Review of Shameless: Series 1

Introduction

Now and again, a comedy series comes along that you think doesn`t sound up to much and you give it a miss until you hear the buzz about it a bit later. I have a bit of a track record with this, missing the first couple of series of Phoenix Nights amongst others. Another recent one was Shameless, which I now have the opportunity to correct due to the imminent release of the Series One DVD.

Shameless is written by Paul Abbott, and is just a tad different from the serious State Of Play that aired in 2003. Set on the Chatsworth Estate in Manchester, the action is based around the Gallagher family, neighbours and friends.

Episode 1: An introduction to the Gallagher clan, the permanently sizzled patriarch Frank and his six kids; Lip, Ian, Carl, Debbie, Liam and Fiona. Cool and seemingly well-off Steve tries to get together with Fiona, refusing to take no for an answer from eldest Gallagher sibling. Meanwhile Lip has doubts about younger brother Ians sexuality.

Episode 2: It`s Friday and Giro day, but Frank is nowhere to be seen (which is a first). The remaining Gallagher clan set out on a manhunt which seems to take a tragic turn when a body is found floating in the canal.

Episode 3: Gallagher neighbour Kev is one of the barmen at the local pub, The Jockey. Trying to escape the attention of some girls out on the razz, he tells one of them that he`s about to get married to girlfriend Veronica. Overheard by Frank, this doesn`t stay quiet for long and before you know it, the whole estate knows. This leaves Kev with no choice but to ask Veronica to marry him. Unfortunately he`s married already…

Episode 4: Young Debs is ignored at a local birthday party so she decides to steal something. This wouldn`t normally be a problem, but she just happens to have stolen a young boy. Frank, with a typically sozzled handle on the situation, turns the anxious crowd into a mob who lash out at anyone a little different, which leads the local ice cream van man needing surgery. A cool and well executed plan by the Gallagher brood and Steve attempts to rectify the situation and cover up Debs` actions.

Episode 5: Frank and young Karen go for some driving lessons, although Karen has other lessons in mind until Lip inadvertently spoils things. Meanwhile Kash and Ian discover that things don`t always go according to plan when they adjust the CCTV cameras in the shop. It`s also school parents evening, and after this some relationship issues come to a head amidst some harsh words and bloodied noses.

Episode 6: Frank decides he needs more pin money and hatches a plot to get money via the CSA. This leads to a lot of old unpaid bills and a couple of psycho bailiffs appearing fairly rapidly. Part of Franks plan is tracking where Monica lives, but he is more than a little surprised when she turns up in a huge truck with her Geordie girlfriend Norma.

Episode 7: Monica`s girlfriend persuades Frank to allow her mates to fake Frank`s death, which will make all of Frank`s debts disappear. Can they pull it off and fool both the bailiffs and Mr Wilson, the Housing Officer? Meanwhile, Tony the policeman tries to persuade Fiona that Steve is no good for her and believes he can finally see off his `rival` when he discovers what Steve does for a living.

Video

Good transfer, as you would expect from a very recent TV series.

Audio

Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack, which is more than adequate. This series is very dialogue-driven and all dialogue is audible.

Features

Meet the Cast with Debs and Carl - a ten minute segment where Debs and Carl take a minicam and meet various members of the cast, throwing a couple of questions at each of them. Nice idea, but a bit short to be of great interest.

Interview with Paul Abbott - some nice insights into what was meant by this series, but again very short.

It`s sometimes hard to fathom what good extras would be for a TV series, but those presented here are too short to be of any lasting value. In the age of DVD, however, decent DVD extras should be on the list for any new major TV series commissioned as most will get a release at some point.

Conclusion

Sitcom land is full of dysfunctional familes, and here`s another one. What is different is the setting and quality of writing. I hadn`t realised when I first sat down to this that the guy I thought had done an excellent political thriller with State Of Play not so long ago was also responsible for this sitcom drama. Setting this in a kitchen sink estate in Manchester brings certain stereotypes to mind, and Shameless plays to that a little. What you don`t generally think of though is the tight-knit family unit who pull together no matter what problems hit them. With the Gallagher family you have one of the strongest families to hit a TV screen in recent years - if you discount the father, Frank, obviously.

The acting is first-rate, with some seasoned performers in roles that I didn`t expect to see them. I remember David Threlfall from Patriot Games and Master And Commander, which were pretty straight roles, whereas here Frank seems to be played with a fair amount of tongue in cheek (and probably enjoyment as well). Frank is almost a latter day Alf Garnett in that he believes he`s a working class hero and has an opinion on everything. The fact that he`s permanently unemployed, permanently drunk and likely to end up with his blood being spilt at least once a day doesn`t rein any of that in. He takes obvious pride in his kids during the intro, conveniently forgetting that he completely shirks his parental responsibilities, leaving eldest daughter Fiona to shoulder it all effortlessly.

Maggie O`Neill does a splendid turn as the agoraphobic nymphomaniac Sheila, who starts off lacking intimacy from her god-fearing husband but ends up enjoying rampant sex with Frank that leaves him with a funny walk and a requirement for large cushions when he sits down. This is not the Maggie O`Neill you may have seen in Peak Practice (which I haven`t) or Invasion: Earth. I have no idea how true the treatment for her phobia is, but the sight of Sheila being unable to cope with supermarket shopping via Virtual Reality software is incredibly funny. Her phobia is not simply played for laughs though, and the reactions of those around her when she takes small steps to recovery (classic unconventional treatment by young Debs included) are quite heart-warming.

The relationship between Steve (James McAvoy) and Fiona (Anne-Marie Duff) and Steve and all of the Gallagher children is central to the progression of this series. Whilst Frank and Sheila provide mostly peripheral plot progression and laughs, the real journey is made by the central family unit. Despite misgivings that surface on more than one occasion, Steve effortlessly fits into the way the family works and replaces Frank as the head of the family. It works as the children all accept him virtually without question. Good support is given by all of the younger actors, with extra credit going to Ian (Gerard Kearns) for his sensitive and funny portrayal of an under-age gay man. It seems wrong not to mention all the other supporting actors by name as they do such a fine job, but hey I can only write so much…

This is also a Channel 4 series so you may well be asking yourself where the controversy is that is the expected norm. Well, aside from the setting on a Manchester estate where car burnout parties seem to be the norm, there is a fair amount of violence and even more sex. If you`re easily upset by fairly explicit sex on TV, then you should avoid this. There is a corking scene where neighbour Veronica (Maxine Peake) is having a conversation with Fiona whilst ironing naked. You have no idea what the context of the scene is, and think it might just be gratuitous. Then you see that she is in fact performing in front of a webcam as part of some `busty babes` network, which then cuts to some poor punter and his parrot in foreign climes who was watching VERY intently. So was it gratuitious or was there some sort of social commentary? Probably a mix of both in all truth. Some of the sex scenes also show the real problems caused when people get carried away, as with Frank and Sheila`s daughter (who is also Frank`s son Lip`s girlfriend). Puritans could insist that the sex scenes could be cut out, but then you are dragged into the lives of the Gallagher family so much that it kind of becomes the norm very quickly and with the drama and comedy of this series already causing you to react in a certain way, it doesn`t really feel that shocking. That`s just my opinion though.

What is beyond doubt in my mind, however, is that this is a quite brilliant series that updates the dysfunctional family, puts it in a very contemporary setting and makes you really care about all the characters involved. There are twists and surprises everywhere and the running time of around 45 minutes per episode, plus the continuing story arc, really fleshes out the characters. You can see and feel real progression and development across the seven episodes. Now I`ve seen it, I can`t imagine missing it again. Recommended without hesitation.