With the premiere of the ninth season on September 9, 2018, Shameless became the longest-running original-scripted series in Showtime's history.[2][3] In January 2020, the series was renewed for its eleventh and final season, which was scheduled to premiere in mid-2020, but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic; it instead premiered on December 6, 2020.[4] On December 14, 2020, Showtime announced that they were airing a clip show series during Season 11, titled Shameless: Hall of Shame, containing new scenes juxtaposed with clips from the show to summarize the characters' journeys during the prior 10 seasons.[5] The series finale aired on April 11, 2021.
Premise
The series depicts the poor, dysfunctional family of Francis "Frank" Gallagher, a neglectful substance dependent single father of six children; Fiona, Phillip "Lip", Ian, Deborah "Debbie", Carl and Liam Gallagher. As he spends his days getting high and drunk, his kids run through endless scams, affairs, and petty crimes throughout Chicago, IL just to survive.
Season 1
The first season of Shameless depicts the dysfunctional family of Frank Gallagher, a single, alcoholic, and trashy father of six children living in the South Side of Chicago, IL. With Frank's bipolar wife, Monica, running away from Frank prior to the first season, the family has been run by Frank's eldest daughter Fiona, who raises her five other siblings: the extraordinarily intelligent Lip, goofy and strong-hearted Ian, the mature and grounded Debbie, the troublemaking and unruly child Carl, and Liam, who is mysteriously Black (in the second half of the season, a paternity test reveals Frank as Liam's biological father). Often involved in the Gallagher's lives are their neighbors, Kevin "Kev" Ball and Veronica Fisher, who fake a marriage mid-season to obtain a substantial dowry.
The season's core story revolves around Steve Wilton, an affluent man whom Fiona and Veronica meet at a dance club. Fiona begins a relationship with Steve and discovers that he is a high-end car thief. Fiona's childhood friend and police officer, Tony Markovich, expresses interest in dating Fiona, though Fiona ultimately turns him down. When Steve leaves town to visit his family in Lake Forest, IL, it is revealed that his real name is James "Jimmy" Lishman; Jimmy, under the alias Steve, comes from a wealthy family who presumes he is away at Medical school. When Debbie discovers Steve's secret, she agrees to keep it a secret from Fiona, but does notify Steve's real mother about his double life.
The subsidiary plot throughout the season involves Ian, who is a closeted homosexual, his sexual orientation only known to Lip and a friend, Mandy Milkovich. Ian pursues a sexual relationship with his boss Kash, the adult owner of a local convenience store. Kash is unhappily married to his wife, Linda, who discovers the affair through the store's newly installed security cameras; Linda blackmails Kash into impregnating her. Mandy's younger brother, Mickey Milkovich, openly shoplifts from the store and regularly insults Kash. When Ian confronts Mickey, the two unexpectedly have sex, and they begin a casual sexual relationship. When Kash finds out, he angrily shoots Mickey in the leg when he attempts to shoplift. Mickey is arrested for attempted shoplifting and Kash is praised for his efforts. In the final episode, Ian comes out to Fiona, who is accepting of his sexuality.
Frank's eldest son, Lip, is in an open relationship with the promiscuous Karen Jackson, though Lip wants to pursue their relationship more than a casual fling. Karen's mother, Sheila is a nice, but kooky housewife diagnosed with severe agoraphobia. Frank becomes romantically involved with Sheila and moves in with her, though he's mainly there to freeload and cash in on Sheila's disability checks, much to Karen's dismay. Karen has a strained relationship with her estranged father Eddie, who is controlling and belittling towards his family. In an attempt to reconcile with Karen, he invites her to a purity ball, a father/daughter event where girls pledge their chastity. When Karen delves into a detailed list of her sexual history at the ball, as required by the ball's program, Eddie angrily calls her a whore. Sheila furiously kicks Eddie out of her house, overcoming her agoraphobia in the process. Eddie's betrayal and lack of affection spirals Karen into a mental breakdown; wanting to get revenge on her father, she rapes an incapacitated Frank, showcasing the incident on a video blog that she sends to Eddie and his co-workers. Beaten over the video and past events, Eddie commits suicide by jumping into Lake Michigan with a cinder block tied to his ankles. Consequently, a guilt-stricken Karen breaks up with Lip. Both Frank and Karen separately apologize to Lip for the video.
In the final episodes, Lip and Ian are arrested after being caught driving one of Steve's stolen cars, straining Fiona and Steve's relationship; though Fiona, conflicted, admits that she may be falling in love with Steve. Meanwhile, Tony discovers the truth about Steve's occupation. He attacks Steve and gives him an ultimatum - to turn himself in and be arrested, or leave Fiona and disappear without a trace. Though Steve tries to convince Fiona to accompany him to Costa Rica, Fiona declines his offer and takes up an office job from a new friend, Jasmine, to further care for her family. Under obligation, Steve is forced to run off without the girl he expected to be with.
Season 2
The second season begins in the summer, a few months after the events of season one. New developments shift in the lives of the Gallaghers' family and friends: Fiona is now waitressing alongside Veronica at a bar; Ian expresses interest in attending West Point; Mickey is sent back to jail after punching a cop; Karen has joined Sex Addicts Anonymous and has a new eccentric partner, Jody; Tony now lives in the house next door to the Gallaghers; Kevin and Veronica begin trying for a baby.
With Steve out of the picture, Fiona fails to find a better companion, and is upset when Steve returns to the United States with a wife, Estefania, a drug dealer's daughter whom he only married to survive. When Steve finds out Estefania is still interested in her ex-lover, Marco, Steve attempts to smuggle Marco into the United States to get back into Fiona's good graces. Meanwhile, Karen finds out she is pregnant, and hints to Lip that he may be the father. Though Jody initially takes Karen's hand in marriage, Karen realizes the marriage is a mistake and grows a hatred for her husband, kicking Jody out of her life and letting Lip back in. As her pregnancy progresses, Karen feels she would be an unfit mother and decides to put her baby up for adoption. The brush with becoming a father encourages Lip to drop out of school, creating a disagreement between Lip and Fiona.
