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dreamylyfe-x · 4 years ago

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11x04: NIMBY Reactions

Oh my God, that’s the good stuff right there. I’ve been hanging on for the middle of the season, where I have felt pretty certain the tone -- with Gallavich particularly -- might shift and I was NOT disappointed.

So first thing’s first: though Mickey had barely anything to do with the A Plot (Milkoviches Next Door) I still thought this episode was the best Mickey-being-Mickey-as-I-know-and-love-him episode we’ve had yet. (Though fair warning, I thought 11x03 had some quality classic Mickey in it -- just mostly the scenes without Ian.)

Before we get started on Mickey, though, this is the second episode in a row where I’ve enjoyed the Frank plot? Granted, it was LARGELY Liam that I enjoyed, but I was still watching the Frank plot and that is a major shift from season 10, where I barely bothered.

But yeah. Ok. Mickey. This episode was such a great Mickey episode from start to finish. One of the things I love about Shameless is the whole thing where normal for kids living in desperate conditions, while very different from most people’s normal, is still normal for THEM. And I really enjoyed Mickey watching the Milkoviches move in while giving the Gallaghers key intel on exactly what they were seeing. And kinda understanding how messed up some of it was in real time. That’s a real experience people have -- being mid-story and suddenly thinking “Yeah. This is way more fucked up than I realized.”

I also enjoyed the several moments in the episode where Mickey overtly acknowledged that his family is insane, he just doesn’t like the Gallaghers looking down on him. Which: valid.

Speaking of -- finally we find out the state of the Mickey-Terry relationship. Which is: there isn’t one. Another thing I loved is that Mickey shares the desire to see his family move on, but he’s not going to bother engaging with it. He’s going to work on getting him and Ian out of there, and pay hardly any attention to his family. Love that for him.

I also love love LOVE that, now that he has a bead on something to do for money that doesn’t fill him with dread, Mickey is taking the same attitude he had when Ian was working and he wasn’t -- which is that he’s going to take care of things. As someone who was baffled at Mickey’s inaction and willingness to let Ian do all the work in the first few episodes, I really loved this. Because it’s consistent and it indicates that his world view just kinda like... Someone has to be taking care of the money part, and that might shift back and forth between him and Ian, but the result of the effort is going to be shared between them. I understand where Ian was coming from -- especially when Mickey kept returning to criminal enterprise -- but it’s nice to see a little more of how Mickey views things.

Also, I know this is very well observed, so I’m retreading well-worn ground, but the scene with the cereal. Gah. I love it. Ian regressing -- I know they gave us the shot of the bottle of Jamison, but I felt like they were getting their point across with the cereal and the cartoons. And Ian not answering or responding to Mickey right away was extremely evocative of Ian’s history of depressive episodes. I loved how forthright Ian was about how awful the prospect of finding another job was, because it’s covertly agreeing with everything Mickey was saying in the first few episodes, too.

There are so many little things I like about this scene. Mickey coming down the front stairs instead of the back, like he intuitively knows where Ian is at. Ian watching Harley Quinn cartoons, as both an in-joke AND as a believable cartoon choice. Mickey picking up the bottle, checking it’s weight and then just... moving it a little to the side. Mickey putting himself between Ian the TV. Mickey already having a plan for Ian. Just so much good stuff in there.

Also, let’s talk about Ian for a minute here. One reason I hesitate to call anything OOC with these two is that the book generally isn’t closed. I really didn’t get the “I’m on my honeymoon” stuff, but after this episode, it folds in a lot better with what is going on with these two. Another thing that folds in better is Ian’s mounting frustration -- which is VERY Ian. He starts out with this forced buoyancy -- we’re going to get out own place, you are going to get a legal job so you can stay out of prison, I am going to make this warehouse gig work, and even though I’m frustrated and losing patience, I’m still trying to talk things out, and touching your hand and trying to ground everything in the fact that we’re together and we love each other -- and then we see that get chipped away at. Ian’s paycheque reveals that he’s being scammed out of a living wage. Mickey takes the road less travelled and immediately brings in more money that he’s every going to be able to get through the jobs he can currently get as a parolee. Mickey isn’t gracious about this, and the tension ramps up and that four episodes later he’s just walking around with a well-established and throughly justified black cloud over his head.

The Milkovich’s really arrive like they’ve bought a White Trash in a Bag collection from Target. They seem to even have brought mattresses expressly for the front yard.

OMG, Mickey got a scene with Sandy (and Debbie). But honestly, my favourite beat is the look Franny gives Mickey after he says kids are idiots. I also love how Sandy joins Mickey in just not seeing a point in waging battle against their family.

Lip, this is a little thing, but you aren’t supposed to eat breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner. Brunch ideally REDUCES the number of meals you eat. But the key brunch move is to order something you can’t/wouldn’t make at home. Do not pay $14 for eggs and toast.

So. Ok. I have seen some people very annoyed that Ian is so focused on Mickey not going back to prison, but I can’t see what is wrong with this. He just flat out isn't wrong to worry about it. It would be devastating if that happened. Mickey and Ian are extremely fortunate that he’s out at all. It’s a truly bizarre turn of events and I do not fault Ian for having a lot of concern about anything happening to jeopardize Mickey’s freedom. I also think this is confirmation that Ian just flat out doesn’t want to be without Mickey. I think he’s depressed -- and therefore extremely pessimistic -- in this episode, but there is far more indication that Ian wants Mickey around than that he doesn’t, so of course he’d be extremely focused on this concern. Also Cam puts some tremor onto “get sent back to prison” that really grabs my heart and squeezes.

Cam in the towel is just good news. Mickey’s adorable with the gun. This scene is cute.

This is the episode where I gave up on side-eying the Gemma-is-Superior running joke and just accepted it as kinda funny. Something about third-party confirmation. I dunno.

I enjoy the fact that Debbie apparently doesn’t know Sandy lives with them? Also, that feels like an Ian move. Gets boyfriend, moves in with boyfriend.

The fact that Mickey is low-key playing Ian to get him to join him in this MUCH more promising venture is my absolute favourite. Bless the director for that foreground Mickey shot. Bless Noel for that nuanced facial expression. Bless everyone involved in that moment. It is one of my favourite things ever.

I love that Ian’s whole reason for these outfits is so that Mickey will LOOK dangerous and not have to defend himself, thus staying out of trouble. That’s deeply, deeply sweet.

Another sign that something is even more wrong with Frank than usual when he fully forgets the entire trip to visit the Brotherhood.

I didn’t love V vs. Debbie but I really did enjoy Kev aligns with Frank, and also has a scene with Mickey. And that they weren’t silo’ed off on their own.

So the eventual reveal we get that the old lady loves having rough sex with Terry was not a surprise to me because a) Shameless, but b) because of Christian’s face. Christian’s facial expressions are among my favourite on the show right now.

I love this gif set by @sickness-health-all-that-shit. What can I say except “look! Ian is smiling!”

Mickey should be a better liar, but you know. He isn’t.

I do like that, in this moment, the things they both bring to the enterprise come together to create a new possibility. This is pretty much exactly what I HOPED was going to happen and I love to see it.

I think I’m going to ignore the Tami storyline because it was gross (not bad, but ... gross.) Also @fiona-fififi already wrote something that is much more comprehensive... I get the frustration, but just no part of me thinks Ian would allow himself to go where Tami did in examining what happened to her. Not at this point in his life. Which is sad, but very much in line with how Ian handles himself.

Um. Yeah. Carl. Glad you’re not fully participating, Carl. But this is untenable.

Overall, I am all the way in on this storyline for Ian and Mickey -- and pretty into the idea of V getting involved with politics. I think we’re getting all the seeds of where this show is going to leave the characters. And I haven’t loved every moment, but I do feel like the overall show is working for me better than last season.

That might be faint praise. But I really liked this one. Best yet.

#Shameless reactions #11x04 #NIMBY #gallavich #shameless season 11 #shameless spoilers

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hopevalley · 4 years ago

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Season 8, Episode 2: Honestly, Elizabeth

I think I’ll do all my write-ups this year scene-by-scene. It’s easier to keep track of everything that happens in the episode that way, and I can write up thoughts while I’m watching the episode.

I’ll just jump right in!

Scene 1: Narration/Jack Jack

The first scene starts out with Elizabeth writing in her journal about the arrival of Lucas’s mother to town, and I think the writing here was actually polished up as to be concise and fairly decent. I didn’t mind seeing Jack staring at his father’s picture, but I think what would have made a much more compelling scene would have been for him to turn away from the picture and pick up a toy off of the ground and just start playing with it. Something symbolic of moving on, or at least of Jack’s lack of connection to his father at this age. While he’d certainly be curious when he gets older, at his current age he has no real reason to care.

Elizabeth waxing poetic about how strong and brave Jack was, and how her son embodies those same traits is…I don’t know. It came off a little silly to me—like it was trying just a little too hard to be meaningful.

—

Scene 2: Lucas check on Helen

I like that Lucas seems to care for his mother a lot, and that he wants to help her. I think he realizes there’s perhaps more to her visit than merely wanting to see Elizabeth, but isn’t willing to push for that kind of information. My guess is that they’re just not that emotionally close to one another.

—

Scene 3: The Crate of DOOM

Joseph from the railroad brings a delivery for Lee and in helping Joseph carry it, Lee hurts his back. This was a genuinely good scene. CALLCARSONCALLCARSONCALLCARSON. It also has the advantage of making everyone feel friendly and neighborlike. Elizabeth popping out of her house, Jesse just stopping by… It was nice.

—

Scene 4: Nathan and Elizabeth Talk

Opal’s dress was really cute in this scene, and Robert really is growing up fast! I’m glad Allie and Opal seem attached to him; the show feels more cohesive with its little friend groups and it’s been hard to really show that off since Cody left. Allie fills that void easily and I think gets better lines/dialogue/scenes as well. She gets treated like a character of the appropriate age.

Also, Nathan treating Robert respectfully is nice. It comes off like he recognizes Robert’s good intentions and genuine enthusiasm and treats him appropriately, too.

The little quip about Allie being interested in boys was cute (and not over-the-top), and I like that Nathan is the first to bring up the missed…dinner date. Elizabeth’s response is interesting to me; she does seem a little more enthusiastic, at least about how fun it would have been had she followed through on it. When Nathan suggests they could try it again, though, she clams up. I think what’s interesting about it is that she doesn’t look disgusted or unhappy with the idea, just…a tad uncomfortable—like she wants to say something but can’t/won’t. A pretty good scene.

—

Scene 5: Introducing Joseph Canfield

At this point in the episode I knew I’d love Joseph. He’s so wholesome and pleasant both in his demeanor and his offer to pray for Lee.

—

Scene 6: Nichols and Dimes

I really am enjoying Fiona’s interactions with Mike Hickam. Actually, I’m enjoying that Mike gets any lines at all. He’s a pretty good actor and deserving of the screentime. Also that man has a butt and they’re showing of in like, every other scene he’s in LOL. Fiona trying to explain the reason for the name of the shop is quirky without being too over-the-top I think. It works well enough and I think lends some more personality to her character.

This scene gave us some more low-key genuinely funny stuff with Jesse repeating “Nichol isn’t spelled that way, right?”

Henry’s surprise at the barber being a woman isn’t too over the top either. At this time, barbers would just about always be men, because not only did they handle haircuts and shaves, but it served as a gossip (and business, as Fiona mentioned in the last episode) center for all the men in the area AND the barber usually also treated things like toothaches and first aid if a doctor wasn’t around.

I admit her reaction to all the men running off was...a bit surprising. I figured her feelings would be hurt, but she literally just laughs it off, maybe just too excited at having her own business to continue to think about, you know, what will happen if she doesn’t get customers.

—

Scene 7: Joseph runs out of gas.

There isn’t much to say here, but when he walks back to town he sings “It Is Well with My Soul” which was always one of my favorite hymns. My pastor had his own piano arrangement of it and everything. I knew from this moment forward that I would defend him to the death.

—

Scene 8: At the clinic

This is probably not the most...accurate medical scene ever, but it wasn’t bad. The best part about it was actually Molly, though. It looks like she’s really thrown herself into working with Carson and she’s used to it and even enjoys it!

—

Scene 9:Nathan and Bill talk

The scene is super simple but I think it was excellently done. Nathan wants to adopt Allie and Bill thinks that’s a fine idea in theory, but in starting proceedings (court filings, public notices, et cetera) he could stir things up. It sounds like Bill and Nathan spoke about Dylan since Bill knows how Dylan found him (the newspaper article).

Bill mentions a fee and at first I thought this was going to be the start of a really sour joke about Bill being greedy or something, but to my surprise (AND IMMENSE RELIEF), they were just discussing it like a business transaction...which it is. Nathan trusts Bill to be fair with that... AND I LOVE IT.

Allie’s mother’s full name is Colleen Mayes Grant. Allie’s full name is Allison Mayes Parks. Would Parks also be Colleen’s full name if she were married to Dylan? Am I missing something here?

Anyway, Nathan and Bill then talk about the money that Nathan used to trap Dylan, and Nathan admits he got it from Lucas, which...surprises Bill.

“You asked Lucas?! You do love your niece.” Nathan is a little amused by it, but I think this is interesting. I mean, 1) Nathan asked Lucas in the first place, which is telling, but also, 2) Lucas loaned him the money without even asking what it was for. Maybe they are not on such bad terms after all, lol. ;)

Nathan points to a map and asks about some land, and Bill says he owns that land, and that he was thinking of building a cabin on it but he’s just not really that sure he wants to. Nathan asks if he’d be willing to sell and Bill (jokingly) asks, “How much of that money did you give back to Lucas?”

Good scene, wholesome scene. I genuinely enjoy watching these two interact. It almost reminds me of the older seasons when Bill and Frank and Jack would all scheme together; stuff like this just helps build up the characters a lot, and it helps the town feel...real.

—

Scene 10: Lucas and Elizabeth Chat

This was a short but nice scene. I think it’s clear Lucas is a bit worried about his mother and asks Elizabeth to visit her in the hopes that it might encourage her to talk to someone or feel better.

At first I thought this was perhaps a bit much, like...she barely knows the woman why would Helen even want a visit from Elizabeth? But then I thought...well, Lucas is probably thinking of the fact that Elizabeth has spoken with Helen now and again about her writing, so a visit from her would be expected since she’s in town.

I like Elizabeth’s honesty in admitting she was intimidated by Helen. “So she does bite!” Kind of a cute/silly scene. I liked it.

—

Scene 11: Rosemary and Elizabeth talk.

This was probably the second weakest scene in the episode. Rosemary just says hi and tells Elizabeth she can’t help with anything regarding Lee, and then Elizabeth says she’s off to visit Helen, and Rosemary says “Oh, the old saying...the way to an editor’s heart.”

Elizabeth replies with, “I don’t think that’ show that saying goes.”

I think they were trying for Funny here but it misses its mark and doesn’t really add anything to the episode. I’d have rather had an earnest word of encouragement from Rosemary.

—

Scene 12: Elizabeth visits Helen

There are a lot of things to like about this. Helen takes her job very seriously, and corrects Elizabeth (“book” vs. “manuscript”—it ain’t a book yet!). Helen comments on Elizabeth being undisciplined but this is an objectively true statement (whether Elizabeth likes it or not).

I think Helen is actually really understanding when Elizabeth blurts out that she was late with her first draft because, “I decided not to let my writing interfere with my life.” She’s pretty calm about it, and says maybe her trip was for nothing.

