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Rate the season
10 - My favorite season! 0 (0%)
9 - Amazing! 3 (13%)
8 - Very good 1 (4.3%)
7 - Good 1 (4.3%)
6 - Average 1 (4.3%)
5 - Eh, it's okay 1 (4.3%)
4 - Poor 0 (0%)
3 - Very poor 3 (13%)
2 - Terrible 1 (4.3%)
1 - Worst season ever 12 (52.2%)
Total Votes: 23
Season 5: overall thoughts
Topic Started: Apr 5 2015, 05:03 PM (913 Views)
Nette
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Admin
All righty, season 5 is over and the big question is: what do you think? I know this season has received a lot of criticism, so I'm interested to know all the different viewpoints.

  • Did it live up to your expectations?
  • What was your favorite and least favorite episode?
  • Which character(s) grew on you?
  • Which did you want to throw off a cliff?
  • What storyline was your favorite and what storyline could you have done without?
  • Are you excited for season 6?
  • How many fix-it fanfics do you need???
Just overall, did you like it?

Don't feel compelled to answer all of these, I'm writing this post before the episode has aired so I'm just throwing out some basic questions.

Season 6, here we come!
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Reneefp

Fuck you writers. Is my opinion of season 5.
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thewiseladysaid
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I am just going to use your questions if that is alright.
Did it live up to your expectations?- Well..... not really. There were a lot of things I was looking foreword to that I felt could have been handled better.
What was your favorite and least favorite episode?- For favorite I guess Crazy Love and least favorite probably Love Songs.
Which character(s) grew on you?- I grew to really like Svetlana though I wasn't happy with how she got a little too cozy with Kev at times. Also Amanda, Bianca, Derek, and Joquin (I think that was Lip's friend's name).
Which did you want to throw off a cliff?- Sammi (and if I am honestly each of the Gallaghers plus Kev at one point or another, except Liam)
What storyline was your favorite and what storyline could you have done without?- Hmm that is tough, I was going to say Mickey and Ian for my favorite but that ending was really harsh plus I thought the beating went a bit too far. Maybe Kev and Veronica, I actually did like the things it brought up before it started to annoy me. The thing is there were multiple storylines with parts I liked but parts I didn't, so I did not despise anyone's whole storyline but I also didn't love anyone's full storyline. Maybe Shelia's, that is it! My favorite was Shelia's storyline, I love how she drove off at the end. What could I have done without, like I said probably half of each of the storylines. But probably Carl's for a total. It just seemed a bit too mean spirited after everything with Bonnie last season (I really miss Bonnie). Oh and Mandy's. Seriously what kind of message is that! I do think she is coming back though. Finally while I do like that they brought Jimmy back, I did not like that the point of his and Fiona's breakup was destroyed in a matter of episodes. I will not say that he never should have come back, but I will never get over how they made him not only a jerk but his past relationship with Fiona useless.
Are you excited for season 6?- Yes but at the same time I am definitely going to go in with caution. I do hope that the Shameless fandom sticks together through this because I know there are great people here. Just please do not give Fiona a love interest next season.
How many fix-it fanfics do you need???- Quiet a few. I am not as big a Mickey and Ian shipper as most people on this board but I could use a fix it for that ending. Really I just want fanfics of the Gallaghers being a family. That is all I want.
So all together, I am in a way disappointed. I thought that some characters were acting OOC and it just added fuel to my fire about how secondary characters especially love interests are treated. I know I will come back for next season but I will say this is my least favorite season so far.
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Jessica
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aka soulisthirsty
The theme for this season was supposed to be gentrification. They mentioned it in nearly every interview, it was the plot featured in all the promotional videos, posters, etc. and it framed this season to be more family-driven than it actually was. I think in the beginning, that's what I struggled with the most, because these characters had never been more divided than they were this year, and while that in itself is not necessarily bad, I just didn't care for most of their individual plots.