Frank's abusive mother, Peggy "Grammy" Gallagher is released from prison on medical furlough and immediately storms trouble within the family's already hectic lives. Frank is troubled by Peggy's return, still scarred by his mother's abuse from childhood. When Peggy is diagnosed with terminal cancer, Fiona moves her grandmother into the care of Sheila and Jody, who look after Peggy during her final days. In the process, Sheila and Jody unexpectedly form a sexual relationship. In order to hasten her own death, Peggy dies at the request of being smothered, which is done willingly by Sheila. Frank, clearly conflicted over his mother's death, reconnects with Monica.
Though Fiona is suspicious, Monica comes back to care for the children and help out around the house, though unbeknownst to the rest of the family, she is not taking her medication. With Monica around, Fiona slowly begins to branch out for other opportunities—her reprieve is short-lived, however, when Monica finds the family's stash of money and wastes it all. Not only does Lip find out that Monica got arrested for letting Carl play bumper cars with a Buick, but he also finds out that she stole the money and had to use his own money to bail them out. After Lip harshly reprimands Fiona for not focusing on her family, she breaks down and attempts to pick up the pieces, letting Steve slowly re-enter her life; by this point Steve has successfully smuggled Marco into the United States to reunite with Estefania. During a family dinner, Monica attempts to commit suicide by slitting her wrists in the kitchen. Monica recovers and is transferred to a psychiatric ward, from which she breaks out of with another patient, running away from her family once again.
On the day of Monica's attempted suicide, Karen gives birth in the hospital, but the baby boy is not only Asian, but and has Down Syndrome. Karen reveals that the father is probably one of her classmates, Timmy Wong, and refuses to do anything with her child. Feeling betrayed by Karen, Lip angrily walks out on her. When the adoptive parents don't want Karen's baby because of his disability, Sheila and Jody steal the baby from the maternity ward to ensure he has a better future. When Sheila refuses to return the baby to the hospital, Karen gives her an ultimatum: choose her or the baby. Sheila chooses the baby.
Lip decides to return to school and he makes up with Fiona. The season concludes with a series of new storylines for the subsequent season: Sheila and Jody, now a couple, nickname Karen's baby "Hymie" after "Hiram." Spurned by her mother, Karen runs away, effectively ending her relationship with Lip. Steve, who the family regularly calls Jimmy now, is back together with Fiona. In the season's final scenes, the family gets rid of an unconscious Frank, removing him from their home and good graces.
Season 3
Fiona struggles to adapt to life with Jimmy, as he officially moves in with the Gallaghers. Jimmy, however, has more pressing concerns when Estefania's drug lord father, Nando, returns to the United States. Nando kills Marco and forces Jimmy to dismember the body; he also tells Jimmy that he wants him to stay married to Estefania, so Estefania can become an American citizen. Out of fear for his life, Jimmy agrees, but he keeps it a secret from Fiona.
Frank calls Child Protective Services on his own family after being kicked out of his own house once again. When a CPS worker comes for a visitation at a particularly hectic time, the underage kids are forced into separate foster homes, many being less-than-adequate. Though Veronica and Kevin attempt to foster the kids, Fiona ultimately gets Frank to clean up for their foster worker. When Fiona finds out Frank is the one who called CPS, Fiona fights for custody of the children against Frank, and is declared their legal guardian. This is bad news for Jimmy, who had plans to go to medical school in Michigan. Though Fiona, albeit shocked, is initially supportive, she is enraged to find out Jimmy had applied for a studio apartment only. After she and Jimmy get into a nasty argument over their relationship, Fiona breaks up with him.
Ian continues his relationship with Mickey, and their relationship continues to grow in the first half of the season. After the Gallagher children are put into foster homes, Mickey invites Ian to stay with him while his father, Terry, is out of town. However, Terry comes home early and unexpectedly walks in on them having sex. Terry—who is abusive and homophobic—beats the two boys at gunpoint and forces Mickey to have sex with a Russian prostitute, Svetlana; Mickey is thereby damaged and refuses to communicate with Ian. To Ian's dismay, Mickey marries Svetlana, who has become pregnant with his child. Meanwhile, Mandy and Lip are together, though Lip begins feeling smothered by Mandy when she becomes more involved in his life. Worried that Lip will throw away his future, Mandy secretly applies Lip for several colleges, and a successful interview gives Lip a chance at MIT. Lip thanks Mandy for her help. Kevin and Veronica continue their quest to have a baby, but there is little chance of Veronica getting pregnant; Veronica asks her mother to be their surrogate.
Family troubles are not limited to the Gallaghers: Sheila is struggling to deal with parental life, and her problems are further compounded when Jody relapses in his sex addiction. Sheila desperately lets Frank offer his support with Hymie, which leaves him with a temporary home. When Timmy Wong's family want Hymie to live with them, Sheila reluctantly obliges, realizing that her home is an unsuitable environment to raise a baby. Later the next day, Karen returns home. Sheila is overjoyed by Karen's return, but after speaking with Timmy Wong's mother, Sheila discovers that Karen had previously called the Wong family to take Hymie away from her and Jody. Heartbroken by her daughter's actions, Sheila becomes depressed. Meanwhile, Karen briefly rekindles her sexual relationship with Lip, but Lip decides against pursuing their relationship in favor of Mandy. When Karen threatens Mandy through a phone call, Mandy vengefully runs over Karen with her car, which leaves Karen with possibly permanent deficiencies. Lip, upset over Karen's vegetative state, angrily breaks up with Mandy. To give Karen a better recovery, Jody and Sheila break up, and Jody leaves town with Karen and Hymie to Arizona.
The final episodes of the third season, while still comedic, begins to shift into a darker tone. Frank is diagnosed with liver failure and is advised to stop drinking or he will die. Fiona visits Frank in the hospital and tries to convince him to stop drinking for either himself or his kids, but he refuses. Depressed from Mickey's marriage, Ian enlists in the Army without the knowledge of his family, only revealing the news to a shocked Mickey. He leaves secretly the next morning, forging identification using Lip's ID. Meanwhile, Estefania is deported due to Jimmy's neglectfulness. Nando orders Jimmy to board a yacht to an unknown location, presumably for Jimmy to be murdered. Fiona begins a temp job at Worldwide Cup, and she sends a final voicemail to Jimmy's phone signaling that she is over him.
