There is something about Shameless that isn’t really shameful at all. Yes, the Gallagher family breaks laws about as frequently as they breath. And, they may all have bad credit due to their father Frank’s (William H. Macy) misuse of their credit history.
But, one thing that the Gallagher’s (minus Frank) do have more so than any other family, is the ability to stick together when shit hits the fan. Which is just about every day for the Gallaghers. Just thank Fiona (Emmy Rossum) for being such a great sister-mom. Also, as a series, the plot structure is quite intricate for a comedy. Within every episode, each character is given their own space without the story ever feeling cluttered. Even the Gallagher’s adopted family, Veronica (Shanola Hampton) and Kevin (Steve Howey), never fall to the wayside throughout the brilliant, hour-long episode.
The Shameless Season 2 premiere felt like a fresh start for the Gallagher family. Old hustles are a thing of the past. Now that Lip’s (Jeremy Allen White) SAT hustle is over, he’s running a Fight Club (or rather Fight Night) in Chicago. When one of the fighter’s doesn’t show, Lip is forced to jump into the ring to replace them.
That’s not the only illicit business Lip is involved in. Lip and Kevin are running a Little League sports book and small-time drug operation for the community (including children), right out of a mobile snack truck. When they first showed off the ice-cream truck, I almost wondered if they were going to start up their own mobile meth lab like Breaking Bad. I breathed a sigh of relief when I learned the truth. Lip also showed off more of his intelligence in the premiere. In “Summertime”, he created a police tracker.
Fiona is working as a cocktail waitress at an upscale nightclub, where Veronica is bartending. It looks similar to the club where Steve (Justin Chatwin) first saw Veronica and Fiona dancing in season one. Jasmine (Amy Smart) is still in the picture, kissing Fiona on the lips. She’s also smacking Fiona on the butt when she gets the chance. In season one, it initially looked like Jasmine was a swinger with eyes on Fiona. In the Season 2 premiere, we saw that she does in fact cheat on her husband and has a sugar daddy. As for Fiona, she’s found a new love interest in the absence of Steve, who just happens to look like Steve.
Karen (Laura Wiggins) is now in sex-addicts anonymous. It doesn’t look like she knows the truth about her father’s suicide, yet. She’s also over Frank. Now that her mother Sheila (Joan Cusack) has walked a100 paces from their house, the clock is ticking on Frank’s freeloading operation. Karen has no reservations in warning Frank that his time is almost up. Sheila also has setup a map to Frank’s house, which she thinks is the Alibi.
Frank is back to doing what he does best. Screwing up.
When a muscular man claims that he was tased by the cops and got away, Frank calls him a liar. Frank then bets the man ten thousand dollars that he can’t get tased twice without crapping his pants. Sure enough, the man takes the taser twice and is perfectly fine. Now, Frank is forced to raise ten thousand dollars.
Frank straps Liam to his back and goes out panhandling as a disabled homeless veteran. Unfortunately, the guy who won the bet catches him and decides to take Liam as collateral.
Frank says, “I’ll be back buddy, I promise you.” It was one of the few times we got to see Frank care about somebody other than himself. He even allowed a few men to give him blowjobs in order to raise money for Liam.
Sure enough, when Fiona finds out she takes the Gallagher clan over to the man’s house to get back Liam. It was great to see Fiona stare down the barrel of a shotgun and not hesitate once when it came to her brother.
How’d she get Liam back?
Apparently, Kevin has been growing a pot farm in his basement. His foster child Ethel (Madison Davenport) has been helping with a new kind of fertilizer and plant treatment that also works great on tomatoes. The writers did something different with Kevin’s character here that I really liked. Instead of making him into a big time drug dealer, they made Kevin into a character who was just fond of growing marijuana. He only sold a small amount of what he grew. Unfortunately, due to a rising electric bill and slap on the wrist from Veronica, he was forced to cut it down.
I think I saw Kev shed a tear.
Fiona used one of the plants as the balance for Frank’s debt in the Liam ransom.
Kash (Pej Vahdat) has apparently made his exit from the series. With his wife pregnant and Ian (Cameron Monaghan) seeing another guy (still in juvenile hall), Kash has been seeing another Muslim man. After two rendezvous in the back of the bodega, Kash packs his bag and leaves.
The episode ended with a bonfire pot burning. Kevin lit up the marijuana trees and everyone in town came around and inhaled. Surprisingly, Ethan (Carl Gallagher) was also taking in a healthy whiff, while roasting marshmallows in the pot fumes.
The second season of Shameless has got off to a great start, filled with all the depravity you can take. It’s going to be interesting when Steve does return. Fiona still doesn’t know that his real name is Jimmy. Also, is it me, or does Tony (Tyler Jacob Moore) need to get over Fiona already?
What were your thoughts on the Shameless Season 2 premiere?
