About nine years ago, a popular British series became an American hit. No, not The Office. The other one. Shameless has been digging into the lives of the troubled, impoverished Gallagher family since early 2011. While the years have only made their escapades more intense, things are going to change a lot next season. During the season 9 finale, Fiona took her final bow in the Gallagher home and is heading off to greater things. The family will have to find their way without her.
Though not all fans will be jazzed with the departure, the actress who plays Fiona (Emmy Rossum) thinks it's about time she (and the character) go. Fiona has led the show for long enough, and now the rest of the Gallagher clan can have more time to explore their own hectic experiences. The only real puzzle is how Frank lived long enough to see her go.
In wake of the tenth season, fans can reminisce about the stories past. However, sometimes it's even more fun to look at all the things that made absolutely no sense (but we loved anyway). After all, it's clear viewers can't get enough of this fearless, innovative, absolutely wild family.
Here are 30 Things That Don't Make Sense About Shameless.
31 Frank Being Alive
For decades, Frank Gallagher has been pumping his body with substances, alcohol, and deliberately injuring himself in insurance scams. By all accounts, the man really shouldn't have made it this long. While William H. Macy is a great actor and a joy to watch, something should have offed the Gallagher patriarch by now. Especially since he got pushed off a bridge and (at times) lived homeless in the frigid cold.
Though his children keep on taking him back, that shouldn't be enough to save him from his self-imposed own doom.
30 Mickey Marrying Svetlana
Over the years, fans learn that Mickey Milkovich, resident Chicago bully, is actually gay. Once when Ian goes over to confront him, they end up in bed together. Ever since, the pair had a tumultuous, passionate relationship with Mickey in and out of prison. However, when Mickey's dad figures out their relationship, he forces Mickey to marry Svetlana, along with having a child with her
While Mickey does care about her, he doesn't love her. His father's rage may make him do stupid things, but marrying Svetlana should have crossed that line.
29 The Gallaghers Turning On Fiona
With all the havoc and pain that Frank causes, and his children still taking him back, it's surprising how easily they turn on their eldest sister. When Fiona thoughtlessly leaves out substances during a party and endangers Liam, her siblings completely turn on her. They help her get out, but that's it.
While it's awful, they've forgiven worse. Compared to Frank's shenanigans, that seems tame. After all, for example, he willingly gave away baby Liam as collateral. Fiona really backslides in later seasons, but she deserved more leeway for all she'd done for them.
28 Inconsistent CPS
Throughout Shameless, Child Protective Services have been a looming danger. However, they're widely inconsistent. When there are serious, questionable violations, they are often nowhere to be seen. When some sort of sympathetic misunderstanding or frustrating situation happens, though, they're on the case.
Sure, they're definitely influenced by plot convenience. It's obvious. However, when it comes to logic, there are definitely times where the Gallaghers deserved to be questioned (Xan, abandoning Frannie), and other where they didn't (Frank calling CPS on them out of spite).
27 Liam's Perfect Health
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Other than the time that he got casual poisoning, baby Liam has disturbingly great health. In general, all of them do. However, Liam in particular is the most surprising.
All throughout his toddler years, fans watched unfortunate and dangerous things happen to him. Liam was kept in a den for a few days as collateral. He's always been exposed to smoke, substances, and drinking from a young age. With those odds, it's a miracle he's as healthy and intelligent as he is.
25 Kevin's Abandoned Life
Before Kevin met V and fell hopelessly in love, he dated and married a beautiful flake named Cheryl. While Kevin and V are starting to talk about if they want kids, this woman he never divorced popped back up with kid in tow. She used her sister's kid to try to win Kevin back, knowing he wanted to be a dad.
The whole abandoned marriage situation makes sense knowing how crazy Cheryl is. However, considering how generally thoughtful Kevin is portrayed, it's surprising he'd marry her in the first place. She may be hot, but she's also pretty insane.
24 Debbie And Matt's "Friendship"
As Debbie started hitting puberty, her interest in boys grew. The first guy she showed real interest in was Matt, a 23-year old. When Matt found out she was 14, he cut off all romantic ties they had. However, he wasn't smart enough to realize being buddies with a 14-year old with a crush is still a terrible idea.
Matt may not have been the brightest young man, but he really should have kicked Debbie to the curb the second she admitted her age. There never would be anything good between them with a nearly ten-year age gap.
23 Fiona's Various Jobs
For most of Shameless, Fiona is the closest Gallagher to being the main character. The show is always following her various adventures, struggles, and ambitions.
However, one of the oddest things about Fiona is her weird smattering of jobs. While some are typical (waitress, physical labor, laundering assistant), others are definitely not. Throughout the many seasons, her jobs vary from salesperson to club manager to real estate investor. It makes sense for her to switch jobs a lot, but the wide range of them is a little ludicrous. They all require very different skills.
22 Ian And Kash
In the first season, Shameless had one of its most problematic relationships in Ian and Kash. While it was great Ian found a way to explore his identity, perhaps doing that with a man in his thirties wasn't. Especially considering he was only about 16 at the time.
