S07.E01: Hiraeth

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Showtime has released the season premiere online. It is available on demand, on Amazon, and on Showtime's official youtube channel. If you enter this thread, be aware that you may encounter spoilers before the episode officially airs on television on October 2.

Frank wakes up after a month-long coma to find no one missed him. Worried she isn't a good mother, Debbie takes a criminal approach to making sure Franny grows up wealthy. Meanwhile, Lip successfully completes rehab and is determined to stay "sober;" Carl looks into surgery after learning he's the only uncircumcised brother; and Ian gets a bad feeling about Caleb's friend Denise.

Promo:

 

Clips:

 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Full episode on Showtime's youtube channel (if you want the unedited version with swearing and nudity, you'll have to watch on demand or on amazon):

[coleycole6]

The unedited version is also on Showtime's website for free. http://www.sho.com/video/50486/shameless-season-7-premiere

[Miles]

So Svetlana is a math genious... suddenly. Would have been nice if we'd seen glimpses of it previously. But okay, I guess.

Lip is heading for desaster, as always.

Carl has a nonsensical storyline that shows how old the writers must be. Circumcision is far from universal nowadays or even 16 years ago when Carl was born. He should have seen about 1/3 uncut dicks at his urinal spy session.

Speaking of gay things, Ians boyfriend is apperently not, but bi and a cheater. At least he's not too perfect to be true anymore.

I think we all wish Frank had died.

Debbie grates.

Fiona was... there.

[NorthstarATL]

Svetlana was always shown as being good with money. Most bartenders and people who deal with figures in their head are. It's not that big a leap. It's the abstract stuff that turns people off to math in school a lot of the time.

Yeah, Lip should have asked some questions in  rehab. EVERY alcoholic has a system to make drinking "work" for them. Until it doesn't.

I dunno. My first uncircumcised freaked me out...but that WAS during the Jurassic Period. I assume staring at other guys' junk is more accepted now than it was back then as well. I'm with the Doc, though. Find another GF instead of going under the knife! It's like women who get breast enhancements for a guy. Never worthwhile.

 I'm assuming that Ian will not be permitted to have nice things. Does this mean they're going to inflict Mickey on us again?

I cannot recall who actually owns the house anymore, but I'm all in favor of Fiona removing that door, and doing something permanent about Frank.

Debbie is awful. She really is Frank's daughter.

I enjoyed Fiona without a guy being the center of her story. I assume that will end by the second episode. Maybe the guy from Quantico.

[preeya]

I've watched every episode of Shameless since its inception, and will stick with it until it ends. That said, I've had it with Frank's SCHITCK. It has become so overbearing that it detracts from the show and the rest of the cast. Frank (WHM) needs to take a long vacation and leave the show to the rest of his brood. Seeing him meander around in a wheelchair stealing and conning is no longer funny. Take a sabbatical Macy.

Best line of the episode was by Ian's female partner:   "But that doesn't mean he's not out there gobbling stray dick."
 

Edited September 25, 2016 by preeya

[Miles]

18 hours ago, NorthstarATL said:

Yeah, Lip should have asked some questions in  rehab. EVERY alcoholic has a system to make drinking "work" for them. Until it doesn't.

To be fair, that is a case of selection biast. Ofcourse in rehab you'll only find the people who it didn't work for. The ones who it did work for aren't in rehab. And moderation with set rules does work for a surprising number of alcoholics and is often taught as a first approach in european countries. However, Lip does not seem like the kind of person who can handle moderation. Plus that he compulsively started drinking the second the clock hit 7 doesn't bode well.

[NorthstarATL]

2 hours ago, Miles said:

The ones who it did work for aren't in rehab.

Or they just didn't survive at ll. Just my own experience. I was very much like Lip and developed several schemes to quit drinking, including doing enough coke to keep me too wired to pass out, as if THAT wasn't an addict's plan! Counting out drinks, and spacing them out, etc. does work surprisingly well... for awhile. Eventually, when one actually DOES wicsh to get sober, one hears pretty much every scheme that people come up with. I'm sure there are success stories, but those people are not generally hard core addicts and are just managing a problem, rather than a disease. YMMV, of course.

[sazzat]

I'm going to give them a pass on Franny looking like she's five months old because I assume it's really hard to get a month-old baby for a scene, and with Frank's coma and Lip's rehab stay it's been thirty days since the wedding that wasn't.

