Jenna Elfman, best known as half of 'Dharma and Greg's' title couple, will guest star in the second season finale of Showtime's 'Shameless.'

The drama, which stars William H. Macy as the patriarch of a struggling Chicago family and Emmy Rossum as his eldest child, returns Jan. 8, but we'll have to wait until the twelfth episode of the season to meet Elfman's character.

The actress plays Jill, "a woman with a dangerous past and an awkward present," according to the network.

When the new season of the show begins, the Gallagher clan is sweltering through a hot Chicago summer and Fiona, Rossum's character, is working at a trendy nightclub while her siblings Carl (Ethan Cutkoski) and Debbie (Emma Kenny) run a day-care center out of the family home. (That sounds like a terrific idea for the chaotic Gallagher household, right? More people on the premises?)

James Wolk has joined the cast of 'Shameless.' That sound you hear? It's every TV critic falling off their chair.

Wolk will play Adam, an investment executive who forms a connection with Emmy Rossum's character, Fiona. He'll appear in multiple episodes during Season 2 Showtime dramedy.

Viewers may remember Wolk as the star of the short-lived and critically acclaimed 'Lone Star.' Fox canceled the drama about a man living a double life after two low-rated episodes, despite the critical acclaim.

'Breakout Kings' has received a Season 2 order from A&E, co-creator Nick Santora confirmed on Twitter.

The drama about US Marshals using former fugitives to track other criminals on the run has been well-received by both viewers and critics. Its premiere in March 2011 was seen by 2.8 million viewers.

Originally commissioned as a pilot for Fox, A&E scooped up the project from 'Prison Break' veterans Santora and Matt Olmstead.

"Thanks to all the BOK FANS for their support in our quest for a Season 2 pickup! As you've all heard already, it's official - we're back!" Santora said on Twitter.

Production on Season 2 is expected to begin later this year.

In other TV news ...

Let's be honest. Many of Showtime's programs can be boiled down to one common theme: they're all about quirky women with secrets.

We're not complaining -- we love a good mystery as much as we love a complex leading lady. There's cantankerous bully Jackie with her drug problem; Nancy with her ... um ... "dealings"; Cathy, who's still keeping her 'Big C' secret from a few loved ones; and many, many more.

To celebrate the return of 'Weeds' and 'The Big C' (tonight starting at 10PM on Showtime), AOL TV is here to help you determine your spirit Showtime woman. Are you a Cathy or a Nancy? Find out in our handy chart!

['Shameless' - 'Finale']

After twelve weeks of 'Shameless' enjoyment, we have, alas, reached the season finale of this ridiculously addictive show, and now our Sundays will be bereft of car theft, inadvisable sex, baby-stealing minors, and so many shots of William H. Macy's bare behind that the supermoon pales in comparison (unless you have a very colorful social life, I suppose). But what a ride these past three months have been ...

There's plenty of pressure on a season finale, which has the unenviable task of tying up the year's loose ends while unraveling some new ones for Season 2 (yes, the show has already been renewed, yay!). And while the ending wasn't quite as surprising as some of the earlier episodes have been, there was still a lot to love in the season's final hour.

['Shameless' - 'Daddy's Girl']

Thank goodness Father's Day is still a couple of months away, because none of the dads on 'Shameless' are going to be winning any parenting awards after this week's episode.

First, we had Frank, who was attempting to bounce back from having his injury compensation terminated by finding a new job to get himself injured at as quickly as possible. This was compounded by the fact that he brought Debbie and Carl along with him to "learn the family business," which mostly consisted of finding the most hazardous working conditions available and signing up for the most dangerous job they had going.

Debbie, predictably, took to this like a fish to water, first typing up a suitably fictional resume for Frank (she's clearly following in Lip's footsteps in the brains department) and then acting as his manager to secure him a job working with formaldehyde -- role-modeling at its finest.

['Shameless' - 'Nana Gallagher Had an Affair']

Tonight's 'Shameless' was full of revelations -- and many of them were as unwanted as the reappearance of Monica was last week.

The show continues to be an excellent illustration of how family isn't forged from blood so much as circumstance, love and loyalty, since birth parents like Frank and Monica aren't seen so much relatives or figures to rely on as the millstone around the Gallagher brood's collective neck.

The limits of family are likely to be stretched to breaking point following this week's revelations, but Fiona continues to be more of a parental figure than her actual parents could ever be, and I can't help but root for her in her (seemingly aborted for now) attempt to adopt her siblings and extricate them from Frank for good.

['Shameless' - 'But At Last Came a Knock']

You can choose your friends, but you sure can't choose your family, and never has such an adage been so painfully illustrated as on this week's 'Shameless,' when we finally got to meet the Gallagher kids' absentee mother, Monica.

