# Shameless Season 2 Starts Tonight **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 8, 2012, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shameless-season-2-starts-tonight/608861 "2012-01-08T22:58:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2012, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shameless-season-2-starts-tonight/608861/41 "2012-04-03T04:28:46Z")
There were a couple of others but they got so little response we just consolidated. Feel free to comment on any episode from either season. The [AVClub guy](http://www.avclub.com/tvclub/tvshow/shameless,151/) gives really good reviews of each ep, though I often disagree with him. I was glad, for example, that they literally threw Frank’s sorry ass to the curb in the snow last night in spite of “humanizing” him by showing his mom and all; the fact he grew up in dysfunction doesn’t exonerate him for being a shitbag father and husband. I thought the Jimmy:Fiona relationship was great in the last couple of episodes. I really wish that whatever went down twixt Marco and Estefania had gone down back in Brazil though; she adds nothing. (Of course if you’re a straight male she might add a lot more than she does to me.) ---
**Author:** ![Batsinma\_Belfry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea5d25/32.png) [@Batsinma\_Belfry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Batsinma_Belfry)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2012, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shameless-season-2-starts-tonight/608861/42 "2012-04-03T04:59:36Z")
When Frank was dealing with the security guard, after springing Monica, I knew she was going to run off with the other chic. I was afraid they would take Debbie with them. I hope Monica doesn’t come back next season. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2012, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shameless-season-2-starts-tonight/608861/43 "2012-04-03T10:41:16Z")
**Sampiro** , Estefania is definitely hot but she, and that whole plot line, are just annoying. Fiona and Veronica are plenty hot. The show doesn’t need more if it means having an annoying distracting side plot. ---
**Author:** ![SykoSkotty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@SykoSkotty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SykoSkotty)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2012, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shameless-season-2-starts-tonight/608861/44 "2012-04-03T13:36:06Z")
Another fan of this show checking in - and as previously stated, this show doesn’t get the credit it deserves. Well written, well directed and fantastically acted. This is in my top five and will stay there. ---
**Author:** ![lorene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/65b543/32.png) [@lorene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lorene)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2012, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shameless-season-2-starts-tonight/608861/45 "2012-04-03T15:42:33Z")
[Salon.com](http://www.salon.com/2012/04/02/shameless_2/?source=newsletter) column about Shameless. Count me among the really bummed that we have to wait so long for the next season. I love this show. My husband and I are in the habit of watching the same episode a few times a week, just because it’s on and we love it. ---
**Author:** ![RetroVertigo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b38774/32.png) [@RetroVertigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RetroVertigo)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2012, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shameless-season-2-starts-tonight/608861/46 "2012-04-03T17:01:35Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > I’m hating that there’s going to be such a long wait now for new episodes. Showtime’s website says "New Season Coming in 2013 > ". > > [Watch Showtime Shows & Movies - Try for Free](http://www.sho.com/site/shameless/home.sho) > > Either they’ll skip ahead a year in the story, or we’ll just have to ignore how much older the kids look. > > We’ll miss a year of Sheila and Todd raising that baby? We’ll miss the fights over Lip completing or not completing high school? Will Karen just be back home or will she have been gone a year (and possibly for good)? > > They’ll have to fill in a year of what’s been going on and then take off from there. That can really put a crimp in an otherwise excellent show. I’m pretty sure this is close to the timeframe between S1 and S2. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2012, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shameless-season-2-starts-tonight/608861/47 "2012-04-03T18:18:20Z")
> [@RetroVertigo](#): > > I’m pretty sure this is close to the timeframe between S1 and S2. Yes, and that was also somewhat annoying. ---
**Author:** ![RetroVertigo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b38774/32.png) [@RetroVertigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RetroVertigo)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2012, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shameless-season-2-starts-tonight/608861/48 "2012-04-04T14:36:51Z")
After watching the season finale, I can’t decide who is more of a despicable character, Frank or Karen. ---