Season 4
Unlike previous seasons, the fourth season of Shameless begins shifting into a darker tone, with the season's core stories mainly revolving around Fiona's sudden trouble with the law and Frank's possible death. At the beginning of the season, Fiona is getting past the disappearance of Jimmy and adjusting to her new job at Worldwide Cup. Keeping the family afloat, she has begun dating her boss, Mike Pratt (Jake McDorman).
Other characters' lives have shifted: Lip no longer lives at the house, struggling to adjust to new life at Chicago Polytechnic. Sheila finds solace in online dating, and she meets a Native American cowboy that takes care of his junkie sister's five children. Kevin gets full ownership of the Alibi. Veronica is pregnant with triplets, though her surrogate mother Carol is also pregnant. After Carol gives birth, Carol decides she wants to raise the baby on her own. Debbie begins pining after an older boy, Matt (James Allen McCune). Mickey is depressed over the disappearance of Ian, and he has a strained relationship with his pregnant wife, Svetlana. Mickey eventually tracks down Ian, who has gone AWOL from the Army and now works at a sketchy gay bar with a new, odd behavior. Knowing that her husband is spending time with Ian, Svetlana begins to extort money from Mickey. During an after-party for his son's christening at the Alibi, Mickey publicly comes out. Terry tries to attack Mickey over the revelation, resulting in his arrest; the other Alibi regulars seem accepting of Mickey's sexuality.
Frank, in declining health, is returned home by the police, to most of the family's dismay. Forced to stay on the wagon, Frank is desperate for a new liver and reveals the existence of his oldest child, Sammi (Emily Bergl). To his surprise, Frank tracks Sammi down and discovers that he has a grandson, Chuckie. Frank makes a good impression on Sammi, who does not know that Frank is her father. Sammi is initially furious when she finds out the truth, but she eventually reconciles with Frank, wanting to begin a father/daughter relationship with him. Though she isn't a viable liver donor, Sammi cares for Frank as his health begins to deteriorate. Sheila, wanting to adopt her online boyfriend's kids, marries Frank to increase her chances of winning custody, though she ultimately fails to do so. Frank is eventually given a last-minute liver transplant after being moved up the hospital's waiting list.
Fiona's life is drastically turned upside down on her birthday. Against her better judgment, Fiona pursues a secret affair with Mike's brother, Robbie. Mike is devastated when he learns the truth, punching Robbie in the face and breaking up with Fiona. On the day of her birthday, Fiona is gifted a baggie of cocaine from Robbie. That night, Fiona throws a party and snorts the cocaine; Liam gets into the stash of cocaine and is found unconscious in the kitchen. As the family rushes Liam to the hospital, Fiona is arrested and lands in county jail; she refuses to give up Robbie's name. Originally put on house arrest, Fiona goes on a bender with Robbie's friends and breaks her curfew. She is sent to a correctional facility for a 90-day sentence, wreaking havoc for the rest of the family.
Fiona's arrest leaves parental duties on Lip. Some unexpected assistance comes from an intelligent college student, Amanda (Nichole Bloom), whom Lip eventually begins dating. Lip begins to put his previous relationship with Mandy behind him; Mandy is stuck in an abusive relationship with her boyfriend, Kenyatta. Ian finally turns up and reunites with his family, but his new behavior concerns Mickey and the family, who compare Ian's odd behavior to Monica's bipolar disorder.
Fiona gets an early release from the correctional facility due to overcrowding. Thanks to her parole officer, Fiona gets a job as a waitress at the Golden House Restaurant, a diner managed by Charlie Peters (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). Frank is back to drinking with his new liver and has simultaneously brought Sammi and Chuckie into the Gallaghers' lives. Mickey and Svetlana come to an understanding of how to raise their child. During the final episode, a post-credits scene reveals Jimmy, who has been absent the whole season, watching the Gallagher home from his car with an unnamed woman.
Season 5
The season picks up two to three months after the events of the previous season. Fiona, officially off house arrest, is still a waitress at the Golden House diner, which has been renamed to Patsy's Pies and is now under the new ownership of Sean Pierce (Dermot Mulroney); Sheila leaves town after her house burns down; Frank, Sammi and Chuckie move into the Gallagher household; Mandy moves to Indiana with Kenyatta; and Ian remains in denial of his bipolarity as Mickey continues to look after him. When Ian begins showing increasingly erratic behavior, Mickey gets Ian to admit himself into a psychological evaluation ward.
Fiona begins a relationship with local musician Gus Pfender (Steve Kazee). After a one-week relationship, Fiona and Gus impulsively decide to get married. Her problems are compounded when Jimmy—going under the alias of Jack—suddenly returns to Chicago; Jimmy reveals that after boarding Nando's yacht, he had been forced to do slave labor in South America. Fiona has sex with Jimmy, who pleads with her to accompany him on a trip to Dubai, which she refuses. Jimmy later returns, stating that he cancelled the trip to stay with her; Fiona, recognizing the problems of their relationship, ends things with him for good. Fiona later learns from Jimmy's colleague Angela (Dichen Lachman), that the client had cancelled the Dubai trip—not Jimmy. Fiona and Gus' relationship strains following Fiona's infidelity, and Fiona ends up developing feelings for Sean, who is a recovering heroin addict.
Meanwhile, Debbie begins dating Derek, a boy she bonds with during boxing lessons. Debbie goes on birth control and has sex with Derek, despite being advised against doing so within 48 hours; this ultimately results in Debbie becoming pregnant, to Fiona's dismay. Lip and Amanda continue a non-exclusive relationship, though Amanda eventually begins showing feelings for Lip, which he ignores. When Lip pursues his older professor, Helene (Sasha Alexander), Amanda angrily lashes out at him for ditching her. Kevin and Veronica struggle with parental life, and the two go through a brief break-up period, in which Svetlana strikes an unlikely bond with Kevin. Kevin and Veronica eventually make amends at the end of the season.
