In January 2004, Channel 4 unveiled one of its most ambitious and controversial social commentary dramadies. Shameless - about life on the fictional Chatsworth Estate in Manchester - featured some absolute giants of British film, theatre and TV. The who's who included: David Threlfall, Anne-Marie Duff, James McAvoy, Maxine Peake, Dean Lennox-Kelly, Maggie O'Neill and Pauline McLynn (Go on, go on, go on)...
The first few series were quite unbelievable and, indeed, shameless. It portrayed the seedier side of council estate life faced with the adversity of dealing with the 'establishment', but it was also an extremely funny show, which bordered on comedy in large amounts, mainly to offset the bleak existence the Gallagher family faced.
It had some drawbacks, as creator Paul Abbott explained in 2008, after half his cast had left to go onto bigger and arguably better things. Duff & McAvoy married and went off to become A listers, as did Peake; others became constants on British TV or just famous faces on the screen renowned for being in Shameless. By the end only Threlfall remained as the titular head of the family Frank Gallagher and by the end he had become some kind of embarrassing parody of himself; this pointless waster full of drink and drugs wandering aimlessly through life, always inebriated in some way or another. We had given up on the show long before it was cancelled. Not only had Frank become a parody, but the show had long lost its sense of family, friends and togetherness through adversary and I heard tales that the stories became even more far-fetched, the cast as far removed from the original series' as possible and it simply lost its way. Abbott claimed that losing so many talented actors meant he was constantly changing the story; that he didn't have the ability to tie actors into long contracts like they did in the USA (nor would he want to force them to stay if they had better opportunities), therefore he was constantly having to reinvent the show to suit whoever turned up every new series to work.
The UK version of Shameless finished in May 2013, almost 2½ years after Shameless (US) debuted. The similarities were obvious; it was about the Gallagher family and to a certain extent their friends and neighbours Kevin and Veronica and they lived in a run down area of Chicago (rather than Manchester) and the first series of the US version was a scene-for-scene remake of the first series of the UK version. The only real differences were changes to dialogue and locations.
The UK version's Frank Gallagher (Threlfall) was essentially a lovable arsehole with a penchant for booze, drugs and parties. He was irresponsible and a passenger in his own home, which was largely run by his eldest daughter Fiona (Duff). His wife had long disappeared and his assortment of kids ranged from Fiona in her 20s to Liam - the youngest (about 6 at the start). In between were Philip (Lip), Ian, Carl and Debbie.
The US version's Frank Gallagher was as comical and as large as life as the UK version, but under the masterful guidance of William H. Macy (Fargo), the comedy was downplayed and the nastiness ramped up. US Frank was still a figure of ridicule and pity, but he was also a devious, uncaring, untrustworthy piece of shit, who, unlike his British counterpart, literally would have sold his own children for some drugs. Like the UK version, it was Fiona who acted as parent, sister and protector, Frank was too irresponsible to be trusted with anything.
Like the UK version, the characters had their basic traits: Lip was a borderline genius beset with drink and anger issues; Ian, a closeted gay, trying hard to keep his secret from those around him, unaware that most of then knew. Carl & Debbie were both young kids learning about the world of dole scrounging and living off the State and both were slightly sociopathic. Then there was Liam, the result of a genetic throwback in Monica Gallagher's ancestry and unlike the UK version was most definitely a black kid - the strange absurdity of having a black biological true sibling was enhanced by the fact that we were introduced to him as a baby in diapers and he still hadn't spoken a single word by the time series eight finished.
While the first season of the US version stayed true to Paul Abbott's original British series, season two on went in directions Abbott (and showrunner John Wells) could never have possibly achieved in the UK version, as all actors in the main roles were contracted for a minimum of seven seasons, if the series didn't get cancelled. Abbott said in an interview on US TV that he could finally tell some of the stories he'd been unable to tell because his UK actors all went on to bigger things leaving gaps to fill.
Unlike the UK version which seemed like a who's who of stars, only Macy was particularly well known. Joan Cusack played his love interest for the first few series, but she left and Emmy Rossum played Fiona - she was best known for a co-starring role in the indie film Beautiful Creatures and a failed music career (she also liked to get naked, an awful lot). Outside of these, all of the cast with the exception of Fiona's love interest - Justin Chatwin - were largely unknown actors or newcomers and he was only known for his role as Tom Cruise's son in the Spielberg remake of War of the Worlds. The anonymity of the cast helped make the series more ... visceral.
By the time the second season ended, if your were watching Shameless US you most definitely weren't watching a rehash of the UK version and by season four, the outrageous plots and breathtakingly jaw-dropping antics of the Gallaghers' meant you sometimes wondered how the show got onto US TV screens. Barely an episode went by without you hiding behind your fingers, or wincing or thinking, 'You have got to be fucking kidding me?'
It was quite brilliant. The real point was if you could think of something really shameless, then this TV show had already beaten you to it with balls on. Its brazen ability to tackle literally any subject, however taboo, and put a black comedy twist on it was genius. It was bold, bawdy, sexy, dirty, grubby, vile, nasty, violent, distasteful and... shameless, and within four years had firmly put the UK version in its place. Macy won awards as did Rossum and the rest of the family all had stories, arcs and lives that elevated them above just cast making up the numbers.
