure, which finds a really honest moment where he realizes that the only way for him to receive proper medical care is to return to prison. Watching Frank and Mikey cosplay as businessmen at a professional development conference suddenly takes on a degree of sadness, and when they share one last drink together at a swank Michigan Avenue bar it’s an undeniably affecting moment. Of course, it would have been even more affecting if Mikey hadn’t been a one-dimensional character who fueled Frank’s misogyny most of the time, but Luis Guzman finds his humanity when it matters most, and just in time for Frank to head into the second act of the season on the search for a new, pointless storyline to pursue, which may or may not have anything to do with the social issues raised by Mikey’s departure.
It’s a fair question to ask what—if anything—Shameless could do to earn my trust that it will follow through on the potential of its storylines after multiple seasons of struggling to do so. I won’t deny that my cynicism keeps me from seeing the bright side on some of the show’s storylines, but I do believe that at the end of the day I will embrace situations where the show does right by the stories it’s telling and the characters involved. Those moments are just few and far between, and there’s a point where you wonder if the show’s writers understand how self-destructive its soft resets can be for building meaningful narratives. The title of this episode may be “A Little Gallagher Goes A Long Way,” but the truth is that the show’s unwillingness to develop real long-term storylines which impact meaningful change is at the core of its struggles to justify its longevity.
Stray observations
- It makes sense that Ian and Mickey might not appear in this episode, but it’s weird that no one even brings up Ian’s potential parole (which should be imminent) in any of the other stories, right?
- As for Sarah and Mimi, the two other characters of color, I like both of them, although I don’t know if we’re supposed to read Sarah as a romantic rival to Tami (I hope not). I’d also note that while Sarah seems to be a blindcast role (in that the character’s race has never been raised), Mimi is clearly defined as Asian, which I appreciate.
- Tami’s whole deal right now is bizarre to me. The show is likely exploring a complex postpartum psychological situation, if I had to guess, but why in the world isn’t her family dropping her off at the house, or for that matter taking her in after being in the hospital for weeks? Why is she just walking up to the Gallaghers’ house—which she knows is going to be pure chaos—with her luggage? It’s again a situation where the show’s inability to expand its focus outside the Gallaghers leaves them criminally underdeveloped, even with the actress becoming a series regular. Why not give us a scene of Tami and her family leaving the hospital, to show us her state of mind? The story would be so much better for it.
- I don’t know if the show wants us to be sympathetic to Debbie after Derek left Franny out of his death benefits, but given that I wrote an essay about how Debbie is a terrible person last week, I can’t help but agree with his widow on this one.
- I’m not a parent, but I still can’t help but note that there’s some major “TV Baby” energy in the size of Fred at what should—by the wonky as hell timeline of this show—be at most a three-week old baby looking like he’s months old.
- The show does a fair amount of Chicago location shooting, including in Frank and Mikey’s final goodbye, so it was weird to see the show deploy a “virtual backlot” backdrop of Chicago when they visited the fountain earlier in the episode. Maybe they just couldn’t make the logistics work and had to use the L.A. location to save on time or money?
- I don’t have much to say about Debbie’s baby daddy collecting friend from high school except that seeing Xan made me realize I never finished the final season of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Should I do that at some point?
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Poor Emmy Rossum. A wonderful talent who gave her all and did marvelous work, on a show that in hindsight didn’t deserve her. I hope that now she’s free of this mess, she’ll find something that befits her talents. And fuck William H. Macy. I do not believe for a second he didn’t know what was going on in that college bribery scandal. Huffman took the fall for both of them to save his career.
Macy will not only get another nomination for Shameless, he might even get a sympathy win. Hollywood views Huffman as a political prisoner and martyr.
Hollywood views Huffman as a political prisoner and martyr.Source?
I will admit that I did not watch this episode because I no longer care. I miss when the show’s storylines were far simpler, less plot intense. Like when Ian’s episodel arc was simply finding out that Mickey was getting married and having to deal with his feelings about it. Or Fiona and Vee setting up a grocery store manager so Fiona could get hired.
