Shameless Hot Take.
I’ve been waiting to express my thoughts about this shameful season since Liam chose white trash over black pride. I purposely waited until the end of this current season (season 10) because I wanted to see if there would be any point in the story where black pride is actually respected like they respect gay pride.
Shameless has been a series I watched and generally enjoyed since season 1 so I’ve seen it all. This season isn’t there last season (next season will be) but this will likely be my last season watching this series. I’m not going to continue to watch a show I feels purposely trashes black pride as “hotep nonsense” while they hide behind “V.” A black woman on the show who is married to a white man and has two black daughters.
The show glamorizes white trash and I understand why. My problem is when they’ve painted the ONE strong black male character (Mavar) as being “corny,” “boring” and overall “unnatractive” because he’s pro-black. Do a Google search on the character Mavar played by Anthony Alabi and it says “Alabi will play the clean-cut Mavar, who steps in to be a much needed mentor for Liam (Christian Isiah) as Liam explores his racial identity outside of the Gallaghers. A former collage athlete, Mavar now sells used cars, mentors local youth and sings in the church choir.” Now tell me does that sound like a negative character? Somehow shameless made it one.
How do you expect me, a “pro-black” to want to continue watching a show that tells it’s audience to love a homeless deadbeat dad, drug and alcohol addicted conman (Frank Gallahger) but “boo” an upstanding black man who embraces a black kid as if he were his son. The show tries to skate by with V being their “we believe in equality” token black chick while the white writers, producers and director pretty much expose their slave master DNA mentality. Portray the black men in a negative light, even if that man is “clean-cut.” Have the black woman belittle him in front of the black boy and also have her take white dick. There’s also never been a positive black couple on the show. Every relationship with a black person were interracial and it was always a white man and a black woman. V and Kevin Ball are the obvious. Lip and Sarah were almost “a thing” until Lip decided to be faithful to his white baby momma. No matter how rocky their relationship got, it’s still a positive portrayal of love according to the show writer’s standards of what white trash love looks like. The next “healthy” white on white relationship on the show is Ian and Mickie, which brings me to my next point.
This show tries so hard to be raunchy and politically correct at the same time. It just comes off as cringey. Very cringey at times. Ian and Mickie are the gay couple of the show, because a show can’t be a show without at least one homosexual couple and a large heterosexual liberal fanbase that roots for them. I’m 100% for shows normalizing homosexuality, but pandering is pandering and pandering is cringey as fuck. They aren’t creating LGBT characters because the story just happens to have one, they’re doing it for the views. For the praise and most importantly (to those who care about them) the “woke points.” Wouldn’t surprise me one bit if Shameless takes credit for being one of the “wokest” shows on TV now or for “starting the trend” of having gay characters in lead roles. Whether they were the first to do it (they’re not) or the last the way that the show portrays two men who constantly physically fight one another as “a sign of passion” is hypocritical and biased. Hypocritical because this show partially tries to be America’s moral compass when they aren’t trying to be “edgy.” Two men “so in love” with one another they often beat the blood out of one another, even break each other bones. Do I really have to spell it out for you? T.H.A.T.’.S A.B.U.S.E. but I guess it’s cute and all because it is two men and not a man beating up on a woman he loves… Aside from the fighting, Mickie and Ian go through hell and back to be with one another and they eventually have a happy ending to the shows white trash standards of what a happy ending is.
So what is my problem here? Well if it wasn’t obvious already, my problem isn’t with the positive portrayal of LGBT youth, or the “beautiful” struggles same sex couple’s go through or interracial couples primarily being a black woman and a white man. I’m for all of that, minus the abuse both Mickie and Ian are guilty of. I don’t like the shows portrayal of black men and black pride in general. To shoot the show creators just a little bit of bail, during this current season they did have V meet up with as bunch of black doctors at a cookout and despite her potato salad fuck up, she did become really good friends with another black woman in the medical field who “hooked her up” with one of V and Kevin’s side gigs. Another golden scene from this season was when V’s mother basically told her not to forget her blackness because she’s fucking a white man and surrounded by white people. I just want to know why it’s considered a bad thing when a black man tells a young black boy that message but the writers didn’t try to paint V’s mother as corny, weird and unattractive when she tells her own daughter that? Anyways, after that scene, the “positive” blackness stopped. The rest of the season went as the other 9 seasons of Shameless went. Glamorizing white trash, while being America’s great white liberal hope. Let’s celebrate the gays, let’s celebrate interracial relationships (non-white women with white men) and throw subliminal shots at Trump without saying his name.
No one but the actors and show creators know what will be in store for season 11, but judging by the 10 years this show has been on I’m guessing the same old tired ass half-assed story lines while pushing the same old Dixiecrat agenda. I doubt the show is going to save its last season to finally portray a happy black couple or not shit on black men, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they did so. Upon doing research to see if others felt the way I do about this show I found a bunch of other think pieces written by people in 2017 about the lack of positive African Americans on the show.
I’m not asking for a handout. I’m aware that there are other currently running shows with positive black couples and positive black male portrayals. I watch those shows as well. I’m just voicing my opinion on a show I used to consider one of my favorites. For those who are going to use weak beta being scare tactics to combat me, no I am not homophobic. Once again my problem is not with Ian and Mickie being in a relationship. If that was the case I would’ve stopped watching after the end of season 1 when they first made it official. One of my favorite scenes in the entire series was when Mickie gets into a fight with his homophobic father and the gay cop released Mickie because he understood Mickie while his dad ended up going to jail. That scene was sweet and dope to me. You can accuse me of being “racist” because I brought up Kev and V along with the almost coupled Lip and Sarah, but my favorite characters on the show are Kevin and Veronica Ball… so much for me being racist when I love their chemistry and love them both individually. Besides, I can’t be racist. I’m black.