Is Deb supposed to be morphing into Karen? The thing is, based on her background and her past actions, I can see Debbie wanting a baby, and I can see her thinking she's capable of raising a baby, and I can see her freaking out afterward. I have a harder time with her becoming a thief casually fencing high-ticket items and using stolen credit cards. This was the girl who hesitated to bag their groceries when the checkout clerk quit and told her to take them - "we haven't paid."  I'm not saying she's super moral, but she has been someone who is anxious about getting caught.

I didn't warm to Caleb and will be glad if he goes, but I've gotta say, his sudden compulsion to cheat with a woman (and get caught in the space of an episode) looks less motivated by a natural direction for this character/relationship than by audience reaction/Jeff Pierre getting cast on another show. Not a huge fan of shows deciding that gay characters who have never indicated that they're less than certain of their sexuality are suddenly bi. I guess UK Shameless did this with Ian?

As someone who liked Mickey, I'd like to see him back, but I am not sure that the show would be able to pull it off. They really fucked up the end of their relationship and they'd have to do something to have it make sense for Mickey to not only be out of prison, but to be around the Gallaghers again. I don't want a Steve-season-5 type thing where he inexplicably shows up, nothing from the past gets hashed out or dealt with, and then he gets sent off again and the show treats it like closure.

Happy to see the kids under one roof. Just not Frank. I know he's supposed to be loathsome and that's his whole raison d'etre, but he's no longer loathsome in a funny way or a shocking way. He's just a drag on the action.

[stagmania]

1 hour ago, sazzat said:

I didn't warm to Caleb and will be glad if he goes, but I've gotta say, his sudden compulsion to cheat with a woman (and get caught in the space of an episode) looks less motivated by a natural direction for this character/relationship than by audience reaction/Jeff Pierre getting cast on another show. Not a huge fan of shows deciding that gay characters who have never indicated that they're less than certain of their sexuality are suddenly bi. I guess UK Shameless did this with Ian?

As someone who liked Mickey, I'd like to see him back, but I am not sure that the show would be able to pull it off. They really fucked up the end of their relationship and they'd have to do something to have it make sense for Mickey to not only be out of prison, but to be around the Gallaghers again. I don't want a Steve-season-5 type thing where he inexplicably shows up, nothing from the past gets hashed out or dealt with, and then he gets sent off again and the show treats it like closure.

They did the same thing to Caleb that they do to nearly every love interest once they're done with them- make them the bad guy out of nowhere and undermine everything we knew about their characterization. Can't say I'm surprised.

I was a huge Mickey fan and I don't really want him to come back, for the reasons you outline here. No way will they do it justice or put in the effort to clean up the mess they made.

Agree with everyone who says they're tired of Frank. I've been there for years-I wish they'd had the courage to go through with killing him at the end of season 4; it would have opened up a lot of possibilities for refocusing the show to be more about the siblings and their family dynamic.

[snarts]

Was Lip's professor re-cast?  Totally looks like a different guy.

Add me to the wish Frank died 2 seasons ago list.

[preeya]

48 minutes ago, snarts said:

Was Lip's professor re-cast?  Totally looks like a different guy.

Add me to the wish Frank died 2 seasons ago list.

Same guy, but he did look like he cleaned up a bit.

[Dee]

This show is so disgustingly antiblack it's abhorrent.

I'm also BEYOND tired of this show leveraging the sexuality of certain trash ass secondary characters as promise of eternal redemption. Especially when said character AND their "relationship" were/are every bit as toxic as every other past relationship on this dumpster fire of a show.

But then again, one of the core tenets of antiblackness is that anyone is redeemable, as long as they're white, so...

[Pete Martell]

8 hours ago, sazzat said:

I didn't warm to Caleb and will be glad if he goes, but I've gotta say, his sudden compulsion to cheat with a woman (and get caught in the space of an episode) looks less motivated by a natural direction for this character/relationship than by audience reaction/Jeff Pierre getting cast on another show. Not a huge fan of shows deciding that gay characters who have never indicated that they're less than certain of their sexuality are suddenly bi. I guess UK Shameless did this with Ian?

