Season 7 was where I view the show comes to its natural conclusion. Debbie was able to find a steady career to help support her and her baby. Ian was able to get ahold of his bipolar and find a stable job that he truly cares about. Carl was able to evolve from a child with sociopathic tendencies to someone who has found a purpose in life with the military. Lip is truly working to get ahold of his alcoholism and try and go back to school when he is stable. And Fiona was able to find a potential way out of the neighborhood while still supporting her family. This here is my true ending of Shameless
@@1367DammanKOI truly don’t understand how Lip’s arc is the most disliked, it’s an absolutely perfect portrayal of wasted potential held back by himself and his past. That scene in the last episode when he’s a delivery driver and fixes somebody’s computer problem and then is immediately dismissed sums it up perfectly. I truly think a lot of the fanbase wanted the Gallaghers to end up filthy rich and happy and happily ever after the end, they’re just too embarrassed to admit that so they’ll talk about vague ‘bad writing’ as if they hadn’t praised the show for being ‘realistic’ for years
@@1367DammanKO This! Was it a perfect ending? No, but I did really enjoy it cause it made a really good job ar portraying that life is not static. Was Tami pregnant? Who knows. Will Lip ever find a job to fullfil is true potential? who knows. Will Ian a Mickey ever find the way to become parents? Who knows. Will Debbie find a healthy relationship? Who knows. We'll Carl become te new owner of the Alibi? Who knows. Every character had some unfinised bussines in the finale, they all had maybes and wants to resolve cause THAT'S life, it does not end once everyhing his neatly wrapped and has come to an agreable conclusion. Life keeps going and sometines what seemed to be already finished bussines can come undone and force you to figure yourlsef and you life up all again.
I gotta agree I just finished my first rewatch and I probably tweeted as if the show was ending three times and I meant it most in season 7 lol. Just wanted it to end but I knew i had four more seasons to drag through
she was my favorite character but they handled the last part of her arch incredibly badly in my opinion. like I absolutely hated that she was turned into a compulsive cheater. yes, she was always a woman who liked to have sex, but there was nothing about her that would imply that once she has a great partner she would just throw it all away to hook up with his brother. it didn't make sense and it just seemed like they wanted to make her suffer again.
i completely agree with how they had Lip’s college experience play out bc it is so realistic. when youve lived in poverty all your life and you see all the wealth on a college campus…Class shock is real, and disorienting. I was blown away by the amount of money I saw on campus. Kids in Mercedes and Audi’s who had full meal plans to eat three times a day! but who opted for off campus food instead! they got an allowance from family to buy things and took unpaid internships bc they didn’t need the money… it was so humbling and also depressing
I relate to your comment and Lip's experience so much! I got a scholarship to a private university. I grew up very poor with neglectful parents. I got to college and was surrounded by pampered kids who had never known want or hunger. The very idea was unfathomable to them. The culture shock I experienced coming out of poverty was pretty stark. I resented so many of my peers. They had no idea how good and easy their lives were.
I relate to Lip a lot. I was pressured into going into college when I really didn't want to go. In the end, dropping out worked out for me. I have a full-time job with full benefits now. College doesn't always guarantee success.
Absolutely this. I’m heading into my sophomore year of college this fall and my freshman year was a total shock. I live in the inner city, I grew up poor, raised by immigrant parents, and by the time I’d graduated high school, my graduating class lost around 12 students due to gang violence. Now imagine the shock I felt when I went to the state university, was surrounded by wealthy peers who grew up higher-middle class suburbia driving their Jeeps, Audis, Mercedes, BMWs, and even the latest model of luxury Ram and Ford pickup trucks (that arguably probably have never seen a day of work in their lives besides driving to Top Golf); spending money like it’s nothing. Rushing a fraternity was also quite disorienting, it felt like every other guy rushing had connections and through those connections, was able to land a bid. I had to start from the bottom and work my way up. Not to mention, now that I’m in a fraternity, it’s insane how many guys’ parents pay their dues and give them allowances. Meanwhile, here I was sacrificing free time working to make ends meet. Don’t even get me started on the gentrification of the town adjacent to the university. Entire blocks where cheaper and affordable older houses and apartments once stood has now been bought up and torn down by developers to make room for massive apartment complexes with rent that only students with wealthy parents can afford (there’s no way anyone’s making rent working part time). Because entire blocks have been swallowed up by these giant blocky modern apartment buildings, the rent of older homes and apartments has gone up.
I grew up poor, and oldest daughter who took on a lot of responsibilities like Fiona but I was also the "smart one" like Lip. So when I got to college, it was a major shock. I went to a private Christian school and the wealth disparity was gross. I ended up rooming in a triple that year, one roommate from home, one who lived in state who got to go home every weekend. I knew a classmate who had their car shipped from HAWAII. It was insane. Like Lip, I flunked out, not because I couldn't do it, but because I didn't care anymore and became an addict. I'm 5 years sober now.
Lip was my favorite character in the first few seasons then carl in the later ones when he entered military school… Lip had the better chance to get out of their toxic lives … both had people who gave a positive influence and offered help for Carl it was dominique’s dad and Lip who had more than one ( his guidance counsellor in HS, the professor from the SATs, Professor youens and possibly amanda’s dad if he continued dating her) the difference between them is that carl listen to good advice and knows what he wants he more disciplined and focused in accomplishing is goals. If Lip had half of his IQ but was focused and disciplined, as carl he would had a better life.
I can’t get over how unfair it is for there to be any Fiona hate… by the time we meet this family Fiona is the only reason they are still alive - she assumed responsibility for her siblings and she loves them, but they are absolutely not her responsibility. She gave up her entire youth and her parents sabotaged her along the way and she will never get those years back.
The only people that hate Fiona are Lip stans, and the majority of Lip stans are people who watched the Bear before watching Shameless, and those people first saw Jeremy Allen White in those Calvin Klein ads. That’s all I have to say about that
The only issue I have with Fiona is that she abandoned Liam. She is his legal guardian, and she just leaves him. The rest are grown, but he's only like 11 I think. I felt so bad for him when Lip wanted to sell the house, and he's trying to find a place to stay. I don't understand why people hate her, but I do understand why some people aren't a fan. I think the show fumbled her exit with not taking Liam with her to start a new life.
@@colehenry7166 that's because the actor for Liam wanted to stay, but Emmy (Fiona) left because they wouldn't pay her what she was asking for. As Macy (Frank) was being paid waay more than her. So, she dipped and said see ya!
@aliceinchainsburns08 that's totally fair for her to leave. My gripe isn't with the actor so much as the writers mishandling a characters exit. To clarify, I'm not a Fiona hater, I quite enjoy her character but I feel the show forgot about Fiona being legal guardian. It would have been very easy for Fiona to leave signed documents to transfer guardian ship over to lip. It's a plot hole I feel sours the character as she exits. I do agree that Fiona gets way to much hate for stupid reasons
@@shikara24my lord, was that a string of assumptions in a row 😂 there has been a Lip v Fiona debate in the fanbase from the beginning and years before The Bear was even thought of. It just sounds like youre projecting a bit. Calvin Klein ads? Youve lost the plot and it sounds like a personal thing
Except for season 7-8. Fiona was real cunty the whole time then. No reason for her to start acting all “fed up” with her damn siblings when she signed up to be their guardian and fought for custody. And she still fucked up. And then acted like everyone was out to get her and the world owes her shit because of taking care of the kids when yes it was dropped on her when she was you her but she had the opportunity to go be her own person when those kids went to foster homes. But no she won custody and then acted like she doesn’t have to worry about shit once Liam had coke and she fucked up her probation. She literally signed up for 50% of the bullshit she put up with after gaining custody, and 45% of it happened BECAUSE she decided to go on the most destructive path she could possibly go down and act like everyone owes her a favor. No one owed anything to anyone in this show. That’s what family is. You just do shit because your family. And I’m mainly talking about all the kids and Fiona. But she tried to play victim half the damn time when shit happened because of shit SHE did. The only thing I can argue had nothing to do with her or her choices, was frank telling her Shawn was still using and it ruined the wedding. THATS IT. Out of season 7-8 that is the only thing that happened where she couldn’t control the result because of her drinking or fucking around with the wrong people and making dumb choices.
@@RealRockstar818 She was young and trying to bring her siblings, who are ungrateful at times , home. She’s allowed to make mistakes and be a little cunty. Get over yourself 😂.
Unpopular opinion, but Fiona was Frank’s favorite child. There’s two times where Frank is in a near death experience and it’s Fiona who he thinks of. The first instance is the one mentioned in the video where Frank thinks the little girl is Fiona, then at the end of series before Frank dies he is just wondering around Chicago and all the places he goes to are related to Fiona (Patsy’s restaurant, the apartment building she owned). In his most vulnerable moments it’s Fiona he thinks of. Not to mention the few times Frank has referred to Fiona as being beautiful.
That little girl gave up her last moments to comfort a piece of garbage that didn't deserve that beautiful angels time at all it was absolutely heartbreaking she was there in that situation without her father but frank didn't deserve that girls final moments it was hard to watch
I mean she was his first child. The memory he experienced with the girl in the hospital was him feeling guilty for leaving her at the park. He loved Monica and prolly was really excited the first time he heard she was pregnant, maybe thinking having Fiona would change him and Monica…but sadly she couldn’t
Not that I’m saying anything unpopular, but I really love Ian and Mickey. Those actors just grew so well into those characters; their chemistry held up the final seasons and radiates through the screen.
There had to be one sibling with a consistent (if messy) relationship for us to root for. And for me, mickey made Ian way more likeable. I love cameron monaghan but Ian as a character always bored me by himself.
As much as I saw Mickey and his family as crashouts and wanted Ian to end up with and nice stable partner, sometimes having someone who truly understands and accepts you for better or worse while not trying to get you to change is better than having someone who is "better" on paper but doesn't quite understand you as a person. And the former is Ian and Mickey 100%. They really belonged with each other. My only gripe with their relationship is how Mickey just kept disappearing and reappearing like damn just keep him around which I'm glad he just finally stayed in the later seasons
This is the story of poverty. It's generational. It's extremely hard to escape. It's traumatizing, unregulated, untreated mental warfare. It's barely surviving your entire life and passing that to your children who quite literally have never known anything better.
My favorite thing about the original uk version compared to the us version is that the Gallagher kids grow and recognize how toxic the family is and they LEAVE and make something for themselves. After a time it got tedious watching the American Gallaghers fall into the same patterns of self sabotage
@gravityfalls1826 thank you. And an extra thank you for being kind and answering even if he did mention it later in the video. So double thanks for your kindness as well. I wish you a good day/evening :)
Still can’t believe how dirty the writers did to both Fiona and Emmy, is like she never existed after her exit. I stopped watching after season 7, but did came back for Emmy’s last episode, the Gallavich wedding and the finale, the disservice of Fiona was hard to watch, is like the writers took really personally that Emmy decided to leave, all we got from her is that she joined a dating reality show, what a joke. Ian gets married and we do not hear from either Fiona or Mandy. Last episode did not feel like one either.
They should have made her run off with Jimmy/Steve/Jack. It would have made more sense to run off with her thief of a true love and not check in with family that much
@@AMB5there’s a separate series of montages available on Showtime and TH-cam. It’s called Shameless: hall of shame. It aired on Showtime leading up to the finale. Some characters get their own episode of montages. Some characters are paired, like Gallavich. But there’s original, scripted footage framing the episodes.
