Tuesday’s episode was the last in the current series of Shameless. The Channel4 show is very popular, and rightly so. It is very well written and great to watch a program which still retains some relative uniqueness (even with Skins) unlike many other shows on British television. I managed to watch all 17 episodes in the latest series and overall thought it was very good, although it has slightly lost its way.

I started watching Shameless from the 3rd series, so I’ve seen the last 3 series. At the beginning of the 5th series I thought it was the best Shameless has been, however as the episodes continued into double figures it started to drag and the story lines began to feel like they had been written because they needed to be. For me 17 episodes for a show like this was too many, about 5 too many.

Shameless is supposed to be a dramedy (drama comedy), for me it is turning purely into a comedy, with very little drama, unlike Skins which is clearly a dramedy. A lot of the story lines end in the most obvious ‘happy ending’ ways (what a suprise PC Tom got off from rape charges and nothing is happening about his relationship with Debbie). A few of the characters also seem to have lost their way a bit. Paddy Maguire is a good example, the whole story of his gay brother didn’t really work for me, it wasn’t funny or a particularly good story (with the obvious happy ending), and seeing him also play his gay brother was not a good move.

One big positive was the way they ended the 5th series, setting it up nicely for the 6th series. Lillian in the toilets after the credits was a real suprise! Was this Frank just seeing things? Or is Lillian really a man? It also looks Debbie and Tom will be a major story as well as Monica’s new baby Stella.

Even with the disappointment of the way story lines are finishing I still really enjoyed Series 5 and am definitely looking forward to the show returning, hopefully with a bit more drama but the same great characters. Overall I would give the series 7/10. 

Shameless Resources
Buy Shameless DVDs
Channel 4 Microsite
Shameless Wikipedia