UK Shameless first had Ian bond with a girl who was hiding in the Gallagher attic (she'd stolen a lot of scratchcards), and feel a connection with her which led to sex. She asked him to go with her, but he knew it wouldn't work. Lip asked him if they'd fucked. He said yes. He asked if he'd went down on her. Ian said no. They basically said this meant he was still gay. 

A few years later, Ian fell in love with Carl's girlfriend (Carl in the UK version of course was several years older and was their big stud by this point). He then began using Mickey for sex. Carl walked in on Ian and his girlfriend and whooped his ass, I believe (it's been a while). They became a couple, but she was sure he'd cheat with men. They ultimately split, and Gerard Kearns left the show shortly after. 

I'm half-surprised the US version hasn't had Ian go with a woman. They could have an excuse for more T&A. He could cheat with one of Lip's girlfriends. They could "joke" that Mickey was such a bad lay he "turned" Ian. And they could even go back to their lovely trope of blaming anything and everything on being bipolar. 

I guess for now they'll settle for telling viewers that black and/or bisexual or HIV-positive men are promiscuous liars. 

Did they ever give any indication that Caleb was anything but gay? Or is this like Mickey and the woman at the end where they just said to hell with it and left viewers to write it themselves? 

Edited September 26, 2016 by Pete Martell

[stagmania]

8 hours ago, Pete Martell said:

Did they ever give any indication that Caleb was anything but gay? Or is this like Mickey and the woman at the end where they just said to hell with it and left viewers to write it themselves? 

Definitely the latter. They seem to have a compulsory need to write gay male characters having sexual contact with women. They even did this with Ian back in season 3, in a scene with Svetlana that got cut in the aired episode but still appeared on the DVDs. 

Spoiler

And the summary for the next episode indicates that they're planning to go there again with Ian.

Edited September 26, 2016 by stagmania

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I had the same feeling as Carl - I was really hoping that Frank was dead. Realistically I know that the show doesn't want to get rid of William H. Macy, but as was said above, he really drags the show down. It's not just in a moral way either. His actions are no longer shocking. They're tedious and repetitive and boring. See Frank get drunk and high. See Frank steal shit. See Frank act like an entitled dick when he's ripping off everyone who's unlucky enough to come into even peripheral contact with him.

The only good Frank-related thing in this episode was how everyone treated his return with utter disdain, from Liam ignoring Frank's repeated requests to Debbie's "Oh, shit, Frank's alive?" Loved when Frank asked everyone to go get his wheelchair and everyone told him to fuck off. Also loved Fiona dragging him out of the house and leaving him on the sidewalk. I hope she pulls the nails out of the door and tosses him back out on the street where he belongs.

I was surprised that Debbie used those stolen credit cards in such a dumb way. She's a Gallagher so she should know better than to use stolen credit cards on anything related to her real name or address like pizza delivery or the nanny service where she got the night nurse. That just means there's a way for them to trace the charges back to YOUR HOUSE. Hopefully she won't be dumb enough to keep going back to the same park to steal fancy strollers or she's going to get caught.

Oh, Lip. It wasn't just all the rules he came up with. It was also that he did the sobriety tests on the sidewalk and that somehow convinced him that he has his drinking under control.

Fiona's biggest mistake was not asking for a bigger raise. If you're doing the work of the manager, then you should be getting paid for that job, even if it's only temporary.

I'm a girl so I'm not up on bathroom etiquette for guys, but I'm pretty sure that checking out other dicks at the urinal is generally frowned upon. You'd think that Carl would have seen enough peens from watching porn.

[WhosThatGirl]

I'm sorry, I just cant take anything about this show seriously anymore. Nothing makes sense. The Frank storyline is tired and everything else just borders on ridiculous. I don't find anything funny or enjoyable anymore.

[Pete Martell]

5 hours ago, stagmania said:

Definitely the latter. They seem to have a compulsory need to write gay male characters having sexual contact with women. They even did this with Ian back in season 3, in a scene with Svetlana that got cut in the aired episode but still appeared on the DVDs. 

  Reveal hidden contents

And the summary for the next episode indicates that they're planning to go there again with Ian.

I remember watching that scene (on Youtube). It made me wonder how torn they are about Ian's characterization and coldness - it was sort of a harbinger for their true feelings on his relationship with Mickey by the end (cold, hard).

I had forgotten that they did have the woman with Mickey point out that he'd barely managed to get it up after an hour, so I guess that was their way of reminding viewers he was just using her, but the scene still felt cheap and pointless. And this scene, with gay Caleb grinding and groping a woman against a wall, was like something from one of those conversion porn stories. I feel sorry for the actors who have to play this.

