Shameless season 7 by Lassina COULIBALY

I chose the Season 7 of drama comedy Shameless because it’s one of my favorite series. This series is about the family Gallagher, a typical American family. Indeed, the father and mother abandoned their children. It’s therefore the eldest of the family named Fiona who must take care of these little brothers. This series tackles with humor some serious subjects such as alcohol, drugs, sexuality, juvenile delinquency and the lives of poor people.

The main characters are:

- Franck: The Alcoholic Father,
- Monica: the bipolar mother drugged and absent,
- Fiona: the eldest of the family taking care of these brothers,
- Philip "Lip": the second child, very smart and he still have problems,
- Ian: the third child, bipolar and homosexual,
- Deborah "Debbie": the fourth child, dreamy and complicated teenager,
- Carl: the fifth child, probably most likely thug,
- Liam: Last child of the couple, he’s Afro-American,
- Kevin "Kev" and Veronica "V": The neighbors and best friend of Fiona

In the previous season:

Debbie had a child although her elder sister did not want it.
Kev and V forms a couple of three with a Russian prostitute Svetlana.
Lip was in relationship with his teacher. He is dismissed from college because everybody know this relation. He becomes alcoholic and goes to rehab.
Carl has a new girlfriend.
Fiona almost married her boss (of the fast food where she works), but her father Franck confesses to him that he is a drug addict. The marriage did not take place.
Franck was thrown into Lake Michigan by these children for all they suffered.

Episode one:

Franck wakes-up from a coma of a month and realizes that no one has looked for him. He goes to his home and is chased by these children although he is still in a wheelchair.

Debbie plans to abandon her daughter, but does not. She goes to the park steals a stroller and resells it to $ 2000 on the internet. She therefore makes this activity her main activity and hires a nurse with this money.

Fiona is recovering little by little from her failed marriage. She has become a manager of fast food where she works and does not expect to get back into a couple soon.

Ian is in contact with a fire-man, but he does not trust him because his colleague told him that 50% of men engaged in a homosexual relationship mislead their partner. He follows his partner and realizes that he cheats with a woman.

Carl's new girlfriend refuses to give him a blowjob because he is not circumcised. He decides to do it although he is too old.

The couple of three formed by Kev, V and Svetlana organized as well as they could and managed to become a strong couple.

Lip leaves Rehab and finds an unpaid internship find by one of these professors who appreciates him. So he takes a second job as a washer in his sister's fast food.

I've never seen it but Many of my students have told me it's a very funny and sometimes poignant series. Enjoy.

Episode two:

Franck is back in shape more than ever in the Gallagher's house. He decides to live there although these children refuse. He steals a credit card from Debbie and uses it to build a brick wall to prevent these children to enter in the rooms of the house.

Ian is angry with her boyfriend because he is bisexual. When his boyfriend comes to see him, he tells him that he knows everything. To test if he is not also bisexual, he has sex with a girl and hates it. He breaks with his boyfriend because his bisexuality is a "turn-off" according to him.

Carl is recovering from his circumcision. He refuses to have contacts with girls for not having erections.

Lip starts his new internship and realizes that he does not learn anything and that he is just there to serve coffee and other rather humiliating work. He also notices that the company where he is doing his internship is a big scam and intends to find a weakness in the system for make some money.

Debbie continues to steal strollers and always gets a lot of money.

Kev becomes a stress-out housewife. He decides to hire a topless cleaning woman who is in fact a stripper   .

Fiona goes to the company that employs her to negotiate an increase of her salary, but is ordered to boost the fast Food if she wants to keep her job. She decided to change the work team. She goes in club with this new team and discovers the application Tinder (meeting application in vogue) thanks to her. She has sex with a guy through tinder and goes to see V to tell her these adventures. V rejects her. She and V are in fight.

Episode three:

Lip has sex one of these fast-food colleague. He continues to search a way to scam the company where he’s doing his internship and hates this internship more and more.

Franck was pout out from the house by these children, so he lives in a home of homeless with a woman that he calls “Monica”. As the home closes, he decides to form a new family that he calls "new Gallagher". Looking for a house for his new family, he finds a house for sale and decides to live there with his new family until the owner comes. He asked all homeless to live with us and become the new superhero.

