Shameless: The Complete Series - DVD Review

[Michael Scott]

Shameless: The Complete Series



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



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Movie
Back in 2011, I wasn’t that interested in Shameless, but I was still intrigued since it starred one of my favorite actors (William H. Macy) as the lead. The show was advertised as a “dysfunctional family” type show with Macy playing the drunken patriarch. At that time, I was fully invested in Supernatural, Grimm, and other more fantasy-oriented shows and wasn’t that interested in a drama about a messed-up family. Fast forward a couple of years, and I caught the first 2 seasons of the show on Blu-ray from a pawn shop buy and, once more, thought “this isn’t that interesting”. Fast forward to 2015 (ish) and my bored self decided to binge-watch the first 4 seasons back to back while I was sick with the flu. For some odd reason, the show that I had initially poo-poo’d suddenly started gelling. Yeah, the show was as dysfunctional as you can get, but the underlying themes of loyalty, broken trust, and people trying their hardest to make it in a messed-up life despite not having all the breaks, hooked me this time.

The show introduces us to Frank Gallagher (William H. Macy), the working-class patriarch of the Gallagher household, who would frankly be better off without him. Frank is a booze addled old drunk who thinks that parenting gets in the way of bar crawling, and that being sober is a worse sin. Thusly he leaves his eldest daughter, Fionna (Emmy Rossum, who gives a FANTASTIC performance) to do the actual rearing of the rest of the clan. Wearing the rank of parent, she’s the one doling out chores, disciplining when needed, and basically the glue that keeps them all together while her father is off drinking himself into the ground. Brothers Lip (Jeremy Allen White), Carl (Ethan Cutkowsky), and Ian (Cameron Monaghan before he became Cal Kestis) do everything they can to break each and every rule with impunity, and generally make things hard for their sister.

The show itself is hard to explain, but sort of rolls itself into a “slice of life drama” mixed with black comedy, and to cover up the painful veneer of living in a broken (ish) home. The show bounces around from dealing with Frank's blatant alcoholism, to child custody hearings, and general mayhem caused by the other boys. Right off the bat, you’re going to both love and hate all the characters. William H. Macy is FANTASTIC as the drunken patriarch, but that’s also the character’s worst enemy. The fact that Macy plays him so true to form means you are going to LOATHE his character, despite the dark humor that allows us to chuckle at his mishaps. The same goes for Fionna. Emmy Rossum is amazing as the battle-hardened daughter who has to pick up the mantle of mother way too soon in life. As such, you love her, but also feel pity and anger at all she’s forced to do in the name of necessity.

The show itself reigns as one of the best shows on television for the first 6 seasons or so. After that, it trails off a bit and by the 8th season dips off. Seasons 9 and 10 in particular are pretty boring with several rehashed and clichéd stories that feel like the show runners were simply trying to extend it ala How I Met Your Mother, but at the end of the day, it’s still solid enough TV. Just not up to the amazing first 6 seasons. It also didn’t help that Emmy Rossum left the show, leaving the last couple of seasons with a gigantic Fiona-shaped hole in it.



Rating:

Rated TV-MA by the MPAA




Video:

Shameless was one of those series that came sooooooooooooooooooo close to getting a full series release on Blu-ray. Up until the 10th season, we got each and every release on Blu-ray as well as DVD, but due to the series ratings dropping off pretty steeply after the 8th season, I guess Warner decided to drop Blu-ray releases and go DVD only. And sadly, that means that this complete series release is going to be DVD only (unless you collect the individual seasons of 1-9 and then add seasons 10 and 11 on DVD to get the best of both worlds).

That being said, Shameless looks pretty solid on DVD. Given a hefty max bitrate for the discs helps, keeping artifacting low and detail levels pretty high. There are some natural compression issues that all DVDs have, such as MPEG2 artifacts, some minor crush, and a bit of softness. But overall, the image is clean and clear as most DVDs can look, and will be more than satisfactory if you’ve seen the previous years' releases (this is simply the individual 11 season discs put into a giant clamshell case).









Audio:

The 5.1 Dolby Digital tracks sound about on par with what I remember from the Blu-rays, albeit with a little less depth to it. This is a very front-heavy show with some moderate surround activity thanks to the score and ambient sound usage. Vocals are clean and clear up front as usual, and what little bass and surrounds we DO get is more than adequate. Various environmental ambiance elements fill in the back end of the room, and overall, I can’t complain except for the fact that I certainly miss my lossless audio.












Extras:

• Featurretes
• Commentaries
• Episode Unaired Scenes
• Music Videos
• Trailers
• and More

Final Score: ​

Shameless was one of those shows that actually took me a few seasons to really start enjoying it. When the show first came out around 15 years ago, I wasn’t paying that much attention. And when I DID pay attention to it, I was put off by the dark and grim story lines. But after a while I started getting sucked in and enjoying the dysfunctional family dynamics going on. William H. Macy and Steve Howey turn in the performances of their lives (seriously, after watching Reba growing up, seeing Steve Howey pull a serious character off was strange). The extras found in this set are the same extras found in the individual seasons, and while they do thin out as the years go by, there are more than enough goodies to keep people coming back for more. Highly Recommended.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Emmy Rossum, William H. Macy, Ethan Cutkosky, Steve Howey, Veronica Fisher
Created by: Paul Abbott, John Wells
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 MPEG2
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: English
Studio: Warner Brothers
Rated: TV-MA
Runtime: 7500 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: March 18th, 2025

Recommendation: Highly Recommended

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[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. I didn't grow up with cable so I missed all those shows. 11 seasons on showtime, wow. I will have to see it from season 1 but will look for it. thanks,

Season	Episodes	Originally released
First released	Last released
​ 1​	12	January 9, 2011	March 27, 2011
​ 2​	12	January 8, 2012	April 1, 2012
​ 3​	12	January 13, 2013	April 7, 2013
​ 4​	12	January 12, 2014	April 6, 2014
​ 5​	12	January 11, 2015	April 5, 2015
​ 6​	12	January 10, 2016	April 3, 2016
​ 7​	12	October 2, 2016	December 18, 2016
​ 8​	12	November 5, 2017	January 28, 2018
​ 9​	14	September 9, 2018	March 10, 2019
​ 10​	12	November 10, 2019	January 26, 2020
​ 11​	12	December 6, 2020	April 11, 2021

 

[Travis Ballstadt]

I'm not quite sure how a show was able to do this many seasons yet I've never heard of it. It seems right up my alley, though that's a huge commitment now...