Shameless: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		2.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Shameless: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray Movie Review

The sinful saga rolls on...

Sex, drugs and... not so much rock n' roll, but boozing, sexual harassment, forgery, assault with plenty of intent, border hopping, charity fraud, grand theft, public masturbation, body dismemberment, buried bodies, child neglect and transgressions heaped on more transgressions. Is there anything Shameless is ashamed to trot out? I'm guessing not. William H. Macy, Emmy Rossum and the Gallagher clan return for yet another round of ludicrously deviant behavior in a show so funny you can't help but feeling like an awful human being for laughing. After peaking last go-round, though, the reprehensibly riotous series finally introduced me to the limits of my patience for revolting habits and delinquent decision-making midway through The Complete Third Season. While still quite strong and addicting in terms of writing and performances, the series veers into unfortunate one-upsmanship with itself, desperately working to outdo itself with each passing episode. The results drift a bit too far off course, with creator Paul Abbott and his writers expecting their audience to continue dredging up feelings and empathy for characters who are actively, all too eagerly becoming increasingly unlikable and, in my case, bordering on unbearable. The comedy is still sharp. The drama is folded in nicely, the actors committed, and the series' jagged edged bottle intact. But it's harder and harder to believe the Gallaghers exist in any reality at this point -- even a premium cable reality -- much less are able to live the lives they do, survive all they survive, and indulge in all they indulge in. I'm not checking out, mind you, but I am reigning in my expectations. I'm not so sure if the show can go anywhere but downhill from here. Time will tell...

• Shameless: The Complete First Season Blu-ray review
• Shameless: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray review

• El Gran Canon: In the season premiere, life in the Gallagher household is shaken up. Now that they're living together, Fiona struggles to accept the new "boring" Jimmy. Frank wakes up in a place completely foreign to him. Lip is sentenced to community service. Baby Hymie keeps Jody and Sheila up all night.
• The American Dream: Fiona stresses about the money she used for her club night and it gets worse when Lip finds out what happened. Frank manages to make his way home and he's the only one who can keep Hymie quiet. Meanwhile, Kev's wife resurfaces.
• May I Trim Your Hedges?: Frank tells Carl he has cancer so he can scam a charity foundation. Fiona is blown away by what she's asked to do to get a job as a cashier. Lip leads a crusade to hunt down pedophiles in the neighborhood - until one of the offenders turns out to be a she.
• The Helpful Gallaghers: Carl says his goodbyes as he heads off to cancer camp, but he isn't pleased with the camp's activities. With Frank on babysitting duty, Sheila wants to introduce Jody to "toy time" and Frank agrees to be Jody's sex coach. Fiona attempts to unite her coworkers against their boss. Lip and Mandy rescue Mandy's half-sister, Molly, from foster care. Jimmy learns his parents are getting divorced and his dad is gay.
• The Sins of My Caretaker: The city of Chicago gives notice that they're doing work on the sewer main. The problem? Aunt Ginger's bones are still buried in the yard and Frank needs to find her before the city does. Meanwhile, Fiona is picked on at work for not satisfying her boss. When Fiona fails to provide the support Jimmy needs, he turns to Este. Molly learns that she's a boy and Ned asks Ian to rob his wife's house.
• Cascading Failures: A government agency threatens the cohesion of the Gallagher clan. With Monica nowhere to be found, Fiona is forced to find Frank and get him to make a "Father of the Year" appearance in court. It all goes well until Fiona discovers that Frank's not the solution to her problem; he's the cause. Meanwhile, Kev and Veronica recruit V's mother as a surrogate and Terry catches Mickey and Ian in a compromising situation.
• Where There's a Will: The family gathers for the real Aunt Ginger's fake funeral. Frank's cousin Patrick attends and the family conspires against him over Ginger's will. With Hymie gone, Sheila no longer needs Frank as a nanny, so he needs a new place to stay. Kev and V continue trying for a baby.
• Frank the Plumber: Fiona starts a new office job but has a hard time fitting in with the corporate culture. In an attempt to get medical coverage, Frank inadvertently becomes involved in the gay rights movement where he meets Abraham Paige (guest star Bradley Whitford), a powerful activist.
• Civil Wrongs: While Fiona's job has brought structure into her life, things fall apart when Jimmy drops a bomb on her. Frank enjoys his newfound celebrity as the face of the gay rights movement but discovers there's even more money to be made (and sex to be had) by switching teams... again.
• Order Room Service: Fiona takes the kids on a camping trip. Essentially homeless, Frank seeks out Carl who sneaks him into the Gallagher van for the night.
• Survival of the Fittest: Lip is graduating from high school, so Fiona and the family prepare a surprise party for him. Frank wins a bet and uses the winnings to take Lip out for lobster and some quality father/son time.

