Shameless, recently premiered on Showtime, will be the next ‘show to watch.’ Adapted from the award-winning British series, the television show is about a highly dysfunctional family trying to survive in the West Side’s Homan Square of Chicago, according to the Chicago Sun-times.
William H. Macy (Fargo, Pleasantville) plays Frank, the alcoholic father of the Gallagher family who take care of themselves while he’s off drinking at the bars, sleeping on the kitchen floor, or even lost in Canada. The eldest daughter, Fiona, played by Emmy Rossum (The Phantom of the Opera, The Day After Tomorrow), is the head of the household: working multiple jobs, making sure the rest of the family pitches in for bills and keeping them in check all while trying to have a normal, young adult life.
The rest of the five children have their own assortment of problems. The two oldest boys work to help with the bills. The older boy finds out that one of his younger brothers is gay. The youngest daughter wants her dad to care about her. The youngest boy, well, we’re not completely sure how he’s related to the family.
Then, there are the family’s sex-obsessed neighbors. Veronica (Shanola Hampton), Fiona’s best friend, is a nurse who got kicked out of the hospital for stealing medical supplies. She unofficially works as the family’s practitioner when it’s needed…and it’s needed. Kev (Steve Howie) is the bartender of the only bar that still lets Frank enter. This couple is (collectively) hardheaded and tough, but they would do anything for each other and anything for their neighbors.
Noteworthy performances by Justin Chatwin as Fiona’s love interest and Joan Cusack as the (big) sex-toy using, agoraphobic housewife.
The family is far from perfect, each having his or her own secrets and problems. But it’s obvious that they would each protect one another from the elements of their broken town, and sometime home.
Shameless is in a league of its own with characters who are unique and necessary for the others to survive. Check out the Gallagher family at 10/9 pm central on Showtime.