Elizabeth springs back and hurries to explain that while her writing means a lot to her, and she takes it seriously, it’s also not her main source of income. I was really worried that Helen was going to come off as this huge bitch hurting Poor Widdle Ewizabiff’s Feewings but I think she’s actually pretty great in this scene. She doesn’t come off as the bad guy, but neither does Elizabeth. In fact, I feel like both characters communicate quite cleanly and it seems Helen appreciates Elizabeth’s spunk, haha.

—

Scene 13: Henry and Lucas have a meeting

The writers straight up wanted to negate some of what happened last season, and I think that was a smart choice. There are some lines in this scene that I really enjoy a lot. “I like you, Henry. I don’t know why, but I do.” I think Lucas likes Henry because he’s been mostly up front with Lucas about his methods...which he does here, too.

“I’m willing to get my hands dirty.”

Henry’s proposal is that he will double the crude output in the first year he’s back as Lucas’s partner, and if he doesn’t manage it, he will walk away. However, if he is successful, he becomes majority owner at 60% and is allowed to make all business decisions.

This is a very good opportunity for Lucas, provided he trusts Henry can at least maintain current output. He loses nothing if Henry walks away and he loses hardly anything (in fact, he loses a bit of profit and a LOT of responsibility) if Henry manages it and stays on.

When asked why he had a change of heart, Henry says he “has his reasons.”

—

Scene 14: Joseph comes back to town + Fiona’s

This actually isn’t its own separate scene, but rather, the camera pans from the previous scene to Joseph walking into town.

Joseph stops Hickam about getting some gas, but Hickam is sent away to hold up his end of a bet while Jesse helps Joseph.

The camera then is in Fiona’s barbershop, so I’m counting these two scenes together. Hickam asks for a trim and she agrees to do it. He apologizes for running off earlier and she accepts his apology with grace and says she’s glad he came back. He tells her it was the right thing to do and she calls him out instantly for having accepted a bet from Jesse.

This is a pretty funny little joke, but the best part about it is actually how it ties Hickam and Jesse together. They’re around the same age and they could be friends; I like the implication. Some of the male friendships have suffered a bit in recent years so it’s nice to see those getting a splash of attention.

Anyway, Fiona doesn’t take offense and Hickam seems relieved.

—

Scene 15: Sergeant gets some pats

Sergeant is a good boy and so deserves some pats! The only thing I hate about this scene is the dialogue. Robert is like, a farm boy...and you’re telling me he’s never ridden a real horse? Please. This is in a time period where most of these kids would know how to ride a horse. He’s no larger a horse than any other horse in town! The bigger concern should be that Sergeant is an ex-mounted police horse, which means he needs a more experienced rider (and that certain signals could mean different things to Sergeant than they would mean for a farmhorse).

It’s still pretty cute overall, but I think they could have had the kids currying him or something instead. “We can start by patting him” seems a little silly when this horse has been patted by everyone in town 3 billion times by this point.

The camera then adjusts to the window of the saloon’s upstairs room where Helen is watching Elizabeth spend time with the kids.

She’s more or less smiling and watching Elizabeth and the kids, studying them. As predicted, she has already decided she likes Elizabeth.

—

Scene 16: Hickam narrowly avoids death

Or more like, he moves while Fiona is trying to cut his hair and she gets his ear with the scissors. He literally runs out of the barbershop, past Helen and Lucas who are now out for a walk, and straight to the clinic.

—

Scene 17: Rosemary talks to Elizabeth and the kids

This is a continuation of the last scene where the camera catches Rosemary from outside the clinic (as Hickam goes in) and follows her over to Elizabeth where she says hello (they are still with Sergeant but over by the church now).

I’m a little tired of these Cute Widdle Opal moments. She’s like, nine years old. The fake smiling and “oh my goodness!”ing is too much for me at this point. I probably hated this scene the most.

—

Scene 18: Lucas talks with his mother

Helen calls out the situation exactly for what it is: Elizabeth is the reason Lucas has settled in Hope Valley, and Lucas and Nathan are vying for Elizabeth’s hand. Lucas admits these are both true.

Just a nice little scene. Helen seems pretty normal and good here.

—

Scene 19: Elizabeth talks to Nathan

On her way out of the mercantile (with a cloth to clean Opal’s face) Elizabeth runs into Nathan who is on his way up to Bill’s land to check it out. She says he must be serious if he’s going in the middle of the day out to look at it, and he says he is. “I think it’s time I settle down.”

She walks down a step or two and turns after him as he’s about to go into the mercantile: “Nathan? When you’re back from your trip, perhaps we could get together?”

And he agrees to this, almost in a tone that’s like, he doesn’t want to seem too excited.

As soon as Nathan is in the store, Robert goes flying by on Sergeant with the worst posture I’ve ever seen.

Elizabeth steals Newton from Nathan and goes after Robert, catching up to him and dragging him back to town right in front of Jesse and Joseph.

Joseph is of course iMMEDIATELY like: “I want to live in this crazy place.”

This isn’t how I would write a scene like this, mostly because I would assume that Robert could ride a horse (and his posture later kind of says this...lol) and it’s really hard to film something like this without it Actually Being Dangerous (mostly due to the gravel in town—a horse could kick that into someone’s face and they’d be messed up, or they could slip in it)(also, the filming location doesn’t have a lot of Large Spaces where they can really let a horse gallop safely). I’d probably have a stunt double dashing off at an actual run if possible, and show Elizabeth catching up to Robert who has been thrown from the horse. He’s fine (landed in some prairie grass or something) but then it’s actually really scary.

Her “catching up” and “helping” just doesn’t work very well when it’s very clear these horses are moving at a leisurely pace.

But if you can use your imagination it wasn’t a bad scene.

—

Scene 20: Lee and Rosemary

It’s the next morning, and Rosemary helps Lee sit on the couch. Rosemary gives him his coffee but there’s no sugar in it (this is hard to believe; they’ve been married how long? She’s been making this every day for how many years?) and she boogies over to Elizabeth’s.

—

Scene 21: Rosemary and Elizabeth have a chat

Rosemary talks to Elizabeth about the chase after Robert and then to little Jack and there’s a little moment where she looks at Jack and talks about how her and Lee like hearing him laugh when the weather is nice and the windows are open. It was a nice touch.

Rosemary offers to babysit until Laura arrives.

It’s a nice scene but I’m a little tired of the babytalk for a child that is way older than they’re acting. This is a 2-3 year old child, not a baby who can’t talk.

—

Scene 22: Bill meets Joseph Canfield

Joseph came back to town to have another look around and consider buying the gas station. He mentions the church, and Bill says they don’t have a pastor right now because “he left to become a missionary.” I’m not sure which pastor they’re talking about here: Zeke or the guy before him, or even Frank? My guess is Zeke since they took the time to give him a name, and there’s no reason why Frank would do that when he’s been written away as finding his calling in mentoring/pastoring/caring for terminally ill children.

Joseph says he’s looking to settle down and would like it to be Hope Valley, which is....sudden. I’m not sure what the script could have said instead, but maybe if there was some kind of hint that his wife isn’t happy in their current situation? Or maybe that he’s been looking around and that he found Hope Valley when he wasn’t even looking—just doing his job.

It’s a hard sell either way. There’s a whole lot of nothing in this area, so it’s hard to imagine Hope Valley wouldn’t be on the map with a railroad stop...lol...

Joseph says he doesn’t want to build, so Bill says he knows a guy.

Good scene. I’m always happy when Bill gets normal interactions, and it seems like in this scene we’re meant to imagine that he is actually on his rounds (since Nathan is away).

—

Scene 23: Elizabeth and Helen edit...

Helen says “dour” in a way Elizabeth has never heard it said, and it sounds kind of clear that everything Helen says, Elizabeth just blanks out and can’t discuss reasonably.

“I’m just not used to writing this way.” You’re...not writing. You’re editing. There’s a difference. And Helen seems to be trying to get at the Author’s Intentions (“Would you describe this character as dour?”) to ensure that Elizabeth’s writing matches what she’s going for.

They’ve made it past ONE page at this point. They do share a chuckle over how slow their progress is, though, and I mean, as a writer that’s a whole entire mood, so it’s fine.

—

Scene 24: Henry’s cabin

For some reason Henry owns a cabin and Joseph, Bill, and Henry are checking it out. Bill is mostly snooping to find things wrong with it lol, which is very in character for him, considering Henry is (or at least was) the enemy.

Joseph decides to buy the place because it’s not too far from town and there’s room for the kids to play.

Boom he’s in.

Welcome Hope Valley, Joseph!

—

Scene 25: Robert’s Sorry + Helen’s Truth

Robert has atoned for his sins by cleaning all the stalls out or something. Helen and Elizabeth meet Robert on a walk. He’s atoned for his sins by cleaning the stables.

Helen and Elizabeth chat a bit, and Helen drops a bunch of Truth Bombs:

-Authors often feign indifference to the characters they create, or insist they are mere fabrications outside themselves.

-Elizabeth is honest with herself and with others, and honest in her writing.

-Most people are uncomfortable and afraid, and hide behind characters they’ve created for themselves.

She then says that she’s like that (kind of an awkward delivery line) and then instantly launches into saying she came to see Lucas and to see her, too, but if she’s being completely honest, she’s come because her husband has left her.

(Scene break for commercials)

Elizabeth runs after Helen and calls her “Mrs. Bouchard” but quickly corrects herself to call her “Helen” (NOW IT MAKES SENSE WHY HELEN DOESN’T WANT TO BE CALLED MRS. BOUCHARD!) and asks if she wants to talk about it.

“There’s really nothing to say. It’s not going to change anything.”

Lucas’s father is in London, supposedly, and as Lucas walks over to the two of them, Helen asks for Elizabeth to keep this just between them, as he doesn’t know yet.

I’m not sure where they’re going to go with this, or how they’re going to resolve it, but it’s possible this was just a misunderstanding (seems farfetched but hey, it’s Hallmark).

As an aside, the flowers they have out on display are all summer flowers. Does it matter? No. Am I pointing it out? Yes.

Lucas offers to take both women to dinner and Elizabeth says she isn’t able to go. I think she should have stated she had a prior engagement (so she didn’t appear to be rude), but Helen takes him up on the offer.

Walking away, Elizabeth runs into Laura, Emily, Anna, and Timmy, which was nice because all the mentions of Laura without actually seeing Laura made me worry she wasn’t on the show anymore, haha.

Laura isn’t with Jack because Rosemary wanted to watch him for the day. Elizabeth turns around and asks Lucas for his help with something.

—

Scene 26: The Surprise for Rosemary and Lee

Elizabeth comes over to collect Jack with a surprise: a nice dinner all premade, a bottle of wine, and some mood music. ;)

This is a wholesome and sweet scene. Elizabeth leaves with Jack and Lee struggles to his feet to dance with Rosemary.

—

Scene 27: The letter

Henry goes to the mercantile to see if there’s any mail and there IS...the letter he sent out last episode has been returned...opened.

Henry’s upset by this (he seems genuinely hurt) and asks Ned if he opened it. Ned says he didn’t, and Florence defends him by saying he would never do that. Henry leaves and Ned says he forgot to take care of something in the back and wishes Florence good night.

Very suspicious. I don’t think Ned opened the letter but I do think he read it. He looked a little upset himself...? Not sure what’s going on here. Could it involve a relative? Nora? A business proposition?

—

Scene 28: Florence and Molly

At the saloon, Florence and Molly talk about the letter, and Florence says she thinks the person who opened it was the person Henry sent it to.

Molly notices Bill laughing and having a good time with a woman she doesn’t know and stares at them. Florence points it out and says Molly must be bad-tempered because she’s hungry and suggests they order and eat. Molly gets up and marches right on over there and embarrasses Florence with her BS.

She mentions the chili in the cafe and then fakely says, “Oh nooo, I’m being rude,” and introduces herself to Helen.

Helen doesn’t shake her offered hand but does give her name. She’s extremely awkward and leaves in a hurry, with Florence on her heels.

Helen tells Bill he must have a “fan.”

Bill says he wasn’t aware of that.

The classic Bill Squint™.

—

Scene 29: Mike returns

Mike comes back to have his haircut finished. She says she’ll be more careful this time; he admits it’s his fault...and they both agree that they’re both to blame a little bit.

Clara and Faith drag their men in and insist on them getting haircuts/trims. I liked the scene with Fiona and Mike, but didn’t really care for the last bit as much. Mostly because everyone hates the idea of her cutting their hair and this is supposed to be funny, even to her? Like...I don’t know. It just falls flat for me.

—

Scene 30: Rosemary is a bad influence

Rosemary asks Elizabeth how the meeting went. They talk about the fact that Lucas and his mother are nothing alike and Rosemary says, “Well maybe he’s like his father.”

Elizabeth is like “Let’s hope not.”

And of course that gets the ball rolling. Before long, the truth is out: Helen’s husband left her.

Elizabeth really should have...shut her mouth lol. But at least Rosemary believes that’s a bad position for Elizabeth to be in.

Lee comes in with Jack wearing a little outfit...

And then the truth comes out that what’s in the crate is a LOT of coffee. 250lbs of it.

—

Scene 31: Bill and Molly Talk...sort-of.

Bill chases Molly out of the cafe and insists they talk about what happened the night before, and Molly says she made a fool of herself. Bill tries to figure things out by saying he’s been a bachelor for a long time (probably trying to ease into it by admitting he just hadn’t realized she was Interested because he’s not used to the whole thing, to take some pressure off you know?) and Molly stops him like, “Are you under the impression that I’m interested in you as a suitor?”

Bill is more or less like, well...yes (but I wasn’t alone in that thought).

Molly tells him she was curious about the woman with whom he was dining. “True, I have mentioned to Florence that it might be nice getting to know each other seeing as how we’ve lived in the same town for years...”

Bill: “Well, see? You are interested in me.”

Molly: “You flatter yourself.”

She then leaves.

Anyone who knows me will know why I don’t like this scene lol, but at least neither character is being made a fool of, here. Pretty sure Molly is both curious and jealous.

—

Scene 32: Henry’s tirade

I think they should have rerecorded this scene because it 100% sounds like Henry is drunk off his ass and not just angry. More punctuated words would have fixed this easily.

Anyway, Carson comes by the mercantile just in time to see Henry yelling at Ned and Florence about the letter (but specifically Ned). Henry sees Carson come in and leaves, but falls outside. His blood pressure is ridiculously high. Outside, the acting is fine and he sounds angry (but deflating).

“Sometimes what you do in between [birth and death] just isn’t enough.”

This makes me really curious about that leTTER... It almost has to be a personal matter: family, perhaps?

—

Scene 33: The Confession

Elizabeth runs into Nathan while she’s out with Sergeant and they talk about Bill’s land. Nathan’s very enthusiastic about the land and the idea of living there.

LOOK AT HIM.

This is probably the most animated we’ve seen him!

(I think this talk of land and building on it might be forcing her to think of Jack, by the way. They already have the profession in common and now the land/planning for the future thing, too? A future she never got to have with Jack? OOF.)

I think at this point she’s worried that he wants to do this FOR HER and the guilt is what prompts her to speak. She goes on to tell him that he means a lot to her, and so does Allie, but she thinks he’s looking for more than friendship.