I doubt the Ian thing will go anywhere but at this point it's tough to even care. Everything about this character for a while now has felt like the show running out the clock, especially as Cameron often has meatier roles to play elsewhere.

[junemeatcleaver]

Is Frank's continued presence on the show writer dictated or a demand from Showtime?  Besides Debbie going along with Frank because he entertained her fantasies of being a mother last season, the kids have been over his ass for years.  They really should have had Sheila run over his ass with her RV when she left the show.

The premiere was alright I guess.  I am kind of interested in Fiona finally making some progress, but I'm afraid they'll undo it like they did when she looked like she was going to go somewhere with her office job.

[sazzat]

William H. Macy is basically the show's tie to any sense of prestige, given his background and his regular Emmy nods. His casting was probably central to the show getting off the ground, and I bet his presence is instrumental to their renewals. In interviews, Macy never gives a sense that he's anything but thrilled with his character, so I'd be surprised if he willingly left.

I don't think Caleb ever gave a sense of being attracted to women or bi. They wrote him with a religious, disapproving family - coming out had high stakes, and yet he wasn't on the down low or bi or "experimenting" to his family, he was gay. What was revealed on the show of his romantic history was all boyfriends. It doesn't make a lot of sense in my mind for him to be "secretly" into women.

I've always thought that the show had a problem with race because it's so very white for where it's set. Even if the Gallaghers are part of the 10% of the population in Back of the Yards that's white, Veronica is the only consistent (more than part of a season) African-American presence in their lives. Most of the neighborhood should be African-American or Hispanic, but it seems like that's the exception for anyone but extras and bit parts - and yet the Gallaghers are supposedly enmeshed in this neighborhood. They just don't show a lot of nonwhite faces for any length of time, and it's really uncomfortable to have the handful they do include, like Kenyatta or Nick, act out negative stereotypes. I'm sure the show would say that it's Shameless and everyone's meant to be flawed, but that argument would work better with more representative casting. Setting the show in this neighborhood and choosing to make the focus a white family brings up issues about race that the show doesn't openly acknowledge, and it would be a stronger show if they did. They didn't have to set the show where they did, so why not deal with the setting?

[iMonrey]

Why is this season starting now? Doesn't this show usually start in January?

[ElectricBoogaloo]

On 9/26/2016 at 3:32 PM, junemeatcleaver said:

They really should have had Sheila run over his ass with her RV when she left the show.

I would be happy for her to come back for one episode just to run his ass over!

[stagmania]

On 9/26/2016 at 9:00 PM, sazzat said:

William H. Macy is basically the show's tie to any sense of prestige, given his background and his regular Emmy nods. His casting was probably central to the show getting off the ground, and I bet his presence is instrumental to their renewals. In interviews, Macy never gives a sense that he's anything but thrilled with his character, so I'd be surprised if he willingly left.

He has said publicly that he hopes the show goes for 10 years and he loves being part of it. And clearly the writers like Frank, too, or they wouldn't make him such a huge focus. I would love it if they let him fade to the background sometimes and focused on more robust storylines for the non-Fiona siblings, but I don't think it's ever going to happen.

12 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Why is this season starting now? Doesn't this show usually start in January?

They switched it out with Homeland, which normally airs in this timeslot in the fall. Over the summer the showrunner requested extra time to write the next season, so Homeland will now premiere in January and they moved up the production schedule for Shameless to fill in the gap. Which means this Shameless season was put together even more hastily than usual!

[preeya]

30 minutes ago, auntl said:

I think that Frank's character adds a lightness to the show. If they just focused on the kids, without shifting to Frank's silly shenanigans, I think that the show would be too depressing and heavy. Frank allows them to offset sad things that are happening with comedy. That's how the show is set up.

His character has evolved into much more than a "lightness."  He's become annoying and overbearing.

[stagmania]

2 hours ago, auntl said:

I think that Frank's character adds a lightness to the show. If they just focused on the kids, without shifting to Frank's silly shenanigans, I think that the show would be too depressing and heavy. Frank allows them to offset sad things that are happening with comedy. That's how the show is set up.