As much as it sucks to see all the characters “regress” or continue the cycle I think that’s what the show was ultimately trying to say. That childhood trauma and constant lack of any parents will permanently fuck someone up, most people don’t ever get over it or break the cycle even when the realize it. Lip consistently getting offers that would dirastically better his life but that his trauma and lack of any actual support and never being shone any ways to cope that are healthy lead him to messing up those life changing offers time after time which is hard to watch as a viewer because we see how smart he is and want him to succeed but reality is most people in his shoes would do the same thing especially with the pressure to “do the right thing and make it out the ghetto”. I always think it’s funny watching back when he gets told by the MIT guy about how he’s gonna end up knocking up some chick cuz he won’t wrap it and being stuck never realizing his true potential, because that happens. Same thing with Fiona people are always calling her a hoe etc but fail to realize she literally had to date and sleep with people as a teenager to pay bills or to get certain things in the house done. Plus between frank and Monica they haven’t seen a single little bit of what a healthy or stable relationship even looks like, leading to her constantly getting with men who are like them like jimmy/steve, Sean, her bosses brother, ford. On top of that she does above and beyond for all her siblings always gets shit on and the 2 times she messes up in the show she does take accountability (far more than the others are willing to do) and still gets ragged on and treated like she’s worse than frank. Debby ends up just like her mother and frank. She will pretty much do whatever and whoever to get what she wants and is the classic case of literally following in her parents foot steps. She lies and takes the money from all the other siblings spends it on herself and literally has frank say he’s never loved her so much as seeing her she shed. Ian is bipolar like monica and we see how that progresses till he ends up in jail, he also like lip,Fiona,and Debby is shown to have lots of sex with different people coming back into play with the lack of parental guidance and never seeing healthy relationships, as much as I love to watch them micky and Ian’s storyline has ALOT of toxic elements that really seem to mirror a lot of the toxic elements of frank and Monica’s. I mean the show even makes it seem like micky marrying svet is what actually triggers his bipolar disorder (granted they story spans the whole show) Carl is a good example of a kid who is left to their own devices and not having any coping skills or anything either turns to violence very young. He actually tries to learn a bit from his parents and siblings mistakes being the only one shown to use condoms, getting tested, even realizing he wasn’t okay with someone making him have sex without a condom and calling it assault (idk why they played that off cuz it straight up was what she was doing) and ends up with multiple children by the end that he doesn’t know about, 2 from Ingrid and then tishs. Even when he tries to break the cycle by going to the military school and becoming a cop he ends up being an absent father to his kids against his own will, once again repeating the cycle. Liam is the only one I’m not sure how to really explain because the series ends before we really get to see him grow up or really develop his own character. I can imagine he would probably turn out similarly to Fiona in that they had a good head on their shoulder and were smart kids but getting abandoned by everyone in his life, his mom died, frank dies, Fiona leaves, and at the end they are selling the house and it’s not really clear where Liam is even going or with who. It’s also shown he does have concern about this when he asks where he is gonna go and says everyone is leaving him in the show. I think the constant abandonment would lead him down the same road as Fiona that they will be unstable and have unstable relationships but later in life they will find their own place. Basically all this was me saying that as disappointed as I was watching them make bad choices or be bad people looking at it fully they are doing exactly what broken people with no parents that had to raise themselves would do and I think the show does a great job of showing that and the full extent of how that really does effect someone for the rest of their lives.
I agree. Lip being a genius, but “trapped” due to childhood trauma is very realistic. My father had genius level intelligence (IQ 147). He was born to immigrants, didn’t speak English until he was 7, was left in an orphanage at 4, was in foster care with amazing parents until 12, when his father took him back - he had the best intentions, but it blew up the first stability these kids had ever had. Today at 74, he is an alcoholic, with undiagnosed ADHD, and probably narcissistic personality disorder. His brother, only 18 months older than him, was even more intelligent and a talented artist, died of AIDS at 50 after 30 years on heroin. My father had no tertiary qualifications, but is a jack of all trades, he can rebuild any engine, build you a house or a car, plumber, electrician, engineer, carpenter. He spent 30 years at sea, can navigate by the stars, drive or sail any kind of water craft in wild conditions (been shipwrecked 4 different times from storms at sea, twice rescued by the navy). Like lip, his happily ever after is being married for 35 year and counting. He really has no concept of family, but has stuck it out as best he can. It’s not very glorious, but maintaining a middle class suburban life - like Lip in the end - is slaying a dragon. It’s an achievement that overcame insurmountable odds to achieve, even though it’s most people’s starting point. Doesn’t make for a very glamorous story, but it’s real. Lip keeping a job, maintaining a relationship, and being a present father to his kids is slaying a dragon.
I agree 100%! That's exactly how I see the show. And I think that's what makes it great. It's a different perspective and shows a reality for many people that others ignore. Narcissistic people don't change, bipolar disorder doesn't go away either. Psychological trauma affects people for the rest of their lives, and bad choices and decisions often have irreversible consequences. This is the reality for many people.
Hey, I love what you wrote and just wanted to add that Lip took Liam to his new home. There's a small part in the episode when they are selling the home. Liam is panicking and trying to figure out what he's gonna do and Lip says dude im so sorry If it wasn't obvious but you're def coming with me.
To be fair, if that was the point, the show could have ended in a high note instead of slowly becoming less and less interesting. If at the end of the day, the message is that this follows you the rest of your life, and hardly anyone gets out of it, then repeating it over and over serves no purpose other than milking the cash cow. We got it the first 20 times, another 30 wont make it better, in fact it makes it worse. Season 4 was a perfect place, plenty of characters had fallen in and out of the cycle, it was the dramatic peak, any point after that and it slowly becomes tedious to see the same thing over and over again.
I agree. I also think that having Frank stay a static character was the best decision. Frank to me is compelling to watch because his antics drastically affect the people around him. And in his own messed up selfish way he truly cares for his family especially Fiona and Liam. For my Dragon Ball fans it's almost like Goku in a sense as he's also a static character but the way he affects others around him is compelling to watch also both characters are entertaining in their own rights and its interesting seeing them in different scenarios with new people. It's very unlikely for someone as old and well traveled in the game of life as Frank to suddenly have an epiphany and realize his wrongdoings becoming this great moral figure all of a sudden, it would've been really cliche. Most people half his age are already stuck in their ways for better or worse so having him remain the same was the only logical realistic choice for him
"We all knew Ian was going to end up with Mickey eventually after being absent" Oh boy. We did NOT. Cameron wanted to quit and for a moment he did but they decided to bring Mickey back last minute (hence the prison together) and the rest is history. Season 7 was supposed to be a glimpse into the past and then we move on forever but... Yeah. All in all we were in the TRENCHES for many, many dry years
Personally, Ian and Monica were great representations of bipolar disorder, Debbie is insufferable and the one who became the most like Frank, and Mickey and Kev are the best characters. Terry is definitely the worst morally, but I find his scenes hilarious most of the time. 😂
Yeses they definitely leaned in too much into the "lip becomes his father kinda" and if they had just let go of that they would've seen that Debbie was truly like frank, even though frank says she is the most like Monica, like ironically she's the most like himself.
Love this show. I’ve binged it about 500 times. I love all the characters. You’re spot on about Lip. Lip is smart, but he has a superiority complex… especially when he got sober. He’s one of those recovering addicts who is suddenly on a high horse simply because he’s sober… lecturing and judging everyone else.
Great video. And I also love Mickey so much because he is so effed up but caring & honest. He is trying to break cycles but they are hard to break. I like Ian & Mickey as characters because they aren’t the media go to gay caricature. And I like that they didn’t have Frank become sober or have atonement with the kids because he never but that work in. It shows how with addiction it pulls you back in & sometimes the people you hurt will walk away. I like that they gave the story of falling into alcoholism and working towards a sober life with Lip. Lip is that “Gifted” that falls down in adulthood. The show also portrays how you can’t force someone into treatment with Lip & Ian. And the people around you balancing out helping and not enabling.
I'm sure I'm not the first person to have this opinion, but I feel like Shameless ended when Fiona left, and the subsequent seasons were more like a spin-off series. The younger Gallagher kids were not made to be tragic characters in the same way the older ones were. As a result they didn't have that experience handling the heavier more grounded storylines like Ian or Fiona, and as a result their plots felt more bombastic and over the top. Oz had the same issue in their last two seasons, in which they said all the stories they needed to say up to that point and everything just felt like shock value after season 4
Lip telling V to let Fiona hit rock bottom will always bother me. Because she was hard on him when he was dealing with booze but she never stopped trying to help, typically if you let someone hit rock bottom it’s because all attempts at help have failed. But no one showed her any real support they berated her everytime and the moment someone (V) showed some real support lip shut it down. My headcannon is that Fiona didn’t leave just to start over but because she realized if she’s gonna be alone she may as well try and build a new support system.
Here's my take on that: I think hitting rock bottom is different for both chracters because when Lip lost his advantages in life he just kind of gave up on trying to be great and settled for just getting by (which is perfectly fine btw) if Lip hit rock bottom he would've given up completely and would've been Frank 2.0 imo. Fiona on the other hand is a survivor. When the cards are down for her she always bounces back even harder. If Fiona stayed with V and Kev than they would've just enabled her vices. Fiona was always the strongest out of all of them which is why she's the only one who really makes it out
Lips character is almost a perfect reflection of so many impoverished gifted ppl. After everything you go thru there is no good conclusion. Your just around
i'm so sorry but since i stopped watching after s8 so i had no idea frank died and when you said he up and died of covid of all things i choked on my food laughing 😭 was NOT expecting that
Tbh I feel it’s actually quite a unique yet ironic position Fiona and Lip are in. Both had their respective positions in the house hold as the substitute mother due to being the eldest Fiona and the smart gonna be successful one day Lip actually wish they had each-others roles. Despite them being put in the roles they received due to their birth placement in the family I think they both actually are better and more suited for each-others roles. Like sure Lip threw away his “potential for success” but then actively became the parent the family needed the only imo really good parental figure that came out of that family beyond compare. He is so capable of handling and taking care of the family and kids which it’s not like Fiona didnt but she clearly struggled. Plus due to the trauma she received from it she naturally wanted out of that position and role (it no longer being suited for her) and in turn she strives for success. It’s a very ironic but imo quite fitting dynamic of the siblings having roles they try so desperately to stray away from and actively attempt to do the other ones role themselves without truly being self aware that is what they are attempting to do. ‘Mother’ Fiona eventually goes away cause she’s no longer needed and can’t strive for the role she WANTS and is suited for as a successful businesswoman if she sticks with her family and Lip actively doesn’t wish to be the success story to the point of always retreating back to his family/position as a Gallagher. But in doing so he is actually okay and fine with being in a guardian/parent esc role for the younger Gallaghers, his own child and the leader of the family unlike Fiona who eventually couldn’t cope and wanted to branch away. Like as if he’s content with his life having value through someone else’s success rather than him striving for it himself with all that pressure built on him to not fail. Whilst Fiona just truly could no longer live tied to her family nor live in a world where she felt like nothing more than fill in mum for a fucked up family, her constant retreat to them and her bad habits always ended up making her miserable in some way or another so she had to just break away from the excuse/influence of the Gallaghers. Sorry for the yapping but I just find it interesting how the two eldest really tried so hard to step away from their assigned roles in the family and ultimately choose the one the other had. Frankly makes you wonder if there would’ve been the same outcome for each-other just opposite IF Fiona was born second. Would she have been successful if the eldest become parent role didn’t apply to her initially? Or do you think she would’ve been very similar to Lip and try to actively step away from the expectations of being “the one to get away” by the family? Just food for thought. Also also side note, I see a direct parallel also with Debbie and Carl where Debbie was the goody golden child (always sweet and helping out) and Carl was the trouble maker for a good while but yet grown up Debbie acts the most like a fucked up Gallagher and Carl is a cop of all things/the best one to come out of the family imo. Another interesting coincidence yet I don’t really like using it as an example because I felt that was just bad writing for Debbie’s teenage/adult arc on their part rather than any accidental genius or ironically tasteful development.
Honestly I think it was awesome! Most expected Carl to become like his mom and dad and debbie to have it together but in the end Carl overcame his struggles and became a better person while debbie always used her struggles (teen mom and lack of parents) to excuse or downplay her choices so all in all she is continuing the cycle even her last girlfriend was the cycle her kid taking a backseat to sex and an afterthought going to Texas. Honestly from someone who comes from an addict family it shows all the outcomes! Lip is the one who is full of potential but his upbringing keeps him in held back. Fiona is the kid who becomes the parent to her siblings and her parents and in the end she raised her kids her whole life and now she can not be in their life or around because she will be put and put herself back in that Role so she had to leave. Ian was in the trenches but could have more of a childhood so he even tho he had issues he still could cope he was perfect for mickey he can take all of the curve balls. Debbie was fully parented by fiona and lip she did not have the worries and could just be the kid she saw her parents scew ups but the mess was cleaned up by lip and fiona so never saw how much it impacted the family while she did better is continuing the cycle of her parents, someone else can fix her screw ups. Carl is the dark horse he had the positive parenting from fiona and lip but he went down the wrong road for a bit and then corrected he is the only one with a stable job and a good head on his shoulders. Leium is the saddest story arch in the whole show. He lost his bio mother and father his sibling parents (while lip is there he is raising his bio kid so leium took a backseat) he had no where he could feel truly wanted just always a tag along. I really wish that Kevin and V would have stepped up and took him with them! Kevin would have his son and V has been there his whole life and when he recognized himself as a person of color took him under her wing. While most may have missed it in the end leium wasn't taking on frank (after dementia) because he had to he was seeking love of a parent. Even the little bit frank could give.