Kash and Ian feel trapped in their situations. They comfort each other and that's nice, but Kash should never have been stupid enough to get involved with someone so young. It's even more glaringly stupid of him when, in later seasons, it's made clear he could have dated someone his own age.
21 Carl's Marriage To Kassidi
After Carl gets out of juvie, there's a bizarre change in his life: he becomes a chick-magnet. The zaniest, by far, is Kassidi. A runaway rich girl, Kassidi falls head over heels for Carl when he plays safe harbor away from her loving parents. Though Carl appreciated the attention, he knew she was a little too obsessed with him. When he tried to give her a promise ring, she turned into a marriage proposal and then quickly a marriage.
Carl should have shut that down before it went too far, but he didn't.
20 Frank's Dalliances In Leadership
Shameless has always portrayed Frank as a screw-up and rightly so. He's almost always chosen his own motives over his kids. However, he also can be disturbingly brilliant sometimes when it comes to a scheme.
Several times throughout the show, Frank has gone from deadbeat dad to leader of a movement. For a short while, he becomes a gay rights advocate, speaking at events. There's a time where he leads a political movement. Though he can be manipulative and persuasive, some of these just go way too far. Did everyone forget he's a lying buffoon all of a sudden?
19 The Show's Treatment Of Private School
While private school can have a huge bearing on a young child's life, and higher education private college can make a big difference, Shameless puts a bit too much weight on the subject. As least as far as Liam goes, they treat private school like it's exactly why the kid is so much smarter than everyone else. The school does give him extra resources of course, and helps a lot. However, he does have to be a smart kid to catch on and keep it in his head.
There are plenty of idiots at private school, too.
18 Xan And Lip
In the last season, Lip has slowly gone full working dad. So much so to the point he's basically adopted an abandoned young girl named Xan. While it's sweet that the two bond and he really cares for her, the fact they've had time to bond doesn't make much sense. If Xan was looking for her mom, CPS probably would have been alerted at some point. With Gallagher luck, a neighbor would have thought him hanging around a little girl was weird. Her sudden integration into their family shouldn't have been so easily accepted.
Also their relationship is kinda weird.
17 Ian And Mandy's Disappearing Friendship
During the early seasons on Shameless, Ian and Mandy Milkovich are best friends. He needs someone to confide in, and she needs someone to talk to whose not trying to get in her pants. They both support each other during hard, complicated times.
However, as the seasons go one, Mandy and Ian barely interact. The few times they run into each other they act like they're still best friends, but at this point they know nothing about one another.
While Mandy's story is already heartbreaking, her invisible friendship with Ian only makes it worse.
16 Karen's Entire Arc
If there's a character fans love to hate, it's Karen Jackson. She started as Karen's friend with serious benefits, but their feelings grew for one another. However, her hard home life made her completely unable to maintain healthy relationships. After her father abandoned her, she never was the same.
Between lying about her pregnancy, poorly caring for her son, and her toxic relationship with Lip, her life was a train-wreck. And not the fun kind. By the end, it was all too insane to do anything but ship her off to another state, never to be seen again.
15 Fiona's Inconsistent Intelligence
Sometimes, Shameless makes a point to show that, despite not getting her high school diploma, Fiona is pretty intelligent. She's able to run a club on her own, she knows how to single-handedly maintain a 6+ person household, and she knows how to get herself out of tough spots. On the other hand, though, she's left substances out for babies to ingest, openly betrayed her boss/boyfriend, and got herself into crippling debt.
While everyone has highs and lows, Fiona either seems to be immensely mature and smart, or exactly the opposite. It doesn't seem like there's really any in-between.
14 Frank's Lack Of Convictions
During the show, Frank has his fair amount of run-ins with the law. After all, he even ends up in Canadian prison for disturbing the public the only way he knows how. Despite that, though, he never seems to get any serious convictions. Considering how many awful things he's been involved in, that's concerning. Between pension fraud, substance dealing, insurance fraud, and child neglect, he should have been tried for something by now.
Just because the series show him get in trouble with police doesn't make up for all the times he really should have gotten in much worse trouble.
13 Peggy Gallagher And Her Sons
Before the Gallagher clan fans know best, there was the previous generation with Peggy Gallagher and her three boys, Clayton, Jerry, and Frank. Peggy, a con artist herself, terrorized her three sons. Until her passing, she's the only one (save Monica) who can absolutely disarm Frank.
However, her treatment with her kids sounded even worse than what Frank was doing to his. Hers seemed to involve much more manipulation and abuse. Despite this, Clayton and Jerry (and even to some extent, Frank) seem to be doing okay. That hardly makes any sense, considering the therapy they should all need.
12 Lip Never Going Back To College
When Lip left college, it wasn't exactly for the expected reason of caring for the family. Instead, it was because of a woman who didn't love him. It makes sense he'd want to bury himself in work and his family to forget. However, it doesn't make sense that, seasons later, Lip seems to have zero interest in going back to college.
Of all the Gallagher kids, Lip was the most determined and passionate about finding a better life for himself, and for all of them. With his brains he could do it, but he doesn't try again at all.