That makes sense if you find Frank's antics funny. I haven't in a long time, and in earlier seasons I vastly preferred when he was used in a more serious way, to highlight his relationships with his kids and Monica and the effect he's had on them.

[WhosThatGirl]

I haven't found Frank funny in quite a long time and just find him.  gross and annoying.  The last time I was even remotely interested in his story was season 4. Ever since then they have to find ways to grasp at straws to somehow keep him intact with the family and it doesn't make sense. They seriously just go around in circles with it and it's not funny. Then again.. nothing about this show is funny to me anymore and I wish I could stop watching but I can't. 

[iMonrey]

I do realize that Frank's shenanigans are tiresome at this point. He's the kind of character that becomes less viable the longer the show runs, because in real life he'd be dead by now and even if he wasn't nobody would ever put up with him. He'd never be allowed to just keep strolling into The Alibi and into the Gallagher home, which is now owned by Fiona. He's the most unrealistic thing about the show.

That said, I did get a chuckle out of Fiona dragging him down the stairs and out the front door while Debbie was introducing herself to the night nurse without even reacting to it. The look on the nurse's face was priceless. Prepare yourself lady, that's nothing compared to the usual shit that goes on in that house.

Wow, Steve Howie is looking really jacked. Someone's been working out.

[LekoBoy]

22 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Wow, Steve Howie is looking really jacked. Someone's been working out.

He was almost puny as Van Montgomery by comparison.  

"'Cause I took a Viagra..."

I so want to see Ian do Kevin.

[racked]

I figured Caleb knew Ian was following him and was messing with his head with that girl but the consensus seems to be that he's an inexplicable cheater? I don't get why when  Ian would have been fine having a non-monogamous relationship when they first started dating. 

Debbie is is having shit delivered to her house that she bought with stolen credit cards? I didn't think a Gallagher would be so amateur. 

[sheetmoss]

Quote

On 9/26/2016 at 6:55 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I'm a girl so I'm not up on bathroom etiquette for guys, but I'm pretty sure that checking out other dicks at the urinal is generally frowned upon. You'd think that Carl would have seen enough peens from watching porn.

I guess the writers  got past storyline amnesia; Carl would have seen  guys that  were  uncircumcised  while he was in juvie

On 9/27/2016 at 6:43 PM, iMonrey said:

Why is this season starting now? Doesn't this show usually start in January?

Homeland  filming started late, so it swapped w/Shameless

Edited October 3, 2016 by sheetmoss

[WhosThatGirl]

Expecting the writers to remember anything from past seasons of this show is kind of laughable now. For the most part anyway. They probably hardly remember  Carl was even in juvie. 

At this point I don't put stock into any stories on the show anymore. It's a mess and since I can't stop watching unfortunately I'm just here. Like I said a week or so ago I don't really enjoy it much, I find most of the plots are same old same old and just do a lot of circling because they seem to be running out of ideas now.

Edited October 3, 2016 by WhosThatGirl

[STFUFrank]

Spoiler

 

I get it, no one can have a successful relationship in Shameless but just as I was warming up to Caleb the show pulls that nonsense. I don't want to see Ian get played like that. Stupid writers. 

Edited October 3, 2016 by TotalHellion
There's no spoiler hidden but I don't want to delete my post and start over.

[LuciaMia]

I can accept a mother leaving just the baby carriage unattended, but leaving her wallet with it as well, stuffed with cash and credit cards? Hey lady, the neighborhood isn't that gentrified!   And I think  by th time Debbie went shopping, most of those cards would have been canceled.

[CynicalGirl]

They should just change the name of this show from Shameless to Pointless. 

[heatherchandler]

11 minutes ago, LuciaMia said:

I can accept a mother leaving just the baby carriage unattended, but leaving her wallet with it as well, stuffed with cash and credit cards? Hey lady, the neighborhood isn't that gentrified!   And I think  by th time Debbie went shopping, most of those cards would have been canceled.

Oh I believe it, mostly because I have DONE it!  I do agree that the cards would have been cancelled by now.

By the looks of the people and the stroller, I would say she is far from her neighborhood.  FAR from it.  I think she was in Wicker Park, but not sure why Debbie would be up there.  Maybe her pediatrician is up there?  I don't know why I am trying to make sense of it.

