Hiraeth

Shameless is back three months early! I have no idea why but I’ll take it. We rejoin the Gallaghers a month after the season six finale. What are my favorite degenerates up to?

The title is a Welsh term for being homesick. That would be Frank as he wakes up from a coma in the hospital. After lamenting that no one came looking for him (he forgot he was tossed into the river) he wheels himself to The Alibi where the “transgressions” against him come flooding back. Insulted he heads home only to get dragged out of the house when Fiona finds him there. Frank is beyond insulted that his family has exiled him for simply “telling the truth.” Always the defiant one, he manages to hole up in Fiona’s room.

Liam! He’s grown up since last season but remains mute.

Lip leaves rehab and is now on the road to getting some sort of life back on track. He was expelled from school and has no intention of going enrolling somewhere else. He rolls the dice a bit to score an internship from Prof. Youens contacts. After getting into so much trouble with alcohol, he sets up all new rules to keep safe but still enjoy a drink. Or two. He’s Frank’s son so we can all see where this is going (as seen on the faces of V, Kevin, and Svet when he outlines it all). For money, he visits Fiona at the diner and she puts him to work immediately as a dish washer.

With Sean gone, Fiona has taken over manager duties at the diner. Working all the time with all the stress and little compensation, she manages to get a dollar raise an hour from the owner (or the rep for the owners I think. Pretty sure his name is Chad). She puts forth that she’s off of dating, she’s just going to focus on herself for once. With the relationship with Sean scattered on the rocks, you can’t blame her. She’s very busy but it looks like she’s in a good place right now. She continues to be oblivious of the trials and tribulations of everyone though (not like the Gallagher’s are great about talking to each other, so it’s to be expected).

Carl is going hot and heavy with Dominique but when she reveals she’s not a fan of his foreskin, he goes into investigative mode. I guess it’s good that the only thing for him to be concerned about now is how is dick looks, he’s doing okay on the Gallagher scale. He makes a rather rash decision with his rainy day fund. “I don’t feel a thing!” “You you will.” We’ll see if his oral experiences improve for him.

Deb is in full panic with Francine. Yup, being a single teen mom sucks! She’s exhausted and is struggling every single minute of the day. After almost giving up, she goes to the park to think and see other mom’s. After getting some shade from a well off mother, she notices how nice the stroller is this mean mom has left unattended….ladies and gentlemen Deb is now a kleptomaniac. She’s flipping the baby gear for series cash on craigslist and I give her a week before she’s nabbed for it. You can’t sell the stuff you steal in the exact same neighbourhood you stole it from.

Ian is going strong as an EMT and is still with Caleb. Things are great! Wait, nope. Suspion sets in when Caleb tells him he’s been meeting an old friend. It’s a woman though, so he has nothing to worry about. Ian doesn’t buy it and enlists Lip to help him follow Caleb. That’s where they scope him making out with this woman in public. Drama ahoy!

Finally the lovely menage a trois of V, Kevin and Svetlana. These three have things figured out. Their working as unit for The Alibi, the kids and each other! Everything is scheduled out and going well. With Svetlana being awesome with math, she’s been put in charge of the bar’s books. She fixes some stuff V can’t figure out and then V asks her to look at their personal finances. Svet comes to the quick conclusion that they are doing nothing for their future. Little income, no savings, no future plans. It’s time they think ahead.

Carl’s story is the real comic relief right now along with Frank being Frank. Deb has come up with her own scheme and her lack of experience at being shady is going to shut her down quick. I like seeing the start of Fiona putting herself first, but knowing her she’s going to start paying attention to Chad simply for some relief from her exhausting family. A girl needs an escape, which judging from the previews may be more literal than figurative.

The gang is back and they brought a few gallons of blood with them. We join our main trio enjoying the hiatus from hell that Ruby granted them at the end of last season. That comes to a screeching halt when the Evil crashes their party (with gruesome results).

Turns out Ruby isn’t as powerful as she thought. She’s lost control over her demon children and they’re trying to take the Necronomicon from her. That can’t happen so she’s got to turn to Ash for help. The attack in paradise ends their agreement and Ash is none too pleased to be roped back in. But when the survival of mankind comes knocking again, he doesn’t have a choice. Being with Ash, Kelly and Pablo don’t have a choice either.

The premiere is all Evil Dead so it’s great. More Ash, more mayhem, it’s giving me what I want. It’s a tough mold to screw up and this adventure is looking promising so I’m all in again.

Sometimes I feel like I watch Fear more out of some strange sense of obligation than actual enjoyment. The show often just plods along. Being a spin-off of a zombie show, it checks the same zombie bullet points of the genre, just with a different set of characters (and location).

There seems to be more boring characters (less interesting anyway) than good ones and it’s like I’m just waiting for someone to deservedly get eaten. The writers do tend to eventually get to point and it’s enjoyable and that’s where the entertainment comes in.  I just don’t have that connection to any of the characters like I do with the main series. I wouldn’t be bothered if the whole cast got wiped out. I completely forgot about Ofelia. I don’t remember when she left the main group. So seeing her hoof it on her own sometimes gets nothing more than an “alright” out of me.

The last two episodes of this season were far and away the best. Chris’ story with his dad completed and turned out well. Significant character changes and it led to quite a bit of carnage and threw everything into the air again.

The laziness creeps up in this show too much. Those moments where they need something to happen (namely action) just for something to happen and it’s done all wrong. In this season, the random bad guys who show up to shoot a small horde on a wide empty road. Despite having long range guns and plenty of room to back up (or just get out of the way) they all die. Literally just stood there for the walkers to get to them. Brain dead stuff.

I keep telling myself to dump the show because I don’t think I’m going to miss anything. I never go through with it. Considering I liked the finale, I’m in for next years premiere. We’ll see how it goes.