11 Seasons With The Gallaghers — ‘Shameless: The Complete Series’ Reviewed

It’s taken a while for Warner Bros. to release the last two (notably Fiona-less) seasons of Shameless on physical media — but the wait is over. Both seasons are now available individually and as part of this massive complete series set (and, while buying the complete series is easier, I’d go individual if that’s an affordable option due to how lousy these large plastic cases are for getting discs out without feeling like you’re going to break them in the process).

Otherwise, as far as I can tell, all of the bonus features have been ported over for this collection, including a few commentaries, tons of unaired scenes, and a number of featurettes. These become less numerous as the seasons go on but the final season does include a lengthy quarantine-era Zoom interview with the cast moderated by Stacey Wilson Hunt. The interview also continues the show’s strange Fiona-erasing approach to dealing with actress Emmy Rossum‘s exit from the series at the end of season 9. Whatever happened behind-the-scenes, it does stick out and diverge from Rossum’s involvement in the bonus features before that point. Even the fact that the series never felt the need to update its opening titles until season 10 feels like a slap in the face.

For those who have never seen an episode before, Shameless is about a family from the South Side of Chicago and the many trials they face on account of not having money but also having parents who make their lives more difficult. William H. Macy is Frank Gallagher, professional alcoholic and scamster. The technical patriarch of the family (even though he’s a questionable guardian at best, awful human being at worst), Macy’s name recognition was leaned on a lot when the series began (he was also the only cast member, besides Joan Cusack who played Sheila, to be nominated for an Emmy). The show’s reluctance to move on from him becomes a handicap as Shameless goes on.

Frank’s whole storyline in season 4 sees him on death’s door because his liver is failing. Given his substance abuse, there’s no way he should be a candidate for a transplant and yet he survives for seven more seasons, despite the realities that the series only occasionally acknowledges, like his need to keep on top of his medications.

It speaks to Macy’s abilities as an actor that Frank inspires sympathy long past the point when he should be beyond forgiveness. We’re talking about a character who, in season 2, could’ve saved a woman’s life but deliberately let her be taken off the donor list for a heart (“I’ll Light a Candle for You Every Day”). He’s done equal or worse to his own family, yet instead of letting Frank step away, Shameless is never willing to let him go.

Sure, there’s some truth to the cockroach comparison, but it’s also a failure to acknowledge that, while the show might’ve needed Macy in the beginning, that stops being the case once the other Gallaghers prove their acting chops.

And that really is Shameless’ crowning achievement: the casting. Maybe it was obvious Emmy Rossum, Jeremy Allen White (who’s gone on to have such success on The Bear), and Cameron Monaghan were going to be huge talents. Nobody could’ve known that Emma Kenney and Ethan Cutkosky would be able to carry storylines on their own when they started the series at such a young age (it takes longer for the show to involve Liam, but that really starts after the role was recast with Christian Isaiah in season 8). The Gallagher siblings are the true heart of the series, yet Shameless never stops clinging to Frank when there are natural points when he could’ve been written off.

Shameless is a show that was revolutionary in its portrayal of working class families but also mental illness (specifically bipolar disorder), alcoholism, sex, and queer storylines. It’s a show that rode the line (and sometimes crossed it) and could also be biased towards certain characters — like being more forgiving of White’s Lip and Frank despite their hypocrisies while holding Gallagher mom, Monica (Chloe Webb), and oldest sibling, Fiona, to higher standards.

One character who I’ll always feel got treated dirty was Karen (Laura Slade Wiggins), one of Lip’s exes, whose vilification and brutal fate might be one of the series’ harshest, but then Shameless is definitely guilty of growing bored of storylines (like Sheila’s agoraphobia, which goes from being something she has to work hard to overcome to being a nonissue). Turning on characters and losing interest in them (like Isidora Goreshter‘s Svetlana) is another bad habit the series gets into that I didn’t pick up on until I’d binged all 134 episodes back-to-back. Even to the end, though, there are aspects of Shameless that work and lines of dialogue that are laugh out funny, and that make it worth revisiting.

Shameless: The Complete Series is available on Blu-ray from Warner Bros. and to purchase from Movie Zyng.