You have no idea as to how thrilled I am to FINALLY see an analysis video on my favorite comfort show of all time, Shameless. I binged watched all 11 seasons religiously, and it's honestly nothing else but a masterpiece. Even after finishing it, I still couldn't fathom over it being done. I watched endless playlists and clips and anything I could find on Shameless, old and new. My favorite character is honestly Mickey. A really consistent character whom rarely ever gets dull. Hell, him being gone every now and then sticks true to the nature of his character. A troubled young man going through alot with a shitty upbringing and difficulties with his own sexuality and others, but still manages to pull through every single time. I'm not gonna ramble on with my own personal analysis or summary on this show, but I'll say this. Each Gallagher, Milkovich, & other characters are still highly synonymous with Shameless. It's fascinating, to say the least and I'm in love with it in every step of the way. I still feel saddened by knowing I may never find another show such as Shameless again. I loved this show, the moment I seen the first episode and have been hooked ever since. The amount of times I laughed and felt impacted by this show is incredible. In my opinion, they should at least do a spinoff for Ian & Mickey. They're the only couple (& homosexual couple) that I actually liked. I used to hate gays (mainly because of not fully understanding as to how a male could be attracted to the same gender and usually stereotyping them as being all the same). However, when I watched Shameless, it gave me a realistic depiction of homosexuality and opened my mind to a new perspective on not only sexuality, but romance in general. I'd recommend Shameless to anyone who hasn't seen it yet. It's a MUST watch. If you have Netflix (where I watched the show from), then what are you waiting for? GET TO EXPERIENCING ONE OF THE BEST PIECES OF FICTIONAL MEDIA PUT ON TELEVISION.
This is definitely a realistic show. This is generational trauma. The uk version in my opinion is too optimistic. Coming from someone who’s been around multiple family’s that had drug issues and or mentally unhealthy parents. They can see how messed up it is but they find comfort together in the mess. Only Fiona found her way. Realistic in my opinion.
I really wished they killed off frank in the earlier seasons, like most of the times his hijinks were not related to the rest of the family and he was just annoying to watch,he’s not likeable at all and as a villain he’s boring and predictable, on a recent rewatch I skipped most all of the scenes with him
I hated him too and i think it was perfect to die because of liver failure. And the fact that he got a liver in the end was very unrealistic. The scenes whit the doctor I skip them all. Tnx to Netflix
One reason why S1 one was probably so great is because it already had some building blocks from Shameless UK to work off from. S1 in the US version practically has the same storylines as UK S1.
One of the best shows ever made! So real and dark but it balances out with a comedic and wholesome side. Also I love Gallavich so Ian and Mickeys storyline was perfect!
I feel like the way Debbie ends up in her teenage years was actually built up and heavily foreshadowed in the first few seasons. I had part of her arch spoiled before I watched the show, and it made it easy to spot all the hints that her personality was going to take a downward spiral due to her environment and the lack of guidance and supervision she had. She was often left alone with bad influences(Ethel,Mandy,Svetlana,her frenemies,Frank), she was a very loving person who became desperate to be loved in return, and every time she did something wrong or got some bad advice(or even good advice with a bad interpretation) no one in her family stepped in to help her. Matt is a pretty good example because everyone lets her spend absurd amounts of time with him then does nothing when they find out he’s a lot older than her. When she assaults him Fiona doesn’t talk to her about it even though she desperately needs to and Lip denies it was assault. Keep in mind, Lip went out of his way to prove some random woman was a p*do preying on young boys, but when his actual siblings are being taken advantage of he does nothing, and tells Debbie men can’t be assaulted. There were plenty of other examples but being left alone with random people, or Frank, and picking up bad habits or ideas seemed to be the norm for Debbie.
you did such a good job of conveying the depth of the show, the characters, and their arcs without getting too bogged down in detail. that must've been hard for million season show.
“I’m not sure if Emmy Rossum won any awards for this show” but with all due respect, a simple Google search would answer that question and improve your narration, but that’s the one note I have for you as you continue to grow in your content creation
I can't speak on anyone else, but I know from my own personal experience that breaking the cycle of self sabotage is extremely difficult. I see a lot of myself in Lip and I'm currently at a point in my life where I feel I'm at my lowest. Digging yourself into that hole is easy when you've already been put into that hole. My only saving grace is my best friend. She's the one who takes the shovel from my hands. I'm stuck with my situation and my whole childhood I was told that I was smart, that I was gifted. I didn't have a goal in mind for a career, so I just threw myself into college after I graduated only to experience panic attacks every time I went to class, so I just stopped going. I feel like how Lip ended up in his way is just so hard-hitting realistic to me. Disappointing to watch but almost like a cautionary tale for someone like him, like me. I don't have any hope for humanity and it seems like I'm just looking through a tunnel with a dim light at the end. Maybe I can try to accomplish what Lip couldn't and get the hell out, it'll just take a lot of effort to reach that light. Edit side-note: Unpopular opinion, I ****ing hate Frank and I wanted to punch him every time I saw him, he made me physically sick. It's funny how people love and hate him just like they do in the show. I'm just a big hater, lmao
i didn't know what to feel about fiona around the middle seasons but by 11th season i really really wanted her back with them... i really wanted a happy family... i really wanted them to live near each other... man i want closure.. i really hope they all had better lives now...
Something that never gets addressed is that if the Gallagher kids have it bad the Milkovichs have it worse. Gallaghers have each other for support, they love each other, and the father (as messed up as he is) will at least occasionally shows some love and support. But the Milkovichs are completely on their own and father is completely abusive in every way possible.
The show could've addressed that if they didn't write Mandy & Mickey(until the last seasons) out of the show because of behinds-the-scenes issues. Mandy & Mickey were already significant characters in the early seasons, and so much of their Milkovich issues went unaddressed before unceremonious boot-offs from the show. They has so many in progress + potential story arcs that had to get dropped and never picked up again, and their absences made Ian a weaker character. They M&M should've became honorary Gallaghers long-term & if that Gallagher vs Milkovich sub-plotline last season happened sooner, with Mickey & Mandy as regulars before the show dragged on too long. And yeah "[Milkovich] father is completely abusive in every way possible" is putting it lightly lol. Dude rapes both his daughter and son(via hired prostitute and shotgun) and it NEVER gets addressed again. Not even in that scene where Terry LEADS a neighborhood mob to beat up a pedophile who moves in nearby. The irony doesn't even get commented on, and I'm pretty sure none of the other character ever learn that Mandy and Mickey were raped bc of their dad. I was waiting for that secret to be exposed and for the Gallaghers recontextualize their impressions of Mickey & Mandy so they stop shitting on them for being Milkoviches & treat them better. But that never happened.
I’ve re-watched this show about 6-7 times within the last 2 years and one scene that always stuck with me is when Frank and Debbie go to the hippie camp, and When Debbie is put into labor, she immediately runs to frank and asks him if they can go home, at first Frank simply hits her with the “just thug it out” response, but then Debbie pleads with him “please dad I just wanna go home” and he doesn’t fight her on it, he doesn’t say something to retaliate or even try to make an argument on why they should stay, he just looks at her with full compassion and care and immediately drives her back to the Gallagher house.
Once Fiona left I dont think I enjoyed any of the seasons after. Rossums portrayal of her, for me, was the show. The family's treatment of her made it impossible for me to root for any of them again
I know people hate Jimmy and his writing was really all over the place but I did feel bad for him when he was reeling from his dad being gay and everyone dumps on him for it, that’s not really my issue, my issue is he *was* going to apologize for bringing it up so much - when they were digging up Aunt Ginger - but Fiona - understandably I will admit - pushes him away when all he wanted was to feel like they were equal in the relationship. Also I can’t help but see Kev as an R rated Van from “Reba” as they’re not only played by the same guy but they’re both equally stupid.
Fiona’s season 3 monologue in the courtroom scene is the BEST of the entire show. Still my favorite scene of the entire show. I’m glad you included that in this video.
Idk but I just feel that I could relate to this show so much right when I first saw it. I was raised by my dad if you want to call it that. I got my first job at 15 to support myself. My dad was never around much. He would tell me to watch his friends kids while we were all upstairs in the apartment together. My mother never wanted to care for me and still doesn’t ever want to be in my life I would say due to mental health issues… I’d say because of all these things, it’s held me back in life and made me who I am today… always struggling. But I love my daughter and even though I only got my GED and work my butt off to not get very far, I’m happy there’s a lot of love in my life.
Shameless is one of my favorite shows of all time. I watched it for the first time last year and I’ve never been so emotionally invested in a show before. It’s one of a kind and one of the best shows in television history. I love how all the characters are flawed as people, that neither are completely good or bad, they’re products of their environment and it causes them to be, as the name of the show is, shameless. At one point I ever completely loved or loathed the Gallagher kids because they have great and bad qualities that make them so compelling
my biggest issue with this show is the inability of the writers to handle all the serious topics they add into the show. if they didnt take a "lets throw X trauma into the show just to see if it sticks" approach the show wouldnt have fell apart so bad. like we literally have debbie take over as caretaker when shes a convicted pedophile, a date rapist and a worse mom than fiona ever was and the show writers just dont care? or like lips gf at the end of the show having a big reveal that she was groomed by a teacher that amounts to her going "wow i was an innocent girl and he took advantage of me" while lip kind of grins about it lmfao and like this all happens in a single 30 minute c plot in the 4th to last episode. they never try to touch ian being transphobic as a gay man after setting that up. like its literally the opening of the powerpuff girls where he adds CHEMICAL X but instead its a bunch of overpayed writers adding "pepper" from the wrong side of the dump opener on the can.
Loved the show but couple thoughts. I was ok with Fiona leaving but Liam was a toddler WTF? I was disappointed Lip didn’t do better in life. He could t get at least a half way decent job. Debbie was horrible I mean horrible. She was hard to watch. Ian and Mikey truly made the show. The last season with selling the house and how Lip messed that up but the thing that made me angry was no one thought to reassure Liam that he wasn’t going to be homeless. I also felt like it was an afterthought of Lip telling him “you can live with me.”
Lip had a lot of potential but I think that was the point. He is given a chance over and over again to be better and make a better choice, and he doesn't. I also grew up in a poor neighborhood and I know people that still live there, and not because of a lack of opportunities or connections, they still have the same job etc. they're just stuck.
I always loved how none of these characters are perfect. They've all done something messed up. It makes them so much more realistic and easier to relate to.
i feel like binge watching vs watching in real time gave you a completely different experience. even tho it def got less interesting im glad they kept going.
Just found this channel and lemme just say your channel is one of my favorites for commentary! Found you from your All American video and lemme tell you this channel is gonna blow up. Keep crushing it!
What I hate about Lip's ending isn't that I expected him to become Steve Jobs or some billionaire, I know that's unrealistic and borderline stupid. I hate that they try to paint him as Frank Jr, when that isn't the case at all. If anything that's Debbie. Debbie, like Frank, is decently intelligent, but too lazy and self destructive to ever do anything meaningful with it except drop some drunk history lessons every once in a while. She's also unbelievably selfish to the point where it even harms herself and refuses to ever take accountability for her actions, like Frank. Debbie and Frank care about no one but themselves, which is absolutely not Lip. Firstly, Lip's far more intelligent than his dad ever was, and no where near as selfish. Going to college mostly because he was pushed into it by friends and family and acting like the second parent to the Gallagher family to help ease Fiona's burdens. Even his alcoholism isn't anything exclusive to Frank, if anything that was probably just a coping mechanism he developed. I hated Lip's ending because it felt insulting to the audience's intelligence, especially after we had watched him fail and push forward for the better part of a decade. Especially after they simply decided not to do anything with his rehab plotline in season 7 and keep him firmly in the ghetto. Which, if anything, was probably more to do with just keeping Jeremy Allen White in the show than any real commentary on the "cycle of poverty". Both Ian and Fiona managed to make it out of South Side, so if anything keeping Lip in the same place just felt like a slap in the face.
This was my first video of yours and I really enjoyed it! I love video essays and retrospectives and you did a good job of discussing and summarizing this show! One recommendation is to turn the background music down a bit, I found it a little distracting. But overall, GREAT JOB!!