At the Gallagher home, Sammi takes charge as the family's caretaker. She begins openly showing a disdain for Frank, her eyes opened to her father by her half-siblings. Frank wants to get rid of Sammi and convinces Carl, who has begun dealing drugs, to use Chuckie as a drug mule. In the second half of the season, Frank bonds with his doctor Bianca (Bojana Novakovic), who is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Bianca refuses to endure chemo, instead wanting to experience a debauched lifestyle that Frank introduces her to. They eventually begin a romantic relationship. As Bianca's health begins deteriorating, she and Frank take a trip to Costa Rica. While Frank is sleeping, Bianca leaves a thankful goodbye note for him before walking into the ocean to presumably drown herself.
Under Frank's advice, Carl gets an unaware Chuckie to transfer heroin, but Chuckie is quickly caught by the police. Enraged by Chuckie's arrest, Sammi turns on the Gallagher clan and calls the cops on Carl. In court, Chuckie is sentenced to ninety days in juvenile prison while Carl, refusing to give up his drug dealers, is sentenced to one year. In another attempt to get retribution on the Gallaghers, Sammi reports Ian to the military police for his military insubordination. Ian is subsequently arrested. Angered by Sammi's actions, Mickey vengefully drugs Sammi with roofies until she passes out unconscious. When Mickey wrongly assumes the roofies have killed Sammi, he and Debbie hide Sammi's body in a moving storage container. Meanwhile, Ian receives a visit from Monica, and the two briefly hitchhike out of the state after he is released.
Ian returns to the South Side and reunites with Mickey. However, Ian breaks up with him, affirming that he doesn't want to put Mickey through his bipolarity. The fifth season closes on a cliffhanger, with Sammi suddenly showing up and attempting to shoot Mickey with a gun. The shootout ultimately results in both Mickey and Sammi's incarceration.
Season 6
Fiona struggles with work at Patsy's Pies after being promoted to assistant manager. Though she is still married to Gus, she has begun a sexual relationship with Sean. When she unexpectedly finds out she is pregnant (and does not know who the father is), she ultimately decides to get an abortion.
Carl gets an early release from juvie and begins acting on a tough persona, selling weapons in school and continuing to work in the drug business. In the process, Carl begins dating a classmate, Dominique, whom he loses his virginity to. When Carl witnesses his friend, Nick, killing a neighborhood boy over a stolen bike, Carl decides he no longer wants to pursue a criminal lifestyle and confides in Fiona. Meanwhile, Debbie has decided to keep her baby, but Derek, not ready to become a father, abandons her. When Fiona refuses to support Debbie through her pregnancy, Debbie gets assistance from Frank, who has been mourning the loss of Bianca. When Sammi's mother, Queenie, comes into town following Chuckie's release from juvie, Debbie and Frank briefly travel with Queenie to her family's rural commune, where they grow opium poppies.
Lip continues his relationship with his professor, Helene, but Amanda exacts revenge by exposing a naked picture of Helene in Lip's dorm that goes viral. Lip simultaneously loses his dorm and job, and Helene promises to break off all contact with Lip at a disciplinary hearing. With Lip's drinking habits worsening, he befriends Professor Youens, who acts as Lip's mentor. Lip's descent into alcoholism gets him expelled from college for assaulting a campus guard; Youens convinces Lip to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. Ian puts his relationship with Mickey behind him and begins dating a firefighter, Caleb. With Caleb's encouragement, Ian begins working towards become a firefighter and he lands an EMT job at the end of the season. With Mickey in prison, Svetlana, who has begun working at the Alibi, faces deportation. In order to stay in the United States, Svetlana divorces Mickey and marries Veronica. In the process, Kevin, Veronica, and Svetlana begin a polyamorous relationship.
Fiona faces even more problems when the Gallaghers are given an eviction notice on their house. The house is bid for auction, but the family loses the bid and are forced to move out. Fiona briefly moves in with Sean and attempts to connect with his young son, Will. When the people who initially bought the house rescind the bid, Fiona attempts to get Gus to sign a sheet that recognizes his lack of property claim. But Gus refuses, resentful of Fiona for her past infidelity, and requests for an amicable divorce. At the divorce suit, Sean shows up in front of Gus and his lawyers and proposes to Fiona, who happily accepts. With Carl's help, the Gallaghers are able to reclaim their house, and Sean moves in with Fiona.
As Fiona begins preparing for her wedding, Debbie and Frank return from Queenie's rural commune just in time for Debbie to give birth to a baby girl. To the family's surprise, Debbie names her daughter Frances "Franny" Gallagher, after her father. Days before the wedding, Sean clashes with Frank over his behavior towards his own kids, and he challenges Frank's authority as head of the household. After the two men get into an argument, Frank vows for revenge against Sean; he sneaks into Sean's office and discovers that Sean is still shooting heroin, something that is unknown to Fiona.
During Fiona's wedding ceremony, Frank shows up—uninvited—and reveals to the entire congregation about Sean's heroin, devastating Fiona. Will angrily leaves the ceremony. Sean confronts a heartbroken Fiona, admitting that he had been using for months, and tells Fiona to "take care of herself." While Sean leaves to fight for custody of Will, the rest of the family—including Caleb, Svetlana, Kevin, and Veronica—kidnap Frank and angrily throw him into the freezing river. They flee the area, hoping for Frank's death, to guarantee he is out of their lives forever.
Season 7
One month after Fiona's failed wedding, Frank wakes up from a coma and is disowned by his family. Fiona is finally trying to take control of her life, having become the manager of Patsy's Pies. She revamps the diner in order to increase its audience. When a local laundromat building goes up for sale, Fiona buys the laundromat after speaking with the senile owner, Etta, who has Alzheimer's With the help of Frank and Kevin, Fiona revamps the laundromat and, forgiving her father, lets Frank stay with Etta in her apartment. Though business at the revamped laundromat initially goes well, Fiona sells the building for a major profit and subsequently sends Etta to live at a nursing home.
