The hit TV series "Shameless" features a family on the brink of poverty living in Chicago. While the American comedy-drama show is a remake of the British series, that hasn't stopped it from being one of the most highly watched shows on Showtime and Netflix. The plot is centered around a dysfunctional family: the Gallaghers. Frank Gallagher, the father of the whole gang, is a jobless alcoholic who spends his days in search of ways to get into trouble, which forces all six of his kids to find their own way through life. This addicting TV show offers a peek into the lives of this family... which can be pretty shameless at times. These moments are so boorish in their blatant depravity that they transcend the tasteless, crude events that you would normally cringe at, and instead become an jaw-dropping climax to each episode that somehow keeps you wanting more.
1. Karen gets hit by a car... On purpose.
When Lip seems to be more fond of Karen than he is of Mandy, she takes drastic measures to make sure she doesn't lose him. Karen suffers severe brain damage, and Mandy still lost Lip. The Milkoviches certainly have a violent streak.
2. Kevin and Veronica won't take no for an answer when it comes to having kids.
When Veronica can't get pregnant in Season 3, they decide to try artificial insemination. But when that proved unsuccessful, they took matters into their own hands by inviting V's mom to, well, have sex with Kev. Yep, you read that right. And to top off the whole event, once she finds out she is pregnant, she lies about it to Kevin and Veronica in order to keep the whole ordeal going. Awkward.
3. When Karen became "Daddy's Little Girl."
In season one, Karen's dad forces her to confess her many lustful sins of her adolescence in front of the local church. He then proceeds to slut shame her in front of everyone. That was pretty much the last straw for Karen. She dyes her naturally blonde hair black, gets a shocking tattoo, does some at-home piercings, and she seduces Frank Gallagher… and sends a video of the whole sick, unsavory event to her father at work.
4. Frank used Liam as collateral for his gambling debt.
When Frank gets in trouble with money, as he inevitably does since he is an unemployed man with a drinking and drug addiction, he will do just about anything to get himself off the hook. Usually Fiona is able to keep the family uninvolved in his schemes, but not this time. After losing a bet, Frank took Liam and used him as collateral while he somehow gathered the $10,000 he owed.
5. They kidnapped an Alzheimer's patient.
Frank Gallagher had been collecting the long-deceased Great Aunt Ginger's social security money for over a decade. He actually buried her in the yard without telling the rest of the family and kept the money for (shocker) his bar money. When the federal government finally caught wind of what was going on, Frank was forced to confess. So, the Gallaghers had no choice but to find a new “Great Aunt Ginger” and find the real Aunt Ginger somewhere in their backyards, or face child services when “daddy” Frank went to prison for defrauding the government. So, they picked up the shovels and searched the yard for days and temporarily "adopted" New Great Aunt Ginger, compliments of Veronica’s nursing home for the severely forgetful.
6. Frank pretends to be his long-lost daughter's boyfriend.
When Frank is diagnosed with liver cancer (surprise!) and accepts the fact that he's going to die, he realizes there is a lot he wants to do before he kicks the bucket. One of those things is reconnecting with his daughter that he abandoned at birth, Sammi. He doesn't want to admit that he is her father, so naturally, he pretends to be a lonely man just looking for a date. Thankfully, the truth came out before much happened.
7. Frank kills an already dying Dottie.
Early in Season 2, Frank found out that Dottie, a woman that used to hang out at the Alibi bar and earned the nickname "butterface," is quickly dying and is in need of a heart transplant. He knows she won't survive, so Frank wants to marry her and to commemorate her, “light a candle for you everyday"... in order to be placed in her will and win her pension money. When the now engaged Dottie is in the shower, Frank picks up the phone for her to learn that she is going to get a heart transplant! So, Frank does what Frank does best. He lies. He tells the hospital that Dottie has already passed away. Dottie ended up giving her money to the estranged adult daughter she barely knew, leaving Frank with nothing.
It does not get more Shameless than that.