He says he wasn’t trying to hide that, and she thanks him for his honesty. She goes to express that he wants more from her than she can give. He was shot that one time when she thought it had been him who died, and she can’t go through that for real, not again. She doesn’t want to lose him the way she lost Jack.

He says he wouldn’t let that happen and she gets (RIGHTFULLY!) upset because that isn’t something he can meaningfully promise, and it’s pretty insulting considering the way Jack died; he isn’t better than Jack, after all. Anything could happen.

So Nathan says that his solution, what makes his promise different, is that he would quit the Mounties.

And she says, “No!”

Then we get the lines:

Nathan: I know you feel the same way that I do.

Elizabeth: I can’t.

Nathan: Elizabeth, I’m in love with you!

Elizabeth leaves hurriedly on Sergeant and that’s the end of the episode.

—

I don’t want to end this without talking about the last scene a bit. I think some people might be a bit confused about it. I think she has feelings for Nathan and has been repressing them because it’s too scary a thing to consider. She wants to let the idea go but knew she couldn’t just cut things off without saying anything.

But how do you say something like that kindly? How do you do that without hurting feelings or looking stupid?

I feel like the talk about the land, as well as Nathan’s comment earlier in the episode about settling down, has forced Elizabeth to be honest with Nathan the way that she is honest in her writing, and she does this specifically because she doesn’t want Nathan to go making decisions based on feelings for, or a potential future with, her. It isn’t fair to Nathan or Allie.

For those of us who haven’t lost a spouse traumatically, I don’t think it’s easy to understand this specific brand of anxiety/fear, but this episode made it really clear that this is something she’s really struggling with. The heart wants what it wants, but it also feels fear sometimes (and in this case, rightfully so).

Nathan offering to quit was wonderful but I think it would frighten Elizabeth just as much to feel she’s the cause for someone giving up something they’re passionate about. I personally think she’s thinking too much of Jack when it comes to that. Sure, Nathan’s a Mountie, and sure, he likes his job and is good at it like Jack was, but I think for Nathan family and safety would always come first.

It didn’t come first for Bill. It didn’t come first for Jack. But it would for Nathan. I don’t think Elizabeth realizes this—that for Nathan this isn’t him giving up his passion for love (or to settle down). It’s settling down because he wants to make a life here for himself and doesn’t want to ever have to leave, a choice he won’t get if he stays with the Mounties

For Jack, the Mounties were a Calling, a lifelong passion.

For Nathan, they were a career he enjoyed.

I’m interested to see when this will be revealed in the story and how that will make Elizabeth feel. No matter what, it’s scary to be the person ‘forcing’ someone else to give up something big, in this case Nathan’s livelihood (in exchange for her peace of mind). I have some personal experience with this. In fact, when I was dating my (now-)husband for the first time, he wanted to move to be with me. We were young. He had a college picked out. He had a career path. I had a job doing physical labor and I was living at home. If he needed help, my family would be too poor to assist and we had no extra space for him to stay. I refused. We actually broke up over it. There’s just so much pressure on the person who isn’t giving something up: fear of feeling indebted to someone, fear of the relationship HAVING to work out (or it was a waste of everyone’s time and money)...

Anyway, this storyline could mean a lot to me if it’s done right, so...I hope it is. :)

—

Overall this was another enjoyable episode. I was shocked at the intensity of the ending, and pleasantly surprised by most of the rest of it. Fiona’s actually growing on me as a character (she’s made of sterner stuff than some of them). I’m definitely looking forward to next week and I hope you are too!

My only real criticism so far, other than the ones outlined above, is the sheer number of scenes. I think it might be...a bit much. Almost...scattered? But we’ll see how they do in future episodes.

Feel free to message me with any thoughts/opinions/et cetera. ♥

#when calls the heart #analysis and meta discussion #character studies and information #long post

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dramaticviolincrescendo · 4 years ago

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Ian and Monica vs. Yevgeny and Svetlana

That’s right. I’m going to do a meta post. Because this fantastic gifset from @sickness-health-all-that-shit got me thinking about something from a different angle. I’m not sure if this has been noted in the fandom before since I’m still relatively new compared to the Shameless veterans, so sorry in advance if this has been talked about to death.

From the time Ian returns in season four through the last occasion when we see him with Yevgeny in season six, it’s pretty clear that he loves that kid almost as much as Svetlana does and far more than Mickey seems to. Obviously, Mickey has a lot of justifiable reasons for not feeling particularly paternal towards Yevgeny that I won’t get into here, and we do see a bit of a shift in the police station on that front for the first time. However, the fact of the matter is that Ian is more of a father to Yevgeny than Mickey--even Svetlana mentions his help when she’s talking to Kev. In my meta-viewing rounds, I’ve seen a lot about how Yevgeny’s relation to Mickey and Ian being just a genuinely kind, compassionate person play a huge role here. I agree. There is, however, an enormous parallel with his own upbringing that I want to explore at length, and since writing is kind of my medium, I figured I’d do it here. (Again, if this has been talked about before, please continue scrolling and have a wonderful day! :D )

Ian has mommy issues.

Ian also has daddy issues.

There. I said it.

All the Gallagher kids have issues with Frank and Monica, and we see them “act out” throughout the series in ways that would indicate that they suffer from a level of trauma strongly associated with their parents. For now, let’s focus on Ian’s since he’s who this post is ultimately about.

Frank:

Unlike the rest of the Gallagher siblings, we don’t really see much happening directly between Frank and Ian without the rest of the family involved in the first four seasons prior to Ian meeting Yevgeny. To my knowledge, all they really have is a brief deleted scene conversation and Frank offering “advice” when Ian is trying to warn him that Mickey is upset. Their other interactions tend to be more negative, with Frank beating on Ian or Ian joining the rest of his siblings in getting Frank out of the house. At the end of the first season, he even finds out that Frank isn’t actually his biological father. His speech to Lip and behavior for the rest of the series seem to indicate that it doesn’t matter to him and he still considers Frank his father regardless, but that was a heck of a smack to the face when he was already growing up with Frank’s special brand of manipulation and neglect.

So, where does that lead him? Places where a child his age shouldn’t have been. Interacting with much older men who preyed on him rather than trying to find him help or just staying away. They had an aura of stability that we have seen time and again is what Ian craves, through ROTC and West Point and these relationships with people who seemingly have their shit together. (In reality, we all know it’s a facade. Kash and Ned absolutely do not have their shit together, and Ian’s demeanor around them visibly shifts when he finally sees that with Kash shooting Mickey and Ned’s family falling apart.) As with Frank, he is willing and able to let them go when he realizes that they are more of the same: another deadbeat.

Now, let’s table that and come back to it in a moment.

Monica:

Ian’s relationship with Monica clearly has a greater impact on him throughout the series in more ways than merely their shared bipolar situations. She’s the only biological parent he has, and she’s definitely the only parent that has shown him any real affection from what we’ve seen. (Until the wedding. I’ll give Frank a few karma points for not causing trouble and being happy for Ian.) Monica loves him--he knows that. Unfortunately, he also knows that that love is not enough to keep her around or make her a better mother to any of her children. If anything, the combination of her affection, his grudging love for her, and her disorder render any efforts she does make counterproductive. For example, Frank has never engaged with Ian’s dreams of becoming a soldier, but when Monica finds out that that is his goal and that he’s upset about not having the grades for West Point, she hauls him right over to the recruitment office. To her, it’s an act of adoration. Everybody else knows it’s insane: Ian was underage and shouldn’t have been anywhere near there. Just like he shouldn’t have been anywhere near clubs, being objectified. Monica wasn’t being malicious. She seriously thought that she was doing what was best for him in her own way. Her own way just happened to be really messed up. To a large extent, it seems like Ian recognizes this fairly early on until he gets sick and doesn’t know who to turn to.

Rather than write her off the way he does Frank, however, Ian stays in touch with her behind his siblings’ backs. He knows she isn’t a good influence and that they would be appalled if he told them that they still talk. But he cares. She’s important to him. Fiona is fantastic, but she’s his sister. This is his mother, who obviously loves him even at her worst. He can’t let that go. He has to cling to that one parent in the same way that the others cling to Frank at various points in the earlier seasons before he burns their final bridges at one moment or another.

Character Foils: Yevgeny, Svetlana, and Mickey

I think Ian’s relationship with his parents is a huge reason for why Ian behaves the way he does with Yevgeny in part based on the timing. It doesn’t begin when he moves into the Milkovich house. It doesn’t start with the obligation if he is going to live with Mickey since Svetlana isn’t going anywhere. Even though his discomfort over Mickey going to the baptism surfaces afterward, Ian starts actively trying to take care of Yevgeny the same day he sees that baby. Why bother? He hasn’t shown any concern for Svetlana before. He even sarcastically congratulated Mickey when they found out she was in labor without actually pushing for either of them to be there. Why does he decide at that moment to get involved, knowing that Mickey wouldn’t be happy about it and that Svetlana wouldn’t accept the charity from him, of all people?

Well, because it’s a painfully similar situation to what he’s accustomed to, isn’t it?

Mickey left home, just like Frank. (I’m not saying he didn’t have a good reason: he had a lot of trauma to endure that Frank didn’t. Frank not wanting kids has nothing on what Mickey went through to wind up here.) He didn’t want a baby. He didn’t want to be a father. He is just chilling at the Gallaghers’ house, both of them pretending that things are the way they used to be because the changes aren’t right in front of their faces anymore. When Svetlana walks through the front door looking for him not because they’re married, but because of the baby? When Mickey doesn’t care? Regardless of the reasons, that has to look familiar to Ian in practice.

Svetlana gives a shit. She’s willing to threaten Mickey with something that could end his life (if Terry were so inclined) if he doesn’t step up to support their child. Again, she’s not asking him at that point to be a husband. She doesn’t ask him to move back in, and when she does later, there’s no reason to believe that Ian knows about it since he wasn’t there. For her, it comes down to love for her child as far as Ian is concerned. She’s got problems--there’s no denying that. But she loves her kid more than anything. She comes to find Mickey for the first time looking frazzled because their kid needs things. When Ian needed to feel better about Mickey going to juvie, Monica was there. When Ian needed to be comforted about his future, Monica was there. By that point, Monica was even there for him when he went into a severe manic episode, ran away from the army, got kicked out of Ned’s condo, and had nowhere else to go. She didn’t stick around, as Monica’s MO tends to dictate, but she was there when he was in need and was gone when he reached a state of what she would define as stability. (We know he wasn’t stable. Dear heavens, he was so not stable.)

It’s not Yevgeny’s fault that his parents are kind of a shitshow (courtesy of Terry, of course), just like it wasn’t Ian’s fault that Frank and Monica were the same. Yevgeny was born into an awful situation he can’t control. Ian must understand that better than almost anybody. By this time, his older siblings have found a sense of control over their lives while Ian’s whole world is bouncing up and down around him, spinning too fast for him to keep up.

Ian has something that Yevgeny doesn’t: experience. This kid is just getting started, but Ian has already been there. He’s grown up with a dad that doesn’t want him and a mother who loves him, although his own mother didn’t stick around the way Svetlana did. Then again, Ian barely knew Svetlana beyond her occupation, so for all he knew, even that wouldn’t last. Maybe she would go the same way as Monica.

Nobody would have wanted that for Ian, and it only makes sense that he wouldn’t want it for Yevgeny.

So, he steps up right away. He doesn’t have time to go through the mental process of coming to terms with the fact that this is Mickey’s kid and how he’s going to need stability. That much is obvious when he questions why Mickey is going to the baptism only to be told, “He’s my son, man.” It clearly hadn’t registered for him entirely, they’d been so encapsulated in the bubble they’d built for themselves when Ian came home.

Tl;dr - That gut-instinct to act? That immediate response to seeing--not hearing--that Yevgeny needed things that parents were supposed to provide for their children? Ian is such a kind-hearted person that I don’t put it past him for an instant to do what he could, but I think his own upbringing played a large role in the decision. He wasn’t looking for praise or to get Svetlana off of Mickey’s back. He saw a newborn baby who was in danger of growing up with a father who didn’t want him and a mother who loved him but perhaps not enough to save him someday.

Just like Ian.

#shameless us #ian gallagher #mickey milkovich #svetlana milkovich #yevgeny milkovich #frank gallagher #monica gallagher #it's ian gallagher loving hours #again #it's always ian gallagher loving hours #meta

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livinginsunnyhell · 4 years ago

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Part three of my rewatch! Up to 1x09. It’s so crazy to me how much you notice after the first watch, especially after reading so many metas. 1x08 particularly stands out to me for a few reasons.

Also it’s right before we meet Monica and I think it’s a pretty pivotal point in a lot of the characters story arcs. We see lip discovering his potential for the future and already the push and tug of his desire to stay on the south side vs have a better future for himself. Ian and Mickey has been set up especially Ian’s burgeoning disdain for kash. Fiona is struggling and feeling like she’s not worth it. She’s seeking to better herself not to mention the cracks of her relationship with jimmy/Steve are starting. V and kev and their desire to start a family. We see how smart Debbie is (which like lip is a shame to see since you see what happens) I think they haven’t figured out Carl yet other than being destructive and curious but you do see hints of him feeding off and looking up to Frank.

-I never realized Karen wanted to have THE conversation with Lip. You know the one where they define what they were. I firmly believe if they had had the conversation things would’ve turned out differently for them. I think her desire to have the conversation and him not taking the bait or not understanding it plays into her anger later on. I also think that if they had defined their relationship lip wouldn’t have held on to her for so long.

- I think the hardest part of the episode to watch (surprisingly not the Fiona crying scene after she worked at the bar) was lip. Lip talking about frank and how he was when he was sober or his turtle analogy. And also when he goes to the university and talks with the professor about getting his degrees and how he’s a genius. The professor says wear a condom or you’ll worry you never reached your potential. And while lip fucks up on his own, you know he’s always going to think about how he never reaches his potential.

-Ian continues not to be involved in any of the family hijinxes. It’s always Fiona, lip, Carl, Debbie and Frank. I think it’s weird or maybe foreshadowing how separates Ian is from the others. He’s always at work or with the Milkovichs.

- Ian falls so fast for Mickey. That is all.

- Ian looks deeply uncomfortable when kash brings up resuming them hooking up. He can’t even make eye contact with kash when he mentions old times sake. It’s like he slept with Mickey and forgot about everything else.

-Ian’s face when Linda smacks him is I think a mixture of disbelief, hurt, and guilt. Like he says he doesn’t realize that kash has a family till he sees and smells it.

- Fiona and V’s friendship is great. I love it so much. And I miss this.

- Debbies concern for Fiona is so heart warming. She’s so worried about jimmy and her sister. And she doesn’t want jimmy to leave.

#gallavich #mickey milkovich #ian gallagher #ian x mickey #shameless #lip gallagher #lip had so much promise #debbie gallagher #fiona gallagher #Fiona and v are great #karen jackson #Karen x lip #rewatching shameless #rewatch before season 11

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meta-squash · 5 years ago

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I just saw a post about someone headcanoning that Mickey didn’t have internalized homophobia/wasn’t ashamed about his gayness and like I respect that headcanon and I definitely think that’s an interpretation that people are allowed to have, for sure. But it just made me think about my own interpretation I’ve had and now I wanna write it down because I haven’t properly like sat and thought about it before but one thing popped in my head so.

My immediate reaction to reading the post, aside from “Hm, not the way I see it, but I get where it’s coming from,” is that a big, annoying, whacked out thing about the human brain and shame/self-hatred is that you will do something while hating yourself for it at exactly the same time.

