S11.E01: This is Chicago!

[preeya]

The Gallaghers adjust to life during the pandemic: Frank fears the loss of the South Side to gentrification, while bar closures force Kev and V to get creative at the Alibi. Sleep-deprived Lip and Tami work to make their new house a home as Carl finishes his time at the police academy. Debbie becomes her own boss and deals with the repercussions of her statutory rape conviction of 17-year-old Julia. Ian and Mickey's honeymoon phase is over as they have very different ideas about what married life would be.

[Chaos Theory]

I really liked the season opener. Frank is being Frank but he has a point.  If you want to stop gentrification then make the neighborhood dangerous again.

Debbie being on the sex offender registration but with the wrong info was an interesting way for the show to go.   Although I like the idea of her using even that to her advantage with the website.  Hot Lesbian Convict.

Carl becoming a cop seems both very wrong and very right.

ian and Mickey are the right amount of dysfunction.  These are two guys who love each other but neither are particularly good at expressing their feelings.

I am not sure how I feel about Lip and Tami.  

 

Edited December 7, 2020 by Chaos Theory

[Mindthinkr]

I laughed at how Lip agreed with everything that Tami wanted (the Voodoo Coffee and that special paint color that was expensive) and then found a way to give her what she wanted...even though it really wasn’t! That Gallagher ingenuity lol. 

[aghst]

1 hour ago, Mindthinkr said:

I laughed at how Lip agreed with everything that Tami wanted (the Voodoo Coffee and that special paint color that was expensive) and then found a way to give her what she wanted...even though it really wasn’t! That Gallagher ingenuity lol. 

I yawned through most of it but this is going to blow up right, scamming angry Tammy?

Previous seasons she pussywhipped him so bad but now he’s gonna run game on her?

 

 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

The season premiere has been posted on the official Shameless youtube channel:

 

[whiporee]

I liked it a lot more than last season. Like CT said, Carl being a cop is just wrong and it's just right. 

Kevin and Vee's pot business was funny. And I liked the little asides about closing and not closing -- that's the way it seems to a lot of small business owners who are just trying to survive. Same thing with Tami's salon. 

I really wish they'd get back to Lip being super smart, though.  I saw his conversation with Ian to be accepting his fate, and I'd like to see him look at his kid and want something more. Or even for Tami to hear about his potential and insist he try to maximize it. It's one thing to be okay with who you are when it's just you, but he's shown potential to do a lot more -- he's had job offers that would be a lot more.

It would be a good way for it to end up, like this. 

 

[iMonrey]

I thought Kermit and Tommy getting their freak on in the men's room was a bridge too far, but I guess they figure it's the final season so why not go for broke. 

Overall this wasn't half bad but let's face it, this show ran out of steam five or six years ago. I did get a kick out of Debbie arguing over the phone about the age of her victim, and asking whether she'd be on probation if she'd been seven, and then going "Really?" 

I can't remember how Carl transitioned from garbage man to cop though. I remember his boss telling him to take a shit on someone's living room floor but how did that lead to him being a cop? Did the cops recruit him to be a double agent or something?

I also thought Lip somehow bought that house and in this episode he said they were renting. I guess the owner doesn't mind all the improvements. 

I don't know why anyone would buy weed from a bar that's supposed to be closed or how they know the secret knock to get in when they can just go buy it legally elsewhere.

[Chaos Theory]

14 hours ago, Mindthinkr said:

I laughed at how Lip agreed with everything that Tami wanted (the Voodoo Coffee and that special paint color that was expensive) and then found a way to give her what she wanted...even though it really wasn’t! That Gallagher ingenuity lol. 

It’s funny I saw it the opposite.  Last season finale Lip used emotional blackmail to get Tami to stay.   She had a job in another state and wanted a better life  but Lip doesn’t want to leave his Gallagher existence.  So he got drunk knowing she was staying at his sponsors house.    It’s a pure Frank move.   Now he is upset that she wants to make the house look nice and not use the absolute cheapest material.  How hard is it to buy her a $3 coffee or get a nice color paint for their son’s room to make her happy?  Lip can’t even do that for her.   

