I gotta say, this episode is probably going to be my last. A dysfunctional family is one thing, and I can even see the pitiful humor in an alcoholic father, but I’m just not gonna watch a show where a drunken dad beats his children, and it’s supposedly a comedy. And then Fiona punches out her boyfriend a little later.
This is supposed to be a comedy, right?
I just watched the second episode yesterday, and was disappointed in it after enjoying the first. I think it’s supposed to be more of a “dramedy.”
I hate Steve chasing Fiona like a fool. Fine the first episode, but I have the suspicion that that’s going to be their relationship arc every single episode. And, not to be a prude, but that last sex scene seemed a little close to rape for laughs for my taste.
I’ll still watch probably, but it’s going to be more of a hate watch.
My comment to my wife was: Hollywood has an odd idea of poor people. I knew a similar family growing up and there isn’t anything endearing about a dad like that. In Hollywood poor land the fridge is always well stocked and the house is always clean, with just a bit of clutter to show that they don’t have a maid. Everybody has plenty of cigarettes, pot and beer, even the kids, and everybody is always dressed nicely. All on Fiona’s burger flipping job and Lip’s tutoring. Riiiiight.
The scene where the little girl took the baby to school for show and tell? That would only work in someone’s imagination.
So far I’m sort of enjoying it though and will probably keep going until exhaustion sets in around episode 5.
I thought the scene with Frank head butting his son was really ugly. Maybe if I’d mentally prepared for it as drama I wouldn’t have been so turned off by it, but all the promos have shown it as a goofy dysfunctional family comedy. The sucker punch of the bouncer in the first episode should have clued me in.
I thought Joan Cusack was great though. She always plays a ditzy crazy character but sometimes it really works. And the Canada plotline was funny, plus frankly I was with Steve.
I’ll keep watching for the Justin Chatwick and Steve Howey nudity. In fact if the latter had been naked on Reba I’d probably watch it in reruns.
I wonder how long before Charles Durning and or Dennis Leary show up in guest roles. Both seem tailor made for Gallagher kin.
Somehow I got the impression that the show would be gritty and realistic, and I’ve been extremely disappointed by how silly and cartoonish it is. Maybe that was an unfair expectation on my part.
In the first episode, I was only paying close enough attention to the Veronica character’s story about Steve being a rich millionaire to catch that she made it up out of nothing, but I got the impression he was actually rich for unknown reasons or at least drove a very expensive car.
So I’m thinking to myself, how lame can you get? A young wealthy dude pursuing some destitute chick? Then at the last minute it turns out he’s not rich and he just steals cars by taking off at high speed! So, at least, they found a way to make that even stupider.
Did I even get that part of the plot right? I was not really paying close attention. Second episode seemed to have about the same level of sillyness.
I couldn’t get beyond the promos, and I’m not surprised, based on these comments, that it has lived down to my expectations.
Nothing funny about a drunk that can’t afford to take care of his family. I couldn’t see how they were going to make it a comedy, and who wants to see the real-life drama that a situation like that can provide? That might be interesting as a movie, but not as a series coming into my living room once a week. Macy looks like he hasn’t had a bath in a month… why do I want to watch this? To watch him beat his kid? To see rape-like sex? See a fall down drunk father throwing up or sleeping outside?
I like him a lot, so I was a bit disappointed to see Macy in the starring role.
I hope it dies a quick death.
There’s a couple of interviews with Paul Abbott here, the British show’s creator and original writer. He discusses how his own rough-as-guts childhood informed the scripts, and talks about what he wanted to achieve with them.
I can’t speak for the US version, but the first two series of the British one were full of both humour and drama. They celebrated the ingenuity and determination characters like Fiona brought to surviving on the estate and keeping the family together, but refused to portray them as either victims or downtrodden saints.
On the issue of money, the British Frank and most of his family would all have been drawing some kind of state benefits, and I seem to remember that all the kids were constantly scabbing around for odd jobs and rackets to earn a few quid however they could. When they did get any kind of employment, it’d be strictly cash-in-hand and neither the taxman nor the benefits office would ever hear about it.
I don’t know where all of you got the idea that this was supposed to be a comedy. As a fan of the UK original, I’d describe it as a drama with some very funny moments. And, yes, Frank Gallagher isn’t a great father, but you have to remember that their mother abandoned them. So he’s at least better than that.
It wasn’t just you. I was expecting something a lot more believable than what I got. I made it about halfway through the second episode and I think that’s as far as I’m going to go.
BTW, I was amused that when Eddie Jackson punched Frank in the bar, Frank ended up on the floor, but without spilling his beer.
I was amused at Sheila’s reaction when he “accidentally” dropped his towel- I don’t think he was expecting her to step on it.
“If I’m going to embarrass myself I might as well do it right.” I agree that it was essentially a rape scene but then he was there trying to take advantage of her, she just flipped the situation. Plus he deserves pretty much anything that happens to him.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who caught that.
As to the OP, I rather like the show. But I’ve always had a dark sense of humor. I’m wondering if the OP gets offended when Homer Simpson chokes the shit out of his son? If not, what’s the difference?
Ian had said in the first episode that Frank couldn’t stand him and Fiona didn’t deny it. She just said “He doesn’t really know you.” I have to say I like seeing a TV gay kid for a change who’s street smart and who would probably respond to bullying by sending the bully to the ER, and his affair with the much older married Muslim guy is understandable from his standpoint (take affection and free stuff where you can get it).
Was that a girl’s bike Lip was riding? (And am I the only one who finds Lip strangely cute?)