I’ve decided that I’m going to start writing blog posts about my thoughts on the episodes of the new Showtime series Shameless. I’m also planning to do the same thing with the new show Episodes. I only got Showtime slightly less than a year ago, so I’m planning to start watching Californication now too. However, since the only episode of Californication that I’ve seen other than the season four premiere of Calfornication was the pilot episode, which was included on one of the DVD sets of another Showtime series that I’ve watched. I can’t remember what series DVD set it was though since that was several years ago. Anyway, I was fairly confused by the season four premiere and wasn’t really able to keep track of the characters and how they are all connected, so I don’t feel comfortable doing thought posts on Californication at this time, anyway, onto my thoughts on the pilot episode of Shameless.
All in all, I absolutely loved the pilot. I was excited to see what the show was like ever since I found out that Showtime was planning to do an American version of Shameless. For those who might not know this, the original Shameless was made in the U.K., which for the record I have never seen, so I can’t compare the two. Given the fact that a lot of the early reviews were very mixed or were saying that is was just downright bad, I didn’t know what to expect quality-wise going into to this, but if the pilot episode was any indication the U.S. version of Shameless is going to be a great show. It also looks like I might end up considering this to be one of my favorite Showtime TV series and one of my top favorite TV shows in general.
Basically, the pilot introduced all of the characters and the premise of the show. Since the dad, Frank, is always off getting drunk Fiona, the oldest of the kid has to take care of all of her brothers and sisters. Fiona meets this guy named, Steve, at a club who tries to stop a guy from stealing her purse and gets in beaten up the process of trying to do so. He takes an interest in her after they go back her family’s house and he meets her brothers and sisters. They almost have sex, but they are interrupted when some cops bring Frank home who’s on the verge of being passed out drunk. After seeing how strapped for cash Fiona’s family he buys them a new dryer.
They also go on a date later where Steve tells her that he just wants to take care of her and give her nice thing since she’s always taking care of her family and there’s nobody to take care of her, because she’s unlike anyone he’s ever met before. He also makes breakfast for the family at the end of the episode. I don’t know what to think of Steve yet. I think Fiona is right to be skeptical of his intentions with Fiona. Yes, he’s being nice to her, but I think he has a hidden agenda of some kind. Also, from what I understand Steve apparently steals people’s cars and sells them for a living.
Lip tutors Shelia’s daughter, Karen, but Karen frequently hides under the table during their tutoring sessions while she gives him blow jobs. Lip finds Ian’s secret stash of gay porn, so he arranges to have Karen give him a blow job so he can find out if Ian really is gay, but Karen’s dad catches her in the act and Lip and Ian are forced to flee once he starts freaking out and Lip injures his ankle in the process. Lip goes to see Ian at work and realizes that he’s sleeping with a man that he works with who’s married after he catches them both wearing one of others’ shows. Later on Lip and Ian talk and Lip appears to be accepting of the fact that Ian is gay. I’m really anxious to see where things go with the character Ian and how they handle the portrayal of his sexuality.
Kev, A.K.A. Kevin, and Veronica are the Gallagher’s neighbors, and they are constantly over at their house. In one scene Ian was at Kev and Veronica’s place to get some medical supplies to treat Lip’s ankle after he injures it and walked in on Kev when he was sleeping, but quickly begins to wake up and rolls over in bed, which exposes himself and Ian, who’s gay, can’t help but look. Kev is also the bartender at the bar Frank goes to and accepts Frank’s disability checks as payments for his drinks.
I also thought that it was kind of funny that the little girl, Debbie, helped her family financially buy stealing some of the money for charity. I’m curious to see what else they do with the character Debbie.
There’s also another little kid named Carl who’s almost nine and apparently likes to bring home stray animals and tortures them. This was alluded to when they showed him holding a cat in one hand and a blowtorch in the other. I didn’t like that part, because I love cats and the thought of cats being tortured upsets me greatly. Carl also helps his family out financially by stealing money from the collection plate at church. I have to say that I do think that the kid who plays Carl is really cute.
Here are just some general thoughts that I had about the pilot episode of Shameless:
I’m really anxious to see how Steve Howey plays Kev as the show continues, because he’s one of the main reasons that I decided to check Shameless out in the first place. I’ve been a fan ever since he was on the show Reba. It was really interesting to see him in a dramatic role since I’ve only seen him play comedic roles up until now. Plus, I’m very intrigued by the character Kev at the moment, The pilot also gave me the chance to literally see a whole new side of Steve Howey since the scene where Ian walks in on Kev while he’s sleeping involved Steve doing full frontal nudity.
I was really surprised by how little screen time William H. Macy had in the pilot given the fact that most of the trailers for the show made it seem like he was the star of the show. I’m sure they will show more of Frank in future episodes though. Based on the pilot it seems like the U.S. version of Shameless at its’ core is really all about the kids and not Frank. At the moment, it seems like the true star of the show is Emmy Rossum, who plays Fiona. I’m curious to see if the British version of Shameless is the same way or if it focuses more on Frank.
I absolutely love seeing Joan Cusack play Shelia and all her neurotic tendencies along with the fact that she’s agoraphobic. I’ve always loved Joan as an actress, so I’m really looking forward to where they take the character Shelia and how Joan plays the part.
I can’t definitively decide what character is my favorite after just having seen the pilot, but based on the pilot alone my favorite characters were Fiona, Lip, Ian, Kev, Steve and Shelia.
One thing that I’ve always loved all of the Showtime TV series that I’ve watched (Weeds, Nurse Jackie, United States of Tara, and Californication, to name a few.) is that they all feature characters that have a great deal of moral ambiguity, and Shameless appears to be no different.
The only complaint that I have about the pilot is that I found the scenes to be very chaotic and hard to follow at times, especially the scenes involving most of the Gallagher family when they are all together. Hopefully, big group scenes in future episodes will be written in a less chaotic manner where it’s easier to follow what characters are in the scenes and who’s talking to who. I found scenes with Lip and Ian especially hard to follow, because I thought that they look so much alike it was hard for me to discern between the two of them even when just one of them was in a scene. Perhaps my confusion was simply due to the fact that this was the pilot episode and I was completely unfamiliar with the characters and most of the actors since with the exception of Steve Howey I haven’t seen any of their previous work as characters. I’m sure that it will get easier for me to keep track of the characters in future episodes now that I know who they are.
All in all, I really did love the pilot episode of Shameless an awful lot and I can’t wait to see the next episode that’s airing this Sunday. I give it 3 out of 4 stars and A-.
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