If you thought Frank was flaky, he's nothing compared to this broad, who -- after disappearing for years without a word -- chose to return to town not to check up on her kids, but to collect a giant teddy bear with her new lesbian life partner, and possibly one of her younger children in the process.

Needless to say, this suggestion didn't go down well with the kids, but was wholeheartedly endorsed by Frank (as long as he got his settlement signature, anyway).

Can't get enough of drunken William H. Macy and self-absorbed Matt LeBlanc? Good news: Showtime announced today that it has renewed both 'Shameless' and 'Episodes' for second seasons.

"The viewer loyalty and critical acclaim that has met both 'Shameless' and 'Episodes' since their January debuts makes it clear that these two brash and sophisticated series are burgeoning hits," Showtime President of Entertainment David Nevins said in a statement.

['Shameless' - 'It's Time to Kill the Turtle']

Did you ever think you'd see the day when Frank Gallagher was stone cold sober? (And during the first season, no less!)

I was fairly certain we'd have to wait until at least Season 3 of 'Shameless' for such an abrupt metamorphosis, though I suppose I should've predicted that money would be the motivating factor in Frank's sudden desire to get clean.

But the most unnerving part of Frank's transformation was undoubtedly his heretofore hidden parenting skills -- the man made Debbie and Carl Mickey Mouse-shaped pancakes and read them 'The Hunger Games', for crying out loud; if that isn't a sign of the apocalypse, I don't know what is.

If you've been watching the raw Showtime dramedy 'Shameless,' you'll definitely recognize Cameron Monaghan. The scene-stealing 17-year-old plays Ian, the tough-as-nails gay son of Frank Gallagher, his alcoholic single father (played brilliantly by William H. Macy). As if that wasn't angsty enough, Ian is also dating his married Muslim boss. Oh, and he hasn't come out to most of his family and friends yet. And did we mention he shares a run-down home in a low-income neighborhood with his five brothers and sisters?

If you're thinking that Ian sounds like one of the most complex characters on TV right now, you're right. That's what drew Monaghan to the role. He's been acting since he was 8, getting his big break in the TV movie 'The Music Man' with Matthew Broderick. Since then, he's been in everything from 'Click,' playing Adam Sandler's son, to TV shows like 'Monk,' 'Criminal Minds' and 'The Mentalist.'

This April you can catch Monaghan on the big screen in 'Prom,' about a group of high schoolers getting ready for their big night. TV Squad caught up with Monaghan to get the scoop on what it's like to work with William H. Macy, what's going to happen with Ian throughout season 1 of 'Shameless,' and what we can expect from his character in 'Prom.'

Joan Cusack, a lifelong Chicagoan, doesn't have much of a commute when 'Shameless' is shooting exterior scenes in her home town.

But one of ironies of her role on the Showtime drama is that Cusack's character, Sheila Jackson, is an agoraphobic, so exterior scenes are not something the actress frequently gets to do. One unseasonably warm day last fall, when the show's cast and crew were a filming a series of outdoor scenes in a hardscrabble West Side neighborhood, all Cusack had to do was appear briefly inside Sheila's house and clap near a window.

"I can't see not leaving your house in five years, but I can see feeling like, you know, [life is] overwhelming sometimes," Cusack said later in an interview on the set.

Apparently, Emmy Rossum was the first celebrity willing to reveal the secrets of sex scenes to Chelsea Handler. The 'Chelsea Lately' (Weeknights, 11PM on E!) host told Rossum that no one has been able to give her a straight answer to a question that's been bothering her for some time.

"How do you protect yourself from getting penetrated by accident?" she asked.

Fans of Rossum's new Showtime series, 'Shameless,' know full well that the actress has already had plenty of different sex scenes to get this process down to a science.

['Shameless' - '"Frank Gallagher: Loving Husband, Devoted Father"']

Dearly beloved, we are gathered here to honor the life of Frank Gallagher, an admirable human being if ever there was one.

Psych!

On the list of shockingly 'Shameless' things to do for kicks, we think that faking your own death probably ranks below stealing a baby, but above having sex with your married Muslim boss.

But when you're being pursued by a crotchety Irish debt collector and that seriously psychotic guy from 'Prison Break' for six grand that you don't technically have, such drastic measures are somewhat understandable, if inadvisable.

['Shameless' - 'Facts Cannot Be Racist']

Week by week, we gain a deeper understanding of the sprawling intricacies of the Gallagher clan, and this week's imaginatively titled episode took us to new depths of insanity, since it gave us our first real glimpse of the mysterious figure of Carl.

'Shameless' certainly prides itself on dysfunction, but our fish-microwaving, Barbie-electrocuting little scamp is definitely the oddest egg in the nest. We know he has an interest in torturing things and in attempting to bring a baseball bat to school, but until this episode, that was pretty much the extent of our knowledge -- are we any the wiser now? It's hard to tell.