Analysis of the Showtime Series Shameless
Analysis of the Showtime Series Shameless
Over the decades, there have been a lot of television shows that attempted to reveal the inner workings of American working-class families. Shows like All in the Family, Good Times, Roseanne, Malcolm in the Middle and many others have portrayed ordinary people (and mostly ordinary families) and their struggles just to get by. Virtually all of them have done this using comedic elements. A few years ago, a new series appeared on Showtime called Shameless. At first glance, Shameless appears to have a good deal in common with all of these other sitcoms about working-class people and their lives. This show, which airs on Sundays on Showtime, follows the daily doings of a single-family living in the South Side in Chicago in modern-day America.
William Macy plays Frank, the family’s alcoholic and completely good for nothing father. Frank spends most of his time (and much of the family’s money) finding new and better ways to get blind stinking drunk. Frank’s preoccupation with inebriation leaves the rest of his family to largely look after themselves financially, emotionally and otherwise. An interesting feature of the series, and the principal reason it remains a comedy despite the dramatic elements, is that Frank’s six children somehow are able to stay together as a family, although admittedly it is an incredibly dysfunctional family (Gary, n.d).
Although more recent seasons have deviated somewhat from the original nature of the show, for the most part Shameless has managed to reinvigorate and reinvent the dromedy by injecting equal measures of sentiment and humor and mixing them together in wild abandon. This show aims for the viewer’s heart and funny-bone at the same time, and does an effective job of hitting the target every time.
Humor’s critical role in the shameless series is undeniable. The show’s opening credits provide both a raunchy and revealing preview of the nature of these characters as each goes through his or her morning routine in the home’s single bathroom. Each character is revealed to be odd or extreme in a variety of ways, but also as typical of the average American family (in a way). We see the character of Fiona wiggling out thong to pee, followed by the somewhat shocking image of Ian masturbating to porn. The smallest child dips a brush into the toilet bowl to brush teeth (Stuever,2016)
The interaction of each family member in turn with the same filthy toilet bowl understand the individual personalities and the family dynamics in general. Artistically speaking, this opening scene is both hilarious and visually arresting. More than this, the opening scene of Shameless has become as iconic and watchable for viewers as the opening credits for the Simpsons. However, the Simpsons have never been as gritty and hard-hitting as this show can sometimes be.
As must be obvious from the above, this show doesn’t use the humor to trivialize or ignore the family’s poverty or the complexity and depth of the family’s relationships. The show’s writers don’t hesitate to reveal to viewers the unpleasant surroundings and situation in which this family lives. For example, the oldest son of the family has had the responsibility of being the “father” figure foisted upon him by Frank’s utter disinterest and incompetence. While hardly ideal himself, especially given that he earns money to support the family by selling marijuana out of an ice cream truck, at least he is trying to do something (however illegal) to keep the Gallagher’s from going under entirely.
But at the same time, the writers temper this unpleasantness and overall sense of doom with the real and strong emotions that all of the characters feel. Viewers get the sense that the characters in this show are clear reflections of real Americans living in real America as they experience the same hardships that so many people are having to endure today. Of course, many of the hardships seen afflicting the characters in Shameless are in fact self-inflicted injuries. No one has forced Frank to become an alcoholic and to throw his life straight down the toilet. Moreover, Frank doesn’t even take steps to attempt to solve his problems and change his life.
The character has absolutely no interest whatsoever in being anything except what he is. In an interesting and somewhat Nietzschean way, and as repellent as Frank is for the viewers, he is also oddly appealing to them because he behaving with what is often termed “authenticity” (Ansell-Pearson, 2010). For both philosophers and psychologists, Frank would represent an individual who is being entirely true to himself. He is focusing on his own interests and own desires and is unwilling to sacrifice either of these to the needs of society in general or for his family in particular.
As much as most Americans would be reluctant to admit it, there is something in everyone that makes them want to simply live for themselves instead of everyone else. Again, this genuineness of emotion, as well as actions and motivations, helps to make Shameless and extremely unusual and refreshing addition to our television viewing options. Certainly, it makes a nice change from the blandness that the major networks provide television watchers on a continual basis.
All too often, this last point is where other somewhat similar television shows come up just a bit short. Shows like Roseanne or My Name Is Earl simply did not provide this genuineness and reality of emotion. Through a highly unusual and even unprecedented combination of comedic elements and raw drama, Shameless effectively connects its viewers to a televised version of America that seems much more actual and real to them than anything they have seen in a comedy show before. This is a remarkable accomplishment and a notable milestone in the cavalcade of working-class sitcoms. It might be useful to consider another show by way of comparison.
In fact, in the whole history of television sitcoms, perhaps the only television show to ever combine realistic and heart wrenching painful scenes and comedy all in the same episode (sometimes even in the same scene) was the long-running and award-winning MASH. Starring Alan Alda as Hawkeye and a variety of other characters who came and went over the years, MASH presented grim and even more of it depictions of blood, war and war. Although in the story situated in the Korean War, MASH was in fact an allegory for the much more recent war in Vietnam (Gehring, 2002)
In the character of Hawkeye, we have an army surgeon who is deeply opposed to violence but is surrounded by the effects of violence and warfare on a daily basis. Moreover, somewhat like those enmeshed in the inescapable grip of poverty, Hawkeye could not escape from the situation in which he found himself. In fact, Hawkeye’s only real escape from the nightmare of death and bodies and endless surgery is through humor. Often, extremely inappropriate humor. There were many, many episodes in which Hawkeye would tell biting jokes about the surgery he was performing, the officers around him, the U.S. Army or the US government in general.
