Week 1 Popular Media Review

After 9 seasons, I recently finished the Shameless series on Showtime. For those who are unfamiliar, the drama/ dark comedy follows a working poor Chicago family— the Gallagher’s. At the beginning of the series, the oldest daughter (early 20’s) cares for her 4 brothers and 1 sister, The youngest of whom is an infant and the oldest is in high school. Their mother, Monica Gallagher is mentally ill and a “junkie”, while their father— Frank Gallagher is an alcoholic and drug addict who drops in from time to time when he needs something from his kids who are left fending for themselves on the south side of Chicago. Every Gallagher child faces extreme hardships and battles with negative identity formation potentially because of the influences around them. In the beginning of the series, the oldest brother, Lip is a prodigy child in school with a promising future to get out of the south side and attend college. Which he does, until he develops alcoholism and several run-ins with the law, ends up back on the south side, feeling he is destined to be like his parents. As his character progresses he becomes involved in AA and turns his life around after a very long battle with alcohol and drugs in his childhood, and teen life. This is an example of negative identity formation, and after hitting “rock bottom” turned the character around who was able to begin developing a more positive identity with the help he needed.

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