[DanaMB]

9 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

The season premiere has been posted on the official Shameless youtube channel:

 

Is it always posted there? And free? 
 

I subscribed to the Showtime app just for this show and now I’m wondering  if I can cancel. 

Edited December 7, 2020 by DanaMB

[iMonrey]

Quote

How hard is it to buy her a $3 coffee or get a nice color paint for their son’s room to make her happy?  Lip can’t even do that for her.  

I think he said the coffee was actually $11 and the paint would have been over $100. Neither of these kids is made of money. I don't think it's a bad idea to save as much as they can, especially if she can't even tell the difference between the expensive coffee and the cheap coffee or the expensive paint from the clearance stuff.

[aghst]

$11 coffee?

He grabbed a cup, which someone may have been drinking from, dumped the leftover coffee and then refilled with the coffee from the convenience store.

$11 coffee would be a new thing for me.

Probably $3-4 so he saved a couple of bucks.

 

 

[Tikichick]

9 minutes ago, aghst said:

$11 coffee?

He grabbed a cup, which someone may have been drinking from, dumped the leftover coffee and then refilled with the coffee from the convenience store.

$11 coffee would be a new thing for me.

Probably $3-4 so he saved a couple of bucks.

 

 

When he went into the Voodoo Coffee House she asked for the prices were completely over the top, yet that's the coffee she just had to have.   When she got the convenience store coffee she only questioned not being able to see the foam, accepted his explanation of the foam mixing into the coffee while he brought it to her and thought the coffee itself tasted delicious after drinking some.

She also had to have the specific curated paint color from the Monticello collection -- and loved the look of the seconds paint Lip actually brought home and never questioned it wasn't specifically what she insisted they had to have.  

The means aren't correct, but Lip isn't wrong that they need to come up with different options that suit their budget.

[heatherchandler]

5 hours ago, iMonrey said:

 

I also thought Lip somehow bought that house and in this episode he said they were renting. I guess the owner doesn't mind all the improvements. 

 

Yeah he definitely bought it last season.  I thought he was even thinking of flipping it, unless I am mixing up storylines.  The owner died and his son wanted to sell it quickly, so the "renting" makes no sense.

 

17 minutes ago, aghst said:

$11 coffee?

He grabbed a cup, which someone may have been drinking from, dumped the leftover coffee and then refilled with the coffee from the convenience store.

$11 coffee would be a new thing for me.

Probably $3-4 so he saved a couple of bucks.

 

 

Oh $11 coffee exists... and yes it is worth it.

Starbucks is almost as expensive, I paid almost $7 for a venti.

 

[aghst]

IIRC, last season, she would have inherited a home in Wisconsin, in some boring small town.

He wouldn't go for it and lured her back to Chicago.

Tammy is suppose to be a broad, not some girlie girl into froufrou  coffees and fancy paint.  But even if she suddenly developed pricey tastes, she has an okay job and Lip, did he lose the motorcycle repair job?

He probably doesn't have the slightest regret that he blew that university scholarship, which could have led to a better job and provided a better life for his child and baby momma.

Instead he's using his supposed prodigious brain power to grift the "love of his life."

[tennisgurl]

I was so curious about how the show would handle COVID, that I forgot that they could also mention pot being legal in Illinois now! Which is a significantly more fun topic, but I think they actually did alright with the COVID stuff. Being worried about money, the schools opening and closing, the bar and Tami's hair salon trying to cram as much business as they can in before they get shut down again, all felt pretty real. In general this was a solid season opener, decent mix of wacky and genuine and I am glad that we actually got some decent interaction between the characters, which is something the show has struggled with, especially in the last few seasons. It so often felt like every character was off in their own subplot, only occasionally bumping into each other in the house, almost like the show was a bunch of different shows that sometimes crossed over, a whole show made of subplots. I marathoned through the last few seasons a bit ago, and its really weird how separated everyone got from each other, so it was nice seeing multiple characters actually interacting outside of their subplots. 

