Bown posted:

Finished up season 2 of Shameless earlier. This show is so weird - it spends the first third of each season being this wacky punk rock adult family comedy, and then really ramps up the drama in the final four episodes. It manages to make it work very well, though, with episode 11 being particularly gut-wrenching. There wasn't much of a through-line to the season, which made it feel scattered, although I think that may be because it was transitioning to more of an ensemble piece - Fiona definitely wasn't quite as front-and-centre this time around, but it did lead to a bunch of random subplots that never really went anywhere or were wrapped up in any way. Amazing work from William H. Macy, Emmy Rossum, and Joan Cusack, although I really do just love every character (Ian being maybe the only uninteresting one). The production values and cinematography are top-notch, although they somewhat overuse the sudden loud musical cue that's meant to be reserved for 'big'/destructive moments. I hear it's only going to get darker as it goes on, and I'm interested to see how they top Monica slitting her wrists at Thanksgiving and Karen being horrifically cold towards her Asian, Down syndrome baby.

edit: Joan Rivers is not in Shameless.