Shameless has been one o the most successful British TV series of the past decade & its also been one of the most controversial.
Conservatives seem to think its a fly on the wall documentary about welfare spongers & left seem to think its a piss take of poor people.
Its certainly a satire about the crappy side of town & having lived of the crappy side of town, I can testify that its not too far off the mark its satire & depiction. Some of the storylines might be somewhat exaggerated, but I do know about people having faked their death to escape debt, I do know people who have collected welfare for those no longer alive, I do know people who have worked in brothels & yes I know about drugs & violence being the mainstay of life.
Never mind about the controversy, the reason Shameless has been successful is that its very funny. I'm not known for being terribly humorous, but I've laughed out loud watching Shameless.
There's now a US version of the series, made by Showtime & starring William H Macy. Though the US series has the same kind of characters & follows the same storylines & is as funny, my problem is with the amount of rock music they've added to the soundtrack. The British version does use rock music, there was a brilliant season finale when they used the Dropkick Murphys; but the British version doesn't generally use rock music to depict living poor as cool, however from what I fear the US version does.
Anyways if not seen either version, its worth checking out, but if you've seen either version I like to hear your thoughts.
Shameless has been one o the most successful British TV series of the past decade & its also been one of the most controversial.
Conservatives seem to think its a fly on the wall documentary about welfare spongers & left seem to think its a piss take of poor people.
Its certainly a satire about the crappy side of town & having lived of the crappy side of town, I can testify that its not too far off the mark its satire & depiction. Some of the storylines might be somewhat exaggerated, but I do know about people having faked their death to escape debt, I do know people who have collected welfare for those no longer alive, I do know people who have worked in brothels & yes I know about drugs & violence being the mainstay of life.
Never mind about the controversy, the reason Shameless has been successful is that its very funny. I'm not known for being terribly humorous, but I've laughed out loud watching Shameless.
There's now a US version of the series, made by Showtime & starring William H Macy. Though the US series has the same kind of characters & follows the same storylines & is as funny, my problem is with the amount of rock music they've added to the soundtrack. The British version does use rock music, there was a brilliant season finale when they used the Dropkick Murphys; but the British version doesn't generally use rock music to depict living poor as cool, however from what I fear the US version does.
Anyways if not seen either version, its worth checking out, but if you've seen either version I like to hear your thoughts.
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