@@MysticalFilmNerd literally. I wish they would’ve kept her sweet, seeing another one of franks kids being disappointed to find out her father is just another deadbeat would’ve been so inline with the story. Her going absolute bonkers just felt like a forced way to get her out.
Ian needed a toxic relationship to thrive. He and Mickey beat on each other constantly,committed crimes together and they call that love. Because they both grew up in muddy water they need muddy water to survive
Lol after season 4 the realism was sacrificed for constant goofy comedy. Peak Shameless was the episode Just Like the Pilgrims Intended, Season 2 episode 11. Peak
Frank going back to his old self is sad but realistic, my dad is an addict and he faced some major health issues, he had an heart attack, he was alone at home and spend hours in pain, and only after 6 hours he got help. We though that this experience would change him, that he would became better, but then two months later he went back on drinking and using drugs. About two months ago we went out with him, and he is back being narcisistic and abusive. Narcisistic addicts dont change unless they really want to.
Such an amazing video on my favorite show of all time. As someone who grew up with not a lot I relate to a lot of the characters in Shameless. Like fr Lips and Sierras storyline is so relatable to me rn.
I tend to notice that people who come from and were raised in a similar background tend to love the mid seasons just as much as the early ones while the people who grew up privileged with healthy family dynamics like early seasons, especially 4, while just tolerating the mid to late ones and I think it’s because in seasons 5 through 7, the Gallaghers don’t go through as much trauma and tribulations as they did in seasons 2-4 so to those from better upbringings, it comes off as boring because seeing the struggles of the Gallaghers is merely entertainment to them while for those of us from a harsher background, those darker seasons/moments are an unfortunate part of our realities we don’t wanna see when watching television. To this day, I’ve only watched season 4 ONCE, it’s just too traumatising
No one ever mentions that the Gallagher kids and Frank, not Liam ,are sex addicts. Debbie believes that because her older siblings are sexually active she should be as well. Debbie, having daddy issues is the reason she appeared to be the ultimate dysfunctional sibling IMO. When Fiona took on the parental role she became the middle unseen child. EVERYTHING she did was a look at me, love me girl move. Her character is disgusting she raped Matty, tricked Derrick, and had an affair with her girlfriend’s underage daughter. She made an immature decision to have a baby and expected everyone to be happy to have to feed another Gallagher. She should have seen how hard the struggle of taking care of children without an education and good paying job was for Fiona and became allergic to sex.
literally currently going through my first ever watch of this show on season 7 right now and these have been some of my exact thoughts and feelings , great video!
I disagree i think the show was amazing form beginning to end except the ending was severely lacking and anti climactic. I dont really see lips seemingly sudden drop in intelligence as bad writing. It COULD be but i think it makes a little sense seeing as how he spent so much of show not sober and he had to forget about school all together and just work a regular 9 to 5. After he got kicked out of school there really wasn't anything stimulating his brain so he really had no reason to use academic smarts in the later seasons.
JIMMY STEVE IS NOT A GOOD GUY! I will die in this hill he could not handle the life Fiona had (literally compares living in her house living to living in slum) and expects her to run everything through him when he entered her life maybe a year or so ago. I think he’s a rich kid who wanted the exciting life but couldn’t handle the people that come with that. He constantly lies and in my opinion only wants to be with Fiona to feel like he living that “crazy” life.
One really good Carl scene you didn't talk about was when he was being robbed at the fast food place and he just had enough and went crazy on the guy after his gun discharged lol. Nonetheless loved the video. Thank you for keeping me entertained this morning lol
The other main reason why Emmy Rossum left the series was reportedly paid less than her co-star William H. Macy, even though they had equal billing. She requested equal pay and additional compensation to make up for past discrepancies, but wanted to pursue new creative opportunities and said that it was time for the character to spread her wings, it was less need for her. Emmy also stated in an interview that she would never say goodbye to Fiona. Rumor has it that on the set she didn't really get along with her co-star and had a bad attitude as well. I have been a fan of her career since the beginning....... I think the character Carl had the best and amazing character growth. In my opinion that wasn't boring at all just shows that the writers made one of the Gallagher very successful and made something out of his life.
I’m like the only one who actually likes Debbie aren’t I? In the earlier seasons, I related a lot to her because I grew up around kids, working in childcare with my mom, babysitting, taking care of my younger siblings, often being the older kid in charge of the younger ones When I was 12 or 13, I had a brief phase where I got obsessed with wanting to be a parent, and had I known what sex was at the time, I might’ve actually gone down that road, so it wasn’t a huge surprise to me when Debbie’s storyline went in that direction This isn’t to say that I condone her actions at all, in fact, a lot of the times I was mad because of how she behaved, but she was handed such a bad hand in life that I can totally see how she got to that point This isn’t an excuse, but it’s more of an explanation I also have a theory that Debbie inherited some sort of mental illness as well I see a lot of bipolar traits in her, as well as borderline personality disorder She’s got a lot of impulsivity, is able to switch her emotions and behavior on a dime, and gets super attached to people super quickly She’s crushed whenever she feels that someone she’s grown attached to screws her over, like Frank, Monica, Fiona, her many partners over the show, and she has a hard time keeping these relationships going because of her bursts of impulsivity and bad choices She’s a lot like Frank, and I think that’s something to note One of the kids was bound to end up like him, and it happened to be Debbie Given how attached she was to him as a child and teen, she absorbed a lot of his behavior and traits into herself (and my theory about her having a mental disorder also plays into this) She mimics Frank’s tactics of getting money and pity, like trying to marry Neil (the disabled man she was a caretaker for), running a baby supplies theft ring for a bit, panhandling with Franny, and seeking out ways to fulfill herself over the others She also mirrors Fiona a lot, especially her earlier behavior in the show Debbie, like Fiona, has a string of failed relationships, and usually, they were ruined because of her own self destruction She tries to run the house like Fiona used to, and I think her controlling tendencies were a mix of her own desires, and trying to “fix” where Fiona had flaws Granted, Debbie didn’t do a very good job at this and screwed over her family members She’s absolutely flawed, like the rest of them, and her flaws are more glaringly obvious because of the writing choices made, but I still really liked her character, even though I totally get why everyone hates her- She’s not the easiest character to like at all
Finally someone else sees it! Not saying I like her but her awful behavior didn’t come out of no where. I knew she got pregnant before I watched the show, and when she was left alone with Ethel and Svetlana and spent several days of her life babysitting it was pretty obvious what she was going to do when she felt like she fell in “love”
As a character i like her, as a person i hate her, shes a realistic potrayal of the worst person you can be under that environment. There's always a debbie in a poor households.
Great analysis! Fan of Shameless! I think this was one of the best TV shows in history. Loved and sometimes hated the characters. The show has characters being triumphant and miss opportunities, some just fall flat. Some go completely the opposite path. It's very human though and sure they don't always do what the viewer wants but, that's not real. They are just living super real and messy lives. Perfect show. Bravo!
Can we talk about how Carl and lip are constantly done dirty with all his ships like some of these choices makes they make is weird Carl constantly getting cheated on is weird lip being self destructive makes sense but the milf relationship ain’t it bro and wait can we talk about the ship with the military girl man was seen as insecure for reason that were valid good gosh bro
I changed my mind about debbie. She is the counter characters of lip and fiona. Growing up with parents who are adicts lip and fiona want to do better because they both have to take care of their parents and siblings debbie turns out like the worst parts of the parents becase she always had lip and fiona to care for her she had parents just did not know it
I feel like it actually makes the show better that most of the characters end up not seriously evolving it’s realistic everyone I’ve know from these types of families are exactly like this the cliché of the genius son throwing everything away with alcohol is a real epidemic that America faces we have a never ending list of geniuses in AA that just can’t pull themselves together
This was great. Personally, I think Debbie is the most realistic character of them all. And that shows the great writing that existed in the show. She literally was the child of addicts who had mental health issues. And those issues ran through her home, all around her. The only difference between her and Fiona is that she wasn't FORCED to take care of the household. All the Gallagher kids pulled weight that wasn't meant for them, when it came to the home. But Fiona was left at nine, as the oldest child. And something HAD to be done. Debbie is 4th in line. Someone has always been there to look out for her. That contributed to her "I can do it on my own" or "I know what's best" mentality. Because she didn't HAVE to. Even when she took over the household, it seemed like she willingly stepped into that role, to attempt to have some sort of control. Fiona my not have gotten pregnant young because she was already the "mom" to her siblings so she knew what it was like, firsthand. Debbie needed attention, the most of all, it seemed like. She wasn't as charismatic as her brothers so she had to get the attention however she could. Watching her play the seemingly anxious child turned dictator is often what it looks like in real life. Sometimes Anxious children grow up to have unhealthy relationship with control. And it isn't always pretty
The thing that frustrates me about Lip is that in the end his arrogance was still there at the end of the show. This resulted to them having $70k rather than $200k for the house
It’s hard for me to watch this show. It hits to much, raised by alcoholic parents, poor and lots of kids in the 80s&90s. No protection back then, just find a way to be invisible and make it out without an addiction was the goal and without a pregnancy.
I definitely know. What it is to love a toxic parent but when they gets sick i get worried a bit The sibling never understood the sacrifice fiona made for them to do something she couldnt and tried to make it easierfor them Also frank i feel whp was already not doing well burnt out at some ppint and just stopped caring as much because atleast he stayed but still does not help on thw way his kids were raised.
I think it’s fitting Frank died of Covid this whole show has always went over different issues going on in America from the gentrification of lower class neighborhoods (something that was actively happening in Chicago) Debbie not having health insurance, teenage pregnancy, drug problems, homeless problem etc etc. to summarize the last few season as getting “woke” is missing the underlying message of the show entirely.
Season 7 was where I view the show comes to its natural conclusion. Debbie was able to find a steady career to help support her and her baby. Ian was able to get ahold of his bipolar and find a stable job that he truly cares about. Carl was able to evolve from a child with sociopathic tendencies to someone who has found a purpose in life with the military. Lip is truly working to get ahold of his alcoholism and try and go back to school when he is stable. And Fiona was able to find a potential way out of the neighborhood while still supporting her family. This here is my true ending of Shameless
This is why people can't deal with the ending... ya'll wanted a real story with a fairytale ending and that's not the story being told.
@@1367DammanKOI truly don’t understand how Lip’s arc is the most disliked, it’s an absolutely perfect portrayal of wasted potential held back by himself and his past. That scene in the last episode when he’s a delivery driver and fixes somebody’s computer problem and then is immediately dismissed sums it up perfectly.
I truly think a lot of the fanbase wanted the Gallaghers to end up filthy rich and happy and happily ever after the end, they’re just too embarrassed to admit that so they’ll talk about vague ‘bad writing’ as if they hadn’t praised the show for being ‘realistic’ for years
I honestly kept going just to see gallavich come true they were so dear to my heart.
@@1367DammanKO This!
Was it a perfect ending? No, but I did really enjoy it cause it made a really good job ar portraying that life is not static.
Was Tami pregnant? Who knows. Will Lip ever find a job to fullfil is true potential? who knows. Will Ian a Mickey ever find the way to become parents? Who knows. Will Debbie find a healthy relationship? Who knows. We'll Carl become te new owner of the Alibi? Who knows.
Every character had some unfinised bussines in the finale, they all had maybes and wants to resolve cause THAT'S life, it does not end once everyhing his neatly wrapped and has come to an agreable conclusion. Life keeps going and sometines what seemed to be already finished bussines can come undone and force you to figure yourlsef and you life up all again.
I gotta agree I just finished my first rewatch and I probably tweeted as if the show was ending three times and I meant it most in season 7 lol. Just wanted it to end but I knew i had four more seasons to drag through
How can people say Fiona is selfish ??? She litteraly sacrificed herself all her life since she was NINE for her siblings and even Frank.
I never thought she was selfish. I thought she should have ran away much earlier.
Everyone thought she was a whore in real life too lol.. I wonder why
Honestly i dont understand her hate ever
she was my favorite character but they handled the last part of her arch incredibly badly in my opinion.
like I absolutely hated that she was turned into a compulsive cheater. yes, she was always a woman who liked to have sex, but there was nothing about her that would imply that once she has a great partner she would just throw it all away to hook up with his brother. it didn't make sense and it just seemed like they wanted to make her suffer again.
@@jurgnobs1308 Yes the self sabotage was hard to watch but still believable and it clearly didn't make me love her less.
i completely agree with how they had Lip’s college experience play out bc it is so realistic. when youve lived in poverty all your life and you see all the wealth on a college campus…Class shock is real, and disorienting.