Lip, still struggling with alcoholism, begins a relationship with Sierra, a single mother whom Fiona hires as a waitress at Patsy's. Raising her young son alone, Sierra has left her ex-boyfriend, Charlie, due to his drug addiction. Debbie, wanting to provide Franny with a home life, gets engaged to Sierra's disabled brother Neil, though both Sierra and Lip are disapproving of the relationship. Following his college expulsion, Lip attends an appeal at his college that Professor Youens had orchestrated. However, the committee refuses to expunge Lip's disciplinary record and refuses to let him re-enroll. This culminates in Lip relapsing back to alcohol, and when he drunkenly attacks Charlie, Sierra breaks up with him, not wanting her son to deal with two addicts. Meanwhile, Kevin and Veronica are forced to find new jobs after Svetlana manipulates them into giving her full ownership of the Alibi. Feeling betrayed, Kevin and Veronica cut off their romantic relationship with Svetlana. Carl receives a scholarship for military school and decides to attend; the school changes his personality for the better.
When Frank briefly begins a short-lived homeless shelter in the neighborhood, Ian meets Trevor, a male transgender activist wanting to volunteer at the shelter. Ian and Trevor begin dating, but their relationship is tested when Ian is informed by an officer that Mickey has recently broken out of prison. Unbeknownst to Trevor, Ian reconnects with Mickey, who is on the run with another inmate; Mickey implores Ian to flee with him across the Mexican border, which forces Ian to make a hard decision. Though he initially accompanies Mickey to the border, he experiences second thoughts before crossing and refuses to proceed with Mickey's plan. Heartbroken, Mickey shares a final kiss with Ian before successfully crossing the border wearing a disguise. Ian later apologizes to Trevor for cheating on him.
The second half of the season revolves around the reappearance of a frail Monica, who has returned to make amends with her family—however, her kids are all generally dismissive of her. Monica reconciles with Frank and reveals that she is dying with irreparable brain damage; the two resort back to their old habits. Frank and Monica eventually decide to renew their vows, and the following morning, Monica passes away in her sleep from a brain aneurysm. Indifferent to her mother's death, Fiona meets with her maternal grandfather to prepare a small funeral, while Frank gives each family member a portion of Monica's inheritance: 70 pounds of crystal meth. Fiona buries her portion of the meth in Monica's coffin. The Gallagher family and friends host a small party following Monica's funeral: Frank is accepted by his family once again, and he shares a dance with Fiona; Lip and Sierra have a good time at the party—they remain separated, but stay on good terms.
The seventh season closes with a montage of the Gallaghers continuing on with their lives, some with new beginnings: Debbie has begun taking classes; Lip gets a new AA sponsor, Brad; Carl has returned from Military School as a changed man; Fiona becomes owner of a local apartment building.
Season 8
Fiona begins her new role as landlord of a local apartment building; she gets to know several of the apartment tenants, including Nessa (Jessica Szohr), a lesbian resident, while regularly facing problems within the neighborhood. Nessa introduces Fiona to Ford (Richard Flood), a mysterious Irish carpenter with a colorful past. Fiona bonds with Ford, who helps Fiona deal with a family of apartment squatters trying to sue her. The two eventually begin a sexual relationship. At the end of the season, Fiona confronts Ford about the state of their relationship; Ford reveals that he's happy in their relationship, but that he'll never be "madly in love" with her or anyone.
Ian has begun regularly helping teens at Trevor's youth center, and he and Trevor plan to convert an abandoned church building in Fiona's neighborhood into a homeless shelter. However, Fiona—wanting to raise the profile of the neighborhood—wants to convert the empty church building into an art gallery. The argument over the church building results in an ongoing feud between the two siblings. Fiona ultimately gets one of her connections to lease a new property to Ian and Trevor.
Lip continues to work at Brad's motorcycle shop, though he is forced to find a new sponsor when Brad, stressed from the birth of Cami's new baby, relapses. Lip briefly begins a casual relationship with his female co-worker, Eddie (Levy Tran), but is turned off by her rough nature. Meanwhile, Professor Youens gets charged with his fifth DUI, and he is sentenced to prison after appearing in court under the influence. Youens later dies in prison from a seizure; at the memorial service, Lip is dispirited upon discovering he was not the only student to have had a mentoring relationship with the professor. Sierra has rekindled with Charlie, who reveals to Lip that he had knocked up another girl during his separation with Sierra. Lip urges Charlie to tell Sierra the truth, but this backfires when Sierra angrily dumps Charlie over the secret baby. Initially finding comfort in Lip, Sierra breaks up with him when he encourages her to give Charlie a second chance.
Following his breakup with Sierra, Lip discovers Eddie's young niece, Xan, sitting alone in the motorcycle shop; Brad reveals that Eddie had abandoned Xan, who is estranged from her parents, at the shop. Upon discovering that Eddie had planned for Xan to be picked up by Social Services, Lip takes in Xan and invites her into the Gallagher home.
Elsewhere, Frank works towards becoming a reformed man following Monica's death. He successful lands a job at a local store, but quickly regresses to his old ways when the store is shuttered by corporate. Carl begins dating Kassidi (Sammi Hanratty), who suffers from separation anxiety. Kassidi pressures Carl into marrying her, and the two falsify documents at the courthouse to get married; however, Carl breaks up with her when she goes to obsessive measures to prevent him from attending military school. Debbie becomes a welder and reunites with a newly remerged Derek, who wants joint custody of Franny. Kevin and Veronica take back the Alibi from Svetlana, who agrees to partial ownership of the bar. Kevin and Veronica later help Svetlana marry a senile elderly sugar daddy, after which Svetlana moves out of Kevin and Veronica's house.
As the season progresses, Ian stops taking his medication and starts to spiral; he initiates a protest against a homophobic pastor preaching gay conversion. When the protest goes viral online, Ian gains numerous supporters who agree with his message. Reeling from his newfound popularity, Ian is nicknamed "Gay Jesus" by his followers, while Frank takes advantage of the Gay Jesus movement to make a profit. Near the end of the season, Ian provides sanctuary to a runaway teen whose father is trying to harm him for being gay. Ian gets into a confrontation with the teen's father; the confrontation concludes with Ian, in a grand gesture, exploding the father's vehicle. The incident results in a warrant being placed for Ian's arrest. A concerned Trevor consults with Fiona over the warrant, while Ian begins a protest at a community college. The police quickly arrive to the protest and arrest Ian; the family witnesses Ian's arrest via television.
