I think they probably always knew they would create a reason for Noah to have escaped into Helen's upper-crust world. There was always the lingering question of why Noah would have cheated on Helen to begin with. Sure in real life there often isn't a compelling reason, but this stripe of dramatic narrative was going…

I was expecting Noah to kill Gunther and end up back in prison, sparking a plot wherein Noah actually does become a killer after falsely doing time for murder, which to me would have justified all of Helen's guilty hand-wringing. The assisted suicide stuff isn't the shocking hot button issue that the writers seem to…

The crux of this show is that Carrie is always right but always acts on it in the most butt-stupid ways. It takes a few episodes for the pressure to build to that point.

The cast had signed in for season 4 already and the Egyptian myth + Lyle in Egypt = mummies were on deck.

Well I just did a rewatch so it's still on my mind. For the record, I didn't like much about the plot points in the last 2 seasons but I found them the easiest to watch. The manner and consistency of storytelling hit a real high even though the actual events were iffy, plus I think the last two seasons had a weird…

I think Noah's kids already resented him for blowing up the family. Keep in mind that it's just the older two. Whitney has her own reasons for being freaked out by her dad, and Martin was always mopey.

I get the feeling that the people behind the show think they have a lot to say about the kind of man that Noah is. That's really what this show is about. Cole is a fundamentally better person (though we've reached Buffy S6 levels of character destruction less than 30 episodes in) but in TV terms that means he's less…

One of the more interesting components of this show has always been that the titular affair really only spanned one or two episodes. The show didn't spend much time on Noah and Alison's relationship once they were allowed to openly be together. This story wants to be an exploration of messed up adult lives but it's…

I don't buy the idea that anyone can force another person to drive a car. Driving drunk is never ok. Helen already has a DUI from the weed candy. She doesn't deserve to be protected on that count.

I adore josh but he's not the guy's guy that casting directors think he is.

Helen was driving drunk and not watching the road.

I think he's a great actor who nonetheless might have been miscast. I've never thought he found the center of this role the way Ruth works Alison.

I'm just not interested in the type of drama wherein everyone is a bad person and the viewer is meant to find value in seeing the "good sides" of these people. The basis of Helen's soul searching is interesting enough…her whole life will forever be the "after" of her first marriage, and she's only now learning that…

They could have gotten a lot of mileage out of showing the kids using the drug money to pay for positive things like Lip's tuition.

That's fair as a viewer. But remember when Ian got mad at Caleb for cheating on him? The writers don't!

The "inside baseball" stuff concerning Mickey frustrates me. I'm tired of fans acting like the writers are jerking us around. Noel wanted to pursue bigger film work, and the Shameless writers seem to be opposed to writing for him when he won't sign on for a full season.

I expected to see Frank digging up the gave in the post-credits gag scene.

I disliked "Is it fixable?" Ian cheated on Trevor and I feel like Ian has been characterized as someone who would know how wrong that was.

Yeah, the back pay argument is odd. I could understand Macy being paid more in seasons one and two, especially if you consider how the UK Shameless played out; there was no way to predict that the ensemble show would become Fiona-centric. By the same token, I could understand Emmy being paid more than Macy at this…

They did a DNA test.