How do you care about Fiona's, when it is a regression of all the development and realizations she underwent last year? How do you care about Lip's, when the obstacles he faced weren't really obstacles at all and were in fact (as the show itself acknowledged) resolved by a deus ex machina. How do you care about Debbie's, when her plot really only served to make me more frustrated with the older siblings who saw the red flags her behaviour was setting off and chose to ignore them? Ian's plot started off not bad, but it often lacked insight into his feelings, focusing more on the physical symptoms. It also developed for most of the season, only for Ian to revert to the way he was at the beginning of the season. This may be realistic, but the narrative has not portrayed his mental illness in the best light. I think a lot of that is due to focusing on how Mickey has reacted to it, probably to help make sense of why Ian would break up with him, but the writing and development of this storyline left out too much, and it relied too much on subtext and reading between the lines. A casual viewer is not likely to pick up on that, and in fact, they are more likely to view Ian in a very negative light, especially after the finale. In all likelihood, Ian will still be unmedicated next year, making this the third season in a row and making the progress we thought he was making this year redundant.

I think this season had a lot of potential, I think the acting was (as usual) incredible, but the writing to me just wasn't very good. This season relied heavily on parallels and recycled plots. It was quantity over quality, telling over showing, and 'oh this plot seems too dark let's throw in a sex scene or some crude humour to lighten the mood.' This season was meant to be lighter than the last, but what that really meant was taking the same serious issues Shameless has always been known for and making light of them. I didn't care about the outcome, because a lot of the stories didn't seem to matter much anyway.

It's fine to have a lighter season, something that's not as emotionally draining and focuses more on the comedic aspect, maybe throw in a bit of feel-good lighthearted drama that's emotionally satisfying. I just think they tried too hard and ultimately failed as a result. Some of the smaller comedic moments were great, like Sheila hosing down Sammi to keep her away, Sammi getting the garbage guys to move Frank and the couch out in the middle of the street, Mickey shouting at Mrs. Patel while Lip laughs at his attitude, Kev's "poop there it is!" which was cute and funny, etc. It was mostly the bigger ones where you could tell they were trying too hard to ~shock~ the audience, and the writing fell flat or the characters came off OOC as a result.

For the most part, it was just poorly written and poorly planned with a few exceptions that still weren't nearly good enough to make up for the rest of the season. And honestly, those exceptions were mostly down to the actors and their amazing portrayal of their characters. They continue to deliver and show their love for the story being told.

This was definitely my least favourite season, but there's still a chance for the next season to make a recovery if the writers throw in some more original ideas rather than constantly recycling old ones, allow the characters to develop and grow because the show isn't going to go on forever, and stop throwing men (and women) at Fiona's feet at every turn because she is so much more than who she's in a relationship with. If you're going to introduce an obstacle in their lives, resolve it realistically, because otherwise it just lessens the impact and makes it seem like the characters are getting shit handed to them as a reward for doing nothing. If a character screws up, that's okay, encouraged even, but they need to answer for it and not just get a free pass or a slap on the wrist that doesn't really teach them anything.


Edit - This review is exactly how I felt about pretty much everything and I highly recommend giving it a read. Just some excerpts of the parts that I agreed with the most below.

Quote:
 
No more new love interest for Lip or Fiona. We get it. They’re the two most desirable people in all of Chicago. But really, we’ve seen the same stories from them over and over. These are the two best actors on the show. Give them better material to work with.
(source)
Quote:
 
The finale also fails to settle anything. Fiona doesn’t make a decision about Gus. Lip’s story with Amanda and his professor didn’t add anything to the overall arc. Debbie has decided she’s going to have a baby with her boyfriend, but these scenes are dropped in the middle of the episode and not really explored.
(source)
Quote:
 
The worst part is Ian’s arc. Dealing with his bipolar disorder should have been the real ties to the entire season. The family could have dealt with their fears that history would repeat itself with Ian, reminisce about the effect Monica’s mental health had on their childhood, and worry the same could happen to any one of them. Instead of rallying behind Ian, trying to find him when his disappears from the Army prison, or even show any distress about his whereabouts, they go about business as usual. It’s as if Ian’s part of a different show that they sometimes shoehorn into Shameless.
(source)
Edited by Jessica, Apr 8 2015, 10:25 PM.
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rdelphia

i must have missed something.. did Lip transfer from MIT to an area college in Chicago?...otherwise I cant understand how the timeline works as he and classmates are in and out of his home in Chicago all the time
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MarissaJoy

I don't think Lip transferred schools. But yeah, it does;t make sense. His whole story line this season is kind of disappointing anyway
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TheloniousLildic

What happened to the writing? It used to be about family, now it just a mashup of fuckups!
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