Season 9
The ninth season of Shameless picks up with the aftermath of Ian's arrest: Fiona attempts to pay for Ian's bail by getting the apartment building appraised, while Ian becomes a leader for the gay inmates in prison. His court date impending, Ian is encouraged by his followers to take the case to trial to further publicize the Gay Jesus movement. Facing ten to thirteen years if he takes the case to trial, Ian—under Fiona's advice—decides to plead not guilty by reason of mental disease of defect; he is ultimately sentenced to two years in prison. Ian discovers that Mickey is his prison cellmate, and the reunited lovers rekindle their relationship.
Lip works towards becoming Xan's legal guardian, and bribes Xan's biological mother Mercy into granting him custody. However, when Xan has a heartfelt reunion with Mercy, Lip realizes that Xan would rather live with her mother. Later in the season, Lip begins dating Cami's sister Tami (Kate Miner), whom he initially met at Brad's wedding. Meanwhile, Debbie begins expressing an attraction to women, pursuing a relationship with a lesbian co-worker, Alex (Ashley Romans). Debbie later develops a crush on Carl's new girlfriend Kelly, though Kelly rejects Debbie's advances. At the ER, Frank meets Dr. Ingrid Jones (Katey Sagal), a mentally unstable therapist who wants to have children. Frank impregnates Ingrid with septuplets, but Ingrid leaves Frank for her ex-husband.
Fiona and Ford's relationship strains when she makes a deal with investor Max Whitford (Neal Bledsoe) and invests $100,000 into a senior living home being built in the neighborhood. After meeting with Max, Fiona discovers she owes a $25,000 expansion for the senior living home, and is unable to take back her initial investment. In addition to her financial troubles, Fiona’s problems are compounded when she, after tracking Ford’s cell phone, discovers that Ford has a secret wife and kid. Drunk and furious, Fiona angrily ends her relationship with Ford and crashes her car into a nearby vehicle.
Ford's revelation spurs Fiona into a downwards spiral. She goes on a drinking binge, and her constant drunkenness causes her to get fired from Patsy's. With Fiona's absence, Debbie begins taking charge at the Gallagher home. In order to maintain her credit, Max offers to buy Fiona's apartment building, which is subsequently demolished. Meanwhile, Xan returns to the Gallagher home after being abandoned by Mercy. Lip plans to adopt Xan, but his chances are ruined when a drunken Fiona answers the door during an unannounced DCFS visit. The DCFS worker concludes the Gallagher home unsuitable for Xan, and she is transferred to a foster home. Attempting to apologize to Lip, Fiona visits Brad's motorcycle shop and meets Lip's sponsor, Jason, who has recently celebrated 100 days of sobriety. Unaware of Jason's sobriety, Fiona drinks vodka in front of Jason, causing him to relapse. Lip blames Fiona for both incidents and angrily kicks her out of the house.
Following the fallout between her and Lip, Fiona begins attending AA meetings and is able to make amends with Lip and her former co-workers. Meanwhile, Lip discovers that Tami is pregnant, and contemplates whether he will be a good father. Fiona briefly reunites with Max, who offers to buy her out of her $100,000 investment. Now with a chance to get her life back on track, Fiona decides she needs a fresh start and announces her plans to leave Chicago. She visits Ian in prison, who is supportive of her decision. Fiona also shares a brief moment with Frank, who thanks her for taking care of the kids following Monica's departure. Fiona angrily replies that she didn't just 'help' but did it all. Frank shrugs this off by saying 'If you sleep better believing that....'
The Gallaghers plan a goodbye party for Fiona, but she departs before the party begins. Debbie finds an envelope of $50,000 that Fiona left on the kitchen fridge. Fiona hops on a plane going to an unknown destination, finally ready to start her life anew.
Season 10
Six months have passed since Fiona left, and with the help of the $50,000 she left, Debbie has taken over as the family's new matriarch and is governing the Gallagher household with an iron grip. In order to obtain as many prescription medicines as possible, Frank utilizes his leg injury, and his activities bring him into contact with an old friend. With Tami showing signs of affection, Lip negotiates their connection. Both released early on parole, Mickey and Ian have reunited, but this time are fighting hard to stay together. Carl must decide what to do with his life as he graduates from military school and returns to the South Side. While Kev struggles with identity issues, Liam is dedicated to studying black history and culture under V's guidance.
Season 11
After a decade of chaos, the Gallaghers begin to face serious and dire economic struggles brought on by the Pandemic which leads to life-altering changes not only to their personal lives, but their professional lives as well that finds themselves considering leaving the South Side and maybe even Chicago.
William H. Macy as Frank Gallagher, the patriarch of the Gallagher family and father to Fiona, Lip, Ian, Carl, Debbie and Liam. He is an alcoholic and chronically unemployed, instead making money through various scams. He is a narcissist and cares only about his next drink or drugs, often endangering or abandoning his children to fulfill his own needs. Despite being egocentric, Frank does love his children and at times proves himself a better parent.
Emmy Rossum as Fiona Gallagher, the feisty, street-smart eldest Gallagher sibling, who raises the children on her own due to Frank and Monica's neglect, and eventually becomes their legal guardian. She struggles with addiction, impulsive behavior and self-destructive tendencies. (seasons 1–9)
Justin Chatwin as Steve Wilton / Jimmy Lishman, a car thief who is the love interest of Fiona for the first three seasons. (seasons 1–3; special guest season 4; special guest star season 5)
Ethan Cutkosky as Carl Gallagher, the third Gallagher brother, who has a tendency for troublemaking as a child, and goes to juvenile prison as a teenager, but grows up to be a policeman after witnessing a murder and wanting to help the poor.
Shanola Hampton as Veronica "V" Fisher, Fiona’s best friend and neighbor, who lives with her husband Kevin and, later, their twin daughters. She and Kevin often help out the Gallaghers, being their only real adult role models.
Steve Howey as Kevin "Kev" Ball, Veronica’s husband and the owner of the series' main and local bar The Alibi Room. he comes from a rough childhood as he was in the foster care system for the majority of his childhood life, but has an eccentric personality and is always goofy.
