Showtime
As I wrote in my roundup Friday, it was a big weekend for midseason TV debuts, and it was all I could do to keep up. If any Tuned Inlanders caught Bob’s Burgers (for which I’m optimistic, with reservations), Episodes (mixed, but improves as it goes on), Downton Abbey (looks great but have yet to finish) or The Cape (don’t say I didn’t warn you!), I want to hear what you thought.
But I’m especially curious your opinions of Showtime’s Shameless, one of the more buzzed-about shows, and one where my take diverged from most other critics I’ve read. (It collected mostly good reviews; I liked the performances but thought it was so directly lifted from the British version that it rang false. The mechanics of poverty—who gets poor, the role of government and society, culture and attitudes—are culturally specific, yet Shameless still felt like a Manchester story with a Chicago backdrop.) I’m especially curious if people who have seen the British version feel differently from those who haven’t.
Tell us what you think. There is no shame here!