What I mean is, in the early days it would be quite easy for Mickey to be fucking Ian, enjoying the physical pleasure of it, while simultaneously totally hating himself for it. People do that with other things, like food or spending money or whatever.

My thoughts about Mickey and self-hatred/internalized homophobia have always been that up until he had to go search for Ian in S4, it was definitely something he was dealing with. I think, at first, it was simply a knee-jerk reaction for him to say “I’m not gay, this is just a good fuck and it’s easy”. He probably didn’t try to logic his way around anything. He probably didn’t try to convince himself that there was a difference between why he liked fucking Ian vs Angie or y’know whatever. We all know Terry was a monster, and probably some of Mickey’s brothers (beside Iggy) were like mini Terrys. I’m gonna guess he’d had homophobia drilled into him pretty early on. He probably did what I said above: fucked Ian while hating himself for it simultaneously, then tried his best to shove it all away. He’s a dick all the time because he’s terrified of being found out and because he doesn’t really like himself in the first place.

I don’t think his internalized homophobia was any better when Kash shot him; I think he was forward about it because he assumed he had the upper hand and definitely didn’t expect to get shot. At this point, he and Ian are at least kind of like friends, so there’s more of a fwb thing going on and he can excuse it all on that level.

I don’t think he really relaxes about it until after his second stint in juvie. 95% of his need to kill Frank is probably fear that someone in the neighborhood is going to find out, whether it’s his father or someone else, and he’s gonna go down for it. The other 5% is that fear of being seen as gay not because of other people hurting him but because he can’t quite admit it to himself. That’s where the “warm mouth” comment comes from. I think if he had admitted to himself he was gay, he’d have said something just as harsh at that moment, considering how bad he’s freaking out, but I do think it’s interesting that he reduces Ian to something fairly universal, a mouth. Again it’s an attempt to convince, like a “I could get whatever I want, girls too, this is just convenient and easy.” He will not acknowledge the fact that he’s the one getting fucked. Especially after Frank’s just found them in a compromising position.

But I do think he chills out. On coming back, he literally tells Ian he missed him (or his dick, I guess). They fuck in broad daylight, where anyone who knew to go under there could find them. At this point I think he’s managed to admit to himself that he likes fucking Ian (liking what I like don’t make me a bitch), he’s managed to admit to himself that he wants to spend his time around Ian. I think at this point he still doesn’t quite see himself as gay or at least can’t admit it to himself, because he thinks of gay people as much more flamboyant. That’s why he’s flip about using slurs about other people: he sees himself as different from them. But, again, I think he’s slowly warming up and growing out of that.

And then 3x06 happens, and I think it throws him backward in one way and forward in another. I think, after Ian leaves, or maybe even before, probably around the kiss (because it’s clearly something he mulled over after Ian’s comment), he’s realized that he’s gay. That he can’t change, will never change. That’s the forward part: that he’s admitted it to himself. I think, though, at that point, with Ian leaving and Svetlana pregnant, he does hate himself for it. That’s the backward part. There’s a massive difference between Ian and Mickey (obviously) in that Ian has a supportive family: if a Gallagher had walked in on them fucking, there would probably be some annoyed shrieking, but not violence. If Ian ever told his siblings what happened that day (clearly he didn’t), they would have rallied around him if not Mickey to support them. But once Ian leaves, Mickey has literally no one to back him up. Mandy, to some extent, but they’ve never been that close and Mandy’s got her own issues with a) Gallaghers and b) Terry so that’s not great. I think he knows he’s gay but he hates that he can’t change and he also probably hates that he knows he can’t fight back when it comes to Terry.

I think that a huge factor in Mickey’s internalized homophobia, his self-hatred, his irritability and aggression and anxiety, is the fact that Terry is around. We see this fairly well in the show, that Mickey genuinely is a lot more relaxed, more talkative, kinder, etc when Terry isn’t around. So once Terry gets sent back to the can for violating his probation, it seems like Mickey has a lot more space to think about his feelings and stuff.

By the time he goes to find Ian in S4, I think he’s kind of reached a point where the self-hatred has turned to exhaustion and the internalized homophobia has kind of fallen away. He still is absolutely in no place to confront his issues re: Svetlana and 3x06 judging by like every interaction they have with each other, but I think he’s been worried about Ian this entire time and once he knows Ian’s back there’s not a lot that’s gonna prevent that pull between them.

Again, I think a lot of his self-hatred isn’t just homophobia. There’s a lot, psychologically, that goes on growing up in an abusive household like that and in a financial situation like that where literally nothing is guaranteed, not even basic necessities.

But I think his time staying with the Gallaghers helps monumentally. Because he gets to see the way Ian’s family doesn’t even bat an eye at them sleeping in a bed together, that Carl is asking about their relationship in a purely innocent, curious way rather than a “can I fuck this guy up” way. Fiona interacts with him basically like he’s almost part of the family. The Gallaghers integrate him into their fold fairly easily. It’s very different from the “every man for himself, watch your mouth and watch your back” vibe of the Milkovich household.

I think the worry about Ian plus their mutual experiences and the fact that Ian is the only person he’s comfortable being out to (at the point of season 3 ending) is a huge factor. By the end of S3, we also know that Mandy knows. I think Mandy’s reaction helps some: while she doesn’t really have Mickey’s back, he knows she’s not going to snitch and also now knows she doesn’t care. I think all those factors and the time apart while Ian’s gone means that when Ian does come back, Mickey is fully ready to throw everything he’s got into this.

The other thing I think that helps is the extreme loyalty. Mickey and Mandy are both this way, and we don’t know anything really about the other Milkoviches, so we have no idea about them, but Mickey and Mandy both definitely completely dedicate themselves to people they love. I think to some extent they’ve even done that each other, though there is a little distance there just due to like a) being siblings and b) having to grow up in the Milkovich house like at all. But by the end of season 4, Mickey has definitely like fully dedicated himself to Ian. He wouldn’t have come out in the Alibi like that if he wasn’t 100% in it. He probably would have told Ian to fuck off and stormed out if he was anything less than totally dedicated to Ian. Somewhere between Ian leaving and the fight at the Alibi, Mickey decided that Ian was what he wanted.

Which is how we get to the Alibi. And, consequently, a direct line from the end of season 4 into Mickey’s growth in season 5. We don’t get to see Ian’s depressive episode except for the beginning of it in the last episode, but we know from throwaway lines at the beginning of season 5 that it lasted quite a while, and that he presumably stayed with Mickey the whole time. So I bet caring for and worrying about Ian during that time solidified for Mickey his dedication, and probably made him realize (if he hadn’t already at the Alibi) that he was straight up in love with Ian. Which, again, then makes the rest of S5 storyline track easily.

Basically, this is a long-winded (because when am I not) way of saying that in my interpretation, I do think that season 1&2 and even early 3 Mickey had internalized homophobia and/or self hatred. It would be somewhat difficult for him to not, in the environment he grew up. I think it’s also probably mixed up in other not-gay-related self-hatred he has as well. But I think eventually he admits to himself that he’s gay and kinda stops hating himself for it, and it turns into a fear of being caught and hurt/killed (S4), a fear of outside homophobia, rather than a hatred of himself, and then once he confronts that fear (Alibi fight), he’s able to really grow as a person and dedicate himself to Ian and really realize the full extent of his love for Ian, as we see in S5.

#shameless #shameless meta #mickey milkovich #gallavich

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tocinephile · 6 years ago

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The Morning After - Oscars 2019 Edition

My favourite photo from the 91st Academy Awards

My two favourite moments from last night’s Oscars are better represent in audio, those being Olivia Coleman’s speech when she won Best Actress over the heavily favoured Glenn Close, and when Rayka Zehtabchi exclaimed “I can’t believe a film on menstruation won an Oscar!”

It was fun keeping up with everyone’s reactions and remarks during the awards, and chiming in with many of my own even though I do, as always, find the speed of twitter a little breakneck. Also friends and colleagues who, knowing that I’m a big movie buff, came by or message me to discuss last night’s show. At times we got animated enough that random passerbys and company VPs felt the need to chime in, which is the best gathering of the minds possible in my world.

Here’s a list of the winners and what I thought of each recipient:

Best Picture

“Black Panther” “BlacKkKlansman” “Bohemian Rhapsody” “The Favourite” “Green Book” (WINNER) “Roma” “A Star Is Born” “Vice”

While not entirely classy of Spike Lee to turn his back when Green Book was announced, he was able to joke about it later that every time a film about driving was pit against his own film, he would lose to it (Do the Right Thing lost to Driving Miss Daisy) My silver lining was knowing that TIFF audiences picked yet another Best Picture winner. We do have quite a track record, don’t we? I really thought the Academy was going to make a different type of history in diversity by awarding a foreign film (Roma) with Best Picture. Or at least Black Panther, that would’ve been cool too.

Director

Spike Lee, “BlacKkKlansman” Pawel Pawlikowski, “Cold War” Yorgos Lanthimos, “The Favourite” Alfonso Cuarón, “Roma” (WINNER) Adam McKay, “Vice”

I agree with this win.

Lead Actress

Yalitza Aparicio, “Roma” Glenn Close, “The Wife” Olivia Colman, “The Favourite” (WINNER) Lady Gaga, “A Star Is Born” Melissa McCarthy, “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”

I was ecstatic to have guessed wrong in my Oscar picks for this category. Both Olivia Coleman and Glenn Close were such strong contenders (as was Melissa McCarthy). Glenn Close carried her film, Olivia Coleman elevated her already very good movie to another level.

Lead Actor

Christian Bale, “Vice” Bradley Cooper, “A Star Is Born” Willem Dafoe, “At Eternity’s Gate” Rami Malek, “Bohemian Rhapsody” (WINNER) Viggo Mortensen, “Green Book”

It’s nice that Rami Malek won, and I guessed he would. But I think Christian Bale was still better.

Original Song

“All The Stars” from “Black Panther” by Kendrick Lamar, SZA “I’ll Fight” from “RBG” by Diane Warren, Jennifer Hudson “The Place Where Lost Things Go” from “Mary Poppins Returns” by Marc Shaiman, Scott Wittman “Shallow” from “A Star Is Born” by Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando, Andrew Wyatt and Benjamin Rice (WINNER) “When A Cowboy Trades His Spurs For Wings” from “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” by David Rawlings and Gillian Welch

I don’t think any other song legitimately had a chance.

Original Score

“BlacKkKlansman,” Terence Blanchard “Black Panther,” Ludwig Goransson (WINNER) “If Beale Street Could Talk,” Nicholas Britell “Isle of Dogs,” Alexandre Desplat “Mary Poppins Returns,” Marc Shaiman, Scott Wittman

One last time I’ll say this: Where was First Man? After not seeing it on the list I really had no one to root for.

Adapted Screenplay

“The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,” Joel Coen , Ethan Coen “BlacKkKlansman,” Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott, Spike Lee (WINNER) “Can You Ever Forgive Me?,” Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty “If Beale Street Could Talk,” Barry Jenkins “A Star Is Born,” Eric Roth, Bradley Cooper, Will Fetters

I think a writing Oscar is an excellent award for Spike Lee to win. I’m rarely familiar with the original story vs its adaptation, therefore it’s hard to say who did the best job of adapting their source material. That said, any way you slice it, BlacKkKlansman was a great script.

Original Screenplay

“The Favourite,” Deborah Davis, Tony McNamara “First Reformed,” Paul Schrader “Green Book,” Nick Vallelonga, Brian Currie, Peter Farrelly (WINNER) “Roma,” Alfonso Cuarón “Vice,” Adam McKay

While I put my money on Green Book, I can’t fathom why anyone would think it’s a better script than The Favourite nor Vice (I didn’t see First Reformed, and I think Roma is at least on par with Green Book) Destroyer was an original script right? I’m personally disappointed it wasn’t up for any writing awards.

Live Action Short Film

“Detainment,” Vincent Lambe “Fauve,” Jeremy Comte “Marguerite,” Marianne Farley “Mother,” Rodrigo Sorogoyen “Skin,” Guy Nattiv (WINNER)

I didn’t watch any of the shorts this year.

Visual Effects

“Avengers: Infinity War” “Christopher Robin” “First Man” (WINNER) “Ready Player One” “Solo: A Star Wars Story”

Again, please to be wrong in this category. If anything I would have said First Man stood out more in audio achievement, but visual effects were also excellent and I’m glad the film got at least one Oscar because it is such a fine technical achievement.

Documentary Short Subject

“Black Sheep,” Ed Perkins “End Game,” Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman “Lifeboat,” Skye Fitzgerald “A Night at the Garden,” Marshall Curry “Period. End of Sentence.,” Rayka Zehtabchi (WINNER)

Amazing acceptance speech. I want to see this now.

Animated Short

“Animal Behaviour,” Alison Snowden, David Fine “Bao,” Domee Shi (WINNER) “Late Afternoon,” Louise Bagnall “One Small Step,” Andrew Chesworth, Bobby Pontillas “Weekends,” Trevor Jimenez

Also a fine, inspiring acceptance speech by Domee Shi. I didn’t see any other shorts but I did watch Bao several times over and my Torontonian pride swelled when it won. Growing up Asian, there’s a lot of embedded humour in this short as well, the husband character is still my absolute favourite.

Animated Feature

“Incredibles 2,” Brad Bird “Isle of Dogs,” Wes Anderson “Mirai,” Mamoru Hosoda “Ralph Breaks the Internet,” Rich Moore, Phil Johnston “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman (WINNER)

I really gotta see this movie.

Supporting Actor

Mahershala Ali, “Green Book” (WINNER) Adam Driver, “BlacKkKlansman” Sam Elliott, “A Star Is Born” Richard E. Grant, “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” Sam Rockwell, “Vice”

As expected. Though Richard E Grant is still my favourite, anyone catch his interview with Ryan Seacrest on the red carpet? And how he’s besties with Melissa McCarthy now? Love it.

Film Editing

“BlacKkKlansman,” Barry Alexander Brown “Bohemian Rhapsody,” John Ottman (WINNER) “Green Book,” Patrick J. Don Vito “The Favourite,” Yorgos Mavropsaridis “Vice,” Hank Corwin

Fixing up a film in editing doesn’t warrant it as best edited film of the year! I cannot believe Bohemain Rhapsody won in this category. Especially again films such as The Favourite and Vice, the former’s editing has a hand in shaping its visual mastery, the latter is entirely built from the art of editing. What the hell?

Foreign Language Film

“Capernaum” (Lebanon) “Cold War” (Poland) “Never Look Away” (Germany) “Roma” (Mexico) (WINNER) “Shoplifters” (Japan)

Capernaum was still better ;)

Sound Mixing

“Black Panther,” Steve Boeddeker, Brandon Proctor and Peter Devlin “Bohemian Rhapsody,” Paul Massey, Tim Cavagin and John Casali (WINNER) “First Man,” Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño, Ai-Ling Lee and Mary H. Ellis “Roma,” Skip Lievsay, Craig Henighan and José Antonio García “A Star Is Born,” Tom Ozanich, Dean Zupancic, Jason Ruder and Steve Morrow

-and-

Sound Editing

“Black Panther,” Benjamin A. Burtt, Steve Boeddeker “Bohemian Rhapsody,” John Warhurst (WINNER) “First Man,” Ai-Ling Lee, Mildred Iatrou Morgan “A Quiet Place,” Ethan Van der Ryn, Erik Aadahl “Roma,” Sergio Diaz, Skip Lievsay

Just because a film is about music doesn’t automatically qualify it for best sound! Have all the Academy voters gone out of their mind??? If you’re gonna go by that misguided logic then at least give it to A Star is Born. It’s been a day and I still can’t fathom how anyone could think the sound editing of Bohemian Rhapsody is better than First Man, A Quiet Place, and Roma!