Emma Kenney as Debbie Gallagher, the strong-willed youngest Gallagher daughter, who becomes a mother at age 15. She later comes out as a lesbian and dates Sandy Milkovich, the cousin to Mandy and Mickey. She displays extreme abandonment issues due to her parents' treatment which causes her to be clingy and erratic with her romantic relationships. As an adult, she becomes a freelance welder.
Jeremy Allen White as Philip "Lip" Gallagher, the oldest Gallagher son and the second oldest Gallagher child, who is highly intelligent, and he also takes care of the parental duties. Like his father, he suffers from alcohol addiction. In season 10, he becomes a father and is a motorcycle repairman.
Cameron Monaghan as Ian Gallagher, the second oldest brother. Strong-hearted, persistent, and goofy, he is gay and engages in an on-and-off relationship with Mickey, whom he later marries in season 10. Like his mother Monica, he struggles with bipolar disorder.
Noel Fisher as Mickey Milkovich, a violent and erratic member of the Milkovich family, who are neighbors of the Gallaghers. He is Ian’s main love interest and later husband who eventually becomes estranged from his family due to their homophobic and white supremacist attitudes. He has an ex-wife, Svetlana, whom he was forced to marry by his homophobic father (Seasons 3–5, 10–11; recurring seasons 1–2; special guest star season 6; special guest seasons 7, 9). They have a son.
Joan Cusack as Sheila Jackson, mother to Karen and love interest to Frank for the first five seasons. She is a sex addict seeking dominance over men and suffers from agoraphobia which prevents her leaving the house in the earlier seasons. She leaves Chicago in an RV at the end of season five. (special guest star seasons 1–5)
Laura Slade Wiggins as Karen Jackson, Sheila’s rebellious and destructive daughter and an early love interest for Lip. She later gets hit by a car that was driven by Mandy, which leaves her to be permanently brain damaged, and decides to move with her much older ex-husband Jody to seek treatment in Arizona. (seasons 1–2; recurring season 3)
Zach McGowan as Jody Silverman, Karen's husband and adoptive father to her son, who later becomes a love interest to Sheila before reuniting with Karen and moving away. (season 3; recurring season 2)
Emma Greenwell as Mandy Milkovich, the sister of Mickey, love interest of Lip, and best friend of Ian, whom she pretends to date in season one to hide the fact he is gay. She eventually leaves to escape her physically abusive boyfriend. She later returns to come back as an escort. (seasons 3–4; recurring season 2; guest season 5; special guest season 6) (Jane Levy played Mandy for six episodes of season 1)
Emily Bergl as Sammi Slott, the needy and manipulative elder half-sister of the Gallaghers, who is revealed in season 4 to be a product of a teen romance of Frank's. She is the mother to Chuck. (season 5; special guest season 4)
Isidora Goreshter as Svetlana Yevgenivna, a Russian émigré who is Mickey's wife and the mother of his child. She later divorces him and engages in a throuple with Kevin and Veronica while working at their bar. (seasons 7–8; recurring seasons 3–6)
Richard Flood as Ford Kellogg, an Irish carpenter and love interest to Fiona. (season 9; special guest season 8)
Christian Isaiah as Liam Gallagher, the mixed-race youngest Gallagher child whose true parentage is ambiguous. As the youngest child, his care is a key priority for his older siblings throughout the series. (seasons 9–11; recurring season 8)
Kate Miner as Tami Tamietti, a hairdresser from a middle-class background who is Lip’s love interest and later mother to his child. (seasons 10–11; recurring season 9)
Shameless was adapted from a long-running, award-winning British television comedy drama of the same name.[6]HBO began developing an American version of Shameless after striking a deal with John Wells in January 2009.[7] By April of that year, development had moved to Showtime. John Wells Productions taped a pilot episode for the cable network in December 2009.[8][9] The show's creator Paul Abbott said, "It's not My Name Is Earl or Roseanne. It's got a much graver level of poverty attached to it. It's not blue collar, it's no collar."[9]ShowrunnerJohn Wells fought efforts to place the show in the South or in a trailer park. "We have a comedic tradition of making fun of the people in those worlds," he said. "The reality is that these people aren't 'the other'—they're people who live four blocks down from you and two blocks over."[9]
William H. Macy stars in the lead role as Frank Gallagher, joined by Emmy Rossum as Fiona and Justin Chatwin as Steve, former co-stars from Dragonball Evolution.[10][11] Paul Abbott, whose semi-autobiographical telescript was the basis for the British pilot, is credited as an executive producer on the American version.[9]
In April 2010, Showtime green-lit the series with a 12-episode order.[12]
Before William H. Macy took the role, Woody Harrelson was originally considered to play the character Frank Gallagher in the 2010 remake.[13]
The Sheila Jackson character (a romantic interest for Frank), was first portrayed by Allison Janney in a pilot; however, in late August 2010, the role was recast and Joan Cusack ended up playing Sheila for the aired episodes.[14] Production began in mid-September.[14]
A preview of the pilot aired on December 12, 2010, after the Season 5 finale of Dexter. The first season officially began airing on Showtime on Sunday, January 9, 2011.[15]
The series is set in Chicago's Back of the Yards neighborhood on the South Side.[16][17][18] The house that the Gallaghers call home is an actual house in an actual Chicago neighborhood and has been visited by fans.[19]
Most episodes begin with one of the main characters breaking the fourth wall to berate the viewer about missing previous episodes. Then the show cuts to a recap montage of plot points relevant to the current episode, followed by the opening title sequence.
Filming
The series is mostly filmed at a Los Angeles studio, with some scenes filmed in Chicago.[20] Despite most of the filming being done in California, most of the houses and other notable locations can actually be found in the Southside of Chicago, Illinois.[21] Initial shooting of the second season began on July 5, 2011[22] and premiered January 8, 2012.[23] The series was renewed for a third season on February 1, 2012,[24] and initial shooting began June 27, 2012.[25] The third season premiered on January 13, 2013, and two weeks later on January 29, Shameless was renewed for a fourth season.[26] It premiered January 12, 2014. On February 18, 2014, the series was renewed for a fifth season.[27] Production on the first episode of the fifth season began on July 3, 2014 with the first episode table read,[28] with initial shooting for the season beginning on July 8, 2014.[29][30] The series was renewed for a sixth season on January 12, 2015.[31]Shameless was renewed for a 12-episode seventh season on January 12, 2016.[32] Season 7 premiered on October 2, 2016.