Shameless: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Shameless: The Complete Third Season also slips back a step in terms of its 1080p/AVC-encoded video presentation, which is more prone to issues like banding and artifacting than the series' previous Blu-ray releases. The real issue, though, involves boosted brightness, waning contrast and terribly muted black levels. Shadows are quite gray and muted, and the entire image is washed out. It's not immediately apparent per se, but it's impossible to miss after comparing the Season Three Blu-ray release to its predecessors, or, as one particularly helpful Blu-ray.com member brought to my attention, by comparing the Blu-ray to its VUDU digital copy counterpart, which features the darker, healthier blacks any release of the third season should exhibit. (Many thanks to "cuzzin".) Yes, the show's palette is still grungy, dingy and grimy, and intentionally so, with muted colors, pale skintones, dull primaries. And yes, detail is excellent, edges are crisp and precise (not to mention free of ringing and aliasing), textures are revealing, and delineation is decidedly decent, meaning the show's photography is much more refined than it might first appear. But the increased brightness and neutered black levels are a big problem; possibly even one deserving of a replacement program, were enough consumers to complain.

Shameless: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Shameless' DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track is comparable to its previous season counterparts, which is a very, very good thing. While episodes generally don't extend beyond strings of conversations (peppered with debauchery and deviance of course), the soundfield delivers time and time again. LFE output is surprisingly robust, embracing every hit, spill, crash and round of unruliness typical of the Gallaghers' crazy lives. The rear speakers enhance every packed bar, crowded hospital waiting room, busy street and rowdy nightclub the series has to offer, creating a wholly immersive experience with pinpoint directionality and perfectly sober cross-channel pans. Dialogue is clear and smartly prioritized as well, without anything in the way of whiffed lines or mangled, muffled or diluted voices.

Shameless: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Where the Streets Have No Shame (HD, 14 minutes): Go behind the scenes with the Shameless cast and crew as they prep a number of sets and streets for the third season shoot.
• The Many Sides of Sheila (HD, 11 minutes): Joan Cusack's character Sheila steps center stage as the actress, writer Mike O'Malley and other key members of the team discuss her development and evolution.
• An Officer and a Gallagher (HD, 10 minutes): The same treatment is given to Cameron Monaghan's Ian.
• A Lip Off the Old Block (HD, 9 minutes): Followed by Jeremy Allen White's Phillip.
• Being Milkovich (HD, 8 minutes): More character dissections with Noel Fisher and Emma Greenwell.
• A Messy Triangle (HD, 4 minutes): Lip, Karen and Mindy's... relationship.
• Unaired Scenes (HD, 25 minutes): A lengthy collection of deleted scenes.

Shameless: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Shameless is showing signs of wearing thin in its third season, pawing at shock value and gratuitous wrong-doing. I get it; that's the series. But there's a difference between bad behavior and contrived bad behavior. The show is feeling more and more like a scribbled script, with plotlines that are too manufactured for their own good. Can it recover? Absolutely. Will it? I suspect not. Season Four will most likely try to top Season Three and, in doing so, lose sight of what made the first and second seasons so weirdly watchable. The upside is Warner's Blu-ray release, the only downside being its video presentation, which is more problematic than those of past seasons. It's still decent, though, I suppose, while its DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track is terrific and its supplemental package has a good bit to offer. (Although no commentaries, which is a shame.) Fans will be reasonably pleased, despite noticing the diminished capacity of the video presentation.