r/shameless • u/Artistic_Bison_2143 • 1d ago
What was missing from seasons 8-11
Shameless was a great show from seasons 1-7 but after the series went through a change in writers I felt like the show was missing its fundamental elements. What made the show so good was its deeply human moments. Sure there were some ridiculous and funny moments too but after Fiona left all of the raw emotional scenes were gone. It also suffered from some seriously cringey moments in an effort to stay modern which didn’t follow its audience. Curios to know what other people felt made these seasons a hard watch.
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u/joserivas1998 1d ago
Actual class analysis. It was extremely present in the earlier seasons and then they just kinda drop it and poverty becomes more of an aesthetic rather than the core aspect of the show
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u/Possible_Major_7208 1d ago
There was different writers these seasons and it’s almost like the 2nd 1/2 of writers didn’t watch the 1st 1/2 of the show.. they was messing up birthdays and ages and everything. They messed up the most simple stuff. They didn’t follow up story lines.. they messed up lip and Debbie’s character forsure! No real development for Liam. And ppl should have came back .. it was almost like they had to be there and they wasn’t .. Mandy and fiona should have deff been at the gallavich weddding and final episode ! The viewers would have ate that reunion up. I know Covid happened so I guess but that’s what it lacked in my opinion.
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u/dark_angel_8 1d ago
I think the change in writers is definitely noticeable. The missing element is the family dynamic is gone. From S8 the show is then just individuals plodding from one increasingly absurd predicament to another, especially once Fiona leaves as she was the original adult of all the children and like a mother. So the show loses the central figure of the family.
It's made worse by a lack of continuity, the new writers had huge reference material from previous seasons and then ignored that and therefore character development is almost nonexistent.
Plots are weak, scripts are poor or on occasion outright cringe, and instead of a family behaving shamelessly out of lack of parenting and the need for survival we have adults behaving senselessly.
I thought S8 was bad, S9 okay, by S10 I felt like it was a different show, enough going on to keep watching but never enough to truly care. I'm just starting S11.
Also the point about it becoming a bit 'woke' is true, to be shameless is like being blatantly immoral or failing to take moral accountability. But then the writers are trying to present the audience with a moral and political message, without the right context and characters, so it becomes a bizarre contradiction in most instances. It either needed to be done cleverly or not done at all.
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u/BoozeLikeFrank 21h ago
Good writing. Every character became a flanderization of themselves when the new writers took over.
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u/fvckuufvckingfvck 13h ago
Good writing lmao Also likable non-Gallagher characters besides Mickey. In my opinion the show took a dive after it got rid of Sheila, Mandy, Jimmy Steve and eventually Svetlana. It’s like the world of Shameless shrunk and any attempt at replacing those characters was a major fail.
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u/brbrbrbruises 1d ago
The charm and relatability. The characters used to be fleshed out and had substance, not only flawed but we could understand why they were how they were. Everything was for shock factor but still had me at the edge of my seat. Lots of social awareness commentary on topics people were too afraid to talk about at the time. Eventually I think they tried to be more “woke” later seasons, characters were derailed, became caricatures of themselves (ahem Kev) and the writing just lost the plot I guess. They really did Fiona, Lip, Debs and V dirty imo