‘Shameless’ S10.E01. “We Few, We Lucky Few, We Band of Gallaghers!” Review ★★★☆☆
By: Brandon Anderson
Tags: Humor, Culture, Television, Shameless, TV

On Shameless Season 10 Episode 1, “We Few, We Lucky Few, We Band of Gallaghers!” Fiona is gone and everything is about to change.

Let’s see… where were we?

When we last left Shameless, Fiona had finally ditched the Gallaghers for good, leaving nothing but a $50,000 check. Debbie was ready to take charge, Frank was rehabbing a broken leg, Ian was still in prison — but with Mickey as his cellmate! — and Lip was about to be a dad.

All caught up?

The opening credits hit, and already everything is different.

Emmy Rossum is gone here too, as Debbie opens the credits. Too soon, Showtime! RIP.

It’s summer in Chicago, and the fans are full speed in every room of the house. A lot has changed in the six months since we left the Gallaghers. This episode is all about change.

Debbie’s little girl, Franny, is already getting so old! Liam has a Frederick Douglass blowout and is wearing a dashiki. Carl is at military school.

Lip’s girl, Tami, is extremely pregnant. Like, is there such a thing as Chekhov’s pregnant belly? Cuz this girl is ready to pop at any moment.

Frank is lying on the couch doing absolutely nothing, yelling out for drugs or food or any attention he can get.

Fine. Not everything has changed.

Frank is still a train wreck father. That’s sort of the premise of Shameless, after all. If William H. Macy ever gets sick of being the worst Gallagher around — and that’s not exactly a low bar — they’ll have to shutter the show for good.

But everything around Frank has changed, and that’s because the family matriarch is gone. Fiona was the center and the heartbeat of the show, and she was that role for the Gallagher family, too.

It was time for Fiona to go, both for the Gallaghers and for Shameless. But it means every character has a new role now, and this episode is all about each person’s journey finding themselves in this new place.

There are a couple missed calls from Fiona, but that’s the only Fiona we’re going to get. Fiona’s not dead, but she’s definitely gone.

Debbie is the new Gallagher matriarch, but she wants everyone to know she is definitely not Fiona. Sure, Deb.

Debbie has a plan for every cent of the $50,000 Fiona left behind, and she runs a pretty tight ship around the house. There will be no more handouts at the Gallagher’s.

And like any true Gallagher, Debbie is playing the system. She has a fancy wardrobe of expensive clothing and perfume and a whole system to return everything on a perfect schedule. And our girl can rock a dress now!

Near the end of the episode, Debbie gets all dolled up and heads to a fancy hotel. Uhh… is Debbie some sort of high-end escort in her spare time? Maybe she’s just trying to pick up women, still exploring her sexuality.

Liam is still exploring, too. He spent most of Season 9 trying to understand his African-American roots, and his journey is continuing.

Liam rocks a dashiki and a Frederick Douglass hairdo, and he’s apparently learning about his ancestry from trusty neighbor, V. That works, certainly more so than from the random black kids at school. More Liam and V time is good for everyone.

As for those random kids? They’re not onboard with Liam’s search for an identity. Should we be? Shameless handled the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) plot deftly last season, so maybe they can teach us a thing or two about race, too.

V may be busy tending to the kids and helping Liam, but Kevin is just feeling old. He can’t hold his own on the neighborhood basketball court anymore. He thinks it’s the old sneakers and even picks up a stripper job on the side to earn money for new kicks. But the job just makes him feel even older, and his testosterone juice concoction doesn’t work.

So Kevin’s going through a midlife crisis, Liam and V are working through their racial identity, and Debbie is trying to crack her sexuality.

See? Everything is changing.