Shameless season 2 sleazes by with its second entry with this week’s “Summer Loving” as Frank Gallagher finds himself charming a dying woman to collect on her pension, and the other Gallaghers squabble over their rooming situations within the house. Much like last week’s premiere “Summertime,” this week’s Shameless doesn’t leave a lot to feel good about by the end of the hour, but service-ably keeps things moving.
I find Shameless to be something of an unusual show, particularly in the way people reacted to its first season and seemed so vigorously to compare the show to its UK ancestor. Perhaps the adaptation warrants that consideration given how much it strictly took from the original, but my lacking awareness of the series prior to Showtime leads me to ignore much of the comparison.
It’s also worth nothing that the UK Shameless offers up something of an anomaly itself in just how long it’s gone on compared to most British series, currently airing in its ninth year, and a history so large means I’ll likely never find occasion to go back and watch it on my own.
Most of the criticism for the American first season revolved around the show’s inability to reconcile Frank Gallagher (William H. Macy)’s more comedic outrageousness with the grounded, human drama heaped on the rest of the Gallaghers, and ‘Summer Loving’doesn’t do much toward humanizing the character. We need some kind of emotional hook to get behind Frank scenes given how disconnected his stories usually are from the rest of the family, and a spark of humanity would go a long way toward investing in Frank’s journey. Granted Shameless has always been about exploring some of the uglier sides of life, I have a hard time believing no one flat-out kills Frank for his shameless attempts to weasel his way into a dying woman’s home at the mere mention of her pension. At the very least, a hint of remorse could turn around the character’s deplorability.
Of course that rings true for a great deal of Shameless, the idea of finding bring spots in an otherwise morally bankrupt landscape. There doesn’t seem to be anyone of the entire cast who isn’t running some kind of scam or hiding some dark secret, but I like the way the show finds little outlets for the characters, like last week’s coda of Fiona taking a little time to reclaim her high school glory on the track. By the same token, ‘Summer Loving’gives Vi a chance to brighten the otherwise dreary lives of her nursing home parents with an impromptu trip to the park, which offered a great deal of warmth even juxtaposed with the youngsters being sold beer and marijuana. Of course, Shameless wouldn’t be Shameless without finding some way to ruin the fun, as a wonderful day in the sun turns to a desperate plea for a return visit, even after all the excitement managed to kill one of the seniors.
That’s the thing about Shameless, characters always seem to give in to or return to behaviors that inevitably hurt them, like how Lip keeps coming back to Karen even with her new boyfriend, or how Dottie somewhat gives in to Frank’s charm, despite the characters’s well documented history of saying or doing anything for a warm bed and a bit of money. It can be hard to invest in an ongoing story when characters make such clearly destructive decisions without learning, but its still early for Shameless both as a series and as a season to have any definitive sense of growth. Sometimes when the series overpowers the worth of its scenes with soundtrack or distracting camera work, whether or not we find anything worthwhile becomes a moot point.
I didn’t find anything all that emotionally affecting about Shameless‘second entry into the season, but ‘Summer Loving’at least keeps enough brewing for more interesting episodes ahead.
And Another Thing…
- I’m a little uncertain of the relationship between Sheila and Frank, given Sheila has proven surprisingly intelligent and forgiving in the past, so would news of Karen seducing Frank really be all that much of a shock to her?
- I also like the unique relationship between Mickey and Ian, but I couldn’t help wondering whether some of these near-underage and inter-sexual sex scenes might be a little strange to film, for both actors and crew.
- Amy Smart’s Jasmine could also do with a bit more fleshing out, no pun intended. Or was it?
- Considering all she does for the family, you’d think the Gallaghers might be a little more accommodating of finding Fiona a place to sleep.
- Ha, great re-use of ‘Aunt Ginger.’But still no Steve!
- Curiously, there didn’t seem to be any mid-credits sequence, but I dislike those given how easily I tend to forget to look for them.
What did YOU think?
This episode felt a little flat to me. I know it’s only the second episode and things will pick up though. I guess they just wanted to plant some plot points in these two episodes before they really take off? One thing I do know…. Being back Steve, please. Miss that guy!
Bring not being.