Last Sunday, season six of Shameless returned to some well earned highs after a disappointing season five. With the show having been confirmed for a season seven barely a second week into their newest season, my fellow Shameless fans and I have decided to go through some of the best seasons of the show to pick out what we find to be the best episodes the show has had to offer.
Note that season five doesn’t make an appearance…
“Pilot” (1×1)
I can’t think of another series that crash landed into our lives as assuredly and as messily as the one ruled by the Gallagher clan. By the end of the first hour, not only were viewers hooked but already felt as if they’d known Fiona, Lip, Frank et all for years. Developing a rich and lived in world, as lived in as their old but well loved house, the show wasted no time in setting up high stakes for the characters, relationships we’d come to care about and personal character arcs that would be the driving force of the season to follow. Drunken debauchery has never been as equally entertaining and painful to watch with a show that wants us to never know whether we should be laughing or crying. There was no way not to watch after the first introduction. -Allyson
“Frank Gallagher: Loving Husband, Devoted Father” (1×07)
This first season episode is the perfect example of the Gallaghers banding together in the name of creative problem solving. When Frank is threatened by two thugs over a $6,000 debt, the Gallaghers and friends band together to hold a fake funeral for him. They leave no stone unturned — Debbie trades steaks for a suit, Kevin and Lip steal a hearse, Veronica buys a horse tranquilizer to really knock Frank out, Carl steals flowers and they all “borrow” a casket. The party scene after Frank’s wake is one of my favorite scenes in Shameless history; regardless of how terrible Frank is, the family will work together to protect one of their own. The episode also features important developments that have longtime consequences in some of the characters’ relationships for the rest of the show, including Ian and Mickey’s first sexual encounter and Jimmy/Steve telling Fiona that he loves her for the first time. – Bri
“Father Frank, Full of Grace” (1×12)
Shameless has received notice before for having strong penultimate episodes, but I’ve found more than once that their finales really know how to punch you in the gut. Such was the case with the very first season finale that saw the Gallaghers and co. dealing with the fallout of the actions taken place the episode before. It’s also an episode that plays it more seriously, something that show does noticeably better than their comedy. With Lip, Frank and Karen dealing with the mess of the later sleeping with Frank and Eddie finding out makes the tension rise considerably throughout the hour. That, coupled with Fiona being offered by Jimmy to go with him to Costa Rica and escape for a while makes for a jam packed hour of decision making and stress. – Allyson
“Just Like the Pilgrims Intended” (2×11)
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Episodes of Shameless can be emotional roller-coasters. Second season’s “Just Like the Pilgrims Intended” Thanksgiving episode is one of the best examples of such an experience. It’s one of the first times we see the Gallaghers dealing with their bipolar mother’s low points firsthand, rather than through stories or throwaway comments. The episode’s gut punch comes in the form of Monica slitting her wrists in the middle of the Gallagher’s happy Thanksgiving dinner. They change the tone when Karen goes into labor and we see how thrilled the family is for Lip, only to be slammed back into the ground when the baby is revealed to have Down syndrome — and a different father than previously thought. In one hour, Shameless devastated, built spirits back up and ripped the rug out from under the audience. –Bri
“The Sins of My Caretaker” (3×5)
This episode probably makes the list in my top Shameless episodes because it plays out like a ticking time bomb. The beginning sees the Gallagher family dealing with shit that isn’t above their normal problems, but as the episode reaches its end, everything explodes. This episode is also the starting point for a whole new hell for the Gallagher clan. The gang gets split up once the social worker walks in and sees the family at their worst; Jimmy’s father (Ian’s rich lover) trying to remove a bullet from Mickey’s ass after he got shot by Jimmy’s father’s ex-wife, Fiona in the backyard trying to dig up the bones of their dead “aunt” so that nobody will get convicted for cashing her social security cheques and Debbie nearly drowning a girl who embarrassed her at the pool. Still, the highlight of this episode is the social worker’s introduction to the Gallagher crew. When she first arrives at the house, she is told a list of peculiar don’ts before going inside — don’t sit on anything foam or porous, if you feel something crawling on you, don’t scream but shake the body part lightly. There’s just so much chaos that happens in the remaining four minutes of the show that I can’t help but add it to my favorite Shameless moments. – Leigh Ann
“Frank the Plumber” (3×9)
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Shameless orbits around the fact that the adults in the show are just as or even more dysfunctional than the kids; Sheila can’t be a proper mother to Karen due to her OCD and Frank being the basis for which the show exists. Still, this episode proves that even though half the time the kids are left to their own devices, it always pays to have someone looking out for you. Lip might want to seem like he’s his own man but he needed the push from Mandy and he knew it. Her applying to MIT for him saved him from a life of even more struggle. Plus, nobody can disagree that Karen got what she deserved when Mandy ran her over with a car. – Leigh Ann
“Survival of the Fittest” (3×12)
Yet another example of the shows season finales being strong, “Survival of the Fittest” manages to allow each character to have their own resolution of sorts, even if not all of them choose not to take it. Few episodes of the series have been as stirring as the finale’s almost haunting moments, at the end as Frank wanders in a snowy Chicago in a hospital gown after being given the ultimatum to either stop drinking or die, Fiona leaves one last pleading, firm, message on Jimmy’s phone as he walks presumably to his death. -Allyson
“Iron City” (4×6)
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Season four is the best season the show has ever done, hands down, and much of it has to do with Fiona’s storyline. Fiona has always been the linchpin of the family, the member to go to when it all is seeming to go to hell and this year, she’s the one who massively messes everything up to the point where she nearly kills Liam by allowing him near cocaine. The episode that follows is sobering and Emmy Rossum gives a tour de force performance as she’s forced to realize just what she did and the fatal ramifications that could follow. Jeremy Allen White also is allowed a considerable storyline as he fleetingly takes on Fiona’s mantle and must juggle how to take care of his family and go to school. Shameless has never sugar coated storylines where characters have messed up and it’s no different in “Iron City,” it’s just that so few of us expected it to be Fiona to be the one possibly facing jail time. –Allyson
“A Jailbird, Invalid, Martyr, Cutter, Retard and Parasitic Twin” (4×7)
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This fourth season episode comes after what is arguably the worst thing to happen in Shameless history. After Liam gets into her coke, Fiona goes to jail and Lip takes up the mantle of Gallagher guardian, struggling to take care of his baby brother while still getting through his classes. Fiona deals with her legal troubles after Liam’s accident and her stint in jail. She decides to plead not guilty to the charges against her, much to Lip’s rage. The ensuing clash between siblings allows both Emmy Rossum and Jeremy Allen White to truly shine, showcasing the strength of the show’s best cast members. –Bri
“Liver I Hardly Knew Her” (4×10)
There’s almost concern for this episode to go off the rails similarly to its female lead, but instead it ends up being one of the most poignant episodes of an already excellent run of television. Frank may seemingly be on his deathbed, but it’s Fiona’s continued plight that continues to be the emotional crux of the season. Having gone stir crazy and wracked with guilt and stress she goes on a bender that is so unlike the character it’s hard to watch. She ends up at a gas station in the middle of nowhere and must call Lip to come and bail her out. It’s a sweet moment for the characters where Lip could have let Fiona have it but instead, finally, seems to understand what his sister has been going through. – Allyson
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