I was blown away by the amount of money I saw on campus. Kids in Mercedes and Audi’s who had full meal plans to eat three times a day! but who opted for off campus food instead! they got an allowance from family to buy things and took unpaid internships bc they didn’t need the money… it was so humbling and also depressing
I relate to your comment and Lip's experience so much! I got a scholarship to a private university. I grew up very poor with neglectful parents. I got to college and was surrounded by pampered kids who had never known want or hunger. The very idea was unfathomable to them. The culture shock I experienced coming out of poverty was pretty stark. I resented so many of my peers. They had no idea how good and easy their lives were.
I relate to Lip a lot. I was pressured into going into college when I really didn't want to go. In the end, dropping out worked out for me. I have a full-time job with full benefits now. College doesn't always guarantee success.
Absolutely this.
I’m heading into my sophomore year of college this fall and my freshman year was a total shock.
I live in the inner city, I grew up poor, raised by immigrant parents, and by the time I’d graduated high school, my graduating class lost around 12 students due to gang violence.
Now imagine the shock I felt when I went to the state university, was surrounded by wealthy peers who grew up higher-middle class suburbia driving their Jeeps, Audis, Mercedes, BMWs, and even the latest model of luxury Ram and Ford pickup trucks (that arguably probably have never seen a day of work in their lives besides driving to Top Golf); spending money like it’s nothing.
Rushing a fraternity was also quite disorienting, it felt like every other guy rushing had connections and through those connections, was able to land a bid. I had to start from the bottom and work my way up.
Not to mention, now that I’m in a fraternity, it’s insane how many guys’ parents pay their dues and give them allowances. Meanwhile, here I was sacrificing free time working to make ends meet.
Don’t even get me started on the gentrification of the town adjacent to the university. Entire blocks where cheaper and affordable older houses and apartments once stood has now been bought up and torn down by developers to make room for massive apartment complexes with rent that only students with wealthy parents can afford (there’s no way anyone’s making rent working part time). Because entire blocks have been swallowed up by these giant blocky modern apartment buildings, the rent of older homes and apartments has gone up.
I grew up poor, and oldest daughter who took on a lot of responsibilities like Fiona but I was also the "smart one" like Lip. So when I got to college, it was a major shock. I went to a private Christian school and the wealth disparity was gross. I ended up rooming in a triple that year, one roommate from home, one who lived in state who got to go home every weekend.
I knew a classmate who had their car shipped from HAWAII. It was insane.
Like Lip, I flunked out, not because I couldn't do it, but because I didn't care anymore and became an addict. I'm 5 years sober now.
Lip was my favorite character in the first few seasons then carl in the later ones when he entered military school…
Lip had the better chance to get out of their toxic lives … both had people who gave a positive influence and offered help for Carl it was dominique’s dad and Lip who had more than one ( his guidance counsellor in HS, the professor from the SATs, Professor youens and possibly amanda’s dad if he continued dating her) the difference between them is that carl listen to good advice and knows what he wants he more disciplined and focused in accomplishing is goals.
If Lip had half of his IQ but was focused and disciplined, as carl he would had a better life.
“idk if anyone remembers the jacksons” dw sheila is one of the most universally loved characters from the whole show
And you can't forget the mess of Karen, Lip, and Mandy.
Miss Sheila so much
I can’t get over how unfair it is for there to be any Fiona hate… by the time we meet this family Fiona is the only reason they are still alive - she assumed responsibility for her siblings and she loves them, but they are absolutely not her responsibility. She gave up her entire youth and her parents sabotaged her along the way and she will never get those years back.
The only people that hate Fiona are Lip stans, and the majority of Lip stans are people who watched the Bear before watching Shameless, and those people first saw Jeremy Allen White in those Calvin Klein ads. That’s all I have to say about that
The only issue I have with Fiona is that she abandoned Liam. She is his legal guardian, and she just leaves him. The rest are grown, but he's only like 11 I think. I felt so bad for him when Lip wanted to sell the house, and he's trying to find a place to stay. I don't understand why people hate her, but I do understand why some people aren't a fan. I think the show fumbled her exit with not taking Liam with her to start a new life.
@@colehenry7166 that's because the actor for Liam wanted to stay, but Emmy (Fiona) left because they wouldn't pay her what she was asking for. As Macy (Frank) was being paid waay more than her. So, she dipped and said see ya!
@aliceinchainsburns08 that's totally fair for her to leave. My gripe isn't with the actor so much as the writers mishandling a characters exit. To clarify, I'm not a Fiona hater, I quite enjoy her character but I feel the show forgot about Fiona being legal guardian. It would have been very easy for Fiona to leave signed documents to transfer guardian ship over to lip. It's a plot hole I feel sours the character as she exits. I do agree that Fiona gets way to much hate for stupid reasons
@@shikara24my lord, was that a string of assumptions in a row 😂 there has been a Lip v Fiona debate in the fanbase from the beginning and years before The Bear was even thought of. It just sounds like youre projecting a bit. Calvin Klein ads? Youve lost the plot and it sounds like a personal thing
Fiona stan til the end. Emmy deserved an Emmy for her performance in the show.
Except for season 7-8. Fiona was real cunty the whole time then. No reason for her to start acting all “fed up” with her damn siblings when she signed up to be their guardian and fought for custody. And she still fucked up. And then acted like everyone was out to get her and the world owes her shit because of taking care of the kids when yes it was dropped on her when she was you her but she had the opportunity to go be her own person when those kids went to foster homes. But no she won custody and then acted like she doesn’t have to worry about shit once Liam had coke and she fucked up her probation. She literally signed up for 50% of the bullshit she put up with after gaining custody, and 45% of it happened BECAUSE she decided to go on the most destructive path she could possibly go down and act like everyone owes her a favor. No one owed anything to anyone in this show. That’s what family is. You just do shit because your family. And I’m mainly talking about all the kids and Fiona. But she tried to play victim half the damn time when shit happened because of shit SHE did. The only thing I can argue had nothing to do with her or her choices, was frank telling her Shawn was still using and it ruined the wedding. THATS IT. Out of season 7-8 that is the only thing that happened where she couldn’t control the result because of her drinking or fucking around with the wrong people and making dumb choices.
@@RealRockstar818 She was young and trying to bring her siblings, who are ungrateful at times , home. She’s allowed to make mistakes and be a little cunty. Get over yourself 😂.
Unpopular opinion, but Fiona was Frank’s favorite child. There’s two times where Frank is in a near death experience and it’s Fiona who he thinks of.
The first instance is the one mentioned in the video where Frank thinks the little girl is Fiona, then at the end of series before Frank dies he is just wondering around Chicago and all the places he goes to are related to Fiona (Patsy’s restaurant, the apartment building she owned). In his most vulnerable moments it’s Fiona he thinks of. Not to mention the few times Frank has referred to Fiona as being beautiful.
That little girl gave up her last moments to comfort a piece of garbage that didn't deserve that beautiful angels time at all it was absolutely heartbreaking she was there in that situation without her father but frank didn't deserve that girls final moments it was hard to watch
I mean she was his first child. The memory he experienced with the girl in the hospital was him feeling guilty for leaving her at the park. He loved Monica and prolly was really excited the first time he heard she was pregnant, maybe thinking having Fiona would change him and Monica…but sadly she couldn’t
@@catherinenicole4322 none of them were Frank’s favourite. Lets stop this narrative
Frank was Frank’s favorite.
this isnt unpopular, this is so obvious thru out the show
Not that I’m saying anything unpopular, but I really love Ian and Mickey. Those actors just grew so well into those characters; their chemistry held up the final seasons and radiates through the screen.
There had to be one sibling with a consistent (if messy) relationship for us to root for. And for me, mickey made Ian way more likeable. I love cameron monaghan but Ian as a character always bored me by himself.
They ended up literally being the only reason for me to keep watching
As much as I saw Mickey and his family as crashouts and wanted Ian to end up with and nice stable partner, sometimes having someone who truly understands and accepts you for better or worse while not trying to get you to change is better than having someone who is "better" on paper but doesn't quite understand you as a person. And the former is Ian and Mickey 100%. They really belonged with each other. My only gripe with their relationship is how Mickey just kept disappearing and reappearing like damn just keep him around which I'm glad he just finally stayed in the later seasons
I loved Joan Cusack's character so much. After she left it was never the same.
Joan Cusack is so great in everything she's in.
Sheila was such an amazing character bc she was a great foil to the typical way most of the characters are
This is the story of poverty. It's generational. It's extremely hard to escape. It's traumatizing, unregulated, untreated mental warfare. It's barely surviving your entire life and passing that to your children who quite literally have never known anything better.
My favorite thing about the original uk version compared to the us version is that the Gallagher kids grow and recognize how toxic the family is and they LEAVE and make something for themselves. After a time it got tedious watching the American Gallaghers fall into the same patterns of self sabotage
What is the name of the UK version? Is it also called shameless or something else?
@Sam1D28 ya it's also called shameless, it's the og.
@gravityfalls1826 thank you.
And an extra thank you for being kind and answering even if he did mention it later in the video. So double thanks for your kindness as well.
I wish you a good day/evening :)
@@SammyLammy1D np, have a good day/evening/night too :)
I have to agree there.
Still can’t believe how dirty the writers did to both Fiona and Emmy, is like she never existed after her exit. I stopped watching after season 7, but did came back for Emmy’s last episode, the Gallavich wedding and the finale, the disservice of Fiona was hard to watch, is like the writers took really personally that Emmy decided to leave, all we got from her is that she joined a dating reality show, what a joke. Ian gets married and we do not hear from either Fiona or Mandy. Last episode did not feel like one either.
idk about you but frank calling out for fiona on his deathbed seems like an acknowledgement to me? 😢
where did they mentioned about Fiona joining dating reality show? Did they mentioned in show?
They should have made her run off with Jimmy/Steve/Jack. It would have made more sense to run off with her thief of a true love and not check in with family that much
It’s pretty well documented from both cast and crew how much of a nightmare Emmy Rossum was on set.
@@AMB5there’s a separate series of montages available on Showtime and TH-cam. It’s called Shameless: hall of shame. It aired on Showtime leading up to the finale. Some characters get their own episode of montages. Some characters are paired, like Gallavich. But there’s original, scripted footage framing the episodes.
As much as it sucks to see all the characters “regress” or continue the cycle I think that’s what the show was ultimately trying to say. That childhood trauma and constant lack of any parents will permanently fuck someone up, most people don’t ever get over it or break the cycle even when the realize it.
Lip consistently getting offers that would dirastically better his life but that his trauma and lack of any actual support and never being shone any ways to cope that are healthy lead him to messing up those life changing offers time after time which is hard to watch as a viewer because we see how smart he is and want him to succeed but reality is most people in his shoes would do the same thing especially with the pressure to “do the right thing and make it out the ghetto”. I always think it’s funny watching back when he gets told by the MIT guy about how he’s gonna end up knocking up some chick cuz he won’t wrap it and being stuck never realizing his true potential, because that happens.
Same thing with Fiona people are always calling her a hoe etc but fail to realize she literally had to date and sleep with people as a teenager to pay bills or to get certain things in the house done. Plus between frank and Monica they haven’t seen a single little bit of what a healthy or stable relationship even looks like, leading to her constantly getting with men who are like them like jimmy/steve, Sean, her bosses brother, ford. On top of that she does above and beyond for all her siblings always gets shit on and the 2 times she messes up in the show she does take accountability (far more than the others are willing to do) and still gets ragged on and treated like she’s worse than frank.
Debby ends up just like her mother and frank. She will pretty much do whatever and whoever to get what she wants and is the classic case of literally following in her parents foot steps. She lies and takes the money from all the other siblings spends it on herself and literally has frank say he’s never loved her so much as seeing her she shed.
Ian is bipolar like monica and we see how that progresses till he ends up in jail, he also like lip,Fiona,and Debby is shown to have lots of sex with different people coming back into play with the lack of parental guidance and never seeing healthy relationships, as much as I love to watch them micky and Ian’s storyline has ALOT of toxic elements that really seem to mirror a lot of the toxic elements of frank and Monica’s. I mean the show even makes it seem like micky marrying svet is what actually triggers his bipolar disorder (granted they story spans the whole show)
Carl is a good example of a kid who is left to their own devices and not having any coping skills or anything either turns to violence very young. He actually tries to learn a bit from his parents and siblings mistakes being the only one shown to use condoms, getting tested, even realizing he wasn’t okay with someone making him have sex without a condom and calling it assault (idk why they played that off cuz it straight up was what she was doing) and ends up with multiple children by the end that he doesn’t know about, 2 from Ingrid and then tishs. Even when he tries to break the cycle by going to the military school and becoming a cop he ends up being an absent father to his kids against his own will, once again repeating the cycle.
