Outrageous is the one word that comes to mind when defining this realer than real Showtime series. With William H. Macy at the helm as a fall down, sloppy, disgusting drunk with 7 children, this series makes for a pretty interesting story. William H. Macy plays Frank Gallagher. Frank’s children include 1 genus son named Phillip but called Lip, 1 gay son named Ian, 1 (2) year old son named Liam, 1 potential sociopath and arsonist son who stands by Frank, named Carl, 1 adolescent daughter, named Debbie, 1newly discovered daughter named Sammi and his oldest daughter, named Fiona, who takes care of the entire family while Frank stays in a drunken stupor most of the time.
BTW: the Gallagher’s do have a mom but she’s in and out of the picture, named Monica. Shameless shows how a dysfunctional family evolves when the living conditions are unfavorable and the children are self raised in poverty and discord when there are no decent parents around for guidance.
There are so many other characters that help make this series successful. Joan Cusask has a recurring role as Sheila, who is now head of her dysfunctional family since her husband died. Fiona’s best friend, Veronica Fisher, who is the Gallagher’s next door neighbor and can at best be described as a real character, married to a bartender, who at times, is a bit of a block head. Should you find this interesting enough to watch, here are some additional facts:
Resource: Wikipedia
Brennan Kane Johnson & Blake Alexander Johnson as Liam Gallagher
The youngest of the Gallagher children, 2 year old Liam, is black despite having two white parents due to a recessive black gene the Gallagher’s acquired from Frank’s grandmother, who (allegedly) had an affair with a jazz musician. Liam is starting to verbalize more, however, his character has yet to be developed.
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Resource: IMDB
William H. Macy also plays his brother Jerry Gallagher.
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***SPOILER***
Veronica, thinking she couldn’t get pregnant, lured her mother into getting pregnant for her, using her very own husband so that their child would be half their own. Since then, Veronica turned up pregnant with triplets and now is expecting 4 babies. In reality, at the age of 36, Shanola Hampton, who plays Veronica, gave birth to her first child, a daughter, named Cai MyAnna Dukes on January 20, 2014. Child’s father is her husband, Daren Dukes.
I really tried to find some redeeming qualities out of this movie but, oh well, I couldn’t. Even though Bad Grandpa received an Oscar nod for makeup, I could tell immediately that this was a young person made up to look old. I’m not knocking the make-up job, I just saying… This movie was so stupid, I had to force myself to stay and watch it. When I looked it up on IMDB, the rating was 6.7 out of 10. I’m still scratching my head over that one. The story is about an 86 year old man who’s wife just passed away. He now feels free to have endless sex despite his age. He only has one problem, he has to take his 8 year old grandson from Nebraska to North Carolina, driving. The boy’s mother is off to jail and his father is a crack smoking jerk who only wants the boy so he can collect $600 a month from the state. I think this family put the “D” in dysfunctional. Most of the language and pranks were totally inappropriate for an 8 year old and I laughed very little. I think this movie was a waste of time and money. I won’t even recommend that you see it on the DVD.
Why oh why didn’t this movie get a nomination for Best Picture? There are 10 slots for Best Picture. August: Osage County, “AOC” or The Butler could have filled the last slot which remains blank. I can’t say enough about this extremely well acted and well told story. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing and seeing. Before I saw “AOC” I had my sights set on a different actress for the Best Actress award. After seeing “AOC”, hands down, Meryl Streep deserves that Oscar. Over all, the movie almost resembled a play but was so well done, it just didn’t matter. I don’t think “AOC” has gotten it’s just desserts. Additionally, I don’t think it was well marketed. I was amazed at both the direction and the acting. A cast of veteran actors really makes this movie among the best for me. Contributing to the brilliant performances in “AOC” are Julia Roberts who plays Barbara Weston, Chris Cooper who plays Charlie Aiken, Juliette Lewis who plays Karen Weston and Margo Martindale who plays Mattie Fae Aiken. The film is about a highly dysfunctional family who got that way because of their highly dysfunctional parents, brilliantly played by Meryl Streep who plays Violet Weston) and Sam Shepard who plays Beverly Weston.
Feeling quite under the weather when I saw this movie, I found it hard to stay focused. It seemed to be all over the place. First you have one man with a Peter Pan Complex, then you have a band of followers that are easily manipulated into going on a juvenile adventure to “pub crawl” as they did when they were young. Upon their graduation, they never made it to the last pub so their goal is to hit every pub, including The World’s End. A funny thing happened while they were half way through their travels. I can’t reveal that funny thing because it would truly spoil the entire movie for you. I will say, this movie was weird, strange, dysfunctional but still managed to send plenty of meaningful messages. I don’t think it was worth the big screen but I will say that the special effects were awesome. BTW: I didn’t recognize any of the actors except Rosamund Pike who had a minimal role. I don’t recommend The World’s End, however, I won’t try to discourage you from seeing it. If you like weird, British and want to be taken on a journey of sheer madness, indulge in The World’s End.
CAROL's WORLDS 