There is simply too much being shoved into one hour and it’s dizzying.
I’m also salty that Mickey and Ian are not in every episode. I wonder if that was a contract thing or what. I don’t see the value in their absence. Their storyline is still engaging. It may be the only engaging part of the show.
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Y’know, much as I tend to agree with the reviews they start to wear on me almost as much as the show itself. They, too, are mostly becoming a repeat of themselves.Obviously, I choose to read it and that’s my own doing, but I honestly wonder why they’re even here at this point – especially since so many good and exciting shows get zero attention.I truly appreciate the weekly effort, but is it still worth it? And if so, for who?
I wish Shameless asked existential questions like this, tbh.(The reviews are here because there’s enough traffic to justify them. The traffic is here—in part—because people want to understand failure as much as they want to understand success. I’m here in part because I don’t think anyone else is interested, but also because I feel a responsibility to explore that failure in a way someone else less dedicated to this sysiphean task might not.)(And yeah, I’m not going to pretend these reviews aren’t sometimes repetitive, but they’d be less repetitive if the show didn’t keep making the same mistakes.)
Still reading Myles, if not watching, hehe. I’m glad someone is doing the dirty work.
I think the details of Derek’s death was the only really good moment in this episode. Not the storyline about it just the actual story of the death itself. The Mikey scene would have been impactful if the show had used him better but, as is, it just felt like a ‘good riddance’ moment. As for the Liam storyline, yeah, that feels like a massive waste both of time and potential. If it had come down to choosing between exploring his heritage or being true to being a Gallagher and he chose the Gallagher path, sure, I’d begrudgingly accept that. But having him just go ‘Gallagher’s gotta Gallagher’ and fucking over the other side of his family with no prompting whatsoever is a waste.
Glad it wasn’t just me. That turn came out of nowhere.
Re: Tami. I genuinely think that her family has decided to abandon her because she wants to be with Lip. It seems that’s something they’d do after she decided that she’d rather see Lip than BOOOOONE!
They were all at the hospital when she went into surgery! Lip works with her sister! Even if we accept that the extended family isn’t local, it’s still crazy.
I’m not saying her whole family is like “See ya!”, but I can totally see, say, her folks and her bratty sister (not the one at the shop – does she have a brother too? I forget how many siblings she actually has) deciding that since she’s made this decision that she’s on her own. Her family seemed kind of shitty, as I recall (and this might be me misremembering it as well, feel free to correct me, but they all seemed kind of snobby).
The more likely scenario, because this is Shameless, is that her family mounts a late season attack on them and takes either Tami or the baby or both away from Lip so he can be a tragic figure some more.
The traffic on this site that justifies your reviews doesn’t just come from people who want to understand failure, it comes from fans too. I’m a fan of this show. That’s why I watch it and read the reviews. And now that I know you aren’t really reviewing the show but instead you are just discussing the failure of the show I will no longer be wasting my time reading.
As I wrote in my review two weeks ago, I fully acknowledge that these reviews will not be for everyone, and that the low supply of Shameless content means that there’s a lack of spaces online that are engaging with the show through a less critical lens. I encourage you to express your feelings about the episode here in the comments, where I would only be pleased to see those less cynical about the show commune.
By your own admission you are just here to discuss the shows failures not write a review. You approach each episode with that mindset. I honestly don’t think you are capable of writing a traditional review of the show anymore because in your mind it is a failure. So why keep doing it? Pass the show on to another writer. It’s a disservice to fans of AV clubs reviews.
That’s not really how this works. You think there’s a long lineup of people just waiting for the chance to review the 10th season of Shameless?
As someone who’s watched the show from the start and has, at one time, thoroughly enjoyed it, Myles is writing about the show as both a comparison to both episodes prior and other shows. He is reviewing the show based on its content, consistency, and trajectory.It really sounds like you’re not looking for a review. You’re looking for recaps.
