If you’ve been reading these reviews for a while, you know that I have many thoughts about the tension between
Shameless’ inherent dramatic structure and John Wells’ belief that he is in fact making an hour-long sitcom, and so I will spare you the full essay on this topic. But in case you’re new, the show has long embodied a tension between the show it is and the show Wells wants it to be, and it’s been one of the sticking points as it limps into its final season.
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However, I sometimes fear that this will be read as my dismissing the sitcom as a mode of storytelling, which isn’t my intention. As much as I don’t think