**Author:** ![lorene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/65b543/32.png) [@lorene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lorene)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2012, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shameless-season-2-starts-tonight/608861/49 "2012-04-04T14:54:51Z")
> [@RetroVertigo](#): > > After watching the season finale, I can’t decide who is more of a despicable character, Frank or Karen. I think Karen. Frank does some pretty despicable things, without a doubt, but I generally think of them as things he does as a result of being an addict. Karen, on the other hand, I think has sociopathic tendencies completely unrelated to any substances she may or may not partake in. I’m generally well able to separate out what I see on a TV show from real life and remind myself that these are _fictional characters_, but I really, truly felt hatred and rage for Karen over the past few episodes. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2012, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shameless-season-2-starts-tonight/608861/50 "2012-04-04T15:13:39Z")
> [@RetroVertigo](#): > > After watching the season finale, I can’t decide who is more of a despicable character, Frank or Karen. One of the very very few moments I saw even a glimmer of anything remotely like caring about any of his children in Frank was when he stood in the lawn and let Lip pee on him after the video of him with Karen was posted. In the first place, his sex with Karen was about the only illegal thing he did that I really didn’t consider his fault (she didn’t quite rape him, but I don’t think he had full control over his actions due to being high/drunk and she was totally the instigator), yet he didn’t try to get out of being punished. His allowing Lip to get some satisfaction was enough of a paternal gesture that I’d reduce his sentence for other crimes and misdemeanors to ‘life at hard labor and 13 lashes per month well laid on’ to ‘life at hard labor and 12 lashes per month well laid on’. Not that this would help that much since I’d send him to the gallows anyway for causing the death of Butterface (sorry- don’t remember her real name). I’ve never seen any glimmer of caring about others in Karen, at least not since her meltdown with her dad at the Purity Ball. Of course he had that coming to a degree (and it was the catalyt for her mounting Frank), _but_ the only reason she was there in the first place was because he promised her a car. The fact she was so intent on selling her baby to the highest bidder with no concern for any other factor is even more evil when you remember she got $75K from her father’s insurance. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2012, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shameless-season-2-starts-tonight/608861/51 "2012-04-04T15:20:55Z")
For some reason, Frank’s hightailing it out the door when Monica tried to kill herself just struck me as particularly good acting by William H. Macy. It showed not just Frank’s cowardice, but also the fact he really does love this woman and can’t bear to see her die. I was so glad to see Ian refuse to let him take the beer. That was just one damned thing too much after all the shit he’s pulled; he stole enough from the Kash N Grab, basically blackmailing the kid after witnessing the gay sex going on, that Ian probably didn’t have a paycheck for a month. I hope Louise Fletcher gets an Emmy for playing Granny Gallagher. She was great- over-the-top and believable at the same time (and looks so much like my great-aunt who used to expose herself in the highway it was eerie watching the bathing scenes). ---
**Author:** ![Noelq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noelq/32/16438_2.png) [@Noelq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noelq)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2012, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shameless-season-2-starts-tonight/608861/52 "2012-04-04T19:08:34Z")
I think they got a liiiiitle too cutesy with the plotting by making Jimmy’s dad and Ian’s lover the same guy. That’s just too much of a coincidence to be believable. Yeah, I know, I know… ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2012, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shameless-season-2-starts-tonight/608861/53 "2012-04-04T22:48:28Z")
> [@Noelq](#): > > I think they got a liiiiitle too cutesy with the plotting by making Jimmy’s dad and Ian’s lover the same guy. That’s just too much of a coincidence to be believable. > > Yeah, I know, I know… It’s not very believable, but for showing us Ian naked, they could make Monica’s butch black lesbian truckdriver friend Jimmy’s older sister the nun and I’d forgive them. ---