[Empress1]

7 minutes ago, LuciaMia said:

I can accept a mother leaving just the baby carriage unattended, but leaving her wallet with it as well, stuffed with cash and credit cards? Hey lady, the neighborhood isn't that gentrified!   And I think  by th time Debbie went shopping, most of those cards would have been canceled.

I know - I don't leave my wallet unattended anywhere, even in the nicest neighborhoods. (I need to have my ID on me at all times. I take it with me when I go running or biking too.) I lock my car everywhere too, even in the nicest neighborhoods. 

A few weeks ago I was in line at the drugstore and a guy in front of me was buying a bunch of gift cards. The cashier said there's a limit to how many you can buy and he had to get his manager. When he said "manager," the dude ran out of the store. He was buying them with a stolen card. Credit cards get cancelled in pretty short order, but prepaid gift cards are like cash so you buy them quickly. I was kind of waiting for Debbie to do that, tbh. It's really stupid to buy stuff with stolen cards and have it sent to your house, with your name on it.

On 9/28/2016 at 10:46 AM, stagmania said:

That makes sense if you find Frank's antics funny. I haven't in a long time, and in earlier seasons I vastly preferred when he was used in a more serious way, to highlight his relationships with his kids and Monica and the effect he's had on them.

I agree. I don't find Frank funny. I like William H. Macy as much as anyone, but the Frank character has long overstayed his welcome. 

On 9/24/2016 at 4:35 PM, NorthstarATL said:

I cannot recall who actually owns the house anymore, but I'm all in favor of Fiona removing that door, and doing something permanent about Frank.

I'm pretty sure Fiona owns it. I think she bought it with Carl's drug cash.

Lip's right - Fiona is never single very long. (She reminds me of one of my best friends in that way. My friend picks better dudes than Fiona, but she never goes more than a few months without someone.) I predict a bout of promiscuity in her future.

I can't believe Carl actually got circumcised. I'm with the doctor: find a new GF. (I did not need to see him sniffing his fingers. Gross.)

[Miss World]

1 hour ago, heatherchandler said:

By the looks of the people and the stroller, I would say she is far from her neighborhood.  FAR from it.  I think she was in Wicker Park, but not sure why Debbie would be up there.  Maybe her pediatrician is up there?  I don't know why I am trying to make sense of it.

Debbie initially was leaving the baby at the firehouse around Water Tower; I think it's on Chicago. That park is right down the street. I figured she was thinking if she leaves Frannie in the heart of the Mag Mile, she'd have a better life.  People are definitely that careless with their strollers both there, and at the park a bit further north in Viagra Triangle. Baffles me. 

[abstractstuff]

I'm so done with everyone but Svet, Kev and Vee. I would have no problem with just a show about them. Mickey showing back up wouldn't bother me either. 

[jbrecken]

I wonder if the show could get away with killing off Frank but keeping Macy around as a ghost narrator.

[WhosThatGirl]

It's really difficult for me to put stock into anything these characters do anymore. None of the characters are going to show any memory from a past season and/or episode so it makes no difference. 

I didn't like Caleb but that's on the writers for how they went about it last season  but once again his scenes in this episode don't really resonate with how they wrote him at all last season. I don't know if the show is trying to. E funny but it doesn't work in certain cases. 

I don't know. I really thought I wasn't going to watch this season but then I finally did and my expections are low and I'm watching it but hardly. I don't really care what happens because I know I'm probably not going to enjoy the show no matter what they do. 

[LuciaMia]

Quote

was in Wicker Park, but not sure why Debbie would be up there

I agree. Debbie was probably scoping out another place to leave Frannie. Since things have thawed out a bit between her and Fiona, wondered why she didn't ask for more help. Maybe she didn't want to give her the dubious satisfaction of Fionas predictions that it would be too  much for her.

Quote

 (I did not need to see him sniffing his fingers. Gross.)

Thats the show, LOL. It even insisted on showing us that bloody bit of foreskin.

Oh, Fiona, the sooner you take that bedroom door off its hinges , the happier we'll all be.

[CarolMK]

I think that the Frank character was harder to write for once the Sheila character left the show. When the kids were younger, we saw Frank interacting with them more and even though it was in a Shameless way (begging on the street with Liam, going to job sites with Debbie and Carl), it made him more interesting. If they'd have Frank go into business with Kevin (like Mickey did with the prostitutes) it would present a better storyine. Now that his family wants nothing to do with him, I think the writers have painted themselves into a corner and aren't quite sure what to do with Frank next.

