Review: 'Shameless' - 'The American Dream': Pillow fight
Frank tries to move back in and Fiona runs into club night complications
Cameron Monaghan, Jeremy Allen White and William H. Macy in "Shameless."
A quick review of tonight's "Shameless" coming up just as soon as I have a pillowcase full of bars of soap...
"It doesn't work like that, sis. Because when you're poor, only way to make money is to steal it or scam it." -Lip
Is Frank Gallagher intended as the comic relief of "Shameless," or simply the dark force the Gallaghers have to strive against? I think he works brilliantly as the latter, and much more problematically as the former — if, indeed, he's even meant as comedy at this point, rather than as some kind of running contest among the "Shameless" writing staff to see just how despicable they can make him. On paper, it'll be hard for them to ever top (bottom?) the murder of Butterface, but when he starts slipping Valium to baby Jaime to shut him up, or when he calls social services on his own kids in a fit of pique over being kicked out of the house (again) for being an asshole (again), it's possible to feel even more hate for the guy — and particularly for the way that he finally is able to make even daddy's girl Debbie turn on him in such a brutal, justified manner. (Great, great scene for Emma Kenney.)
Yet what's most interesting about "The American Dream" is that Frank isn't the most destructive force within or without the Gallagher family this week. Instead, Fiona and Lip — who've had to play mom and dad to the younger kids for years — have turned on each other after Fiona decided to borrow from the squirrel fund to set up her ill-fated club night. It's not the disaster I feared it would be when she started kiting checks to the mob, in that all she loses is a hundred bucks, but that's only because of Lip's efforts in sending the rich kids there with the bogus Wilco tip. Lip saves the day, but his disgust over Fiona's move seems like a fundamental shift in the ground the kids stand on. Throughout everything Frank's put them through, the siblings have had each other to lean on. But if it's really every man for himself — or even if it's just some of them believing that's what's happening — then they could be in big, big trouble.
And that's not even factoring in Jimmy's problems with his pinkie-breaking Brazilian minder, Ian hooking back up with Mickey Milkovich, Mandy going behind Lip's back to try to get him into college, or Kev's wife showing up out of the blue. So many problems to deal with, and everyone's moving in a different direction, it seems.
What did everybody else think?
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Login or create a HitFix account Login Signupnotlikenoother
January 21, 2013 at 12:41AM EST Reply to CommentI just love this show! It gets better with every season and episode.
Diana I can not believe it.......just check http://2.gp/qmuE
January 21, 2013 at 11:46AM ESTAdio
January 21, 2013 at 11:46AM ESTI can not beleive it....just check http://2.gp/qmuE
Miles
January 21, 2013 at 1:19AM EST Reply to CommentWere we supposed to laugh or cry durin the Deb beating Frank with pillowcase full of soap scene? I thought it was the latter, but I couldn't tell. No show confuses me on the line between funny/horrifyingly sad more than Shameless.
Kb I waa in tears with that. Her face when she was coming down the hall with the pillowcase - totally crushed me.
January 21, 2013 at 1:31AM ESTJames The after show comments from Cameron Monaghan explains why Shameless is so good: there's a heightened sense of drama and comedy almost always at the same time.
January 21, 2013 at 6:25AM ESTThey do this so perfectly even more so during Deb's best scene of the series so far.
mgrabois
January 21, 2013 at 2:07AM EST Reply to CommentIs it true that the series diverged from its British counterpart after the first season, and that with season 2 it's been all new?
skipmccoy Storyline it did diverge after the first season, but the first season of the British show is worth seeing also as the actors and writer give a different interpretation of the characters. Frank is less purposefully mean and more brain damaged by drugs, Fiona is more frazzled and barely holding it together etc. Also Steve/Jimmy is played by James Macovay and in real life he married his costar who plays Fiona.
January 21, 2013 at 3:52PM ESTJaxemer11
January 21, 2013 at 3:26AM EST Reply to CommentFrank hit a new low tonight ... twice. I don't view him as comic relief (though he is funny at times, and the show seems to play him that way, given the music they play when he is up to his "antics"). Every once in a while we see a glimpse of genius or potential in Frank, but then he goes and does something horrible to remind just how unsympathetic he is.
I love this show. At first I thought of it as a guilty pleasure, but I think it is a lot better than that. I think it gets overlooked too often. The cast is great, even if you set WHM aside (which I understand that some can't stand).
