What I’m Watching: Shameless

Shameless: Season 2, Episode 6 “Can I Have a Mother” (B+)

It turns out there’s a Gallagher parent worse than Frank. We had only seen a brief shot of Louise Fletcher as Grammy Gallagher once last season (I couldn’t even remember if we had before or not), and now we get the full picture. Her bribery of her grandchildren at least has some merit to it, but her horrible treatment of her son, and of Sheila, is despicable. That final scene with Fiona telling Frank her parents suck too was sweet, and I’m sure glad that Frank didn’t pull the trigger on his mother, since that would have ended badly for everyone. Frank sure stepped in it with Sheila, becoming so obsessed with getting Eddie’s life insurance and ranting at Jody when he finds out it all got left to Karen. She may be forgiving, but even she has her limits. Her toast started out very sweetly, perhaps a bit too focused on penetration, but she did a great job of standing up to Grammy and hurling the insults back at her, even daring her to shoot her when she pulled out the gun. In terms of guest stars, I was pleased to see Rob Benedict from “Threshold” and “A Little Help” as the doctor slash former meth lab employee. The double date with Steve ended predictably poorly, with Fiona alienating Adam and Steve earning contempt from all because of his marriage to a Philippine drug lord’s daughter. Ethel’s reaction to Clyde’s murder is sad, especially for Kevin, who has clearly become very attached to her, but at least she has Malik on her side, selling Kevin’s pot so that they can run away together. Lip is still in a very bad place, and telling Karen to have an abortion was absolutely the wrong thing to say.