**Author:** ![Noelq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noelq/32/16438_2.png) [@Noelq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noelq)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2012, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shameless-season-2-starts-tonight/608861/54 "2012-04-04T23:50:08Z")
I really like that Sheila and Jody took the baby. For some reason… I like those two together. It makes a freaky sense. And it about broke my heart when Lip saw the asian baby. The look in his face was just terrible – some great acting there. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Hamsandwich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4bbf92/32.png) [@Darth\_Hamsandwich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Hamsandwich)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2012, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shameless-season-2-starts-tonight/608861/55 "2012-04-05T14:36:56Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > I was glad, for example, that they literally threw Frank’s sorry ass to the curb in the snow last night in spite of “humanizing” him by showing his mom and all; the fact he grew up in dysfunction doesn’t exonerate him for being a shitbag father and husband. See, now this I don’t get. I can think of at least two episodes where the Gallagher family freaked out and went on an exhaustive search because they thought Frank was either dead or missing. Then they leave him outside to freeze to death? Does not compute. ---
**Author:** ![lorene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/65b543/32.png) [@lorene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lorene)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2012, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shameless-season-2-starts-tonight/608861/56 "2012-04-05T15:01:22Z")
> [@Darth\_Hamsandwich](#): > > See, now this I don’t get. I can think of at least two episodes where the Gallagher family freaked out and went on an exhaustive search because they thought Frank was either dead or missing. Then they leave him outside to freeze to death? Does not compute. I took it as a sign that they had finally had enough, particularly after everything that happened with Monica. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Hamsandwich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4bbf92/32.png) [@Darth\_Hamsandwich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Hamsandwich)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2012, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shameless-season-2-starts-tonight/608861/57 "2012-04-05T15:18:11Z")
> [@lorene](#): > > I took it as a sign that they had finally had enough, particularly after everything that happened with Monica. I don’t buy it. A strong, underlying tone in the series has always been “We leave no Gallagher behind, no matter how badly they fuck up”. ---
**Author:** ![lorene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/65b543/32.png) [@lorene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lorene)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2012, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shameless-season-2-starts-tonight/608861/58 "2012-04-05T15:25:05Z")
> [@Darth\_Hamsandwich](#): > > I don’t buy it. A strong, underlying tone in the series has always been “We leave no Gallagher behind, no matter how badly they fuck up”. That’s true. I also must confess that I still haven’t seen the first 4 episodes of season 1, so I shouldn’t be talking with any sense of authority. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Noelq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noelq/32/16438_2.png) [@Noelq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noelq)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2012, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shameless-season-2-starts-tonight/608861/59 "2012-04-05T17:47:59Z")
> [@Darth\_Hamsandwich](#): > > I don’t buy it. A strong, underlying tone in the series has always been “We leave no Gallagher behind, no matter how badly they fuck up”. I think Frank may have finally exceeded that. Between trying to sell off the baby, ditching them for Sheila, taking ALL the squirrel money with Monica for massive amounts of drugs, the last straw may have been his attempt to fight Ian for the beer. They may have just had… enough. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2012, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shameless-season-2-starts-tonight/608861/60 "2012-04-05T21:35:09Z")
> [@Noelq](#): > > I think Frank may have finally exceeded that. Between trying to sell off the baby, ditching them for Sheila, taking ALL the squirrel money with Monica for massive amounts of drugs, the last straw may have been his attempt to fight Ian for the beer. They may have just had… enough. I think the $9,000 squirrel money is the big one. Fiona and the kids busted their ass making that money, every kid but Liam pitching in, and it was to last them for months, and this sorry piece of shit and his crazy wife go through it in three days without so much as a “sorry hon”, and this after years of neglect. Frank even prided himself on neglect with Lip as “making you independent”. I think he’s officially been disowned. The kids need to frame Frank for a crime that was committed by a rich person who can pay them. It would be an excellent solution: he gets three hots and a cot, the kids are rid of him, the rich guy gets off, win-win-win. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shameless-season-2-starts-tonight/608861.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shameless-season-2-starts-tonight/608861.md?page=4)