Liam is the only one I’m not sure how to really explain because the series ends before we really get to see him grow up or really develop his own character. I can imagine he would probably turn out similarly to Fiona in that they had a good head on their shoulder and were smart kids but getting abandoned by everyone in his life, his mom died, frank dies, Fiona leaves, and at the end they are selling the house and it’s not really clear where Liam is even going or with who. It’s also shown he does have concern about this when he asks where he is gonna go and says everyone is leaving him in the show. I think the constant abandonment would lead him down the same road as Fiona that they will be unstable and have unstable relationships but later in life they will find their own place.
Basically all this was me saying that as disappointed as I was watching them make bad choices or be bad people looking at it fully they are doing exactly what broken people with no parents that had to raise themselves would do and I think the show does a great job of showing that and the full extent of how that really does effect someone for the rest of their lives.
I agree. Lip being a genius, but “trapped” due to childhood trauma is very realistic.
My father had genius level intelligence (IQ 147). He was born to immigrants, didn’t speak English until he was 7, was left in an orphanage at 4, was in foster care with amazing parents until 12, when his father took him back - he had the best intentions, but it blew up the first stability these kids had ever had.
Today at 74, he is an alcoholic, with undiagnosed ADHD, and probably narcissistic personality disorder. His brother, only 18 months older than him, was even more intelligent and a talented artist, died of AIDS at 50 after 30 years on heroin.
My father had no tertiary qualifications, but is a jack of all trades, he can rebuild any engine, build you a house or a car, plumber, electrician, engineer, carpenter. He spent 30 years at sea, can navigate by the stars, drive or sail any kind of water craft in wild conditions (been shipwrecked 4 different times from storms at sea, twice rescued by the navy).
Like lip, his happily ever after is being married for 35 year and counting. He really has no concept of family, but has stuck it out as best he can. It’s not very glorious, but maintaining a middle class suburban life - like Lip in the end - is slaying a dragon. It’s an achievement that overcame insurmountable odds to achieve, even though it’s most people’s starting point.
Doesn’t make for a very glamorous story, but it’s real. Lip keeping a job, maintaining a relationship, and being a present father to his kids is slaying a dragon.
I agree 100%! That's exactly how I see the show. And I think that's what makes it great. It's a different perspective and shows a reality for many people that others ignore.
Narcissistic people don't change, bipolar disorder doesn't go away either. Psychological trauma affects people for the rest of their lives, and bad choices and decisions often have irreversible consequences.
This is the reality for many people.
Hey, I love what you wrote and just wanted to add that Lip took Liam to his new home.
There's a small part in the episode when they are selling the home. Liam is panicking and trying to figure out what he's gonna do and Lip says dude im so sorry If it wasn't obvious but you're def coming with me.
To be fair, if that was the point, the show could have ended in a high note instead of slowly becoming less and less interesting.
If at the end of the day, the message is that this follows you the rest of your life, and hardly anyone gets out of it, then repeating it over and over serves no purpose other than milking the cash cow.
We got it the first 20 times, another 30 wont make it better, in fact it makes it worse.
Season 4 was a perfect place, plenty of characters had fallen in and out of the cycle, it was the dramatic peak, any point after that and it slowly becomes tedious to see the same thing over and over again.
I agree. I also think that having Frank stay a static character was the best decision. Frank to me is compelling to watch because his antics drastically affect the people around him. And in his own messed up selfish way he truly cares for his family especially Fiona and Liam. For my Dragon Ball fans it's almost like Goku in a sense as he's also a static character but the way he affects others around him is compelling to watch also both characters are entertaining in their own rights and its interesting seeing them in different scenarios with new people. It's very unlikely for someone as old and well traveled in the game of life as Frank to suddenly have an epiphany and realize his wrongdoings becoming this great moral figure all of a sudden, it would've been really cliche. Most people half his age are already stuck in their ways for better or worse so having him remain the same was the only logical realistic choice for him
"We all knew Ian was going to end up with Mickey eventually after being absent" Oh boy. We did NOT. Cameron wanted to quit and for a moment he did but they decided to bring Mickey back last minute (hence the prison together) and the rest is history. Season 7 was supposed to be a glimpse into the past and then we move on forever but... Yeah. All in all we were in the TRENCHES for many, many dry years
Personally, Ian and Monica were great representations of bipolar disorder, Debbie is insufferable and the one who became the most like Frank, and Mickey and Kev are the best characters. Terry is definitely the worst morally, but I find his scenes hilarious most of the time. 😂
Yeses they definitely leaned in too much into the "lip becomes his father kinda" and if they had just let go of that they would've seen that Debbie was truly like frank, even though frank says she is the most like Monica, like ironically she's the most like himself.
Terry hoping on with the neighbors to kick the pedo’s ass (when we know he is a creep himself) is fking gold
Love this show. I’ve binged it about 500 times. I love all the characters.
You’re spot on about Lip. Lip is smart, but he has a superiority complex… especially when he got sober. He’s one of those recovering addicts who is suddenly on a high horse simply because he’s sober… lecturing and judging everyone else.
A-frickin'-men!
When Lip screws up college it broke my heart. In a way that I didn't fully recover as a fan.
Great video. And I also love Mickey so much because he is so effed up but caring & honest. He is trying to break cycles but they are hard to break. I like Ian & Mickey as characters because they aren’t the media go to gay caricature.
And I like that they didn’t have Frank become sober or have atonement with the kids because he never but that work in. It shows how with addiction it pulls you back in & sometimes the people you hurt will walk away. I like that they gave the story of falling into alcoholism and working towards a sober life with Lip. Lip is that “Gifted” that falls down in adulthood. The show also portrays how you can’t force someone into treatment with Lip & Ian. And the people around you balancing out helping and not enabling.
I'm sure I'm not the first person to have this opinion, but I feel like Shameless ended when Fiona left, and the subsequent seasons were more like a spin-off series. The younger Gallagher kids were not made to be tragic characters in the same way the older ones were. As a result they didn't have that experience handling the heavier more grounded storylines like Ian or Fiona, and as a result their plots felt more bombastic and over the top. Oz had the same issue in their last two seasons, in which they said all the stories they needed to say up to that point and everything just felt like shock value after season 4
Don't forget they did the same to orange is the new black and they did some characters dirty
I agree. It wasn't unwatchable but Debbie is definitely not Fiona.
Lip telling V to let Fiona hit rock bottom will always bother me. Because she was hard on him when he was dealing with booze but she never stopped trying to help, typically if you let someone hit rock bottom it’s because all attempts at help have failed. But no one showed her any real support they berated her everytime and the moment someone (V) showed some real support lip shut it down. My headcannon is that Fiona didn’t leave just to start over but because she realized if she’s gonna be alone she may as well try and build a new support system.
Here's my take on that: I think hitting rock bottom is different for both chracters because when Lip lost his advantages in life he just kind of gave up on trying to be great and settled for just getting by (which is perfectly fine btw) if Lip hit rock bottom he would've given up completely and would've been Frank 2.0 imo. Fiona on the other hand is a survivor. When the cards are down for her she always bounces back even harder. If Fiona stayed with V and Kev than they would've just enabled her vices. Fiona was always the strongest out of all of them which is why she's the only one who really makes it out
I can summarize this all with: They should’ve had some shame cuz wtf were they doing
Lips character is almost a perfect reflection of so many impoverished gifted ppl. After everything you go thru there is no good conclusion. Your just around
Emmy Rossum is a phenomenal actress for someone who started off as a Disney kid. Usually they peek on Disney and that's it.
What did she do on Disney?
@@JohnJacobSchmidtt She played and ice skater in this movie about a science geek who also plays hockey.
Not too long after she was in Songcatcher.
i'm so sorry but since i stopped watching after s8 so i had no idea frank died and when you said he up and died of covid of all things i choked on my food laughing 😭
was NOT expecting that
Tbh I feel it’s actually quite a unique yet ironic position Fiona and Lip are in. Both had their respective positions in the house hold as the substitute mother due to being the eldest Fiona and the smart gonna be successful one day Lip actually wish they had each-others roles.
Despite them being put in the roles they received due to their birth placement in the family I think they both actually are better and more suited for each-others roles. Like sure Lip threw away his “potential for success” but then actively became the parent the family needed the only imo really good parental figure that came out of that family beyond compare. He is so capable of handling and taking care of the family and kids which it’s not like Fiona didnt but she clearly struggled. Plus due to the trauma she received from it she naturally wanted out of that position and role (it no longer being suited for her) and in turn she strives for success.
It’s a very ironic but imo quite fitting dynamic of the siblings having roles they try so desperately to stray away from and actively attempt to do the other ones role themselves without truly being self aware that is what they are attempting to do.
‘Mother’ Fiona eventually goes away cause she’s no longer needed and can’t strive for the role she WANTS and is suited for as a successful businesswoman if she sticks with her family and Lip actively doesn’t wish to be the success story to the point of always retreating back to his family/position as a Gallagher. But in doing so he is actually okay and fine with being in a guardian/parent esc role for the younger Gallaghers, his own child and the leader of the family unlike Fiona who eventually couldn’t cope and wanted to branch away. Like as if he’s content with his life having value through someone else’s success rather than him striving for it himself with all that pressure built on him to not fail. Whilst Fiona just truly could no longer live tied to her family nor live in a world where she felt like nothing more than fill in mum for a fucked up family, her constant retreat to them and her bad habits always ended up making her miserable in some way or another so she had to just break away from the excuse/influence of the Gallaghers.
Sorry for the yapping but I just find it interesting how the two eldest really tried so hard to step away from their assigned roles in the family and ultimately choose the one the other had. Frankly makes you wonder if there would’ve been the same outcome for each-other just opposite IF Fiona was born second. Would she have been successful if the eldest become parent role didn’t apply to her initially? Or do you think she would’ve been very similar to Lip and try to actively step away from the expectations of being “the one to get away” by the family?
Just food for thought.
Also also side note, I see a direct parallel also with Debbie and Carl where Debbie was the goody golden child (always sweet and helping out) and Carl was the trouble maker for a good while but yet grown up Debbie acts the most like a fucked up Gallagher and Carl is a cop of all things/the best one to come out of the family imo.
Another interesting coincidence yet I don’t really like using it as an example because I felt that was just bad writing for Debbie’s teenage/adult arc on their part rather than any accidental genius or ironically tasteful development.
That is going to feed my brainworms for a while... Wow
Me too @@Animely0
Honestly I think it was awesome! Most expected Carl to become like his mom and dad and debbie to have it together but in the end Carl overcame his struggles and became a better person while debbie always used her struggles (teen mom and lack of parents) to excuse or downplay her choices so all in all she is continuing the cycle even her last girlfriend was the cycle her kid taking a backseat to sex and an afterthought going to Texas. Honestly from someone who comes from an addict family it shows all the outcomes! Lip is the one who is full of potential but his upbringing keeps him in held back. Fiona is the kid who becomes the parent to her siblings and her parents and in the end she raised her kids her whole life and now she can not be in their life or around because she will be put and put herself back in that Role so she had to leave. Ian was in the trenches but could have more of a childhood so he even tho he had issues he still could cope he was perfect for mickey he can take all of the curve balls. Debbie was fully parented by fiona and lip she did not have the worries and could just be the kid she saw her parents scew ups but the mess was cleaned up by lip and fiona so never saw how much it impacted the family while she did better is continuing the cycle of her parents, someone else can fix her screw ups. Carl is the dark horse he had the positive parenting from fiona and lip but he went down the wrong road for a bit and then corrected he is the only one with a stable job and a good head on his shoulders. Leium is the saddest story arch in the whole show. He lost his bio mother and father his sibling parents (while lip is there he is raising his bio kid so leium took a backseat) he had no where he could feel truly wanted just always a tag along. I really wish that Kevin and V would have stepped up and took him with them! Kevin would have his son and V has been there his whole life and when he recognized himself as a person of color took him under her wing. While most may have missed it in the end leium wasn't taking on frank (after dementia) because he had to he was seeking love of a parent. Even the little bit frank could give.
