Shameless US premiere (spoilers)

The foster families were not their family. And note that the kids were not all in the same foster family.

They didn’t want to be split up. What I’m wondering is how they managed to get back together. Also, the shots of them with their foster parents went by really quickly. Were there any easter eggs there?

This was a fun episode. Very mad caperish. And they got a new water heater out of it!

I’m wondering what’s up with the girl flirting with Frank. Does she actually like him, does she want him to get kicked out, or is she trying to piss off her father?

I don’t know, but it’s super skeevy. The actress is (obviously) of age but she just looks so damn young.

According to her imdb page she’s 22, but her most recent credit from 2010 has her playing the role of “13-yr old Charlotte,” which sounds about right.

Any idea how old you have to be to do nudity on TV? I looked up that girl last night because I also thought she was the same age as her character, and I’m just wondering. I know you have to be 18 to do porn.

Speaking of nudity, whoever writes this show must have a thing for Steve Howey- they show him naked every episode (including Full Monty). Not that I’m complaining, except every second he’s on screen naked means we don’t have Justin Chatwin on screen naked.

Since it’s premium cable I would assume it’s the same rules as the unedited Hollywood movies they show. I know Brooke Shields famously did super-underage nudity in Pretty Baby, so I’m guessing there isn’t a minimum age. (More recent examples are Thora Birch in American Beauty and Keira Knightley in The Hole, so it’s not a bygone relic of the 70s.)

I have to say that a pyromaniac escaped convict with Tourettes crashing a wedding is pretty original. Having a kid fend off a touchy-feely priest to get a fake wedding performed officially makes the Gallagher boys the trashiest brothers on TV.

Thora Birch’s family was present on the set for her scenes in American Beauty, as well as child labor representatives, according to imdb’s trivia.

The Gallagher Brothers remind me in some ways of a grittier version of the boys from Malcolm in the Middle, except instead of Dewey they have a serial killer for the next-to-youngest brother.

Somehow that makes it ickier to me. “Move your left titty slightly to the right, princess…”.

What was it about the principal’s turtles that made Steve know he was a Deadhead (or at least a stoner)?

The terrapin is right up there in GD iconography with the bears and skeletons with roses in their hair.

Just want to check with other viewers:
I find myself fast-forwarding over almost everything William H. Macy is in, as I find it dreadful, insulting, and have absolutely no sympathy to Frank.

However, I do enjoy watching what the kids go through. Much more believable (if requiring a small amount of suspension-of-disbelief) and enjoyable to watch.

Anyone have the same experience?

Pretty much. There’s nothing remotely redeeming about him, just awful stuff you haven’t learned yet. If he saved orphans from a burning school bus it would do little to make you like him (especially since it’d probably be a fire he started and he’d only be doing it to pick their pockets anyway).

To date and in no particular order he’s
*stolen a Red Cross bucket (after assaulting Santa)
*Buried a coke OD’d old woman in the back yard
*Continued cashing her SocSec checks (and apparently spending little or none of it on his family)
*Lost custody of his kids at least once
*Sponges off a desperate crazy woman
*Ogles her teenage daughter/his son’s girlfriend
*Attends none of his kid’s school functions
*Gets his family visited by thugs looking for him
*Kidnaps a homeless old guy and dresses him in drag (alright that was kind of funny)
*Passes out drunk and pisses on himself in front of his kids WHEN he comes home
*Spends every penny of his disability on booze and drugs
*Fakes being disabled

And on the likability chart there’s…

*Hasn’t been proven to have molested a kid

If anyone has seen the Brit version and this one I’m curious if the Frank character’s about the same in both. I actually find myself wondering what appealed to Macy about the role since he’s got a decent career and I’m sure had other options.

Absolutely. Well, I don’t fast forward. But I much more enjoy the scenes of the kids. Frank is best when he’s a pile on the floor to step over.

Although, this week I did enjoy the scene between him and Cusack, even if or perhaps because it was mostly Cusack speaking. But the expressions on Frank’s face at someone praising him for his supposed good deeds were priceless, and even a little bit touching.

In this week’s episode, did the Testing Service guy offer Lip a job?

Rather than a job, I think the guy from the testing service was trying to recruit Lip to attend the University of Chicago.

Frank in the original version is just as much as a fuck up, it is pretty depressing, but then he’s not the main star of the show as far as I’m concerned. The show is about his kids learning to live in spite of him, not with him.

I’m on the fence on the US version. I watched a few episodes yesterday and thought that most of the main characters were better portrayed in the original. The gay kid is much too clean and doesn’t come across as the bad ass gay dude that Ian was in the UK version. US Lip looks more like the UK Ian than UK Lip. Kevin and Veronica are also more convicing in the UK version. Fiona and Steve I prefer in the US version (especially Steve… woof!)
Some of the secondary characters are better in the US version though. Sheila’s ex husband, Kash, Tony. However, I have trouble envisioning US Mickey’s going through the same character development that his UK counterpart goes through.

I’m disappointed that the US version is identical to the UK version so far. Why bother when I can just watch the UK version again? That said, it seems to me that some of the US episodes play out earlier than in the UK. Didn’t Veronica’s brother only show up in Season 2 or 3?

Gotta say that Kash’s wife is uniquely understanding.

And that Justin Chatwin has one of the best asses on television.

I’m wondering if Ethel’s son Jonah will turn out to be a stepson who is her own age and who she’s in love with.

It would be interesting if you found out her old husband is named Frank and lives in Juniper Creek.

  1. So Frank is Manic when not drunk. Interesting concept.

  2. I think Ian’s so-content-with-the-world grin, when sitting between the closeted gay brother and his best-friend sister was the most amusing and entertaining non-verbal scene I’ve ever seen.

  3. I can’t wait to see what the plot-line for cult-girl is going to follow. I loved seeing Kev be so paternal, and caring towards the poor girl.

  4. Why am I not shocked about Steve lying about… everything.