Yeah, that film student is going to want to do a lot of fact checking on that documentary. 

Its not really that surprising that Ian and Mickey are having some growing pains as they get used to be married, but they will totally figure things out, they love each other and have been through too much together to split over something as mundane as figuring out their finances or if they want to be monogamous. Those are actually pretty normal issues for a new married couple, and as much as they love each other they both really suck at communication, so when they finally have a real talk, it will get more or less sorted. Or it will get put on the backburner the next time Terry shows up to be horrible. 

The parents with ankle monitors all chatting just in the safe zone made me laugh. That really is the worlds most flattering mugshot. 

Carl as a cop really is something so weird and yet also so perfect. 

Edited December 8, 2020 by tennisgurl

[iMonrey]

2 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

In general this was a solid season opener, decent mix of wacky and genuine and I am glad that we actually got some decent interaction between the characters, which is something the show has struggled with, especially in the last few seasons.

I did enjoy that closing scene with everyone together at Lip's house. It was a real throwback to the end of the pilot episode all the way back in Season 1. With Tammy playing the outsider role in place of Jimmy/Steve.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

14 hours ago, iMonrey said:

I did enjoy that closing scene with everyone together at Lip's house. It was a real throwback to the end of the pilot episode all the way back in Season 1. With Tammy playing the outsider role in place of Jimmy/Steve.

I hope that they get back to some of that family love, especially since they know it's the final season. I feel like one of the reasons the show has gone downhill is they were giving all the characters these separate but wacky storylines. One of the great things about S1 was seeing how they stuck together and were all taking care each other, which has kind of fallen by the wayside in favor of the writers coming up with the most unbelievable storylines possible.

[chediavolo]

On 12/7/2020 at 6:16 PM, iMonrey said:

I think he said the coffee was actually $11 and the paint would have been over $100. Neither of these kids is made of money. I don't think it's a bad idea to save as much as they can, especially if she can't even tell the difference between the expensive coffee and the cheap coffee or the expensive paint from the clearance stuff.

We use Sherwin Williams so I thought  $100 for 4 gallons of paint was pretty good! $11 for a cup of coffee is nuts though. 

[cdnalor]

Twenty-five dollars a gallon is standard for name brand paint here in Canada unless you want to chance the crappy stuff at Wal-Mart.  The price of the coffee was $5.49, Lip read it off the glass as he was walking in.  Still too much in my book, I'm more of a Tim Horton's coffee-and-donut type myself.  The sweet balances out the bitter just fine.

Edited December 11, 2020 by cdnalor
butterfingers

[chediavolo]

20 hours ago, cdnalor said:

Twenty-five dollars a gallon is standard for name brand paint here in Canada unless you want to chance the crappy stuff at Wal-Mart.  The price of the coffee was $5.49, Lip read it off the glass as he was walking in.  Still too much in my book, I'm more of a Tim Horton's coffee-and-donut type myself.  The sweet balances out the bitter just fine.

They obviously don’t know what decent to excellent paint costs. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Clips:

The Gallagher way:

It's our money:

 

Edited December 13, 2020 by ElectricBoogaloo

[Bulldog60]

On 12/7/2020 at 6:39 PM, heatherchandler said:

 

On 12/7/2020 at 12:55 PM, iMonrey said:

 

I also thought Lip somehow bought that house and in this episode he said they were renting. I guess the owner doesn't mind all the improvements. 

 

Yeah he definitely bought it last season.  I thought he was even thinking of flipping it, unless I am mixing up storylines.  The owner died and his son wanted to sell it quickly, so the "renting" makes no sense.

 

Actually he definitely rented it. No thoughts about flipping it either. He did look at a house where his friends dad died, and they were selling the house. But that wasn’t the house he rented.