Lip - played by Jeremy Allen White - took the UK character's brilliance and ran with it. Looking like a young modern Robert Mitchum, White bestowed so much to his character that even now, 11 years down the road, I look at his character and think 'you're the reason I stuck with this show even when it got a bit patchy, because you are a quite brilliant actor and your portrayal of this oh-so tragic Gallagher brother is unsurpassed. If you haven't fallen in total love with the character by the end of season two you have no soul. Lip is the cleverest person in the show, he's also a hopeless alcoholic, romantic and desperate for a happy ending.
Ian - played by the now rising star Cameron Monaghan (the Joker in Gotham) - is a bipolar gay man who acts like a bruiser, is married to a psychopath and has done everything from join the army, served time, been the new Messiah and worked as a pole dancer in a gay club. He is a complex and emotional character and arguably the heart of the family; he's the one who actually looks like he cares, most of the time.
Debbie - played by Emma Kenney - was eight when she was cast and is cut from a similar character cloth to that of her late mother; she's selfish, self-determined, sexually-ambivalent, a single mother at 14 and absolutely barking mad and selfish to boot; she is both utterly dislikeable and lovable. You wouldn't let this girl have a child, yet Franny - her daughter - appears to be growing up far more normal than any of her aunts and uncles.
Carl - played by Ethan Cutkosky, the only known actor among the children for his work as a child actor - is an out-and-out psychopath who ends up finding his way into the police force after stints as an army cadet, burger flipper and Rastafarian drug dealer (he's not the black one).
Liam - played in the last three series by the brilliant Christian Isaiah - is in Lip's league as far as intelligence goes, but he's a black kid from an Irish-American family and faces all the shit that a black kid in Chicago would expect to face, especially now that he's 11. He is, in many ways, the next big tragedy in the series; he simply doesn't deserve to have been born into such a family of scumbags, but he's learned from the professionals and his relationship with Frank in latter seasons is almost sweet. I mean, Frank doesn't really like his kids - that's part of the ongoing story - but he has a soft spot for Liam and vice versa.
At the end of season 9, Emmy Rossum as Fiona finally left the show to pursue other things. As the actual head of the family, her journey from lovestruck woman in season one to hardened, angry, drunken coke-head in her final season ranks alongside Lip's decline as one of the most tragic journeys in the show. Some would call her a slapper; others would call her desperate for love because she would often give it out and seemingly receive little back. It was clear from about season 7 that they either had to do something radical with the character or write her out of the series. Rossum chose to leave and has largely been absent from screens since. As I write this there are just two episodes of the show left and my hope is she comes back for the final episode (like Fiona did in the final UK episode)...
Supporting characters Kev and Vee are probably the most consistently written people in the show; played admirably by Steve Howey and Shanola Hampton, this mix-race couple are both as sharp as knives and as stupid as clotted cream; they run the local bar and are really just part of the extended Gallagher family. I believe these two will get the real happy ending.
And that's the reason I'm writing this now rather than in two weeks when the final episode is shown. I expect that a show that has flirted with tragedy as often as it has with controversy is likely to end with a finality that will prevent at least one major character from being included in a resurrected series in 15 years time, should that ever happen. I also think some of the characters will get as close to a positive end as is possible, because no one wins the lottery in Shameless, no one gets the big breaks and everyone seems to go back to square one in this seemingly ongoing game of snakes and ladders...
I've invested 11 years in this TV show, for at least seven of those years I proudly boasted it was my favourite TV show and I think the ending might be a bit too emotional for me to sit and write anything about it.
What started as a mid-season filler show for six years, ended up as a prime time Showtime winner (and possibly the reason why things started to be toned down, once more people were watching). It has been full of births, deaths, marriages and people being left at the altar. It's had scams, miracles, unlikely affairs, unbelievable situations, murders, suicides and really reflected just what being poor in the USA really means for millions of people. As a social commentary it was never far from being slightly far-fetched... or was it? As a Brit watching from the other side of the Atlantic, living in the USA has never looked less appealing.
I can criticise the show; for starters it has always had a habit of leaving some plot lines dangling or ending stories without any real resolution, but isn't that life? You might get invested in a storyline only for it to be forgotten about or swept under the carpet or explained away in half a throwaway sentence. Carl's life seems to have been a constant source of unfinished storylines which I now think reflects the mad nature of his character and the fact that sometimes, in life, there are no outcomes, let alone satisfactory ones. Shameless (US) does this so well it sometimes feels like a social commentary documentary rather than the blackest of comedies.
How Frank gets so much sex with gorgeous women is also a puzzle, but it's happened consistently since season one, so you take it for granted that he'll use his wily charms to get into bed with someone far too good for him at least once a season. But Frank now has dementia and a character you will struggle to have any empathy for is slowly becoming another tragedy in the vast unfolding tragedy that has been the Gallagher family for over a decade. I don't expect we'll see another show quite like it in our lifetimes and that's a good thing, because while this version is an imitation, it's one that does it better than the source material.
If you ever fancy watching 11 seasons of classic TV you should start and end here.
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