You have no idea as to how thrilled I am to FINALLY see an analysis video on my favorite comfort show of all time, Shameless. I binged watched all 11 seasons religiously, and it's honestly nothing else but a masterpiece. Even after finishing it, I still couldn't fathom over it being done. I watched endless playlists and clips and anything I could find on Shameless, old and new.
My favorite character is honestly Mickey. A really consistent character whom rarely ever gets dull. Hell, him being gone every now and then sticks true to the nature of his character. A troubled young man going through alot with a shitty upbringing and difficulties with his own sexuality and others, but still manages to pull through every single time.
I'm not gonna ramble on with my own personal analysis or summary on this show, but I'll say this. Each Gallagher, Milkovich, & other characters are still highly synonymous with Shameless.
It's fascinating, to say the least and I'm in love with it in every step of the way.
I still feel saddened by knowing I may never find another show such as Shameless again.
I loved this show, the moment I seen the first episode and have been hooked ever since.
The amount of times I laughed and felt impacted by this show is incredible.
In my opinion, they should at least do a spinoff for Ian & Mickey.
They're the only couple (& homosexual couple) that I actually liked.
I used to hate gays (mainly because of not fully understanding as to how a male could be attracted to the same gender and usually stereotyping them as being all the same).
However, when I watched Shameless, it gave me a realistic depiction of homosexuality and opened my mind to a new perspective on not only sexuality, but romance in general.
I'd recommend Shameless to anyone who hasn't seen it yet. It's a MUST watch.
If you have Netflix (where I watched the show from), then what are you waiting for?
GET TO EXPERIENCING ONE OF THE BEST PIECES OF FICTIONAL MEDIA PUT ON TELEVISION.
This is definitely a realistic show. This is generational trauma. The uk version in my opinion is too optimistic. Coming from someone who’s been around multiple family’s that had drug issues and or mentally unhealthy parents. They can see how messed up it is but they find comfort together in the mess. Only Fiona found her way. Realistic in my opinion.
I really wished they killed off frank in the earlier seasons, like most of the times his hijinks were not related to the rest of the family and he was just annoying to watch,he’s not likeable at all and as a villain he’s boring and predictable, on a recent rewatch I skipped most all of the scenes with him
I hated him too and i think it was perfect to die because of liver failure. And the fact that he got a liver in the end was very unrealistic. The scenes whit the doctor I skip them all. Tnx to Netflix
@@l.gh.3759The scenes with the young dying doctor were the most absurd thing ever.
One reason why S1 one was probably so great is because it already had some building blocks from Shameless UK to work off from. S1 in the US version practically has the same storylines as UK S1.
One of the best shows ever made! So real and dark but it balances out with a comedic and wholesome side. Also I love Gallavich so Ian and Mickeys storyline was perfect!
I feel like the way Debbie ends up in her teenage years was actually built up and heavily foreshadowed in the first few seasons. I had part of her arch spoiled before I watched the show, and it made it easy to spot all the hints that her personality was going to take a downward spiral due to her environment and the lack of guidance and supervision she had.
She was often left alone with bad influences(Ethel,Mandy,Svetlana,her frenemies,Frank), she was a very loving person who became desperate to be loved in return, and every time she did something wrong or got some bad advice(or even good advice with a bad interpretation) no one in her family stepped in to help her.
Matt is a pretty good example because everyone lets her spend absurd amounts of time with him then does nothing when they find out he’s a lot older than her. When she assaults him Fiona doesn’t talk to her about it even though she desperately needs to and Lip denies it was assault.
Keep in mind, Lip went out of his way to prove some random woman was a p*do preying on young boys, but when his actual siblings are being taken advantage of he does nothing, and tells Debbie men can’t be assaulted.
There were plenty of other examples but being left alone with random people, or Frank, and picking up bad habits or ideas seemed to be the norm for Debbie.
My misogyny litmus test is someone’s thoughts on Fiona
What?
Anyone who has a "misogyny litmus test" is a man hater.
Fr
you did such a good job of conveying the depth of the show, the characters, and their arcs without getting too bogged down in detail. that must've been hard for million season show.
“I’m not sure if Emmy Rossum won any awards for this show” but with all due respect, a simple Google search would answer that question and improve your narration, but that’s the one note I have for you as you continue to grow in your content creation
I can't speak on anyone else, but I know from my own personal experience that breaking the cycle of self sabotage is extremely difficult. I see a lot of myself in Lip and I'm currently at a point in my life where I feel I'm at my lowest. Digging yourself into that hole is easy when you've already been put into that hole. My only saving grace is my best friend. She's the one who takes the shovel from my hands. I'm stuck with my situation and my whole childhood I was told that I was smart, that I was gifted. I didn't have a goal in mind for a career, so I just threw myself into college after I graduated only to experience panic attacks every time I went to class, so I just stopped going. I feel like how Lip ended up in his way is just so hard-hitting realistic to me. Disappointing to watch but almost like a cautionary tale for someone like him, like me. I don't have any hope for humanity and it seems like I'm just looking through a tunnel with a dim light at the end. Maybe I can try to accomplish what Lip couldn't and get the hell out, it'll just take a lot of effort to reach that light.
Edit side-note: Unpopular opinion, I ****ing hate Frank and I wanted to punch him every time I saw him, he made me physically sick. It's funny how people love and hate him just like they do in the show. I'm just a big hater, lmao
i didn't know what to feel about fiona around the middle seasons but by 11th season i really really wanted her back with them... i really wanted a happy family... i really wanted them to live near each other... man i want closure.. i really hope they all had better lives now...
I love finding a new video essay channel that's just starting up. Your video was entertaining, can't wait to see more.
Thankyou so much I appreciate that ! Glad you enjoyed !
Ian being bipolar and micky not being able to express his love towards his partner was so relateable.
Something that never gets addressed is that if the Gallagher kids have it bad the Milkovichs have it worse. Gallaghers have each other for support, they love each other, and the father (as messed up as he is) will at least occasionally shows some love and support. But the Milkovichs are completely on their own and father is completely abusive in every way possible.
The show could've addressed that if they didn't write Mandy & Mickey(until the last seasons) out of the show because of behinds-the-scenes issues.
Mandy & Mickey were already significant characters in the early seasons, and so much of their Milkovich issues went unaddressed before unceremonious boot-offs from the show. They has so many in progress + potential story arcs that had to get dropped and never picked up again, and their absences made Ian a weaker character.
They M&M should've became honorary Gallaghers long-term & if that Gallagher vs Milkovich sub-plotline last season happened sooner, with Mickey & Mandy as regulars before the show dragged on too long.
And yeah "[Milkovich] father is completely abusive in every way possible" is putting it lightly lol.
Dude rapes both his daughter and son(via hired prostitute and shotgun) and it NEVER gets addressed again. Not even in that scene where Terry LEADS a neighborhood mob to beat up a pedophile who moves in nearby. The irony doesn't even get commented on, and I'm pretty sure none of the other character ever learn that Mandy and Mickey were raped bc of their dad. I was waiting for that secret to be exposed and for the Gallaghers recontextualize their impressions of Mickey & Mandy so they stop shitting on them for being Milkoviches & treat them better. But that never happened.
no matter the quality I will always have a soft spot for Shameless, I started watching around season 3 and grew up with the characters
I’ve re-watched this show about 6-7 times within the last 2 years and one scene that always stuck with me is when Frank and Debbie go to the hippie camp, and When Debbie is put into labor, she immediately runs to frank and asks him if they can go home, at first Frank simply hits her with the “just thug it out” response, but then Debbie pleads with him “please dad I just wanna go home” and he doesn’t fight her on it, he doesn’t say something to retaliate or even try to make an argument on why they should stay, he just looks at her with full compassion and care and immediately drives her back to the Gallagher house.
Once Fiona left I dont think I enjoyed any of the seasons after. Rossums portrayal of her, for me, was the show. The family's treatment of her made it impossible for me to root for any of them again
I agree with Frank dying in season 4. It would have been so much more interesting.
I know people hate Jimmy and his writing was really all over the place but I did feel bad for him when he was reeling from his dad being gay and everyone dumps on him for it, that’s not really my issue, my issue is he *was* going to apologize for bringing it up so much - when they were digging up Aunt Ginger - but Fiona - understandably I will admit - pushes him away when all he wanted was to feel like they were equal in the relationship.
Also I can’t help but see Kev as an R rated Van from “Reba” as they’re not only played by the same guy but they’re both equally stupid.
Fiona’s season 3 monologue in the courtroom scene is the BEST of the entire show. Still my favorite scene of the entire show. I’m glad you included that in this video.
Idk but I just feel that I could relate to this show so much right when I first saw it. I was raised by my dad if you want to call it that. I got my first job at 15 to support myself. My dad was never around much. He would tell me to watch his friends kids while we were all upstairs in the apartment together. My mother never wanted to care for me and still doesn’t ever want to be in my life I would say due to mental health issues… I’d say because of all these things, it’s held me back in life and made me who I am today… always struggling. But I love my daughter and even though I only got my GED and work my butt off to not get very far, I’m happy there’s a lot of love in my life.
It was too real for some of us. Shows how hard it can be to break that cycle.
I was considering rewatching this show, but I had forgotten how much grape it has. So thanks for saving me from that and also great video!!!!
If I remember right the original UK show was.much more bleaker. The two shows go off in different directions after the first season.
Shameless is one of my favorite shows of all time. I watched it for the first time last year and I’ve never been so emotionally invested in a show before. It’s one of a kind and one of the best shows in television history. I love how all the characters are flawed as people, that neither are completely good or bad, they’re products of their environment and it causes them to be, as the name of the show is, shameless. At one point I ever completely loved or loathed the Gallagher kids because they have great and bad qualities that make them so compelling
40:50 “this is g*y.” “We are g*ay” “i don’t think im *this* gay” comedy
And Carl....made something blow up in for science class!
I’ve been scouring YT to find a good recap of Shameless in its entirety. Thank you for breaking it all down. ❤
my biggest issue with this show is the inability of the writers to handle all the serious topics they add into the show. if they didnt take a "lets throw X trauma into the show just to see if it sticks" approach the show wouldnt have fell apart so bad. like we literally have debbie take over as caretaker when shes a convicted pedophile, a date rapist and a worse mom than fiona ever was and the show writers just dont care? or like lips gf at the end of the show having a big reveal that she was groomed by a teacher that amounts to her going "wow i was an innocent girl and he took advantage of me" while lip kind of grins about it lmfao and like this all happens in a single 30 minute c plot in the 4th to last episode. they never try to touch ian being transphobic as a gay man after setting that up. like its literally the opening of the powerpuff girls where he adds CHEMICAL X but instead its a bunch of overpayed writers adding "pepper" from the wrong side of the dump opener on the can.
I'm glad this was recommended to me. Thank you for your recap and perspective! I subscribed after the first few minutes
Awesome ! Thankyou !
Eddie Jackson is the most relatable character on this show. May he rest in peace.
Loved the show but couple thoughts. I was ok with Fiona leaving but Liam was a toddler WTF? I was disappointed Lip didn’t do better in life. He could t get at least a half way decent job. Debbie was horrible I mean horrible. She was hard to watch. Ian and Mikey truly made the show. The last season with selling the house and how Lip messed that up but the thing that made me angry was no one thought to reassure Liam that he wasn’t going to be homeless. I also felt like it was an afterthought of Lip telling him “you can live with me.”
Lip had a lot of potential but I think that was the point. He is given a chance over and over again to be better and make a better choice, and he doesn't. I also grew up in a poor neighborhood and I know people that still live there, and not because of a lack of opportunities or connections, they still have the same job etc. they're just stuck.
liam was 10 not a toddler. and frank was very active in his life. fiona and frank share custody of him
Debbie is Frank without any of the charm. She is legitimately the closest thing the show has to a villain.
I always loved how none of these characters are perfect. They've all done something messed up. It makes them so much more realistic and easier to relate to.
i feel like binge watching vs watching in real time gave you a completely different experience. even tho it def got less interesting im glad they kept going.
Just found this channel and lemme just say your channel is one of my favorites for commentary! Found you from your All American video and lemme tell you this channel is gonna blow up. Keep crushing it!
Thankyou so much for your kind words !
What I hate about Lip's ending isn't that I expected him to become Steve Jobs or some billionaire, I know that's unrealistic and borderline stupid. I hate that they try to paint him as Frank Jr, when that isn't the case at all. If anything that's Debbie.
Debbie, like Frank, is decently intelligent, but too lazy and self destructive to ever do anything meaningful with it except drop some drunk history lessons every once in a while. She's also unbelievably selfish to the point where it even harms herself and refuses to ever take accountability for her actions, like Frank. Debbie and Frank care about no one but themselves, which is absolutely not Lip.