Ian is recovering of his break with difficulty. Being an ambulance-man, he helps a woman with mental trouble. This woman persuades him to adjust the safety belt of the stretcher and she throws out of the ambulance. His boss deduces that he makes a post-break crisis and decides to given him some day even if he doesn’t want it.

Fiona has sex with new guys every day and enjoys it. She reduces the budget of the fast-food to make more profit, but the costumer’s complaints. She makes a family reunion at the end of the episode and decides that Lip will be the new head of the family and that everyone will pay the bills. She also says that she has as much chance of success as anyone else.

Debbie stops stealing strollers because she nearly got caught. So she doesn’t have money to pay the babysitter Joleyami. She decides to go to a store for steals items and gets caught. Because of her sister who claims that she’s crazy, she doesn’t go to jail.

Carl has worries with his girlfriend's father who claims he is spinning gonorrhea (STI) to his daughter. His girlfriend decides to break-up with him. He goes to the doctor who tells him that he doesn’t have an STI. Lip and Ian tell him that if he does not have an STI his girlfriend cheating him. He decides to follow her and takes a picture of her embracing another dude. He goes to the home of his girlfriend's father and proves his innocence with pictures and STI test.

V is worried about Fiona, but Svetlana tells him to move-on to other things because according to her, Fiona is busy with strangers.
Kev transformed his ice truck in a "strip-tease cleaning" truck, and these women serve as strippers.
Svetlana's father is back. She decides that he will live with them even if Kev and V do not agree because he scares them. She manages the family bar while Kev, V and she are working with the truck.

Episode four

Fiona decides to open the fast-food 24/7 but this timetable has no impact on the turnover. To make known to all these schedules she decides to organize a “happy hours” and sell alcohol, this is a success. She argues with Lip who finds her selfish. She decides to sleep in her office for some day.

V is a embarrassed by the fact that the father of Svetlana lives with them. She’s afraid for the children (their twin and the son of Svetlana). While Svetlana's father go out with the children, for take picture with kids V’s worried and call police who reply that she can do nothing for her.

Debbie has some trouble for contributing to bills. She cannot work because there’s no one to take care of her daughter Franny. Fiona gives her an ultimatum; if she does not pay she will go to the homeless with Franck. She decides to take advice from Svetlana who advises her to find a husband who will take care of her and Franny. She tries but it's a failure.

Franck becomes the supreme guide of the homeless. He asks to new “Ian” to rob the conditional-air of the elementary school. He also has some problems with the neighborhood. He calls a local TV channel and launches an SOS   .

Ian’s recovering from his break-up, he even returns to work. He accidentally meets a guy with whom he decides to go in a club. He realizes that he is a transgender, but he stay with him.

Lip’s promoted senior intern, but he is still not paid. He has more responsibility and he’s the supervisor of a new trainee. While there is nobody, he goes to the online data service and discovers the scam mounted by the company. For buy his silence his boss offers to him a dozen of IPad that he uses to make an automatic system of command at the fast food. The police discover the scams and search the online data service of the company.

Carl became friends with his ex-girlfriend's father. This one gives him even more desire to enter in armed. He wants to become SWAT later because for him the SWAT’s are "bad-ass". He intends to enroll in a military academy.

Episode five

Lip has always sex with his fast-food colleague. The company where he’s doing his internship is back in new room. He stoles a username and a password. He thinks use this for scam the company. He met one of these college friends to build up a scam.

The homeless of Franck gets full gift since the SOS. A tycoon of immovable buys the house. He decides to organize the occupant in groups for beg.

Fiona has sex with a financial advisor via Tinder. She decides to see him again for advice. She asks for an increase of her pay seen as the fast food goes well but her boss refuses. She goes to laundry and realizes that the owner is too old for handle it. She decides to buy the laundry.

Debbie shuns Fiona because she cannot pay her share of the bills. She thinks Fiona is going to put her out. She asks advice from Franck who advises her either to go begging. She begs but doesn't win a lot of money and fights with another beggar who claims she’s on her territory. She’s filmed by the sister of her daughter's father during this fight. She meets a guy in a wheelchair who is in fact the brother of the colleague of Lip with whom he has sex. The HEW (Social Services) decides to open an investigation after seeing the video.