Not watching Shameless this season – just checking out your reviews to see if I’m missing anything. No surprise that I’m not. Just chiming in to agree with you on Showtime’s habit of keeping shows around well past their use by date. I also agree with you on Weeds – it was on too long, but season 6 was great and it still had some good moments that were true to the characters. Ray Donovan on the other hand…
Ray D… what?
I viewed Carl’s actions as in character in as far as the Gallagher family as a general rule tends to mistrust law enforcement, and are well in tune with their rights.Mostly due to the family’s ability and tenancies to run afoul of the law than any sort of civic mindedness.
Reading so much into a story line sporting a title like “Shameless” is a bit like divining a moral from “Bewitched”.
I stopped watching this show a few seasons back because of that reason exactly, but I couldn’t explain it as well as this article did. I just knew that the show did stuff like that. I guess a simpler way of explaining it is that the characters and not just the just the Gallaghers would make these horrible mistakes, sometimes criminal mistakes and not learn anything from them yet complain about these mistakes, then they would do the mistakes again, but somehow the show would magically clean up their mistakes because apparently that’s how life works. All while having this comical overture to these serious issues.It was not only unrealistic to how it actually is in Chicago and all poor neighborhoods because I live in Chicago and I once lived in a poor neighborhood, but it was just plain stupid. I know people argue that shows are just shows, so obviously they’re not going to be realistically. But, if a show is going to present an issue, like the issue of racism in Chicago or anywhere for that matter, then present it correctly. Sure, you don’t have to be all serious, #serious and all informative, #information because we know this is a just show. But, come on now.At first I really liked this show because there wasn’t and there isn’t a lot of shows base in Chicago, besides cop shows, but then I realized that I was only hanging on to this show because there wasn’t and again there still isn’t any other show base in Chicago that I’m able to watch.In truth, I did start watching season 10, out of boredom. I don’t really need to watch the rest of the seasons to catch up because it’s the same recycled material. I may not know the exact details, but I bet I can guess what happened in every season because it’s a “reset”, like the article suggest. Actually, I bet I can guess some details too because mistakes cause consequences that you see in the recent seasons. For example, Lip has a baby now. Last time, I checked he didn’t have a baby. But, when I started watching the first episode of season 10, I was able to connect the dots that he is with that blonde chick and got her pregnant, which resulted in him now being a baby daddy.However, in the world of “Shameless”, these characters don’t have to deal with their consequences due to their mistakes. So, Lip gets to be with another girl because of course they’re going to get together. So now, he has someone to take care of him and the his baby because in the world of shameless the characters always have their mistakes cleaned up after them by some divine force. All while his girlfriend lays in the hospital or is already dead. I personally haven’t watched the episode yet, but I did watch the promo. And that’s my guess to how things will turn out.Same goes with Carl, he has a girlfriend already, because apparently no one can be alone in this show. Besides Debbie because she does her own rape-y whatever thing. And now she is a lesbian, apparently. When I recall a few seasons back, Frank told her to con this woman by pretending to be a lesbian because that woman was attacted to Debbie. But, Debbie couldn’t do it. Now, you can argue she just wasn’t attracted to her in particular or better yet she may have had morals against it, but considering how willing she is with heterosexuals just to get her way, I would think she would do it, especially considering during that time Frank is all she had. So, I call BS on her being a lesbian. This is just an attempt at little Debbie being hot on screen, making out with another hot woman. Hell, there might even be a threesome with a guy. I don’t pass it with this show. But, going back to Carl, Carl has been with a girl of another race before. I think she was half black, half white, if I stand corrected. I think he did the same thing, he tried to be black and act like he was about black issues, but he just wanted that girl. So, this is just Carl being Carl. He is doing it again, being a ignorant a-hole. But, Carl has never been with a curvy girl. All his girlfriends were thin. So, I just don’t see him with a girl like that, that is more curvy. Just like I don’t see Lip with a girl like that because Lip has always had thin girlfriends. I think one time Lip had sex with a girl that was curvy and the show made the sex scene look terrible, like he was manhandled and he was having terrible sex.As for Liam, I agree completely with the article. When I saw that storyline, I thought the same thing. Maybe I’m cynical or maybe I’m just not naive. And know better by now that this issue of racism and Liam being black will just more be a “chip on his shoulder” type of thing for him than something to learn from and gain strength from. It will instead be something that will justify his bad behavior, as well as him simply being a Gallagher. He is a black Gallagher, he can do whatever the f he wants.All in all, I personally think this show is going to end soon. That is why I’m watching season 10. I just have this feeling that it’s one of the final seasons. And yes, regardless of their mistakes, which they’re not mistakes, if they keep doing them, they will ALL magically have happy endings. On top of that, the happy endings will be beyond happy. I’m talking about getting out of the south side, having lots of money, etc, without putting any effort on their part and making all of these mistakes. That’s the shameless, Gallagher way.