Firstly, Lip's far more intelligent than his dad ever was, and no where near as selfish. Going to college mostly because he was pushed into it by friends and family and acting like the second parent to the Gallagher family to help ease Fiona's burdens. Even his alcoholism isn't anything exclusive to Frank, if anything that was probably just a coping mechanism he developed.
I hated Lip's ending because it felt insulting to the audience's intelligence, especially after we had watched him fail and push forward for the better part of a decade. Especially after they simply decided not to do anything with his rehab plotline in season 7 and keep him firmly in the ghetto. Which, if anything, was probably more to do with just keeping Jeremy Allen White in the show than any real commentary on the "cycle of poverty".
Both Ian and Fiona managed to make it out of South Side, so if anything keeping Lip in the same place just felt like a slap in the face.
This was my first video of yours and I really enjoyed it! I love video essays and retrospectives and you did a good job of discussing and summarizing this show! One recommendation is to turn the background music down a bit, I found it a little distracting. But overall, GREAT JOB!!
“Frank’s sweet relationship with his long lost daughter” Well that’s one way to put it.
@@crazybusta1 yeah Sammi got ruined after season 4
@@MysticalFilmNerd literally. I wish they would’ve kept her sweet, seeing another one of franks kids being disappointed to find out her father is just another deadbeat would’ve been so inline with the story. Her going absolute bonkers just felt like a forced way to get her out.
Ian needed a toxic relationship to thrive. He and Mickey beat on each other constantly,committed crimes together and they call that love. Because they both grew up in muddy water they need muddy water to survive
Lol after season 4 the realism was sacrificed for constant goofy comedy.
Peak Shameless was the episode Just Like the Pilgrims Intended, Season 2 episode 11. Peak
Frank going back to his old self is sad but realistic, my dad is an addict and he faced some major health issues, he had an heart attack, he was alone at home and spend hours in pain, and only after 6 hours he got help. We though that this experience would change him, that he would became better, but then two months later he went back on drinking and using drugs. About two months ago we went out with him, and he is back being narcisistic and abusive. Narcisistic addicts dont change unless they really want to.
Such an amazing video on my favorite show of all time. As someone who grew up with not a lot I relate to a lot of the characters in Shameless. Like fr Lips and Sierras storyline is so relatable to me rn.
I tend to notice that people who come from and were raised in a similar background tend to love the mid seasons just as much as the early ones while the people who grew up privileged with healthy family dynamics like early seasons, especially 4, while just tolerating the mid to late ones and I think it’s because in seasons 5 through 7, the Gallaghers don’t go through as much trauma and tribulations as they did in seasons 2-4 so to those from better upbringings, it comes off as boring because seeing the struggles of the Gallaghers is merely entertainment to them while for those of us from a harsher background, those darker seasons/moments are an unfortunate part of our realities we don’t wanna see when watching television. To this day, I’ve only watched season 4 ONCE, it’s just too traumatising
This is such an interesting take honestly.
No one ever mentions that the Gallagher kids and Frank, not Liam ,are sex addicts. Debbie believes that because her older siblings are sexually active she should be as well. Debbie, having daddy issues is the reason she appeared to be the ultimate dysfunctional sibling IMO. When Fiona took on the parental role she became the middle unseen child. EVERYTHING she did was a look at me, love me girl move. Her character is disgusting she raped Matty, tricked Derrick, and had an affair with her girlfriend’s underage daughter. She made an immature decision to have a baby and expected everyone to be happy to have to feed another Gallagher. She should have seen how hard the struggle of taking care of children without an education and good paying job was for Fiona and became allergic to sex.
literally currently going through my first ever watch of this show on season 7 right now and these have been some of my exact thoughts and feelings , great video!
Keep up the good videos bro don’t ever stop
I disagree i think the show was amazing form beginning to end except the ending was severely lacking and anti climactic.
I dont really see lips seemingly sudden drop in intelligence as bad writing. It COULD be but i think it makes a little sense seeing as how he spent so much of show not sober and he had to forget about school all together and just work a regular 9 to 5. After he got kicked out of school there really wasn't anything stimulating his brain so he really had no reason to use academic smarts in the later seasons.
JIMMY STEVE IS NOT A GOOD GUY! I will die in this hill he could not handle the life Fiona had (literally compares living in her house living to living in slum) and expects her to run everything through him when he entered her life maybe a year or so ago. I think he’s a rich kid who wanted the exciting life but couldn’t handle the people that come with that. He constantly lies and in my opinion only wants to be with Fiona to feel like he living that “crazy” life.
They *do* live in a slum.
it's about family and that's what's so powerful about it.
Fiona was the best and then Mickey and Ian love story then lip, then Frank, then Carl. The most interesting and fun to watch.
One really good Carl scene you didn't talk about was when he was being robbed at the fast food place and he just had enough and went crazy on the guy after his gun discharged lol. Nonetheless loved the video. Thank you for keeping me entertained this morning lol
The other main reason why Emmy Rossum left the series was reportedly paid less than her co-star William H. Macy, even though they had equal billing. She requested equal pay and additional compensation to make up for past discrepancies, but wanted to pursue new creative opportunities and said that it was time for the character to spread her wings, it was less need for her. Emmy also stated in an interview that she would never say goodbye to Fiona. Rumor has it that on the set she didn't really get along with her co-star and had a bad attitude as well. I have been a fan of her career since the beginning....... I think the character Carl had the best and amazing character growth. In my opinion that wasn't boring at all just shows that the writers made one of the Gallagher very successful and made something out of his life.
Good stuff man. Keep it up. 🍻
I’m like the only one who actually likes Debbie aren’t I?
In the earlier seasons, I related a lot to her because I grew up around kids, working in childcare with my mom, babysitting, taking care of my younger siblings, often being the older kid in charge of the younger ones
When I was 12 or 13, I had a brief phase where I got obsessed with wanting to be a parent, and had I known what sex was at the time, I might’ve actually gone down that road, so it wasn’t a huge surprise to me when Debbie’s storyline went in that direction
This isn’t to say that I condone her actions at all, in fact, a lot of the times I was mad because of how she behaved, but she was handed such a bad hand in life that I can totally see how she got to that point
This isn’t an excuse, but it’s more of an explanation
I also have a theory that Debbie inherited some sort of mental illness as well
I see a lot of bipolar traits in her, as well as borderline personality disorder
She’s got a lot of impulsivity, is able to switch her emotions and behavior on a dime, and gets super attached to people super quickly
She’s crushed whenever she feels that someone she’s grown attached to screws her over, like Frank, Monica, Fiona, her many partners over the show, and she has a hard time keeping these relationships going because of her bursts of impulsivity and bad choices
She’s a lot like Frank, and I think that’s something to note
One of the kids was bound to end up like him, and it happened to be Debbie
Given how attached she was to him as a child and teen, she absorbed a lot of his behavior and traits into herself (and my theory about her having a mental disorder also plays into this)
She mimics Frank’s tactics of getting money and pity, like trying to marry Neil (the disabled man she was a caretaker for), running a baby supplies theft ring for a bit, panhandling with Franny, and seeking out ways to fulfill herself over the others
She also mirrors Fiona a lot, especially her earlier behavior in the show
Debbie, like Fiona, has a string of failed relationships, and usually, they were ruined because of her own self destruction
She tries to run the house like Fiona used to, and I think her controlling tendencies were a mix of her own desires, and trying to “fix” where Fiona had flaws
Granted, Debbie didn’t do a very good job at this and screwed over her family members
She’s absolutely flawed, like the rest of them, and her flaws are more glaringly obvious because of the writing choices made, but I still really liked her character, even though I totally get why everyone hates her-
She’s not the easiest character to like at all
Finally someone else sees it! Not saying I like her but her awful behavior didn’t come out of no where. I knew she got pregnant before I watched the show, and when she was left alone with Ethel and Svetlana and spent several days of her life babysitting it was pretty obvious what she was going to do when she felt like she fell in “love”
As a character i like her, as a person i hate her, shes a realistic potrayal of the worst person you can be under that environment.
There's always a debbie in a poor households.
Season 7 should’ve been the last season. That last scene where we see all the Gallagher’s have got their lives together was beautiful
7:27 how dare you refer to him as only Jimmy he is and forever will be Jimmy-Steve lmfao cuz that's all they ever called him after
What about Jack, he becamed Jack in his last appearance on the show😂😂
Great analysis! Fan of Shameless!
I think this was one of the best TV shows in history. Loved and sometimes hated the characters.
The show has characters being triumphant and miss opportunities, some just fall flat. Some go completely the opposite path.
It's very human though and sure they don't always do what the viewer wants but, that's not real.
They are just living super real and messy lives.
Perfect show. Bravo!
This is the best retrospective of the show. Damn 🎉 would love to see you do additional shameless vids
Appreciate the love thankyou
30:25 ah, yes. The famous ocean outside of definitely coastal Chicago.
Can we talk about how Carl and lip are constantly done dirty with all his ships like some of these choices makes they make is weird Carl constantly getting cheated on is weird lip being self destructive makes sense but the milf relationship ain’t it bro and wait can we talk about the ship with the military girl man was seen as insecure for reason that were valid good gosh bro
Chicago, poor, alcoholic parents, disfunctional family, everyone yells all the time?... Wasn't that The Bear?
bingo.
just not as poor
This was an excellent retrospective!
I changed my mind about debbie. She is the counter characters of lip and fiona. Growing up with parents who are adicts lip and fiona want to do better because they both have to take care of their parents and siblings debbie turns out like the worst parts of the parents becase she always had lip and fiona to care for her she had parents just did not know it
I wanted it to end when the mom died something about that felt so final and the perfect reason to end
I feel like it actually makes the show better that most of the characters end up not seriously evolving it’s realistic everyone I’ve know from these types of families are exactly like this the cliché of the genius son throwing everything away with alcohol is a real epidemic that America faces we have a never ending list of geniuses in AA that just can’t pull themselves together
This was great.
Personally, I think Debbie is the most realistic character of them all. And that shows the great writing that existed in the show. She literally was the child of addicts who had mental health issues. And those issues ran through her home, all around her. The only difference between her and Fiona is that she wasn't FORCED to take care of the household. All the Gallagher kids pulled weight that wasn't meant for them, when it came to the home. But Fiona was left at nine, as the oldest child. And something HAD to be done. Debbie is 4th in line. Someone has always been there to look out for her. That contributed to her "I can do it on my own" or "I know what's best" mentality. Because she didn't HAVE to. Even when she took over the household, it seemed like she willingly stepped into that role, to attempt to have some sort of control.
Fiona my not have gotten pregnant young because she was already the "mom" to her siblings so she knew what it was like, firsthand. Debbie needed attention, the most of all, it seemed like. She wasn't as charismatic as her brothers so she had to get the attention however she could.
Watching her play the seemingly anxious child turned dictator is often what it looks like in real life. Sometimes Anxious children grow up to have unhealthy relationship with control. And it isn't always pretty
Kevin with the pay it forward guy was the funniest scene in the series
The thing that frustrates me about Lip is that in the end his arrogance was still there at the end of the show. This resulted to them having $70k rather than $200k for the house
It’s hard for me to watch this show. It hits to much, raised by alcoholic parents, poor and lots of kids in the 80s&90s. No protection back then, just find a way to be invisible and make it out without an addiction was the goal and without a pregnancy.
I definitely know. What it is to love a toxic parent but when they gets sick i get worried a bit
The sibling never understood the sacrifice fiona made for them to do something she couldnt and tried to make it easierfor them
Also frank i feel whp was already not doing well burnt out at some ppint and just stopped caring as much because atleast he stayed but still does not help on thw way his kids were raised.
Hey I'm #200! I hope to see your TH-cam channel grow
Thankyou so much !
Great video!! I would only point out that the background music could be a bit lower since it distracts from you talking. I’m definitely subscribing!
they all say the Gallagher thing a lot because all they know is supporting each other, now matter what.
I will always, always call him Jimmy Jack Steve
I always assumed Debbie was just a mini version of Monica on purpose.
I think it’s fitting Frank died of Covid this whole show has always went over different issues going on in America from the gentrification of lower class neighborhoods (something that was actively happening in Chicago) Debbie not having health insurance, teenage pregnancy, drug problems, homeless problem etc etc. to summarize the last few season as getting “woke” is missing the underlying message of the show entirely.