Svetlana make the accounts of her family. As she’s married to V, she wants to adopt childrens to reduce their social burden. Kev does not agree, he thinks he will be marginalized. V succeeded in convincing him and the adoption was made.

Carl makes an interview for the military school but he doesn’t accept because the remaining places are for minorities. He decides to do a DNA and this test reveals that it has 33.5% Native American blood from the apache tribe.

Ian decides to go out to have fun with his new boyfriend but he’s still hesitant to have sex with him because he finds it’s weird.

Episode six

Debbie lives now with Neil, the wheelchair guy. She thinks the DCFS is going to take her baby. She has to make several health visits to her daughter. She organizes a good-bye party for Carl and invites all her family except Fiona. During this party, she convinces her family that she’s with Neil because she loves him and announces their engagement. She announces to Franck that she’s going to marry and he refuses to give his consent. She asks Fiona who agrees to sign the parental agreement.

Franck and his homeless army are more and more organized for beg, he sets the minimum amount to be at 8.25$. He decides to pull out a tooth to "new Lip" because it does not look like a beggar according to him. He always gets a lot of gifts and he resells it. "New Lip" suspects him of mounting a scam. He goes in his room and falls on a lot of money. He asks to all other homeless who decide to put him out for revenge.

Carl received a scholarship for the military school as he has apache blood. He will go in two days but he’s just a little stressed. His ex-girlfriend tries to make advances. He decides to go to the military school when he finds her with another guy.

Lip has always sex with his colleague Sierra and he realizes that they are somehow couple and that worries him. With his buddy they find a way scam 300$ to the company where is doing his internship and expect to double the amount tomorrow. The next day the FBI decides to permanently close the company.

V more and more detests Svetlana's father. Kev surprises Svetlana and her “father” together in the bed. He alerts V and deduces that she’s to do it. The next day, he tries to surprise them but realize that he does not force her. She tells them that he is in fact her husband and not her father.

Ian avoids his new friend Trevor because he is afraid of falling in love with him. During an intervention, a woman dies in front of him, he’s upset. To console him, he decides to spend the night with Trevor but they do not sleep together.

Fiona is worried about Debbie but does not show it. She plans to make a contract for the purchase of the laundromat. Buy it for $ 100,000 and allow to the ancient owner Eta to keep the apartment there. When she announces the news to Lip, he finds it a bad idea.

Episode seven

Fiona buys the laundromat for real. She realizes that all washing machines are defectives and the laundromat has à lot of problems. The repair will be very. She closes the laundromat momentarily and spends all her savings in the repairs.

Debbie panics because the DCFS must come for verifications. She decides to drop out of school, but before she passes the high school equivalency diploma and has it with mention. She and Neil count get married in the same day but not do because Fiona does not finally agree.

Liam goes to school but it’s closed because there are not enough of students. He goes home and finds no one. He meets Franck and asks for his help. They both go to a private school. Liam likes it but he cannot study there. They then go to the second public school in the neighborhood but they are a lot of juvenile delinquents and Liam is mistreated by them.

Franck to take revenge sets fire to the homeless. He then goes to the private school and succeeds in getting a free place for Liam.

Ian introduces Trevor to his brother Lip. He decides to go to the next step, that is, relation sexual. So they go in a sex shop to buy all they need to do it. He both has sex and loves it.

V, Kev and Svetlana plan to put out the husband of Svetlana but do not know how to do it. Svetlana succeed to do it but does not say how. Kev is becoming more and more uncomfortable with her.

Lip receives a visit from his teacher who asks him to come to the appeal request that he made for him. This appeal request is for his back in college. He does not intend to go. He spends the evening at the mall with his girlfriend. They must return precipitately because the ex of his girlfriend abandoned their son to go to take drugs.

Episode eight

Debbie intends to see the sister of her child's father Tanya. She’s angry because Lip and Sierra impeded her to sleeping. So she wants that Sierra move. She asks a work to Fiona but she refuses because the laundromat is closed. She goes visited Tanya and Franny’s grandmother who decide to keep Franny because for them Debbie is unable to take care of her.