Cinematography

“Cold War,” Lukasz Zal “The Favourite,” Robbie Ryan “Never Look Away,” Caleb Deschanel “Roma,” Alfonso Cuarón (WINNER) “A Star Is Born,” Matthew Libatique

This was a pretty stacked category and Alfonso Cuaron did make a beautiful looking film. I don’t know if it was more striking that Cold War or The Favourite, but all in all he did deserve the win.

Production Design

“Black Panther,” Hannah Beachler (WINNER) “First Man,” Nathan Crowley, Kathy Lucas “The Favourite,” Fiona Crombie, Alice Felton “Mary Poppins Returns,” John Myhre, Gordon Sim “Roma,” Eugenio Caballero, Bárbara Enrı́quez

Fine. At least it wasn’t Roma, and I get that more often than not the period film usually wins it, so it’s cool to shake it up. The Favourite is still my fav.

Costume Design

“The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,” Mary Zophres “Black Panther,” Ruth E. Carter (WINNER) “The Favourite,” Sandy Powell “Mary Poppins Returns,” Sandy Powell “Mary Queen of Scots,” Alexandra Byrne

Again, I like The Favourite more.

Makeup and Hairstyling

“Border,” Göran Lundström and Pamela Goldammer “Mary Queen of Scots,” Jenny Shircore, Marc Pilcher and Jessica Brooks “Vice,” Greg Cannom, Kate Biscoe and Patricia Dehaney (WINNER)

I’d have been surprised if anyone else won.

Documentary Feature

“Free Solo,” Jimmy Chin, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi (WINNER) “Hale County This Morning, This Evening,” RaMell Ross “Minding the Gap,” Bing Liu “Of Fathers and Sons,” Talal Derki “RBG,” Betsy West, Julie Cohen

:) That’s the one I picked.

Supporting Actress

Amy Adams, “Vice” Marina de Tavira, “Roma” Regina King, “If Beale Street Could Talk” (WINNER) Emma Stone, “The Favourite” Rachel Weisz, “The Favourite”

I preferred Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone’s performances. Amy Adams even.

So, that’s it for awards season 2019. I did pitiful in my predictions this year because I was way off on the technical awards, not to mention some big ones too like Best Picture.

I’ll wrap it up by recommending that you watch First Man (with a good sound set up as it is superb technical, has a great score, and supporting actress Claire Foy), Destroyer (for its story and Nicole Kidman), The Hate U Give (that delivers a much stronger message than Green Book ever will), and Beautiful Boy (where supporting actor Timothee Chalamet actually has a sizable role).

#Oscars 2019 #oscars

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koganphrancis · 7 years ago

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Season H8 Episode 2 Recap

TV Guide’s review of this ep begins thusly: I don't want to write this story. Can I start by saying that?

I hear that-there’s so much just truly AWFUL in this episode that I’m not sure I can do it justice.

An important point I want to hit right away is that what really gets to me the longer the show goes on is how nothing that happens to Ian is advancing his story. In this week’s episode I can’t even begin to count how many splats of poop plop onto him, and by the end nothing has changed. He’s still in grief, he’s still pretty dumb, he’s still “with” Terror. What was the point of any of it?

I’ll try to summarize the other storylines as quick as I can-Fiona continues her nowhere near reality building manager life. She’s battling tenants for the rent (??? this is the first month she’s collecting rent even tho Monica died months ago?) and SOOOOO much time is wasted with her yelling at people we don’t know. By the end of the ep, she’s slapping an eviction notice on a door and warming that if the family isn’t out the next day, she’s calling the marshals. I know this show isn’t a documentary, but that bit was so far from the way things work I wanted to cry. I’m stuck working in the next cube over from a woman who owns a couple of small apartment buildings with her husband, and I’ve had to hear how hard it is to evict someone more than once. It takes months, and lawyers, and court appearances, and if there’s little kids involved-like the family they showed on Shameless-it takes even longer. There are no branches of “marshals” sitting around waiting for landlords to call and tell them to kick people out, same day service. Also, it’s already getting to me how unrealistic it is for Fiona to even own this building. Who is taking care of cleaning the common areas? How does she pay anyone to fix clogged pipes, broken heating, etc? She’s still working at the diner too, so she’s not rolling in cash. The show just handing her this enterprise to run is too hard to believe (or get interested in, but don’t let me digress). It’s so soap opera-y, they might as well have said she was suddenly running her own fashion design firm or cosmetic company or something.

Lip continues to be a dink. Mooning over Snore, wanting to come up with a way to show her her ex is no good. He takes advice from fucking Frank and has a pizza guy come to the diner so he can order a special pizza to be delivered to the ex-why does Lip know his address? The pizza has a bag of coke on it, and the ex runs to a meeting to resist the temptation. Now, I don’t know if he’s also an alcoholic also, so he goes to AA meetings too, but in an incredible coincidence, Lip and the ex are at the exact same meeting! Fancy that! While he’s talking about trying to not snort the coke, he conveniently mentions it’s still sitting in his house. Lip tears out of the meeting, breaks into the guy’s house and gets his leg chewed up by a guard dog for his trouble. Too many coincidences PLUS the shitty idea it was to begin with make this storyline pretty unbearable. We also learn, in passing, that Lip is 23 now, so that makes Ian 22, Debbie 18, and Carl 17-he could totally be charged as an adult for dealing that meth, not that the show is going to go there.

Debbie got her hair washed. That’s it. That’s what we see now on this show.

They continue to push the poverty vs the 1 percenter life style with Liam. I’m sorry, I can’t get into it. We all-including the Gallaghers-have TV, we know that rich people live differently than most of us. Can we move the fuck on, please?

Carl was barely in this ep-all he did was sell Ian’s meth and set Ian off at the end of the episode.

Frank is, as usual, not really worth talking about-we all know it’s just a matter of time before he’s back to his old ways. However, in his job interview scene, the other character got to sit there and tell the story of his past relationship and cry about it-so, another scene Ian should’ve had long ago where he talked about Mickey like that, grrr.

Now Ian, eye roll. The “here’s what you missed” went to him this week-he’s on the job, running from the EMT ambulance to a victim and he says, “Shit, I’m out here saving lives...” and I couldn’t help but think, “and looking to push my meth.”

Ian shows up for breakfast that Carl’s making, and Lip is at the sink with a plate, filling his face. Ian teases him, asking if he’s eating for two, and oddly rubs Lip’s stomach for an unnecessarily long amount of time. It made me realize how little those two have physical contact-they never even clasp each other on the shoulder or anything. This OOC rubbing from Ian was wicked weird, but of course it’s setting up the fact that Ian is very aware of BMI and how much a low one means to him. Lip says he’s trying to fight the urge to drink with extreme nausea, Ian answers, “Sounds healthy”, foreshadowing the other theme the show will hit hard this week-trading one unhealthy thing for another, sort of a lesser of two evils thing.

Carl says he can finally move Ian’s meth, so he runs to get it, but when Ian goes to hand it over, he gets weird about it-not because it could kill people/ruin lives, but because it’s the last (I would say “only”) thing Monica gave them, and “when it’s gone, she’s gone”. Carl couldn’t care less, and says he’s going to take a bigger cut from Ian than he did from Lip since Ian’s being a pussy or whatever.

Ian’s at the youth center, outside, taking care of a couple of kids and he’s all mopey and doesn’t even acknowledge Terror. Terror, of course, can’t have Ian not hitting on him, so he asks Ian if he’s okay. Ian says he got “kinda sad about Monica today”, Terror says that’s not weird (who said it was weird? Him not hitting on you is the only thing you think is weird, you rapey idiot), she hasn’t been dead very long. Ian sadly says, “I guess.” Terror tells him when he’s sad he goes to Bear Back. Ian is incredulous. “The chub bar? You’re into chubs?” The bigger the better,” says icky T. Ian says, “How do I not know this about you?” Because, Ian, you know almost NOTHING about this little asshole-there’s nothing to know and the writers haven’t bothered with anything other than he’s trans and he’s annoying.

I’m not going to bother trying to describe the disdain on Ian’s face and in his tone with everything that had to do with this part of the story-suffice it to say it was there, and it made me very sad that they’re painting Ian as this shallow, callow person who only cares about a guy’s body type not being big. Line up Mickey, Faileb, Terror, Kash, and Ned-none of them even have the “same” body type, but none of them were overweight. I guess that’s the only thing that bothers Ian.

Ian says he doesn’t get it, so Terror finally, after all this time, says they should go get a drink and Ian will “get enlightened”. “Or smothered,” Ian says-oh ho, that’s a great joke!

Cut to them at the bar. They have the following conversation:

Ian: This is seriously your type? Terror: Sometimes. I: What’s the attraction? T: They like to please. They’re tender. I: (to the bartender) Two shots of well whiskey. (What, no “please”? What a prick!) (to Terror) These guys? T: It’s not like I go for them all the time. It’s just when I need someone really nice in my life. Like let’s say there was this guy that I really loved (I screamed while watching this when he said that, Ian just sort of made a dismissive face-it’s not like he was hurt thinking that Terror truly loved him. Terror knew him for what-18 days before Ian ran off with Mickey?) and he deserted me (why are you being such a drama queen?) for three days to go to Mexico with his escaped convict ex. (I think you mean love of his life, asshole) I: Um-hm... T: I would come here, find a chub to worship me. (Get the fuck over yourself!!!!)

Terror tosses back his drink, leads Ian over to meet some guys at the pool table, they say Hi all interested, Ian sucks down his drink, looks like he’s not into this at all. Hello scene with the girl on the train all over again.

Next thing we know, we’re watching Ian have an orgasm-something we never got with Mickey-as he sits on a couch getting a blowjob from one of the big guys who is on his knees in front of him. In the background, about 15 feet away, the other big guy is on a bed facing the room Ian is in while Terror plows into him from behind. Seriously? Ian and Terror are this type of fuck buddies now? Ian’s wanted to get back with Terror since getting back from Mexico (allegedly), but he’ll put up with the two of them having sex in basically the same room?

Ian’s guy finishes him off and sits on the couch next to Ian and says, “Oh, you’re such a good boy.” 5 years with Mickey and we never got to see them talk after sex, but this rando gets to compliment him? Ian makes a face and says thanks and gets up-to leave, I hope, and not to go join in on the bed with Terror and the other guy. Ian’s guy asks where’s he going, Ian looks over at T on the bed and says, “What?” The guy says “Come here,” and lies down on the couch. Ian immediately gets in the little spoon position for no reason we can see whatsoever, but then Nancy pulls a little fan service and has him cry lying on his side, just like that scene from yesteryear. Ian doesn’t say anything, so it’s not like we can think he’s crying for Mickey, or because he’s flashing back to when he had meaningless sex with too many strangers to count before or because he feels bad about using this guy-it’s all supposed to be about Monica.

Next time we see Ian he’s in the hot tub and Fiona comes and joins him and he tells Fiona “other than crying in some fat fucking furry stranger’s arms tonight” he’s great. They have a boring talk about her day, and then Fi says she wants to know what’s going on. Ian says it’s embarrassing, Fi says, “Okay”, Ian tells her, “Terror said that hooking up with a chub would make me feel better about Monica but it don’t-it made me feel worse.” Fiona: Really? You’re upset she died? (This is why you never go to Fiona for advice about interpersonal relationships, Ian! She’s not wired like you!) I: Yeah. I know you guys have all moved on and I haven’t. (Shit, Ian, you really are all alone in this world now, aren’t you? You really should’ve gone to Mexico with the one and only person who cares about you!) F: Moved on while she was alive. I: Well, I guess I’m the family freak for not wanting to forget about her. (yeah, you should just forget about her-you could do it with Mickey, and he actually had your back!) F: I don’t think you’re a freak cuz you don’t want to forget her. I think you’re a freak cuz you cried in a fat dude’s arms.

They splash each other and the next day I’m reading posts about how great it is that Fiona’s acting like Ian’s sister again-huh? Did I miss when she said, “I’m sorry you’re hurting, I’m here for you, what do you need”? She told a fat joke and didn’t look the least bit worried over Ian’s suffering-or what he did to try to alleve it. And what about her worrying/saying that fucking Terror will set a match to Ian’s sweet life that he’s worked so hard to achieve? Shouldn’t any big sister’s response to “Trevor said...” be, “If Trevor told you to sniff glue would you have done THAT? That’d make you forget your pain over Monica for a while too, but IT’S NO FUCKING SOLUTION.”

Also, this whole thing just proves that Terror has no credentials whatsoever. He’s probably just a volunteer at the youth center-they let him drive kids around without a valid license and now his advice to someone who’s had bad sex almost his entire life is to go have some more to feel better for a while. Fuck this noise. There’s no way he’s ever had formal training to be a counselor working with at risk kids.

At least this time the hot tub had steam rising off it.

You’d think that’d be enough bad for one ep, but no! We still have the tattoo to get through! Ian’s already getting inked when the scene begins, and the artist asks if he’s doing okay, and Ian says yeah, he’s digging the pain. The tattoo guy says a lot of people say that especially if they’re going through a hard time. Ian asks why is that and the guy says, “Emotional pain has no location. Physical pain does-you can name it. So it becomes a little more manageable.” Um, Nancy? Did you just sign off on self-harm? That is NOT good or reasonable advice! What is it with this episode pushing Ian into destructive behavior?

Anyway, Ian asks how’s it looking, the guy says, “Your girlfriend’s gonna love this one, bro.” Ian says, “It’s not my girlfriend, it’s my mom.” The artist says, “Your mom? Oh you shoulda told me that before I started working on these titties.”

So, what, exactly, was the conversation when Ian got there? “I want a woman’s headless torso tattooed on my back-I’ll explain the significance of it later”???? As with everything on this show, their complete lack of research and respect for the work people do in the real world is non-existent here.

Next time we see Ian he’s drinking a beer shirtless in the Gallagher kitchen and TERROR is there-all my earlier hopes while I was watching that the dueling sex scene was going to be a deal breaker for Ian, at least for a while, has flown out the window. They don’t even say why he’s there-if those two assholes are back together and Terror’s settling in there again, I’ll riot.

Carl comes in from the front door with a random girl we never see up close. He walks all the way to the kitchen leaving her in the background and says Ian’s “lost it” when he hears the tattoo is supposed to be Monica. Oh, that reminds me-when Ian gets his money from Carl, he asks what Ian’s going to do with it and Ian says he’ll use it to do something to memorialize Monica-so, Carl gave Lip 9 grand, even if he kept an extra thousand from Ian, you mean to tell me that tattoo cost Ian all his money and he couldn’t pay the guy to cover it or turn it into something else?

