WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE SEASON 11 SERIES FINALE OF SHAMELESS
After 11 seasons and 128 episodes, Showtime’s Shameless, has come to an end and the time has come to say goodbye to the Gallagher family.
Led in seasons 1-9 by Fiona (Emmy Rossum) the Gallagher family bounced from struggle to struggle, whether that be trouble with the law, mental illness, or poverty, whatever situation they landed in proved that family stands above all. Though Rossum did not return for a final farewell like many fans theorized, we did get to see some great Fiona moments during Frank’s flashbacks which included all of his children and in his final trip around the South Side.
The series finale ended just as Shameless began: raw, insane, and together. I mean, the Gallagher family singing “That’s The Way We Get By” in front of a burning Tesla while a dying Frank Gallagher floats up to the heavens (or elsewhere) whilst criticizing his children. Does it get any more Shameless than that?
The finale left several storylines up in the air, where it stood, Kev and V were packing up for Louisville and possibly selling the bar to Carl and his police partner Arthur Tipping. Lip was still trying to sell the house, and Tami was pregnant again. Debbie and Franny were possibly headed to Texas with Debbie’s new convict girlfriend Heidi, while Ian and Mickey were thinking of having children.
With so many endings left up in the air, the question stands, will there be any more Shameless content coming our way? Unfortunately, it looks like the answer, at least for now, is no. In a chat with Entertainment Weekly when John Wells was asked about the possibility of a Shameless reboot or spinoff, he recounted being there to see the sets torn down and thrown into a dumpster. Showtime also believed it was time for Shameless to come to an end. Though John Wells did also say, “Never say never” when asked about revisiting the Gallagher family sometime in the future.
We did get one concrete ending though, the death of the legendary Frank Gallagher. His death was impending from the beginning of Season 11 when his alcoholic dementia storyline was introduced, though ultimately Frank dies of Covid-19 in the ER with a nurse who he confuses for Fiona. In actuality, the nurse who stays with him as he passes, was played by Frank’s (William H Macy) real life daughter, Sofia.
As he drifts up above the Alibi, beer in hand, he leaves us with some very Frank advice by saying, “People say you can’t drink your troubles away, I say you’re just not drinking enough. I guess that's it. Not much left to say really. Except, time's precious, don't f---ing waste it. Have a good time. I sure as hell did."
Even though we don’t know exactly what will come next for the Gallaghers, we can all agree that they’ll take on whatever comes together.
So where do we go from here?
Showtime is currently in the process of releasing some deleted scenes from the final season, and if you want to revisit the Gallaghers from the very beginning, the entire series is available to stream with a Showtime subscription as well.