Fiona devotes all her energy to the laundromat. The precedent owner of the laundromat Etta uses the money from the sale for buy a lot of expensive equipment, which irritated Fiona. She uses Etta's credit card and buys all the materials that she needs for work.

The house of the Gallagher became more and more calm and empty. Franck plans to live here but he’s thrown-out by Ian and his boyfriend. He learns that Fiona bought the laundromat and so decides to do some work in the house to prove his good faith. He enters the house, does work and steals a washing machine from the homeless house. He's still being thrown-out by Ian. Moreover, he is persecuted by the homeless who claim their washing machine. He finally decides to live with Etta and pretends to be her dead husband.

Lip takes part for his girlfriend when the father of his child returns to apologize. She doesn’t appreciate that. He finally agrees to go to the college council to apologize and resume studies. He asks Ian to testify in his favour at the council. Despite the touching testimony of Ian, his teacher and his, the council refuses to take it back. To relieve himself, he falls back in alcohol and fights with Sierra's ex-boyfriend. He gets thrown by her because she does not want a “new drama” according to her.

Svetlana steals Kev's truck and declares to the insurance for receive compensation. Kev takes it badly and is getting angrier with her. To forgive her she buys the truck. He goes ask advice from Fiona and she asks to him to be wary because for her, Svetlana is a cheater. He finally decides to help Fiona in the work of the laundromat and finds a lot of people for help them.

Episode nine
Monica’s back in Chicago   . She meets Franck and tells her she's come back for him and the kids and wants to redeem herself and she needs his help. She decides to help Debbie to take back her baby and make it. When she learns that Franck lives with Etta she gets angry. He finally agrees to help her when he learns that she is dying.

Franck refuses to help Monica. He still lives with Etta and uses his money. He follows Monica all day and agrees to help her finally.

Debbie has been sleeping in the garden of her in-laws family. Because of Monica, she takes back her baby. For thanks her, she demands to Monica to come sleep in her house if she wants to. Her meeting with the DCFS goes well and she keeps her daughter permanently. She asks Fiona for work and she agrees.

Fiona refuses to talk to Monica too. She goes to Debbie's side every day to bring her some food. The laundry is renewed and open. She receives a negative comment on a review platform. She makes a bet with Lip on Monica and loses it. She meets the girl who left the negative comment and humiliates her.

Ian lives the perfect love with her boyfriend who wants to meet her mother. Her evening ends badly when Monica arrives. He finally reconciles with his boyfriend. Sometime later, the police inform him that his ex-boyfriend Mickey is escaped from prison.

Lip is becoming more alcoholic. His girlfriend refuses to talk to her. He ignores Monica also. He finally accepts the offer of internship of his professor, an interview that he misses because he was too drunk. He breaks with his girlfriend because she finds him childish, alcoholic and she does not want any problem. She also asks him to go in rehab again.

Kev is sleeping on the sofa of the Gallagher. He refuses to go home because of Svetlana. He goes to see V and announces to him that it took meeting with a marriage counsellor. V and Svetlana agreed to go there and they decided to make efforts. But they realize just after that Svetlana put their bar in her name.

Episode ten

Ian tells her boyfriend that he doesn’t intend to see Mickey (his ex-boyfriend escape from prison). But Mickey succeeds to contact him and decides to see him. Mickey proposes that they both go to Mexico.  Later at the night, Ian meets him and they spend the night together. Ian finally decides to go with him in Mexico.

Lip’s so drunk that he wakes up in the subway on the other side of Chicago. He’s always in bad terms with his girlfriend and gets hurt while he’s working. Fiona asks him to go or she fired him. He decides rather to drink alcohol and go in the house of the professor with whom he had a relationship. She asks him to go and be helped. He finally decides to go to anonymous alcoholics.

Monica plan to leave a legacy for the children. She decides with Franck, to steal a police-station to steal drugs  but cannot. They then decide to steal a money transfer agency but they are chased away. They finally decide to steal a car-casino with the help of Debbie’s boyfriend Neil.

Debbie wants that Monica and Franck respects some rules if they want to live in her house. She starts working at the laundromat of Fiona. She wants to receive half of the gains of the robbery because Neil participated. Finally, she puts out Franck and Monica.