I’m mostly hate-watching at this point, and the handling of Liam’s arc is a big reason why. An honest and authentic look at Liam’s sense of displacement and search for identity in the Gallagher family would have been welcome, especially since the Gallagher’s themselves basically ignore it. But the show has screwed up every attempt, from having Vee be involved for about five minutes when she’s never been particularly racially aware anyway, to having Liam refer to himself as a black kid in a “house full of crackers” (what is this, 1975?) to the hot mess of last night, where apparently to Liam being a Gallagher means being an asshole with no moral compass and that’s preferable to being a “boring” black guy who doesn’t fit Liam’s stereotype of what a black guy from the South Side should be. It cements my conviction that no one who can actually relate to Liam’s experience is in that writer’s room, and they are just throwing spaghetti and the wall to see if it sticks.
I have to agree with most of what you said. There was a time i really cared about where these characters where headed and there arcs. I remeber being so fully invested in Lips story that i was generally concerned about him going back and staying in school. I get that in reality things dont always work out but lately they will start a story arc and then just abandon it leaving the character in sqaure one. Ian is a EMT and getting his life to…..ok nevermind he is in jail. Carl is in military school and on ….nevermind he was kicked out. I mean that works for Frank cause Frank is frank. But to me everyone has Franks aimless storyline now
This may be pedantic for a show that colors so far outside the lines of reality, but it bugged me that Mikey’s stated problem was not being able to access dialysis. Dialysis is literally the one treatment for which there is federally mandated universal health care. There are lots of other conditions that would have made the “go to prison for health care” (as though prisoners really do get consistent health care for chronic condition) storyline believable.
There’s no way I would have kept up with this trainwreck of a show if it weren’t for your reviews. You make me feel so much less alone in my (shameful?) failure to look away. Thank you and keep up the good work!
I’ve been somewhere between “we just love the show” fans and Myles for about 2 seasons, but this episode has pushed me over to side with Myles.This show is bad.The story with Liam and Mavar was literally just abandoned. Liam’s scam felt so out of character compared to the last couple episodes and made no sense. Ultimately, a complete waste of time.Mikey’s story was also an utter waste. He was basically an enabler for Frank’s lifestyle, which honestly had some real potential at the end. When Mikey decides to go back to prison, Frank actually vows to get a job and stop drinking. While that’s absurd for the Frank we know, imagine if, instead of punching a cop, Mikey died. Faced with the ramifications of his lifestyle, something like that might actually force Frank to change, and even if he ultimately failed, that attempt would’ve made compelling television.Did I miss where baby Freddie was when Lip went to the NMAA meeting? Because, I have no idea.Vee’s friend is Asian?! They haven’t mentioned it at all. (sarcasm)Oh, and Debbie took Frank’s money bucket and is going to use that and the rest of Fiona’s money to buy a car, so I guess they’re cool now?