Ian flips out when he recognizes Monica’s jacket on the girl. Carl said he gave it to her for some beers and a blowie. The whole time he’s drinking the beer, Ian’s acting like he did the day at Mickey’s when he wanted to go after the protesters at the serviceman’s funeral. Are we supposed to think he’s getting manic again? That would certainly explain a lot of shit/bad decisions that have gone down in this episode, but they showed him with his pills in the first episode and the writers have said they “dealt with” Ian needing to be medicated-although then they did cave and give us that brief look at Ian needing to get his dose adjusted last season. I hate how the show cares so little about anything, that you just don’t know if there’s reasons for Ian’s behavior or it’s just the indifferent script writers trading off week to week. Anyway, Ian insists Carl bring him to Monica’s storage unit since there’s still some of her stuff there, and Carl calls him “Psycho” but says he will.

The next day Ian’s wearing his bright red Nike high tops, out on the stoop shooting daggers from his eyes as the snooty rich mother of Liam’s sleepover friend is waiting. I assume there was some dialogue that got cut, because why is Ian so hostile towards her? Is he hurt because she’s judging him for living in a bad neighborhood-looking down on him? Isn’t that how this hypocritical fuck was about the big guys in this episode? Why does this show suck so hard now?

The woman’s kid and Liam and Carl come out, and Ian and Carl go to the storage unit and discover a big bad meth dealer there. He figures out they’re Monica’s kids and that she either gave them his meth or they stole it and either way he wants his $70000 back. Setting up the next pointless episode...

There was one scene with a kid playing Yevgeny in it (bring the Henckels back!), and Kev’s cancer scare that I had already read in a spoiler was going to be just that-only a scare. And Kev gets to join a cancer support group but we can’t send Ian to grief therapy because Gallaghers don’t do therapy.

The show is going nowhere. To Cameron after his rant this week I can only say, “Fuck me for giving a shit, you prick.”

#Recap #Season H8 Episode 2 #TW Self harm mention #Still smarting from the fat shaming but I tried to keep my temper in check

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its-a-queer-thing · 7 years ago

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(Same anon about Svetlana) First off thank you for answering in such detail, you brought up things I had forgotten about, such as the random oral sex with Kev and V, which definitely was out of order and personally I think handled badly by the writers. I also completely agree with her lying being wrong which is why I only really loved her for the start of season 7. I think the writers missed a perfect opportunity to represent polyamorous relationships positively with the thrupple

Hi again! :D Thanks again for asking for my take on her, it’s always really interesting to list out the pros and cons and figure out why exactly I feel a certain way about a certain character, and Svetlana is one I had yet to do that with.

Should I get started on all of the opportunities for representation the Shameless writers wasted??

Fuck it, here I go… Warning, it’s long and likely controversial.

There are a lot of things I kinda defend the writers on, so I’ll start with those…

It’s probably controversial, but I do defend the way the Shameless writers handled the storylines of the men who are raped/sexually assaulted on this show and how their assaults never REALLY referenced or talked about. The reason I defend this is because men who are raped in real life are ignored and many men who ARE sexually assaulted either know it but aren’t comfortable talking about it because men are expected to be sex machines and so grateful for any and all attention, or don’t even recognize what happened to them as a sexual assault. Some men may not care as Frank seemed not to other than the statutory angle; but I guarantee most, even if they don’t label what happened to them as “rape” (like Mickey) are still affected as we saw with both Mickey (who PERFECTLY demonstrated rape trauma syndrome symptoms) and Matty (who blatantly called his assault what it was, and explained that biology does not equal consent). I see a lot of people talking about how Matt’s rape was never addressed, but it was. Debbie talked to Lip about it and Lip represents a big population of people who think men can’t be raped or should be grateful for the attention (and come to think of it, it’s ironic that Lip was the one to tell Debbie that ugly nonsense he said considering we watched him be sexually assaulted by Mandy… But clearly he doesn’t recognize it as a sexual assault either…). Was this on purpose? I personally think so, I think it was the writers’ way of saying “Didn’t like that? Well, that’s how people talk about this stuff or they don’t talk at all. So now talk about it and bring awareness so we can fix it.” Maybe that’s a little optimistic considering who the executive producer is… but it’s how I look at it, because these events are NOT ignored on social media or conversations about the show. So the viewer has the choice to take an opportunity to talk about it, or not, and luckily many people HAVE taken the opportunity to talk about it. So, if I’m right and the writers intended for these plotlines to get people to talk: it worked. And if not, it worked anyway.

Another thing I typically defend the writers for is how they show/talk about pedophilic relationships and the double standards of them. A lot of people are bothered that no one in the show seems to care that Ian was molested by multiple older men and that no one calls it what it is: Pedophilia. No one has a problem with Ian having sex with older men, but as soon as Debbie is mentioned in a hypothetical relationship with an older man, it’s out of the question. Now, I personally think they did that on purpose to show that there is NO difference and yet our society seems to think there is. Boys are expected to sexually explore early so for some reason a young boy with an older woman or in Ian’s case, a young boy with an older man, is typically not a problem by society’s standards. They did this with the number of times that Ian’s sexual history with other men was brought up (Ned, namely) and only casually referenced without ANY disgust at Ned (Jimmy more concerned about his dad being gay than that he was molesting a minor) or concern for Ian (Fiona casually throwing out that Ned was getting blown by a teenager but unconcerned by the fact that her minor brother was in a relationship with a grown ass man). So I think this was purposefully shown to reflect the ugly truth of how we view young boys’ sexual development vs. girls. I thought they did a good job at showing how much bullshit this double standard is (and that’s not to say that I’m mad we treat young girls as flowers per se, it’s more that I think we need to care as much about how our young men are looked at in their sexual development as we do the young women). They even went on to show Debbie trying to start a relationship with an older guy and as unfortunate as it is, I think they did it to show the realistic teenage girl in today’s American society. It was going on when I was Debbie’s age and I’m sure it’s only getting worse. They were able to represent how and why girls are growing up too fast and I think started a great conversation, especially with what she did to Matt and how confused she was about consent, then with her getting pregnant and starting a conversation both about girls/women who trap men by getting pregnant and then about guys that run/how easy it is for guys to run.

Something I am irritated by is the continued misconceptions of bisexuality. Now, maybe I need to follow my own advice from the above example where I defend the writers and remind myself that people do see bisexuals as cheaters with a fancy label, or non-commital, or confused, etc. etc. And maybe I COULD look at it like that, if they were to give us a positive example of a bisexual to counter the failure that was Caleb and if they hadn’t made Ian force himself to have sex with a woman even though he’s never doubted his sexuality (and to an extent, Mickey since some people keep mistakenly labeling him bi).

So now we get into where I have a BIG beef with the writers concerning representation:

The misrepresentation of the Trans community… Trevor… They can’t make that okay… They had the PERFECT opportunity to bring in a beautiful Trans character (luckily they got a Trans actor so there’s that going for them…) but completely ruined it by turning this character into an ASS. Trevor is just so unpalatable and unfortunately I’ve talked to several people who made outrageously transphobic comments (about Elliot, actually) and while I explained to them why their comments weren’t okay, they just immediately defended their words by saying that Trevor made them care even less about wanting to understand the Trans community and genderqueer people. I’ve luckily seen lots of people online taking the time out to correct any misinformation about Trans people and genderqueer people and luckily people were responding well from what I read, but the fact is Trevor left a bad taste in a lot of people’s mouths and the Shameless writers honestly can’t make that right without basically reintroducing Trevor (or another Trans character) as a completely new person. It’s really upsetting as an ally because I want people to understand the Trans community and more about gender identity and EVERYTHING related to the LGBTQIA+ spectrum, but if the media representation is going to look like Trevor?? We’re never going to get there.

The poly relationship. I have a few problems with it. First that it started because two people were on the brink of a divorce. They were opening up a really interesting dialogue about sexual miscommunications after big life changes (like having a baby) and the pressures of being new parents (and I even liked that they had Veronica not connecting to her children the way she was feeling pressured to because more moms need to understand that this happens sometimes and it’s OKAY!) But then, Kev and V cheat on each other, are sexually assaulted by Svetlana and then suddenly both have feelings for her?? And so compromise their confusion by starting a poly relationship with her?? The way the thrupple formed bothered me, basically. BUT once it was formed, I liked how they found their own flow and their own rhythm because that’s important to notice that poly relationships are just about finding what works for you and the people you love. I like that they showed the communication issues to show that poly relationships are ALL about communication. That’s something my friends in poly relationships stress whenever we talk about it that the reason they like poly relationships is because there is no room for secrets or hiding feelings if you want something like this to work. And that’s definitely where the thrupple went wrong (Well… that and Svet tricking them into losing the bar…) I just enjoyed that they made it look so natural ONCE they got it going, but like I said getting it going made it look pretty negative… and then the end result fucking tanked it.

My final beef is that most people of color on this show are negative. We have V and she is MOSTLY good though in later seasons we see some unsavoriness, but that’s okay because she can’t be perfect as a regular character. Liam is frequently addressed when people are confused that he is the son of two white people and it looks like they may start a discussion about token black people in diversity efforts with Liam in private school, which is a great conversation to start and I hope they handle it well. But Liam was really infantile up until basically season 7 and even then he didn’t REALLY act like a 6 year old. Let’s be real, he was WAY too quiet. Now whether that’s an age thing or race thing, I don’t know and probably can’t say because I’ve seen this happen on multiple shows where the writers don’t know how to integrate a child that started off as basically a flesh prop but who is now capable of speech. Kenyatta turned into an abusive asshole (and I called it from the first time I saw him. Really tall and buff black dude… I knew they were going to go that route right away, though I hoped with all my might it wouldn’t happen). Debbie’s foster mother in season 3 was a demon of a woman. One of Carl’s foster father’s was a bit of a prick or at the very least really uptight. Roberta (Monica’s girlfriend in season 1) was a bitch and wanted to steal Liam so she was basically a villain. Nick had potential, it looked like he was all about defying the odds and showing that he was more than his history in Juvie (he just wanted a simple life of farming, a bicycle, and to be away from people! And to top it off, he needed Carl to guard him in the bathroom because he was too afraid of taking a shower by himself! I mean, this kid was a teddy bear despite his appearance and I was ROOTING for this kid because of that) but then he ends up going to prison because he suddenly got homicidal over his bicycle. He was such a sweet character, and yes I suppose an example of a victim of the system, but I don’t know why, but Nick’s arc really bothered me. I feel they could have done more by having Nick show Carl (by positive example not negative) that the thug life is not all that and that Carl should be grateful he doesn’t HAVE to resort to the thug life.

Whew. I am SO sorry this turned into what it did. When I get started… I get started and there is no stopping me! Hopefully everyone agrees, though obviously that is unlikely, so if anyone disagrees or wants me to clarify something please shoot a (respectful) Ask. I love discussions so long as they are respectful and informed.

Sorry again Anon for this monster of a response, but hopefully you enjoyed it! Lol.

Thanks for the love!

#answered #shameless #shameless rant #I talk about a lot of issues #sorry this got so long #I talk about basically all things controversial #have fun

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ramajmedia · 5 years ago

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Shameless: Fiona’s Exit Doesn’t Mean You Should Skip Season 10

Emmy Rossum exited Shameless at the end of season 9, resulting in a major absence of her character Fiona, the cornerstone of the Gallagher family, but that doesn't mean people shouldn't watch season 10. The Showtime series returns for season 10 this fall, an admirable feat for TV. Here's why viewers shouldn't skip the upcoming season despite the fact that Fiona left the series.

Since a young age, Fiona was tasked with being the primary caretaker for her five siblings. Her mother was usually absent and her father, Frank (William H. Macy), was a complete drunk. Over the years, Fiona fought tooth and nail to keep her family above water. It was tough at times, but she made many sacrifices to keep them afloat. In Shameless season 9, Fiona was the one who needed help as she made a few bad decisions in her business endeavors and her personal life. After turning to alcohol, she hit rock bottom but eventually overcame her struggles. By the end of the season, she realized that her siblings no longer needed her like they once did, so she left Chicago and traveled to an unknown location.

Related: Shameless UK vs. Shamess US Biggest Differences

Prior to Rossum's planned exit at the end of season 9, her co-star, Cameron Monaghan surprisingly exited the series. Monaghan played Ian, one of Fiona's younger brothers. After becoming a hero to the LGBTQ community, Ian got caught up committing a crime and was sentenced in prison for two years. It was assumed that Ian would continue being absent from the show but he made a cameo in the season 9 finale to say goodbye to Fiona before she left Chicago. It has since been reported that Monaghan will return in season 10 in one of the main roles. But that shouldn't be the only reason fans should be excited, because Ian's boyfriend, Mickey Milkovich (Noel Fisher), is also returning as a series regular.

Fisher confirmed the news that he was reprising his role as Mickey through a social media publicity stunt. His character made a guest appearance in season 9 revealing that he got transferred to the Chicago prison and was Ian's bunkmate. Shameless' favorite couple will surely get a lot of screen-time in the upcoming season as they are stuck together in tight confines. What kind of trouble they get themselves into, while already in trouble, is yet to be seen.

Lip (Jeremy Allen White), now the eldest Gallagher sibling on the series, will undoubtedly have a heavy storyline in Shameless season 10. Lip's girlfriend, Tami (Kate Miner), was revealed to be pregnant and he made it a priority to convince her how much he wanted to stay by her side. Lip becoming a father will be a major milestone for Shameless and it's a moment many viewers won't want to miss. Miner has been promoted to a series regular in season 10 so her story will be expanded beyond her pregnancy.

With Fiona gone, it will be interesting to see who fills the void left the longtime Gallagher caretaker. Debbie (Emma Kenney) has tried to fill in for the leadership role in the past but she often takes on more than she can handle. Shameless season 10 will also continue following the wild shenanigans cooked up by Carl (Ethan Cutkosky), who is finally back in military school. Of course, Frank will be heavily involved, and Liam (Christian Isaiah), the youngest Gallagher sibling, will pop in and out. Kev and V (Steve Howey and Shanola Hampton) usually have their own issues going on and that won't change.

Next: What to Expect From Shameless Season 10

Shameless season 10 debuts November 3 on Showtime.

source https://screenrant.com/shameless-season-10-no-fiona/

#screenrant

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boystownbirdie · 8 years ago

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LMRTV4U: Round 2

Welcome to the second edition of Let Me Recommend TV 4 U? This post was created especially for those lost souls who don’t know what to watch next. Also, this post contains NO SPOILERS. So proceed willy-nilly!

Best show you can easily catch up on: The Path

It has recently come to my attention that this show is NOT being watched by everyone. Here’s the deal: Aaron Paul (of Breaking Bad fame, duh) stars as a happily married man who finds out the religion he was a part of is actually kind of a cult a la scientology. Michelle Monaghan is his wife whose family has deep roots in “the movement” and Hugh Dancy is an up-and-coming leader in the faith. It sounds hokey on paper but give it a chance. Maybe it’s my obsession with the Jean Valjean vs. Javert thing all over again but I love when a story doesn’t have a clear villain and when the sincere motives of opposing sides is so clear. Aaron Paul is totally justified in questioning his faith but his wife is also right to believe the “movement” is doing actual good. I love a grey area and this show is full of ‘em

Where can I binge? Hulu- It’s a Hulu original and the first season (only 10 eps long) is available now! Season 2 is coming out as we speak with 1 ep being released per week.