Kev and V no longer live with Svetlana. She made them believe that they signed adoption papers and put all the documents of the bar in her name. Svetlana suggests to Kev to work for her in the bar what he refuses. He goes see a lawyer who decides to help them recover their bar.

Fiona and V are still in bad terms. She meets her boss who proposes to buy the laundromat for 90 000 $. Kev asks her to reconcile with V because she’s really sad without her. Her boss offers 160 000 $ but she’s still hesitant. She finally reconciles with V at the end of the episode.

Episode eleven

Ian and Mickey travel to Mexico by road together with another fugitive. They decide to steal another car and abandon the other fugitive. They go to a smuggler, who refuses to help them because he does not make a pass in this sense. They go to the bank and Ian empties his savings account. When he arrives at the border, Ian refuses to come with Mickey because "it is no him now" according to him. He gives all his money to Mickey and goes back to Chicago. (First sad scene)

Franck and Monica go at a party that ended in orgy; they steal all participants and steal a ring, so Franck asks Monica in marriage   . They invite Fiona and Lip who refuses. During this “pseudo marriage”, Franck and Monica fight and finally reconcile. Monica tells Franck that she has an idea to find money but it’s dangerous and that the police could be involved. At the end of the episode Franck try to wake up Monica and realizes that she is dead (second sad scene)

Fiona agrees to sell her laundromat at a $ 160.000. She decides to take Etta in her house while the nursing home finds a room for her. Fiona buys a car, which is not at the taste of Lip. She meets a guy with whom she has sex and decides to pay his buildings. Lip finally admitted that Fiona made a good investment. Finally Fiona takes Etta to the nursing home. (The third scene sad and simultaneous with the others)

Kev is looking for a job to cover the expenses of their home. But find nothing because he has no professional. Finally, he found a job as server in a gay bar and gets accepted to get paid $ 500 for jerking off. He comes home tired and says it to V who does not appreciate it.

Debbie decides to study to become a welder.

Lip makes a new friend to anonymous alcoholics. They both decide to take coffee together. His friend advised him to find a distraction activity for not fall in alcohol. He decides to start knitting.

Episode twelve

Carl is back in Chicago for his mom's funeral. He became very orderly.

Ian back to Chicago and is really sad to have left his love’s life. He goes see Trevor and tells him all, and that her mother is dead. Trevor wants to come to the funeral even though he is a little angry with Ian.

Fiona and her brothers learn that Monica died because of a burst of blood vessels to the brain. She decides that Monica will be cremated because the funeral’s very expensive. She calls Monica's father for the funeral. She finally buys the building at $ 350.000. She puts Franck outside and tells him that Monica never loved him and that it’s because of them, she had taken care of all these brothers.

Franck has been depressed since his wife died. Fiona takes care of him because she’s sad for him. With Debbie, Carl and Liam, they go to Monica's storage warehouse and discover seven pounds of pure meth worth $ 1.000 a pound. Fiona decides that we must throw the entire drug, but all these brothers are opposed to her. Finally, the sharing is done fairly and Franck is excluded because he wanted to fight with Debbie.

Lip is in charge of distributing Monica's clothes. Everybody take something. He goes to see his new friend who works in a garage and helps him to ride a motorcycle. Her ex-girlfriend tells her that she’s here for him if he wants to talk.

Monica’s father Billy comes for his daughter's funeral. He decides to pay all because according to him she deserves the best.

At the funeral, Fiona puts her share of the drug and the Liam part into the coffin of Monica. Everyone is there and says nice words about Monica. Franck tells the story of their meeting. Everyone then goes home for a party.

At the end of the episode, Debbie begins her Welding courses, Ian return in his work as ambulance-man Lip goes in anonymous alcoholics every day, Fiona goes to her new building, Carl and Franck drawing the name of Monica on wall.

End of season.

I really enjoyed watching this season. The duration of the episodes:

Episode 1 length 54:53, Episode 2 length 50:14, Episode 3 length 55:27, Episode 4 length 55:37, Episode 5 length 52:45, Episode 6 length 58:08, Episode 7 length 54:02, Episode 8 length 53:52, Episode 9 length 52:36, Episode 10 length 54:54, Episode 11 length 56:20, Episode 12 length 01:00:12

Total 10:59 :00