Shameless 1.04 “Casey Casden” Review

It seemed like last week when the Gallagher family got into a crazy scheme and kidnapped an old lady that I thought I had seen everything. Well, I was totally wrong. This week upped the ante a bit with a little help from a 3 year old baby and a lot of help from Debbie. That’s right, Debbie kidnapped a baby and I, like many of you, am still reeling after the whole escapade.

I really had no idea that this episode was going this direction until it smacked me right in the face. The episode started out with a cute pretend potato bag baby Debbie was carrying for. From then on, I started to see that Debbie really is a change from the other Gallagher’s. She just wants to have a normal life and it shows that the life she has now with no Mom and Frank as her Dad will make her do anything to feel like a normal kid. I really enjoy the fact that Debbie is getting more screen time as Emma Kenney is an actress well beyond her years but, I feel that the writers are relying on her character way too much. Last week’s episode was very Debbie focused and so was this episode. I really wish the writer will build up the characters more throughout the season and not just Debbie.

While the episode was really focused on one character, we as viewers got small glimpses at how the Gallagher family deals with crises. I found it very nice to see the family working together as they formulated the plan to bring little Casey Casden back to his parents. The way that Lip was able to come up with a plan is beyond me but to see every member of the family do their part (and even Kevin and Veronica helped although not by choice) makes me believe that this family has a lot of heart, even though the plan was brought out of necessity to avoid criminal charges.

Main story aside, this week there were two small side stories. I found the Kevin and Veronica marriage proposal to be very interesting. We know that the two have been romantically involved for quite some time so this proposal should have been great, right? Wrong, for two reasons. I loved that Frank is really the one to get this ball rolling as “drunk heard” that Kevin is “married” and then preceded to tell everyone, including Veronica’s Mom, that Kevin and Veronica are engaged. It was interesting to see Kevin scramble to at first hide this lie but then in time just accept it. The other reason this is going to be no happy engagement is that Kevin is already married. To whom, we don’t know but, we can imagine that once Veronica finds out all hell will break loose. As for the other side story, I have no idea what to think about it. It was very off-putting seeing Karen seducing Frank while he was at the house. I know that the writers have a reason for what is going on, but since we have no idea what, I hope it gets shown to us viewers soon.

My favorite moment of the episode was a quick 6 or so second scene depicting what happened to the Gallagher children last time they were sent to live in foster families. We see Carl and Debbie living with a happy African American family, Lip ended up with an elderly family with what appeared to be their granddaughter, Ian was placed into an overly creepy happy family, and poor Liam was stuck living with Rob Blagojevich. I cracked up at this scene as it showed that the writers are doing their best to keep their humor relevant to pop culture.

All in all, this episode seemed a little like a re-hash of last week’s kidnapping with a few interesting moments sprinkled in for continuity. This episode was bad but however it also wasn’t a strong episode as a whole. B

Agree or disagree with the grade? Sound off in the comment section below or in the Shameless forums here.