In December 2016, it was reported that Emmy Rossum, after multiple seasons of being paid significantly less than her co-star William H. Macy, requested that she be paid equally and compensated in future seasons to make up for the previous salary discrepancies. The equal pay negotiations, which were vocally supported by her co-star Macy,[33] briefly delayed work on an eighth season of the series while she and Warner Bros. Television negotiated. The dispute came to an end on December 14, when Rossum confirmed through Twitter that she would continue to work on the series, with production of an eighth season to begin in May 2017.[34] On December 19, 2016, Showtime officially announced that Shameless had been renewed for an eighth season.[35] Just days after the eighth season premiere, it was announced that the show had been renewed for a ninth, which would bring the show past the 100-episode mark.[36][37]
In August 2018, Rossum announced her departure from Shameless after nine seasons playing Fiona Gallagher.[38] In October 2018, Cameron Monaghan also announced his departure from the series after playing Ian Gallagher for nine seasons; however, it was later announced Monaghan was expected to return for the tenth season.[39]
On January 13, 2020, it was announced that the series had been renewed for its eleventh and final season, which had been scheduled to air in summer 2020 but was then delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and that Macy, White, Cutkosky, Hampton, Howey, Kenney, Monaghan, Fisher, Miner, and Isaiah would all return for the series' final season.[40] Production on the final season commenced on September 8, 2020.[41] Production for the final season ended on March 12, 2021.
In promotion for the second-season premiere, the entire cast sang their own version of a Christmas carol, entitled "Shameless: Christmas Carol".[43][44][45]
Broadcast
Shameless premiered on January 9, 2011 in the United States, becoming Showtime's highest-rated series debut on record across the network's target demographic. The first episode of the series generated 982,000 unique viewers and was Showtime's largest audience for a series premiere since Dead Like Me in 2003.
The fourth episode, "Casey Casden", airing January 30, posted 1.45 million total viewers. Shameless was the cable channel's best-performing first-year drama. Defying the usual downward trend following a premiere, the series built on its initial audience, becoming number one in its time slot among adults aged 18 through 49. Subsequent episodes' audiences fluctuated between a million and 1.14 million viewers. The March 27, 2021 season finale, "Father Frank, Full of Grace," drew an audience of 1.157 million.
The third season's premiere episode, "El Gran Cañon" (airing January 13, 2013), drew 2 million viewers, becoming the show's highest rated episode to date. It then maintained average ratings of just below a million viewers throughout the remainder of its episodes.
Reception
Critical reception
Tim Goodman of The Hollywood Reporter said that "Shameless is excellent, compelling television from the first moment. As long as it stays true to the roots of the original, it's going to be essential viewing". The show's first season score on Metacritic is a 66 of 100, which is a generally favorable review. The second season score on Metacritic is a 76 of 100, indicating increasingly favorable reviews.[46] Tom O'Neill of the Los Angeles Times reported on the Emmy buzz about Shameless, especially with respect to the performance of Emmy Rossum. He said "she didn't have much Emmy buzz after Shameless debuted in January, but that changed after she gave powerhouse turns in such episodes as 'But at Last Came a Knock'".[47]BuddyTV ranked Shameless #8 on its list of 2011's best new TV shows.[48] Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gave the first season a 'fresh' rating of 70% based on 37 reviews, with the critical consensus "Shameless is a dark, urban dramedy that overcomes its leaps of logic thanks to fantastic casting, intriguing ambiance, and shock value." Seasons 2–8 each have an above 90% rating as of 2021, with the exception of season 7, which has an 88% rating. Seasons 9, 10, and 11 have the lowest ratings with 73%, 20%, and 70% respectively as of February 2022.[49]
Ratings
The first episode of the series, "Pilot", was watched by 982,000 viewers, making it the network's biggest turnout for a series premiere since Dead Like Me in 2003.[50] The episode airing January 30, "Casey Casden", received 1.45 million total viewers, making Shameless the best performing first-year drama on Showtime.[51]
Bringing Shameless to America – A look at the process of reworking and repurposing a successful British television series for an American premium cable audience.
Bringing the Fun to Dysfunctional – Go behind-the-scenes of the show with key members of the cast and crew in this much-too-brief making-the-series featurette.
A Shameless Discussion About Sex – Rossum and co-stars Steve Howey, Justin Chatwin and Shanola Hampton have a candid chat about the sex in Shameless.
Audio Commentaries – Two commentaries are available:
"Pilot" and "Frank Gallagher: Loving Husband, Devoted Father"
Deleted Scenes
Season 2 Sneak Peek – A look into season 2 of Shameless
The Complicated Life of Fiona Gallagher (featurette) – Fiona returns with a whole new host of problems, and Rossum talks about her character and the future of the Gallagher clan.
The Art of Acting Drunk (featurette) – William H. Macy takes a hard look at Frank and his future.
Behind the Scenes: Writing the Shameless Version (featurette) – A second-season roundtable chat.
A Shameless Actor Discussion – 5 Interviews between various cast members.
A Shameless Look at Season 3 – A behind-the-scenes sneak peek of the third season of Shameless.
Where the Streets Have No Shame (featurette) – Go behind the scenes with the Shameless cast and crew as they prep a number of sets and streets for the third season shoot.
The Many Sides of Sheila (featurette) – Joan Cusack's character Sheila steps center stage as the actress, writer Mike O'Malley and other key members of the team discuss her development and evolution.
An Officer and a Gallagher (featurette) – The same treatment is given to Cameron Monaghan's Ian.
A Lip Off the Old Block (featurette) – Followed by Jeremy Allen White's Phillip.
Being Milkovich (featurette) – More character dissections with Noel Fisher and Emma Greenwell.
A Messy Triangle (featurette) – Lip, Karen and Mandy's... relationship.
↑ Rossum, Emmy (July 3, 2011). "@emmyrossum on Twitter". Twitter. Archived from the original on March 11, 2016. Retrieved July 18, 2011. Crazy week getting ready for season two. Tuesday july 5 is day 1 of shooting. Read thru Thursday was great. We have a lot of fun in store!
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