I don't think it was a cheat, but considering the journey Frank's had this season, it did feel like a facile way to return Frank to the antagonist role that he had grown out of for most of the season. That dynamic with Frank worked for season one, but at this point Frank is no longer the greatest of the Gallaghers'…

It's certainly something to bring up in your pre-marital counseling.

I'm sure Karen returns next season…any suggestion I made otherwise is wishful thinking on my part. Still, her behavior was so repugnant this season that I'd hope the other characters having as much resistance to her return as they have when Monica pops back up. Considering Monica is their mother and Karen is just some…

Fixed this. Thanks, you magnificent grammar scold.

Agreed, top to bottom.

As usual I thought this episode had some good stuff that was obscured by a lot of really clumsy and goofy stuff. But I'm glad you enjoyed it!

When I saw him I thought "That guy looks like Harry Hamlin." Then I completely forgot about it. But it's safe to assume he'll be around for a while. Hopefully there's a better game plan for him than there was for Jasmine.

This is a solid synopsis of my issue with Shameless. If you read the NY Times piece, John Wells talks about how his writers grew up poor and are pulling from their experiences, but the show doesn't feel that way at all. The bald eagle thing irritated me so much because it seems like something dreamed up by a room of…

I do understand the show, we just apparently understand it differently. The bald eagle thing bothered me so much because of the implication that this is just the kind of stuff poor people do. That's not the kind of stuff poor people do. The writers don't seem to understand that, and to have Steve of all people act as…

I agree about Monica. She's a terrific character and has the ability to balance out the show's more fanciful tendencies, but the returns will definitely start to diminish the more we see her.

I think that in certain scenes, and with certain characters, this show is absolutely grounded in reality. But stuff like the bald eagle for Thanksgiving really detracts from the stuff about the show that really works. I also think Shameless has been, and can be very funny without being shocking. I wish the laughs…

I wish I'd come back to read comments sooner. This is a really interesting conversation. Ian's relationship with Kash bothered me because Kash was well aware of Ian's age and was his direct supervisor, which made the relationship inappropriate, if not predatory. The relationship with Ned doesn't concern me quite as…

It's totally worth it, and is indeed Netflix-streamable. It's the only black-lady scripted reality show that doesn't send me into a shame spiral.

I'll admit that midway through the season I built up a three to four episode backlog because Tamar's shtick was completely sapping my energy. She reined it in towards the end of the season though, and while I won't get spoilery, she had quite a few humanizing moments that made her feel a little more like the person…

Fixed! Thanks for the heads-up. For whatever it's worth, @avclub-dcba90e7265f12accf0eb33b8fcb6ca4:disqus is correct. I have a terrible habit of inserting actor names where character names should be. I'm almost sure I referred to Debbie as Emma in one of my write-ups last season.

I totally understand how someone could have reacted to the introduction of Deb's feelings that way, but for whatever reason it felt kind of intuitive to me. I almost feel like if I was Deb's friend and she was going on and on to me about her really awesome adopted brother Dexter, I'd think "It sounds like you have a…

@avclub-19db33a7920e55ba3a32ab69d87f65b8:disqus I liked it!

I hate to say this, because it's fumbling towards a defense of nonsensical writing, but I honestly didn't have a huge problem with Dexter setting up the kill room in the church. Granted, Deb knew he would be there, but Dexter didn't know she had a jones for him and there was no other reason for her to have gone back…

I hated this too, but I suppose if you're going to watch this show you have to accept the fact that Miami Metro homicide is a department that can't get anything done unless it's with the guiding hand of one forensics guy who in real life would get wedgies from the other detectives. 

"Why can't we just take the final scene of this season and tack it on to
the final scene of last season and just pretend this one never existed?"