Lazycrockett
January 21, 2013 at 3:36AM EST Reply to CommentFrank is Frank everyone has tried to pigeon hole him, but that's the thing he can't be. He's a selfish mean drunk, yes there may be flashes of remorse and even love for his offspring but he always reverts back to his addiction and himself. He's always the thorn in the viewers eyes.
Lazycrockett To continue, Frank isn't suppose to be loved or loathed, hes just the damage that all kids grow up with personified.
January 21, 2013 at 3:43AM ESTI Am Not From Saturn
January 21, 2013 at 3:47AM EST Reply to CommentMan, the kid who plays Debbie in this show (also Margarets little sister from a season 2 ep of Boardwalk Empire) is brilliant.
The scene last year when she was crying with Fiona in reaction to the mothers suicide attempt and the scene tonight when she attacked Frank, finally coming to grips with his real nature, are some of the most heartbreaking scenes I've ever seen.
Matthew
January 21, 2013 at 3:53AM EST Reply to CommentI think frank is intended to be comic relief when he has storylines that don't involve the family, like the mexico trip last week. But for the most part when he is around the family it is a dark force. And I am more than willing to put up with the bad comic scenes if they keep pulling out great scenes like the pillowcase one tonight, or great storylines like when Monica came back last year.
That pillowcase scene tonight was just amazing, I don't think I've been that emotionally devastated for a character(Debbie) in a TV series like that since The Wire(SPOILERS: I'm talking about the ending of Dukie's storyline).
I thought that it would be at least a few episodes before Debbie finally turned on Frank, but boy am I glad it happened, not just because it made for great television, but the faster Debbie can distance herself for Frank, the better. It is amazing how the show has fleshed out these characters, and I feel more attached to the characters(Gallagher Kids specifically) than the characters of any other TV show right now.
Siythe
January 21, 2013 at 5:42AM EST Reply to CommentI'd forgotten just how much the writers were in love with Lip. After last seasons spectacular failure for anyone to call him on his crap I had a really hard time with the holier than thou act tonight. Still a good ep but it reminded me of one of the aspects of the series I like least.
Liz I used to love Lip (and I still think that Jeremy Allen White is fantastic), but he's turned into such a dick, and I'm getting tired of it. It feels like he's going out of his way to make his life as difficult as possible, and if he had any sense of self-awareness, I'd understand that the character was just self-destructive by nature. But as you said, it's the holier-than-thou act that really gets me. Hopefully, someone will be able to knock some sense into him sooner rather than later.
January 21, 2013 at 11:14AM ESTJay Lip has a very cynical view of things and seems to feel that despite his genius, he can never completely overcome his background, or perhaps hes simply afraid to. Him telling Fiona she can't run a club is just him projecting those feelings onto her. Some of his comments last season also implied that he doesn't want the pressure being expected to run off, get a great job, and take care of the rest of the family himself.
January 21, 2013 at 3:23PM ESTmaya
January 23, 2013 at 12:14AM EST Reply to CommentThe only Gallagher people I like are the women. Love Fiona and Debbie, but dislike Lip, Ian, Carl, and especially Frank. Lip in particular has become horrible.
I also hate Mandy and can't believe they got rid of Karen, who was such a dynamic actress and replaced her with such an unappealing actress (won't say character because I liked her when Jane Levy played her)
Abe
January 23, 2013 at 1:57PM EST Reply to CommentFor me, the episode title "American Dream" served as a reference point for America in the immediate post-Civil War world, also known as the Gilded Age. It was an era of unbounded faith in the entrepreneur and that the poorest immigrant or working-class America could work their way into wealth with some old-fashioned hard work. Fiona represented the naive entrepreneur thinking that the club would be her path out of poverty. The most important lines uttered in the episode were given twice by Lip, which Alan quoted, in that the only way to make money when your poor is to "steal it or scam it." Thus the American Dream of the Gilded Age is a nice symbol. A gilded metal looks to be more valuable than it is, just as the club promotion gig looks to be a valuable job opportunity. However, underneath the golden exterior lies the myth of the rags-to-riches story in that she had to pay off all capital (the night club manager), labor (the wait staff), and politicians (the alderman), and lost money. Thus, Lip's understanding that the only way to get ahead is to lie and steal shows far more basis in reality than Fiona's naivete, and there may be a changing of the family structure.