Showtime's "Shameless" follows a financially and emotionally struggling South Chicago family of 7. The father, Frank Gallagher (William H. Macy), is a drunk who spends all their money on booze and crazy schemes he gets himself into, while he leaves all the caring, literally all the caring, to his eldest daughter, Fiona (Emmy Rossum). She takes care of all her younger siblings, the house, the bills, and manages more than one job. The two older boys also have jobs, Lip "tutors" for money, but also receives sexual favors, as well as selling marijuana out of an ice cream truck. All the kids fend for themselves but help out by scrounging money any way they can, including stealing, conning and babysitting. No matter what, the kids can always pull together, because Frank is constantly off on a bender, so they have adapted, because that's all they've ever known.
People of color, often black people are disproportionately represented in the media when it comes to poverty and crime. The Gallagher family, all except for Liam, the baby, are white. It's nice to see that, for once, the portrayal of poverty and crime is without an overrepresentation of black bodies on welfare.
What's refreshing about this show, is it's portrayal of the working class. The writers show the Gallagher's poverty-stricken and destitute environment and they're not afraid to actually talk about the nitty gritty details of it. We see the Gallagher residence, a nice looking house, but on the inside it's almost always dingy looking, with dirty dishes and clothes strewn about, and plenty of clutter. But that's expected when there are 6 kids in a house including a baby.
When Frank takes all their money and they can't pay the bills, their electricity is turned off, so the kids band together to find money wherever they can. Debbie starts a babysitting business, carl steals things to pawn, Lip starts taking fellow students' ACT's for them in exchange for money. The kids don't fit the stereotypical portrayal of the working class as being unintelligent and uninterested in education. Lip is basically a genius, Ian is hardworking and focused on school and Carl and Debbie are constantly coming up with complex little schemes.
It's a pretty dysfunctional family, but they are loyal to each other. When Lip finds gay porn under Ian's bed, he doesn't freak out, he accepts his brother. Fiona works her ass off all day every day for the other kids, with little to no time for herself. She takes on the mother role, and even takes care of Frank when he comes home and passes out on the floor. Frank even cashed the pension checks of a dead family member, and tried to cash on social security for little Liam, putting all his kids at risk for inordinate amounts of debt.
The show is hilarious with all the crazy antics but also very moving. We see the real struggle and emotional toll their lives take on them, and the humiliation of the kids from their father's inability to be a mature, responsible adult.
Good post! I like the focus on how this show breaks the stereotypes. I've never seen the show, but you do a good job explaining it. My one suggestion would be to break up the text so it isn't as intimidating to readers.
ReplyDeleteGreat article! I've never seen the show either, but I like how you explained it, specifically how the show fights stereotypes.
ReplyDeleteI think you did a great job with this article. All too often, African-Americans are portrayed when we discuss poverty even though the most people affected by it are white. As you said, it's nice to see some representation of a race who is a major part of poverty.
ReplyDeleteThank you all for your feedback, I took your comments into consideration and broke up the text. I agree with you all. The show is important for how it fights stereotypes and works to show a different representation than what we usually see of the working class. That's why I thought it was important to write about.
Delete