Huzzah! My expectations have been lowered enough that tonight's episode of Shameless actually seemed halfway decent.
The Kids are Alright
I still don't get Carl (Ethan Cutkosky) and his friend Hank (Nicky Korba). It's not that they're unappealing characters, though they are. It's mostly the writing, but it's also that these young actors aren't convincing as sociopaths. None of the writing has been particularly convincing this season, but you can't expect a kid to make something out of nothing the way William H. Macy or Joan Cusack can. Deb, on the other hand, is essentially a normal girl, if precocious, so Emma Kenney doesn't have the same kind of challenge.
Fancy Weddings and Unplanned Pregnancies
Fiona (Emmy Rossum) goes to a wedding with Richard (Johnny Sneed), where a snooty guest sees through her ruse about being a Princeton undergrad, and mistakes her for an escort. Richard is an okay guy, though, and doesn't care that Fiona's from the South Side. Lip (Jeremy Allen White) is despondent, having found out that Karen (Laura Wiggins) is pregnant. The child might be Lip's but she's already married to Jody (Zach McGowan). Deb looks for pointers in wooing Hank, and Veronica (Shanola Hampton) suspects Kevin (Steve Howey) of cheating. We know better, right?
Eddie's Dead
Eddie's body finally turned up. Frank (Macy) didn't kill him, but he's a suspect, and the police quickly find out that he had sex with Karen. I kind of like the way Karen responded to her father's death. A little over-the-top maybe (well, not for this show), but her adolescent anger felt genuine, and Wiggins sold it well. Lip's despair also came across, though I wasn't quite sure why Ian (Cameron Monaghan) was so mad at him about the West Point misunderstanding, which clearly was not his fault. But then, people sometimes get blamed for things they didn't do in real life, I hear. I'm not sure about the odd relationship between Ethel (Madison Davenport) and Malik (Justin Mitchell). I admit I didn't expect it to result in a prison shanking.
Steve (Justin Chatwin) is back, apparently, though I'm not really sure who he is anymore. Did he somehow not notice that look on Fiona's face when she saw him?
Best Lines:
"Nice try, but that doesn't turn me on anymore."
--Karen responds to Jody saying, "Your father's dead," when they're about to get busy.
"The heart wants what it wants. Do I have to explain that to you, of all people?"
--Deb, after Lip tells her that Hank is going to end up in juvey before their first kiss.
"No more washing machine freebies. She charges by the load. So should we."
--Fiona plans to charge the new tenant, a prostitute, for using the washing machine.
"It's a shame I didn't meet him when I was eleven."
--Ethel laments that she was already married when she met Malik.
"What'd you take math lessons from a Creationist? You met him a month ago."
--Lip, when Karen tells him that Jody is the father of her child.
Recommendations:
