The first time I ever watched Shameless was my freshman year of high school. If you know the contents within that show, you might be questioning why a fourteen-year-old is watching something so explicit. Yes, I understand it’s not the typical show to watch at such a young age, and trust me, I got more than a few stares from my peers for mentioning the series.
Shameless depicts the hardships that a low-income family in the impoverished areas of Chicago had to withstand to afford a simple life. Although I refer to them as a “family,” the reality is that the oldest sister, Fiona Gallagher, among five siblings, was forced to act as the mother figure for her siblings while their actual parents both lived in a spiral of endless addiction throughout the series. To the naked eye, it’s easy to assume that this family was built on a lack of morals and failed ambition, but the truth is far more complex.
As a huge fan of Shameless, the reality of this TV show is what captivated me from the beginning. Yes, it was an explicit show that exaggerated most of its characters, but it never failed to pinpoint the reality of many Americans in impoverished communities. It highlights the lack of resources given to low-income education and the opportunities shielded from them based solely on the judgment of educators. We get to observe how the lack of opportunities early on in their childhood traps children in the same endless cycles as their parents. As the series progresses, the gentrification of communities begins to affect the living conditions of the Gallagher family. Their already fragile living conditions worsen as they are forced to face this systematic neglect.
Although this show was created merely for entertainment, it serves as a depiction of reality for many American families in modern society. We may not have the accurate characters and dramatic scenes, but the harsh reality of this series mirrors the struggles that low-income families face in newly gentrified communities.