Shameless

Cafe Society
1

I know Season 5 ended a while ago and it won’t be back until next January, but I’ve been watching this series over the past month and I’m really into it.

I looked for previous threads about this show but didn’t find any, aside from a few passing mentions in other threads. Anyone here a fan of the show?

Unfortunately, only Season 1 is available in Region 1 DVD. I guess it never got popular enough in the US or Canada. I can see that - it’s incredibly hard to follow the dialogue. Although I’d get it on DVD in a heartbeat just to have the subtitles.

I’m finding it hard to describe the show to others. Maybe Desperate Housewives meets Trailer Park Boys where everyone talks like Lister from Red Dwarf.

I’ll be embarking on Season 5 starting this week…so try not to spoiler it for me (no big deal if you do).

I’ve read snippets on here and other forums where people don’t quite like seasons 4 and 5. I do tend to agree that I miss Fiona and Steve, and I miss Veronica and Kev even more (goddammn that guy is dreamy). I’m not a huge fan of the Maguire storylines either, and Monica drives me batty. But, I still like to see the kids grow up and “keep an eye on” the Estates.

With all the character moves, it’s definitely like a soap opera to me. But one I can really sink my teeth into.

2

Big fan here. Soap opera, drama and comedy all at the same time, that’s the way I tend to describe it. But to be honest, I just tell people it’s quite unlike anything else, and that they have to sit and watch it to get the full picture. (Perhaps the inability to pigeon-hole it in this way made it more difficult to promote in the American TV market?)

I can understand why some people haven’t been so keen on the recent series, with the police characters in particular tending to drift towards caricature, but I still feel the main strengths are still there, in the originality of the plots, the brilliant detail in the script, and the strength of the ensemble cast of the Gallaghers.

Eeeek! Don’t let any Mancunians, or Liverpudlians for that matter, hear you say that! :wink: The only scouser in the show, as far as I can remember, is Mimi.
I know one of the actors, too, through a family connection, but only met him after becoming familiar with his character. A very strange experience, as I was a little drunk at the time and we proceeded to get much drunker…

3

Ah, you’re right. I couldn’t think of any other British TV characters with northern accents. Who’s a famous Mancurian I could use?

Is it Marty? Did you expect him to go all tourettes on you? :smiley: Seems like he gets caught around town and asked to spout off a bit. Creepy!

4

I can’t think of any who would be a reference point of any use, except possibly the other Gallaghers - Liam & Noel.

5

Missed the edit window: Certainly not Daphne off Frasier, despite the character supposedly being Mancunian! BTW note the spelling, no there’s not any logic to it :slight_smile: . Nor for that matter Marty Crane, played by an actual Mancunian.

6

I’m also an American who loves the show. I came late to the first series on BBC America, so I bought the DVDs to catch up and then I’ve bought the DVDs of every subsequent series. Generally, they were released in October or November, but the fifth series was released in March, immediately following the conclusion of the broadcast. I wish they released the show on Region 1 DVD, because then I could just borrow them from Netflix instead of buying them at great expense from Amazon.co.uk.

I don’t want to spoil anything, but you may not be happy if you’re not a fan of the Maguires or Monica, as all are prominent in the fifth series. On the other hand, there are sixteen episodes.

7

Yeah, I’ve read as much. The Wikipedia entry on the show is pretty much a straight-through spoiler so I don’t worry about spoilering the show for myself, I just enjoy how they get to those ends.

Do you put the closed caption/subtitles on when you watch the DVDs? There’s a lot of times when I find myself in the dark for a few minutes because I just can’t parse what they’re saying. I have to let it play for a bit until I figure out what is going on.

8

On the other hand, the Maguire characters do get fleshed out and developed quite a bit, so I imagine they could start to grow on people a bit.

9

Bump for the AM Brits. And because I’m up really late.

10

Mrs Princhester’s family is domestic stability and propriety personified, but they are from working/lower middle class Coventry. Consequently both she and my mother-in-law identify with, and are appalled by, and strangely attracted to, this show all at the same time. They find it hilarious, but methinks there is just a little edge of nervousness to their laughter…