[cakes1975]

On ‎9‎/‎28‎/‎2016 at 6:55 AM, stagmania said:

He has said publicly that he hopes the show goes for 10 years and he loves being part of it. And clearly the writers like Frank, too, or they wouldn't make him such a huge focus. I would love it if they let him fade to the background sometimes and focused on more robust storylines for the non-Fiona siblings, but I don't think it's ever going to happen.

They switched it out with Homeland, which normally airs in this timeslot in the fall. Over the summer the showrunner requested extra time to write the next season, so Homeland will now premiere in January and they moved up the production schedule for Shameless to fill in the gap. Which means this Shameless season was put together even more hastily than usual!

Macy gets a nice paycheck, gets to play an over-the-top character, and gets to work in his hometown (I think he grew up in the general area); it is an all around joy for him.

[WhosThatGirl]

3 hours ago, CarolMK said:

I think that the Frank character was harder to write for once the Sheila character left the show. When the kids were younger, we saw Frank interacting with them more and even though it was in a Shameless way (begging on the street with Liam, going to job sites with Debbie and Carl), it made him more interesting. If they'd have Frank go into business with Kevin (like Mickey did with the prostitutes) it would present a better storyine. Now that his family wants nothing to do with him, I think the writers have painted themselves into a corner and aren't quite sure what to do with Frank next.

I think Frank should have died when he had cancer. My personal opinion. But.. like the poster above me said WHM loves being on the show, he gets paid, he likes everyone he works with, etc and it's obvious the powers that be like him too. He's going to be there until the end of this series I believe. Although I think he could probably find a better character to play. 

[stagmania]

13 hours ago, CarolMK said:

I think that the Frank character was harder to write for once the Sheila character left the show. When the kids were younger, we saw Frank interacting with them more and even though it was in a Shameless way (begging on the street with Liam, going to job sites with Debbie and Carl), it made him more interesting. If they'd have Frank go into business with Kevin (like Mickey did with the prostitutes) it would present a better storyine. Now that his family wants nothing to do with him, I think the writers have painted themselves into a corner and aren't quite sure what to do with Frank next.

I completely agree, Frank was much more tolerable and sometimes even interesting when there were still things to explore in his relationship with his kids. Now he's just there, even though none of the other characters can tolerate him. It's a bizarre thing to have a main character that feels so untethered from the rest of the show.

[WhosThatGirl]

8 hours ago, stagmania said:

I completely agree, Frank was much more tolerable and sometimes even interesting when there were still things to explore in his relationship with his kids. Now he's just there, even though none of the other characters can tolerate him. It's a bizarre thing to have a main character that feels so untethered from the rest of the show.

Oh Stagmania, another season and once again all of your posts totally match up to what I'm thinking.

[LuciaMia]

Did anyone make any mention of where Sean went? We just assume to parts-unknown?

[wovenloaf]

1 hour ago, LuciaMia said:

Did anyone make any mention of where Sean went? We just assume to parts-unknown?

I wondered that too. I was also confused because I always had the impression he was the owner of Patsy's. But apparently he was only the manager, and his disappearance is why Fiona is filling in? And wasn't she already acting as some sort of manager at various points last season anyway? She hadn't wanted to but Sean ended up convincing her to or something? I admit to not paying that close attention to the details of her job, but I thought Sean's sudden absence was weird since I thought he owned that place.

[iMonrey]

Quote

I didn't like Caleb but that's on the writers for how they went about it last season  but once again his scenes in this episode don't really resonate with how they wrote him at all last season. I don't know if the show is trying to. E funny but it doesn't work in certain cases. 

I never warmed up to the actor playing him. Something about the eyes. When he took Ian to that wedding (his sister's? I can't remember) and his parents were there, it seemed like he was anxious to rub it in their faces that he was there with another guy because they're very religious and aren't comfortable with his sexuality. So the whole "gay" thing might have just been a way for him to rebel against his parents. 

[hertolo]

What did Ian say right at the end after Lips "At least he's cheating with a woman"? I heard something about a dick, maybe they want to go there?

For the rest, the show felt quite shallow with topics, but they did have less preparation time this year. Let's see what that means for the quality as this episode was ok, and nothing more. (But a shallow "no-need-for-thinking" show suits my schedule right now very well, so that works.)