Showtime’s Shameless has perhaps the most sincere title on television. The simple adjective says it all about the outrageous lengths people (well, poor people) will go to get by. Some of these jaw-droppers include but are not limited to intentionally breaking a leg for booze money or taking other students’ SATs for payment. Even doing adult web videos for side cash or wrongly accusing an uncle of molestation to save the family home are not off limits. These are just a few of a long list of “shameless” moments in the dramedy, which is coming up on its fifth season in January. Now, this poor culture will come head to head with an influx of city newbies: yuppies.
If you haven’t seen it, Shameless centers around the Gallaghers: a white, low class family living in South Side Chicago. In rare TV fashion, Shameless actually features a poor family for once.
The show focuses on the struggle of the oldest sibling of six, Fiona (Emmy Rossum), to run the house, barely living paycheck to paycheck. She has taken it amongst herself to provide for her five siblings, Lip (Jeremy Allen White), Ian (Cameron Monaghan), Carl (Ethan Cutkosky), Debs (Emma Kenney) and Liam. Their manic-depressive, bipolar mother Monica (Chloe Webb) dipped out years ago. The unbelievably selfish Frank (William H. Macy) is their alcoholic father. When he’s not out conning someone for beer or whatever he can get his hands on, he only makes their lives more problematic. This is with the exception of occasional help from next-door neighbors, Kev and V, or the obsessive-compulsive loner, Sheila.
The fifth season, which airs Jan. 11, 2015, will feature a trendy coffee shop that comes to town. Along with it, what Showtime refers to as “a move towards gentrifying” the neighborhood. Or, as Rossum put it, “an invasion of hipsters.” The family will face a new dynamic: culture clash. These young urbanites, completely opposite from the broke Gallagher crew, have figured out how to buy cheap business. They are building up the ghettos where the family resides and taking over. But we know this family is tough and won’t give up without a fight to keep the neighborhood as is.
This reminder of social class reality will again be a breath of fresh air from other shows like Scandal, Revenge and Nashville. There is no Scandal-ous drama, sugar-coated by flashy clothes and fancy cars. Rather, Shameless invites the stomach-dropping aspects of poverty into our living rooms. What makes it stand out from today’s TV is that it has even mastered touching on raw subjects like addiction. Shameless makes us feel the wounds of addiction even more so than in shows without poverty. Take Nashville: it shallowly associates alcoholism with the pressures of being a country music star. Shameless, on the other hand, cuts deep. The Gallaghers constantly have to fight obstacles common to poor people; some in the past seasons include avoiding eviction or foster care.
In the past, we’ve seen Shameless acts like Lip selling weed and alcohol out of an ice cream truck, or Debs stealing money from her school UNICEF donations. Though the Gallaghers’ behavior is often absurd, it does not take away from the authentic display of desperation faced by the poor. This being said, who knows what the kids have up their sleeves this season in their efforts to run the hipsters out of town.
Fans and not-yet fans of Shameless can also respect some lesser known tid-bits. The writing is not just make-believe; the show’s got authentic roots. In fact, the adaptation of Shameless came from the U.K. version where the original writer, Paul Abbott, was left by both parents and raised by his sister. In Showtime’s version, producer John Wells deliberately chose writers based on their damaged backgrounds. One writer was abandoned by his father. His mother struggled with mental illness. Another writer came from deep poverty. Sounds a lot like Shameless, huh? Makes sense that it’s already on the fifth season and rated 8.7/10 on IMDB.
Shameless perfects poverty. The silliness of the show might seem like an exaggerated reality at times. Okay, especially when they ate that bald eagle Carl shot down for Thanksgiving. Winter break is the perfect time to catch up on all the episodes with the Gallaghers. Be prepared to laugh, cry, scream and gasp. Just remember not to take all of the actions too literally.
Thanks to Shameless, poverty has been given the attention it so desperately deserves with the loving, crazy Gallaghers. With the new season’s introduction of a hipster takeover, this social class stigma will be challenged directly and I cannot wait to see what kind of mayhem this season has in store.
IMAGE TAKEN from tvline.com