But while MASH presented genuine emotions in a way somewhat similar to the way Shameless does, the situation in MASH was not as genuine. The jokes were sometimes overdone and the characters were more caricatures than real. Could anyone really be as noble as Hawkeye, as incompetent as Frank Burns or as innocent as Radar O’Reilly? Any viewer watching MASH new that he or she was watching unreality, however funny, emotional and moving it might be. It’s also interesting to note that the Korean War in the television show MASH apparently lasted much longer than the one we had in the real world. Seeing Alan Alda go from a young man to one with wrinkles and white hair again took away from the reality of this sitcom.
The differences between one sitcom and another may seem a bit obscure and difficult to understand at first. Perhaps the best way to expand upon this and to illustrate the point being made is to throw a spotlight on two of the principal characters in Shameless and one of the other shows it might be compared to, namely My Name Is Earl. Shameless character Frank Gallagher and My Name Is Earl character Earl Hickey make an interesting contrast when considering this type of show.
Shameless’s Frank versus My Name Is Earl’s Earl
It is generally acknowledged that Frank Gallagher is one of the most appalling, shocking and outrageous characters ever seen on a television program in the United States. Frank’s endlessly intoxicated state and mindless antics frustrate, annoy and amuse the television viewing audience. But exactly how does this disreputable character provide the underlying foundation for Shameless’s novel approach to creating a working-class dromedy comprised of equal measures of humor and gripping the emotion?
Frank’s incredible and relentless ability to always come up short as a friend, a parent and even a human being never fails to bring embarrassment to the entire Gallagher clan. For example, Frank at one point jeopardizes the financial future of his children by using pension checks met for a now deceased relative to by the endless quantities of alcohol he insists on. He does this despite Fiona’s efforts to put aside a little money for the education of the other children.
At the same time, Frank’s decision to use the baby of the family in an effort to increase the success of his panhandling operation was nothing less than hilarious. But the same viewers splitting their sides and laughter over this scene quickly become somber and serious when they see Frank’s young daughter cover up her drunken father with a blanket in a sad and touching nightly ritual.
When comparing Frank and Earl, it is important to note that Frank’s position with regard to his family is more meaningful and emotional for an audience than the consistent way that Earl is always a real presence in the lives of his friends and family. For example, even though he has been divorced more than once, Earl still maintains some contact with his ex-wife. Whereas Frank is seemingly entirely unable to behave as a responsible and thoughtful adult because of his ongoing alcoholic binges, the character of Earl in My Name Is Earl attempts to take control of his own life by trying to mend his disreputable ways and atone for his many mistakes of the past.
Viewers of Shameless will never see Frank apologize to those around him or drop him at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. In fact, Frank blames everyone around him for his problems, and he refuses to assume any responsibility for himself, his family or his own actions. At the same time, even though viewers can be frustrated with Frank and even angry at him, the reality of who he is and how real he seems to viewers helps to make his character one of the funniest and saddest on television. Because Earl is (somewhat unrealistically) taking action to change himself and repair past wrongs, and because My Name Is Earl has a lot of stereotypical redneck humor and a more lighthearted tone, Earl’s character is seen by viewers as far less serious and much more conventionally comedic.
As the above comparison makes quite clear, the writers of Shameless have been able to create a unique television experience in which comedy blends seamlessly with deep and meaningful feelings of sadness, loyalty and love. In part, the creators of this show have accomplished this remarkable blending of seeming contradictions by demonstrating a willingness to delve into and fully reveal one families struggles and grinding poverty. In a television history made up of working-class comedies like My Name Is Earl or Roseanne, viewers have never before seen a series making a greater effort to present a candidly emotional story line and set of characters.
Instead, most of these other shows used overdone humor in a way that made serious drama virtually impossible. In most cases, serious issues or questions on these shows work swiftly and completely swept under the rug. In fact, by the next week’s episode whatever the previous episodes problems were had usually been resolved. Of course, real life is not episodic. When viewers are watching a sitcom or any other genre of television show in which the problems of the character are contained within 30 or 60 minutes of broadcast time and then largely forgotten, it removes any sense of reality and weight from what they are seeing. Oddly, humor actually seems to be more effective when it is based on reality than when it is simply based on the absurd.
In conclusion, as mentioned above the most recent season of Shameless was a bit of a disappointment for many fans. This is because the show drifted away a bit from the closeness and odd sense of family and togetherness that the otherwise dysfunctional Gallagher’s presented to the viewership. But even in this most recent season, the genuineness of the characters and the tangible reality in which they live and struggle as poor, working-class Americans provided an enjoyable alternative to standard sitcom offerings. All in all, Shameless gives us an unprecedented (and indeed surprising) combination of humor, sadness and verisimilitude all wrapped into one.
References
Ansell-Pearson, K. (2010). In search of authenticity and personality: Nietzsche on the purifications of philosophy. American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly: Journal Of The American Catholic Philosophical Association, 84(2), 283-312.
Gary, L. (n.d). Farce 'masquerades' as dark family drama. USA Today.
Gehring, W. (2002). M*A*S*H turns 30. USA Today Magazine, 131(2688), 66.
Stuever, H. (2016, Jan 10). Crime, class, crazy sex. The Washington Post.
