A quick review of last night’s “Shameless” coming up just as soon as I misspell my name on a loan application…
This was very much a like father, like daughter kind of episode, with Fiona breaking one of the few rules she has in sleeping with a married guy, and with Frank doing the worst thing he’s ever done on the show in preventing Butterface from getting the organ transplant that would save her life, just on the off-chance that he might inherit her money.
Even by Frank Gallagher standards, that’s pretty rough. And given that I don’t have any real built-up affection for Frank, it was definitely the tougher of the two sins to get past. I asked John Wells about it at press tour, and he noted both that his own family has benefited from organ donation and that he got a lot of dramatic mileage out of the process on “ER,” but, “We thought ultimately it was funny.” Though I think the writing for Frank has on the whole been much better this season – his speech to Butterface about preserving her memory was the kind of moment that helps explain why the guy hasn’t been lynched by now – I still don’t find him especially funny and therefore was mostly appalled by his actions. (Whereas in the premiere, I thought they did generate the right level of both comedy and pathos in the actions Frank took to get Liam back from the man who won the taser bet.) I don’t know that it was the wrong choice, story-wise, as it would be hard for me to have a lower opinion of Frank, but I’m curious how other people reacted to it.
Fiona’s the more well-rounded, sympathetic character, so her descent into borderline behavior – sleeping with Craig in his cluttered, kid-friendly backseat, or stealing that woman’s rent money – played out more interestingly. Though I don’t exactly miss Steve from the narrative (outside of his memorable cameo at the end), it’s clear Fiona misses him, and that having him in her life – even if he’s a lying car thief – was enough of a stabilizing influence to keep her from turning into a young, female version of her father.
What did everybody think of the sins committed by both Frank and Fiona last night? And how are you feeling about the show as a whole a few weeks into season 2?