'Shameless' Season 1, Episode 3 Recap

['Shameless' - 'Aunt Ginger']

I've got to say, I'm impressed at the how thoroughly 'Shameless' is living up to its name. Episode 3 marked the first example of the US series diverging from its UK namesake for a twisted new plot, and this one's a doozy. If crossdressing homeless men, social security fraud and kidnapping old ladies aren't the epitome of shamelessness, I don't know what is.

Frank had an ... eye-opening experience with Sheila last week, but that clearly wasn't enough to chase him back to the loving arms of his freezing family -- he was having way too much fun playing house with his neurotic girlfriend and long-suffering Karen to worry about gas bills or a little thing like government officials turning up at his door.

It's hard to find any redeeming qualities in a character as reprehensible as Frank, but William H. Macy continues to play him with such bumbling ineptitude that I find it difficult to hold even his most deplorable crimes against him. It's probably better to adopt the Lip method of dealing with Frank: Just ignore him when you can, and shake your head at him when you can't.

Frank's bizarre attempt to play father to Karen when Lip came to pick her up was particularly amusing, in a kind of tragic way. It's far more consideration than he's ever shown any of his own kids in all of two sentences, and why? Just because Sheila is feeding him? Or is it Frank's attempt at a clean slate, trying to play the part and fit the mold of what a responsible parent should be, simply because he knows how badly he's screwed the pooch with his own kids and thinks they're beyond repair?

Everything seems like it's a game with Frank, and this performance with Sheila seemed to be just that -- another role he's assumed to help him get his way, but one that's easily discarded. Note how fast he bolted from her house at the prospect of money for booze and a few hours on his own devices. I was horrified to see him stealing food from the Gallagher house to try to trick Sheila into thinking he'd actually been grocery shopping, but the move was fairly genius, in a heinous kind of way.

The latest deception to catch up with Frank came in the form of Abby from the Office of the Inspector General -- an ominous-sounding title if ever there was one. It seemed fairly obvious that Frank would have figured out a way to scam the social security office (since he's already claiming fake disability) but I loved seeing the family go trolling for old folks at Veronica's work like any normal family would go to a shelter to pick out a dog.

Debbie found an inspired choice for "Aunt Ginger" -- certainly better than Frank's pick, a drunken old homeless man with an unfortunate erection, who was fooling no-one. It was heartbreaking to see how devastated Debbie was when they had to take the old woman back to the retirement home; after last week's excellent performance over Frank's alleged death, Emma Kenney once again stole the show in that farewell scene.

Although Debbie wins MVP for her powerful emotional beats, I'm still enjoying Ian and Lip and their banter the most. This week, Ian was struggling with being the object of a girl's affections, especially once Mandy set her brutish brothers on him after Ian rejected her advances.

After Frank headbutted Ian last week with almost no provocation, it was refreshing to see Lip taking a beatdown on his brother's behalf in his stride -- he didn't try to even the score with Ian even after a broken nose, just made the hilarious suggestion that Ian "throw it in her" anyway just to get Mandy's brothers off his back. I loved Ian suggesting that Lip should do the same to Kash, leading to an excellent line about Kash working his way through the Gallagher brothers.

I was glad to see Ian open up to Mandy about his true sexuality, and it was excellent that she took it so well and even bonded with him over hot N'Sync band members -- I'm interested to see what kind of dynamic she brings to the series now that she's acting as Ian's beard, they're already fairly adorable.

I'm also enjoying long-suffering Kev and his interactions with the family -- his running joke of coming in to take back the various things the Gallaghers had stolen from him was particularly cute.

After being kind of enamored of Tony the cop last week, it was fun to see Fiona actually go there (and for it to be Tony's first time, aww!) -- I still think that he would be a much better guy for her than Steve, but by this point, the Gallaghers have clearly decided to eschew anything that could even remotely be considered good for them.

'Shameless' airs Sundays, 10PM ET on Showtime.

What did you think of this week's episode? Are you enjoying the portrayal of Ian's sexuality? Do you think Sheila will ever be able to go outside? Were you at all surprised that Frank buried poor Aunt Ginger in the back yard? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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