This is not going to be an article where I give you the plot of Shameless and recommend it to you and your friends. It is not an article where I'm going to build up anticipation describing each season, and leave you on a cliffhanger so you go watch it yourself. Quite the opposite in fact, because Shameless is more than just a TV show about a dysfunctional family from Chicago. In fact, this is just icing. Shameless is, rather, an allegory for our modern America: the side we often don't see. Here are the seven things Shameless's underlying themes will open your mind to as you watch the hilarious and engaging sitcom.
1) It shows the lack of privilege we often don't see.
I am quick to mindlessly spend five dollars on a smoothie or an Uber or even just to lend to a friend. Ultimately, an isolated five dollar does not affect my life, and to most college students, five dollars is virtually nothing. However, to the Gallaghers, and an astonishing percentage of America, five dollars is the difference between lunch or no lunch; five dollars is the difference between twelve hours with or without food. The smaller things I take for granted on a daily basis that come with my privilege, are things the Gallaghers never got to enjoy.
2) It shows us the ugly side of true love.
There is no denying that Veronica and Kevin’s relationship is on the kinkier side. However, below face surface, Shameless takes us on an emotional journey with a couple who can’t afford to make ends meet but stay together anyway, supporting each other by going to the most extreme of means. Love isn't all flowers and chocolates - love is relentless sacrifice and support even when it’s not all fun and games.
3) Often times, it is not with whom you are born, but rather with whom you are bred.
A quote that was one of the many mottos at my Jesuit High School, “it is not with whom you are born, but with whom you are bred”, is a saying that rings true for the Gallaghers. Their unstable home life requires them to find their definition of family within the family members that remain around, and friends they bring in. They have no true sense of a stable home. So often, I take for granted that this summer, I will go home to my parents and my brother, and not have that ever be a worry or a doubt in my mind.
4) Homosexuality truly is nature and not nurture, and certainly not a choice.
In a place like South Side Chicago, being openly gay just isn't an option in day to day life. The social consequences are so harsh that a person who is openly gay would have to fear for their life. Yet, two main characters on this show, one being a member of the Gallagher family, can not help who they are at the very core of their beings.
5) Some people never get a childhood, and it’s all by the draw of luck.
When one grows up in a home where the living room floor is the place of refuge for one’s drunken parent, and the bills are the biggest worry for even the 10-year-olds in the house, a childhood becomes a luxury few can afford. The luxurious essence of childhood is the carefree nature of those fragile years. Once we leave behind our childhood, in turn we accept responsibility, duties to our family, our society, and our community, amongst many others that we have never had to worry about before. That carefreeness is so often taken for granted, and is something the Gallaghers never got the chance to enjoy. Children become their own parents, and their childhood vanishes.
6) Our society is such that it is impossible to abide by the law if you want to survive below the poverty line.
This is the reality for an inconceivable amount of Americans. Minimum wage jobs with full days of working still keep households below the line of poverty. These are homes with an individual making a full-time income supporting a small family. For bigger families, and for families without guardians able to maintain full-time work, this pulls them even further from that poverty line. In turn, it becomes a challenging task for these families to abide by the law while supporting their family and surviving.
7) Hillary or not, females lead every single day.
With the election of Donald Trump, many women have given up in the realm of female leadership. It’s easy to be disillusioned with the idea that women have no place in the world as leaders. Alongside women in the media, in other forms of politics and the government, in businesses, in the arts, etc., women are leaders every single day before our very eyes and we don't even notice. Fiona Gallagher is the perfect example of this. With a bipolar, unengaged mother of her own, Fiona steps up as the mother figure for her five siblings, as well as a support for her father when he needs to be cared after. She gives up everything. She drops out of high school, and she has trouble even maintaining a relationship. She loses her sense of self to be the foundation for those she loves. And that is more leadership and sacrifice than any man in a suit in some office.
