Shameless

A closer look at the story

In Chicago, Frank Gallagher raises six children on his own and is proud of it, although, to be honest, the kids might well be better off without him. Whatever little money the family has, Frank tends to drink away at the bar, and the rest of the time he is usually out cold on the floor. Their mother walked out long ago, and keeping the household afloat has fallen to the eldest sibling, Fiona. Smart, hard-working and independent, the Gallagher kids have managed to grow up despite their father. Each struggles with problems of their own and each gets into trouble of their own, yet they hold on tightly to one another. They are a family like no other, and they refuse to say sorry for who they are. Turning a bleak picture into a tragicomic story, the series comes from Paul Abbott and John Wells; it began on Showtime in 2011 and ran for eleven seasons and 134 episodes, with William H. Macy and Jeremy Allen White at the forefront of the cast.