Where to start? Start with season 1, episode 1 or you’ll miss

Skip it if: You’re cult-ed out after Going Clear and the Master and the recent revelation that Tom Cruise is probably responsible for a Trump presidency. http://theslot.jezebel.com/the-scientologists-voted-for-trump-1791558434

#1 reason to watch: The acting is amazing and Aaron and Michelle’s teen son “Hawk” is a Heath-Ledger-look-a-like with all the angst and sexual tension of Heath himself back in the 10-things-I-hate-about-you days

Best comedy that will also have you bawlin’:One Mississippi

Tig Notaro stars in this semi-autobiographical series based on the time period in which the real Tig Notaro suddenly lost her mother, went through a breakup, was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a double mastectomy, and then had a terrible, ongoing case of c.diff. Sounds hilarious, right? The real gem here is the slowly evolving relationship between Tig and her stepfather which is at times painfully awkward and painfully sweet. And it’s impossible not to imagine the cautiously flirtatious scenes between Tig and her now-wife Stephanie Allynne as re-enactments of their early courtship. (ps: the gif below is NOT from O.M. but still shows Tig and Stephanie together)

Where can I binge? If you have Amazon Prime it’s on Prime instant video

Where to start? It’s a short series- only 6 eps at 20-something minutes apiece- start with ep 1

Skip it if: You’re not a Tig Notaro fan/ you just don’t like that whole deadpan-thing

#1 reason to watch: If you are a Tig fan, it’s amazing to get a deeper glimpse into this time period that seems to be the worst possible combination of circumstances. It’s a sweet reminder to know that life can get really, really, really shitty and while nothing can replace your loss, you can still find true love, have adorable twins, and do some of your best work as a performer.

Best British import: Fleabag

Similar to One Mississippi, it’s on Amazon Prime, it’s a short 6-episode series, it’s a “comedy” which will leave you in tears (maybe now is the time to tell you that it doesn’t take much to make me cry so take all of this with a grain of salty tears), and it’s about a woman dealing with several recent losses and breakup. Fleabag is a BBC import based off of an award-winning play by star Phoebe Waller-Bridge whose titular character is irreverent, crass, over-indulgent and unexpectedly poignant all at once. It’s kind of like Shameless (but in this case Fleabag is more of a Frank than a Fiona) meets Girls. There’s also a bit of mystery wrapped up in there, too.

Where can I binge? Amazon Prime instant video

Where to start? Again, only 6 short eps so start with ep 1

Skip it if: You’re easily grossed out by a woman talking frankly about her bodily functions and sexual exploits. Also if you are in the mood for a comedy that WON’T make you cry.

#1 reason to watch: It’s way different than anything else out there and it’s an easy show to power-through in a few hours.

Best new sitcom (no, really!): The Mick

I had my reservations, but I was pleasantly surprised! The Mick stars Kaitlin Olson (who you probably know as Dee from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) in her first major solo-endeavor. Dee has never been my favorite Sunny character, but this role is perfect for her brand of humor and gives her room to grow away from male-centric Sunny. The plot is a classic fish-out-of-water premise where Olson plays Mickey, an estranged aunt who suddenly finds herself as the guardian of her wealthy, East-coast-elite nephews and niece. Mickey is a hard-drinking, fly-by-the-seat-of-her-pants grifter while the Pemberton kids are coddled, country-clubbers. It sounds like sitcom 101 but trust me, it’s with a twist.

Where can I binge? Hulu- new eps are coming out since it’s currently airing on Fox

Where to start? Since only a few eps are out, start with the pilot. But you can jump in anywhere

Skip it if: You’re over the traditional sitcom format or you’re easily offended by a bloody nose

#1 reason to watch: The 3 child (well one is an older teen) actors are all pretty stellar which really makes the show. Plus Olson is perfect in the role and is able to play a more layered character than Sunny has ever allowed.

Best show I really shouldn’t have to be justifying because just watch it: RuPaul’s Drag Race

So if you’ve read my other LMWTV4U posts or you’ve ever met me, this will be the least surprising thing ever. BUT SERIOUSLY this show is so good and if this kind of thing is important to you, it’s a recent Emmy winner for best reality-TV-show host (RuPaul). But to call it a reality TV show is kind of a stretch because the actual best thing about RPDR is how manufactured and self-aware it is. There is, of course, heaps of drama, but everything is served with a wink. RuPaul comes sweeping in to provide a critical eye and guidance in each episode and always leaves the queens with her classic advice “good luck and don’t fuck it up.” Every episode ends with a “Lipsync FOR YOUR LIFE” which results in one queen “sashay-ing away” while the other gets to “shante you stay.” Somehow, among all of the ridiculousness, the show makes room for genuine emotion. The “villains” are eventually encouraged to explore their own insecurities and under-performing artists are given second chances and a helping hand from their competitors. It’s really not like anything else on television and the best part is, season 9 is coming this spring so you still have time to get caught up on past seasons before the new one arrives!

Where can I binge? The show airs on Logotv, which you almost certainly do not have in your cable bundle, but seasons 5-7 are on Amazon Prime and last I checked seasons 6-8 were on Hulu (along with All Stars 2). Also most of the seasons are usually available to stream on logotv’s website.

Where to start? It might be hard to find but I’d really recommend starting with season 3 or 4. You can start anywhere but if you start in later seasons you’ll find out who won previous seasons which can be a bummer. Also, by season 6 and 7 there are already way too many inside jokes and catchphrases from previous seasons to keep up with. Don’t start with season 1 (it’s a completely different show) or All Stars (for obvious reasons).

Skip it if: You hate camp and kitsch and all things drag.

#1 reason to watch: Every single episode ends with RuPaul saying “If you can’t love yourself, how the hell you gonna love somebody else? Can I get an amen?” followed by an onstage dance party

Best season 2 that you might have given up on but deserves a second chance: Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Maybe you didn’t like Kimmy Schmidt season 1. Maybe you loved it but thought season 2 was too weird and gave up. Or maybe you loved both seasons and, in that case, why are you reading this still? But let me make my case for season 2. Yes it’s way more out-there than season 1, but it contains one of the best instances of my favorite guilty-pleasure of the TV trope world: the musical episode. It’s pretty subtle, but in episode 5, “Kimmy Gives Up,” Titus scores the entire episode with songs from various “forgotten” musicals (aka parodies of Broadway classics from husband-of-Tina-Fey and music producer Jeff Richmond.) My personal favorite is “Just Go On” from “Gangly Orphan Jeff, the ill-fated musical that premiered a week after Annie.” It hilariously mocks “The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow” while also allowing for Titus to face his fears, Kimmy to begin to mourn her lost love, and for both Lillian and Jacqueline to revel in their parenting abilities (for their kids both literal and of the tenant-sort). Season 2 is less about a woman who missed the last 15 years clumsily learning to live in the modern world of a cartoonish NYC and more about a woman who’s been through trauma coming to terms with her past and trying to find her purpose. Season 2 is more lived-in and where season 1 allowed Titus to point out all of the “things people don’t say anymore,” season 2 finds both Kimmy and Titus bumbling through modernity together, like when Titus eagerly explains the internet as a “series of tubes.” Like my fave show of all time and fellow Tina-Fey-creation, 30 Rock, Kimmy Schmidt strikes a delicate balance between a satire of our society, foolish and off-the-wall characters, and characters facing real-world emotions with tenderness.

Where can I binge? Netflix!

Where to start? I mean it’s a short series so start with season 1, ep 1. But if you need a good intro, start with “Kimmy Gives Up!”

Skip it if: You can’t handle all of the ridiculousness.

#1 reason to watch: Titus, especially in his audition that is NOT for gum, “Your teeth are bones that live outside. They hang from your lips like bats. Oh, outside bones, outside bones. Never forget that teeth are outside bones. They're bones that you wash and when you're a kid they fall from your head. And to make things less weird we say they got stolen by a demon that your parents know. Trident!”

#RuPaul's Drag Race #unbreakable kimmy schmidt #the path #one mississippi #fleabag #the mick #LMWTV4U #tina fey #titus andromedon #kimmy schmidt #rupaul #tig notaro

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meta-squash · 5 years ago

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This is something I’ve been thinking about re: Mickey in 3x06 but I can’t really figure out how to write it out as a fic so I’m just going to write it as a meta.

Most of season 2 is Ian and Mickey properly becoming something like actual friends. Very slowly, since Mickey’s guard is still up like crazy. They’re fucking but they barely seem to know each other. Mickey working at the Kash And Grab changes that up a little, but he’s there pretty briefly because juvie. It’s not really obvious in the scene whether Mickey pussies out of killing Frank because of Ian or because of the prospect of, like, actually killing another person, but I like to imagine it’s because of Ian. Which makes some sort of sense because by the time he gets out at the beginning of season 3, it seems he’s done at least a little bit of thinking and has chilled out a little, in that he’s surprisingly okay with the jealousy he feels later on re: Ned. I think season 2 Mickey probably would have freaked out again at the fact that he was even jealous. Season 3 Mickey is just plain jealous, and even if that internalized homophobia is still sort of there, it’s not like it was before. Anyway, in early season 3 the friendship continues to develop since Mickey’s back at the Kash And Grab and then it speeds right the hell up when Mickey gets jealous of Ned. Mickey’s jealous, he acts jealous, but when Ian shows pretty obvious preference towards him instead of Ned I think he kind of starts to make an internal decision. Then there’s the kiss, obviously, and by then they’ve been fucking for a while and I think Mickey has, to some extent, admitted to himself that he’s actually gay. Because it seems like for most of seasons 1 and 2 he’s really holding on to the “just a warm mouth” type mentality that he tells Ian, trying to convince himself that Ian’s just easy and that’s why he does it, same as Angie being easy or whatever.

So that kiss is one boundary crossed, one pretty big change in Mickey’s mentality. One internal decision made. And throughout this whole thing, Mickey has been his usual thug self, talking shit, making threats, being a menace, etc etc. He kinda smooths out when it’s just him and Ian (like in the dugout and stuff) but he’s still got his guard up.

But then there’s the conversation in the Kash And Grab, when Mickey invites Ian over. First of all, I’m pretty sure it’s the first time Mickey has said the word “gay” so casually, without using it as an insult/threat or it being something he’s freaking out about. So that’s interesting. Also, he’s obviously a little guarded when inviting Ian over, but not freaking out, and not in a way that makes him insult Ian, which is new (and the “fuck you is what you’re invited to” doesn’t count because I feel like that’s a pretty standard Mickey response no matter what).

So basically what all this is leading up to is the night of 3x06, which I think is unique in its own right even without being followed up by the morning.

Because Ian sleeping over, alone in the Gallagher house without Mandy, or Mickey’s brothers, or Terry, or anybody, is essentially the first time the two of them have been safely, privately together, like ever. The dugout is pretty much the only other time and that was still basically in public. So not only is this their first time hanging out alone, it’s also one of the only times we ever get to see Mickey being a Teenager. Like, Ian does teenager shit, goofs off with his siblings, reacts to things like a teenager would. Mickey, up until now, has been all anxiety and violence. This is the first moment we see Mickey with his guard down, Mickey acting his actual age, which is like 17. This is the first time we see Mickey relaxed and genuinely laughing. The first time we see Mickey in a situation that is just so normal and teenager-y, watching a movie with your friend while eating pizza rolls on the couch, hanging out.

We don’t know how the rest of their night went, but the fact that Mickey is comfortable enough to bring out and display the ben-wa beads is pretty telling. I mean, obviously more fucking happened that night, duh. But also to go from being as guarded as Mickey was, to (barely) stepping over the boundary of kissing, to the relaxed Mickey we see in 3x06, I get the impression that whatever interactions they had that night put Mickey at ease. I doubt there was much heart-to-heart talking, or if there was it would be entirely one-sided because Ian’s a talker, not Mickey (at least in s3). Maybe it was sex in a private, somewhat safe and comfortable place, maybe it was hanging out alone and really kind of getting to connect on a level that wasn’t public, maybe it was getting to let his guard down and act a teenager, maybe it was something else, who knows. That glance between them as the movie starts makes me think there was probably some movie theater-style making out. In any case, this sleepover is the night that Mickey really gets to be a teenager, to be kind of a “regular kid” without the concerns and anxieties and things he usually has. Probably another threshold crossed, another level of Mickey accepting himself and all that.

And then it’s all ruined. Which is a scene that is horrible and fucked up and we all know it so I’m not going to go over it because obviously it’s hugely traumatizing for them. But it’s interesting the way that Ian reacts to the rape vs Mickey, in that Mickey’s walls go right back up (as expected) and we basically don’t get that guard-down Mickey again until the end of season 4 when he’s living on Ian’s floor. But Ian interacts with Mickey in this odd way, similar to how he talked to him in season 2, like he wants the walls to be down, and if he just talks enough he can force them down. Which kind of worked before, in a way. But this time it just kind of shoves it in Mickey’s face that he should never have let his guard down, that he’s fucked, that there’s this new trauma he doesn’t want to think about. Ian reacts like a teenager, kind of making this about him and what he wants, talking to Mickey’s brick wall. Mickey, on the other hand, pulls back into the acting-older-than-he-is shield of violence and silence. For good reason, obviously. It’s like Ian doesn’t quite understand what happened, the significance and intensity of it all. Mickey absolutely knows what happened to him.

What I find fascinating is that in the scene before the wedding, Ian somehow manages to hit the nail on the head while simultaneously missing the point completely. Mickey kisses Ian, they fuck, so it’s a pretty clear sign that Mickey’s feelings are still there (there’s even the “it’s just a piece of paper” line). Mickey quite literally tells him, “why you acting like I got a choice in this” and Ian responds with a line that should be him realizing the reasons Mickey has no choice: “Your dad is an evil, psychotic prick.” To Ian, that’s an excuse to NOT go through with it. To Mickey (and the audience), it’s the reason he HAS to.

And here’s the moment we see Ian’s family upbringing vs Mickey’s, and how different the Gallaghers have it despite their fucked up life:

“You’re just gonna let him ruin your life.”

“You need to grow the fuck up. Don’t act like you know a thing about my dad. Not everybody just gets to blurt out how they fucking feel every minute.”

It seems like Ian is seeing the rape as a one-time thing, as some crazy over-the-top reaction from Terry. He’s probably comparing Terry to Frank. Frank’s a bastard, but his assholery extends mostly to scams and insults and neglect, not actual physical violence towards his kids (minus the one time he slapped Ian). So Ian’s thinking of Terry as the same level of threatening as Frank, or maybe just a notch or two higher, rather than leaps and bounds more awful. Which I don’t quite understand considering the whole plotline with Terry also raping Mandy in s2. Ian understands that Terry is fucked up, but I think the “don’t act like you know a thing about my dad” line isn’t necessarily Mickey backing up his father in any way. In fact, I think it’s the opposite. I think it’s a “you have no idea how far he might go” sort of thing. And then the following line about blurting out feelings is just another signal that Ian misses completely. Ian grew up getting hugs and conversation and always had Lip or Fiona to turn to and talk out his feelings at least to some extent. He grew up in a household very giving when it comes to feelings. Mickey’s the exact opposite. So him even saying anything hinting that he wants to blurt out any feelings at all is pretty much him waving a big flag saying “I’m scared and everything’s fucked and I can’t actually say it because that might literally get me killed but I still have feelings for you.” But Ian has never been good at subtlety so it makes sense he doesn’t catch that.

So you have Mickey, who barely even got to be a teenager, stuck in this situation, traumatized and forced to live with that trauma on so many literal levels. He has to live with the emotional trauma, but he also has to live with Terry and Svetlana, two constant reminders. And no one else knows what happened. So he closes off again because it’s the only way to survive. Back to the walls he had in the early days. And you have Ian, who despite having been there, doesn’t get it and reacts like the teenager that he is.

