Isn't "working" a bit of a strange word for Frank G ? I've heard the expression sub-proletariat before, sub-working class might fit better, I don't know if it is ever used.
My experience of very poor, unemployed people is similar. I have a drinking buddy whoose council flat is permanently carpeted in beer cans, he has a crush on a girl living above him, several times a week he can hear her having sex with a drug dealer (in exchange for drugs). Things being funny and horrific at the same time seems largely accurate too. But sometimes I wonder if Shameless is a little more about the seventies than the present, I'm not sure why, the self confidence, ultimately good natured attitude (of most characters) perhaps. I'm inclined to think we are mostly nastier today. Despite this I think the show is one of the best ever made, it is fiction , its not their job to be completely accurate.
yeah i agree with fossilman...its quite similiar in some aspects but it is still light hearted and fictional... i find that the working class come from woking class families in most cases... i'm working clas and both my parents are and my dads parents and most of his family come of council estates and my mum was from a council estate but i was lucky cause i grew up in the countryside mostly...so i dont think in most cases its cause u use drugs or drink too much alcohol that u loose loads of money and become poor... but shameless is wrong in some aspects cause most working class people do actually work for money...
To be honest, my Dads side of the family is really like the Gallaghers/Maguires.
My family is from Toxteth in Liverpool. My dad was an alcoholic, would never lend a penny to my mother and often came home pissed and smashed up the house. He did time for robbery and gbh wounding with intent (close to murder). He was a frequent drug user and never really cared much for looking after me and my siblings as his main concerns were with getting pissed, fighting and cheating on me mam.
His uncle, a bit like Paddy i suppose, was a major criminal involved in class A drugs and even got in trouble for controlling his little "empire" from behind the walls of Holme House prison in Stockton. He is serving time for murder.
My first auntie has 6 kids with five dads and was convicted for fraud and ordered to pay back thousands after she was claiming whilst working as a local stripper.
My second auntie has been in trouble for the same and her first husband served consecutive sentences for drugs and violence whilst working under me dads uncle.
To say shameless is an accurate portrayal i think is unfair although its not completely inaccurate either. There are many people on these estates (my mam included) who are honest and hardworking, church goers and so on. There are also many criminals, people on the fiddle and drug users. Many people are on low incomes, if it wasnt for thieves, informal income and hooky gear then how would we ever get just a slice of the pie that the upper class take for granted - the cars/tvs/etc...?
The one thing that unites us all though is the people: where i grew up they were friendly, generous (although they had nothing to give) and were always up for a good time - its called community cohesion, something we dont really have today.
I guess to sum it up i would say the nature of many of the characters in Shameless is probably spot on, a fair mix of people. But some of the stroylines are obviously quite far fetched - the army and the meat episode - actually cant quite think of others at the min that are completely off ball but anyways hop this helps
Not only do I now think shameless is an accurate portrayal after perusing thru the posts here, but I am amazed that there are actually people that endure daily life the gallagher/MacGuire way. There are so many opportunities to accede to the class above in todays society that anyone that does not make the effort and succombs to the life of petty crime (or worse) has only himself to hold accountable.
Of course it doesn't realistically show how the working class live. Most people live ordinary lives, but are simply poorer.
But it does show realistically how a small part of the working class live. Although i agree with an earlier contributor who said the show seems more as if it is based in the 70's or 80's. I read an interview with the writer who said he had based it on his own experiences as a child, so it would make sense that it is a more accurate reflection of the 70's or 80's - although many things portrayed won't have changed.
I also read how there is a bloke living on the estate where Shameless is filmed who is an alcoholic and looks a bit like Frank. He was complaining that all the kids follow him round calling him Frank.
Shameless always reminds me of my first boyfriends family. They were living in a few blocks of flats in Glasgow, all of the other houses round about had been knocked down as they were planning to rebuild the estate. the families that were left were the worst of the worst.
At my boyfriends family flat, there was his mum and 5 kids, all by different dads. There would be frequent drunken parties with music blaring out most evenings until the early hours of the morning. His mum was a very heavy drinker, the flat was always a bit of a mess and there were frequently other heavy drinkers visiting. Drugs were pretty readily available - this was in the early to mid 80's when drugs weren't as plentiful as now.
It was in this flat that I saw for the first time a meter tv - it was a hired tv where the hire purchase was paid through a coin meter attached to the tv. She used to try and rip off catalogues and other places. Often when I visited there would be a new gadget or ornament, which would disappear when she hadn't paid any money to the catalouge people and they came back and repossessed it.
When her kids turned 16 she would order stuff from all the catalogues in their names, as by that time the catalogues would no longer give her stuff.
She didn't really care for or bring up any of the kids, they kind of all brought each other up instead. All the girls ended up marrying young, and the two guys both joined the army.
I do think it is pretty unusual for someone from this type of background to go to University as Lip does. It used to be the army was the traditional way out for kids brought up in these types of families.
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