There’s also the fact that Ian running away and disappearing means Mickey has the distance to worry and think and realize that he’s pretty fucking gone for Ian, so by the time he’s going out looking for him in 4x07, he’s dressing up and putting on cologne. The Milkovich siblings are loyal to a fault when they love someone, and so once Ian’s back for good, it’s like that distance really made Mickey make a decision. I mean, he quite literally sleeps on Ian’s floor like a loyal dog. Even after that, Ian’s making teenager decisions (manic ones, but still teenager-y) while Mickey is now actually legally an adult (I think? Thank you Shameless writers for being very flexible with ages and timelines) and is suddenly the stable one all the way up to the end of season 5.

Basically it’s just so interesting to think what would have happened had the morning of 3x06 not occurred and Mickey was able to have that night really being a teenager. How would their relationship have progressed had Mickey’s guard stayed down, had he been more relaxed around Ian after that? I’m sure he’d have still been Thug Mickey around Ian in public, but maybe in a different way, quieter, all posturing. Something like that.

Instead, Ian gets to be a kind of teenager, while Mickey is kind of stuck in various adult roles (whether he’s anxiously putting up more of an act like the early days or actually stepping into it like season 4 and 5). And the one night he does get to be a teenager is ruined by trauma.

#meta #shameless us #shameless meta #mickey milkovich #ian gallagher #shameless us meta #gallavich #also this is for another post but #i really want to know what happened between s4 and s5 that mickey went from barely being able to hold or look at yevgeny #to being so cute with him and hold him/almost offering to change him etc #because i think 'repressing-trauma' mickey wouldn't have done that ever ever #he'd have retreated to not interacting with the kid or only doing so if svetlana commanded/threatened him #some conversation or something must have happened to help him be able to hold and look at and actually love his kid

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hopevalley · 6 years ago

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S6E3: The Queen of Hearts (Episode Write-Up)

You can also read this on my website here.

Can you believe the next episode has come and gone already? Time sure flies. I’m typing this up from work, so please pardon me if you find any mistakes/errors/etc. I’ll try and proofread it as well as I can and add the pictures in when I get home, but…well, you know, time is money.

(Though I guess…if I’m typing this at work…it could be said that I’m being paid for my time…)

Last episode was pretty low-key: a nice entrance into the new season. This episode ramped things up a bit; there are quite a few threads of drama starting up already, and, well, we’ve only just begun.

So without further ado, let’s jump into it!

The Pedals on the Bike Go Round ‘n Round

Bill and Fiona vs. Lucas

Investing 101 ft. Henry

Carson ‘Foot in Mouth’ Shepherd

Clara Stanton Takes a Stand

Sorry in advance; I barely proofread this. :’)

Plot #1: The Pedals on the Bike Go Round ‘n Round

Elizabeth was kind of just…around in this episode. She didn’t do a whole lot and didn’t have too much to say. She did, however, get a plot. Kind of a weak one.

More or less the plot boiled down to “Elizabeth teaches Timmy how to ride a bike.” You may have forgotten who Timmy is, and if so, he’s Wilma’s son. Wilma, Kurt, and Timmy came in for the Christmas film in S4E1: When Calls the Heart Christmas.

On the positive side, the plot was fairly well-acted. I probably couldn’t pretend to need help riding a bicycle if my life depended on it, but you’ll notice in all the scenes where Timmy is ‘learning,’ his front tire/handlebars get kind of jittery—enough that it made me feel a little uncomfortable just watching! He did a great job with that.

Elizabeth did nicely enough plunking away at the piano pretending she was bad at it to try and help Timmy learn that learning is a process. There’s always someone out there who is better than you at something, but 1) that doesn’t mean you can’t learn how to do it, too, and 2) it’s okay to mess up, because that’s part of the process of learning!

Overall, a cute plot. I didn’t mind that it stayed in the background and wasn’t exactly center stage.

That said, I think I could have really gone for something a little less shallow? At the very least, it might have been nice to see Elizabeth ask Robert or Cody to borrow the bike at lunchtime. (I’m under the impression that they belong to them, and not the school.) Instead of Timmy having fallen on a random (?) bike and scraping up his knee, how about something with a little more substance?

Maybe his parents scraped up their hard-earned money to buy him a bike for his birthday because he’d been admiring Cody’s, but when he tried riding it in town, he faceplanted into a horse trough—something legitimately embarrassing! A few grown-ups laughed at the spectacle (even as they helped him up and made sure he was okay), making him afraid to fall in front of others again. But he really wants to learn because his parents worked hard to buy the bike for him…and they can’t teach him because they don’t know how to ride.

A short lesson on balance, and why it’s impossible to stay upright at a standstill (but very easy to stay upright in motion) could have been really fun, too.

And I think it might have been nice to see a few of the kids encouraging Timmy, or at least speaking with him about this. “Nobody’s watching” my foot! They’d definitely be paying attention, if only out of the corner of their eyes. Opal could say she’s too afraid to try, but if Timmy could learn maybe she wouldn’t be so afraid to learn, herself (something that could encourage Timmy to want to learn more); Cody and Robert could offer to help Timmy but their methods, while well-meaning, are a little too harsh. (Maybe they could be the reason Timmy fell into the trough.)

I wouldn’t have even minded someone fashioning Timmy some training wheels to try out! Maybe his internal balance isn’t very good and he could use the assist until he feels more comfortable (and then later in the season, in a couple of episodes, he could get the hang of it and it’d be super sweet). Then the moral of this story could be more about the process of learning and how learning new things takes time and effort (for some people different things take longer than others), and it’s okay if Cody learned in five seconds but it takes Timmy a few weeks to really get comfortable.

Still, I like what we got. Timmy hasn’t had much of a role in the series in the last couple of seasons, so it was nifty to see him getting something! And of course, Elizabeth got to help without it being too over-the-top, which I can really appreciate.

Plot #2: Bill and Fiona vs. Lucas

Overall, this plot wasn’t bad. I enjoyed Fiona and Lucas. There seems to be some tension between the two of them; there should be a pretty serious reason for this. The story flow doesn’t feel very natural without reasoning in place. Unfortunately this isn’t something I can talk at length about; it’s a wait-and-see sort of situation. It’s possible it’ll get addressed later, especially if Fiona is intended to stick around for most/all of the season.

But to explain what I mean about story flow and reasoning, though, it just doesn’t make sense to me that Fiona would care enough about this town to rat out Lucas to Bill—another complete stranger to her. Sure, Bill is the law, but it feels like there’s just a tiny bit of something missing between their meeting and Fiona immediately going to Bill about Lucas.

Now, it’s totally possible the writers weren’t going for anything deep. Maybe what we see is really what we’re getting: she’s a bit of a gossip à overhears that Bill is concerned à Bill is the law à then she overhears Lucas and thinks Bill’s root worry is legitimate and does The Right Thing (which is report her findings to him).

Bill might find the arrangement satisfactory for now, but it means nothing he says on the phone is private. I really appreciated that Bill brought this up in a very straightforward manner, e.g., “Doesn’t your company have a policy against that?” It still leaves it open for future issues, though.

Fiona’s gossipy tendencies don’t bother me at all. I think they make her a better character than some we’ve had; she’s not 100% wholesome and pure. I dig that. Right now I’m just wondering what about Lucas bothers her so much. Maybe she doesn’t like how smooth he is. Can’t say I blame her.

Lucas himself is a fun character. He’s suave as heck, he can laugh at himself, but he’s vaguely suspicious. Overall, I’d say he’s a smooth operator, a smart schemer. I really enjoyed his conversation with Elizabeth, but the one with Rosemary was awkward in…kind of a good way. I’m fine with getting characters who don’t say what they mean or even lie (without it obviously being a lie).

And so far, my favorite thing about Lucas is how he comes across to the various townfolk.

Some people really like him, think he’s sooo nice for doing these kind things…but then you have the people who are put off by his attempts at kindness. I can see both sides of it, and I know which side I’d be on! He seems like he might end up being a fairly complex character, which I’m really hoping for. Some people might view what he’s doing as a general kindness/attempt to look good right off the bat, but others feel he’s trying to buy affection/a good name; if things get bad, people will say he’s good and they trust him because he’s more or less paid them to feel that way. It’s got a lot of room for good stuff!

(I’m not sure how I feel about the saloon name change, but I think it’s weird that people don’t really care about it? That said, I’ve noticed they all call it “the saloon” so a name change doesn’t really matter. Meanwhile, Abigail’s Café is often referred to both by just “Abigail’s” and as “Abigail’s Café” so the distinction might matter a lot.)

Now...we’ve gotta talk about Bill.

I’m sure nobody really wants to hear more about how much I hate the way he’s been written lately, but just for the heck of it, I’ll dive in for a few paragraphs. My stance is thus: Bill is severely out of character and has been getting worse for the last two seasons. The things he does are cringey and out of character. I’m not sure if we’re supposed to laugh at him or wince at the things he says and does, but if this is intentional, I’m hoping they address it soon.

The most likely bit of reasoning might be the same reason Henry dove into the stock market: he’s restless, bored, feels useless, doesn’t know what to do with that energy. In Bill’s case that energy just comes out in these unconstructive ways: everyone is suspicious until proven otherwise. The judgeship plotline could take care of this, but obviously I don’t know that it will. It’s just a consideration/possibility.

The problem is, they started getting wobbly with Frank’s character in S4, too, with him snooping around on Carson. They’re more or less doing the same exact thing to Bill right now for no reason, so…it honestly seems like they just don’t know how to write him, and I don’t know how they can be at such a loss when they have 4 good seasons of Bill to look back on for character tidbits and plot ideas.

But seeing Bill devolve from a sharp investigator to little more than a joke in the last few episodes? It really grinds my gears. I can’t even enjoy the bits that are supposed to be funny, like when he told Lucas he’d pay for his own drink and then took his money back the second Lucas’s back was turned and let the bartender put it on the house. It’s not funny because that’s not something that Bill of S1 through S4 would even do. When someone refused to tip Abigail more than a few cents, Bill put his own money on the table to ensure she was tipped (five bucks, by the way!). He’s not stingy, he’s not stupid. He chased the same case for literal years of his life and did so quietly, so he’s also very patient. He wouldn’t have called that woman directly, he’d have contacted someone he knew to trace the location of the phone and the name of the household being billed for it. He has the know-how and the power, and he’d use the best way to get his information that he had available that wouldn’t also give him away.

I don’t know why they chose to do this with his character, but I definitely disagree with it.

That said, he has a reasonable enough reason to be suspicious of the man. After all, he’s seen everything. I’m just worried the narrative won’t be sympathetic toward him at all, and in the very end he’ll be wrong about everything and end up in an even worse place than where he started.

Plot #3: Investing 101, ft. Henry

Shockingly, I don’t have too much to say about this plot. It was nice. Henry has a hobby that feels exactly like the kind of thing Henry would do, so props there. I also quite enjoyed seeing Lee stick up for Henry more, and Abigail reluctantly coming around to the idea of investment being a little different than gambling (but honestly not by much).

Even though my stance on Henry and Abigail as a potential romantic end-game is a giant thumbs-down, I could really appreciate the whole plot. Henry lies, but it’s because he feels partially responsible for Abigail’s lost money.

Earlier this year I predicted that maybe he’d lose her money, but I didn’t think he’d lie about it and tell her she’d doubled it. That’s…a bit much. I want to say that that doesn’t sound much like Henry (I could see him giving back the original amount and saying he pulled it before it could go down), but at this point it’s fair to say he’d go a bit overboard because he doesn’t want Abigail to lose faith in him.

After all, he knows she’s the reason he got a second chance at all, and he definitely didn’t deserve that kindness from her; the last thing Henry wants to do right now is make her regret it. It’s a little sad but perfectly believable. It was nice of Abigail to straighten things out the way she did; she was very straightforward about it.

So hey, the air is cleared and we’ve learned that investing is a form of gambling, but not exactly the same thing? Huh.

Plot #4: Carson “Foot in Mouth” Shepherd

This plotline wasn’t deep enough that I feel the need to comment heavily on it, but I can appreciate a few small things about it.

First, it was really awesome that Carson went to Lee with his problem.

Sometimes I feel like this series does a pretty bad job of matching up conversationalists: people go to whoever the plot deems the best person to go to, and usually that person is part of the “main” cast and hasn’t had enough lines in the episode yet, so they get the part. Due to this, at times it feels like roles are just being filled by whatever actor is free to fill the spot. So it was nice to see this happen because Lee was definitely appropriate person to go to for this conversation. 1) He knew about Rosemary’s plan, 2) he seemed exasperated by Rosemary’s plan, and 3) he’s married currently so he understands and might be sympathetic to Carson’s little problem of, you know, putting his foot in his mouth.

One thing I wanted to see addressed that didn’t get addressed (because this show has people “fix” problems with weird dialogue choices) was the reason Carson said what he did. He probably said it because he didn’t want to put any pressure on Faith, or on himself. As he said later, they work together; it’s not a good idea to even consider it.

Now, I personally haven’t felt any real chemistry between these characters, like…at all, so I’m not really on #teaminfirmary, but I do think they show some promise. Right now my biggest criticism has been the lack of chemistry. For me, the doctor/nurse trope just doesn’t do it, not on its own. After Carson’s quick attraction to Sofia, I guess I was kinda wanting to see something spark between them!

But I liked Faith being the one who felt awkward after Carson put his foot in his mouth, and then she kind of took it out on him by being short and snippy. That feels pretty in-character for her to do.

I’m looking forward to seeing what they do with them in the future, though. Like I said, there’s potential there!

Plot #5: Clara Stanton Takes a Stand

Another small plot, but I like the drama baked into this one. Jesse’s always had some self-esteem issues, so it was pretty cool to see that coming back. He has a bad past, he just does okay for himself (not super well), he’s not smart or well educated. You know he thinks Clara’s just about too good for him… I mean, he wasn’t always that way; before she agreed to court him he acted pretty cocky. But he was probably acting that way because he didn’t think she’d really go for it. And then she said yes and he was like, “NOW WHAT?”

I don’t like that he tried to tell her what to do (and I’d argue the dialogue choice there could be a lot better), but it felt vaguely in character. I think I wish they’d gone more the “I should be providing for you” route. And the “you work hard enough” route. They skirted around those a little bit, but if they’d landed on them a little harder I think it’d be easier to swallow. But it was still kind of understandable. He already has issues with feeling like he’s good enough and this makes him feel that she thinks he can’t do it by himself.

I was hoping for a dialogue between them eventually about this (not Clara working two jobs, but Clara working at all after they’re married), but I think what they settled on is going to work really well, and hopefully open up the two of them to talk about their feelings a little more deeply—especially Jesse being more vulnerable with regards to his low self-esteem.

My favorite part was definitely Clara taking the job anyway and Jesse trying to kind of accept it, but we all know that’s not gonna work out. ;P I’m really looking forward to seeing what they do for these characters over the course of the season!

Overall? Another reasonably fun episode. I’m having a lot of fun with the new characters; I just hope they don’t throw Bill under the bus for the duration of the season. He’s got the potential to be one of the best characters on the show if they’d just take the time to give him decent storylines. But hey, maybe the good stuff is all coming soon for him. :)

#when calls the heart #Season 6 Spoilers #season 6 shenanigans

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