Shameless: The Complete Series Blu-ray Review: A Hefty Load of Gallaghers

Like the original UK series, Showtime’s U.S. version of Shameless followed the misadventures of a scrappy family of siblings headed by a classless, derelict father. Both versions lasted 11 seasons, but wore out their welcome far earlier. Surprisingly, our homegrown Shameless has never been released as a complete series Blu-ray set, and never even got individual season Blu-rays for the final two seasons until now. Although the series drops in quality in the later seasons, especially after star Emmy Rossum left, the entire shameless affair is finally available on Blu-ray.

William H. Macy heads the cast as Frank Gallagher, a drunk degenerate more likely to gamble away family money than use it to properly support his offspring. With mom long gone, the family is held together by eldest daughter Fiona (Rossum), with her acting as the house mom even though she’s barely old enough to support herself, let alone others. As the years roll by, the kids grow in self-sufficiency, but those apples don’t fall too far from Frank’s tree, with all of them exhibiting shameless behavior along the way.

The series started as a vehicle for Macy, and to a lesser extent the then-ascendant Rossum (The Phantom of the Opera), but is currently most notable for launching the career of Jeremy Allen White (The Bear) via his role as the oldest brother. For Gotham and gaming fans, it also launched Cameron Monaghan on his way to playing the Joker and Cal Kestis in EA’s Star Wars Jedi games. It’s interesting to watch the boys emerge as breakout stars as the seasons progress, even as the original cornerstones of the series start to fade in importance. Frank’s whole character arc is one long inevitable spiral down the drain, making for difficult viewing at times only buoyed by the hope represented by his somewhat-less-reprehensible children.

The Blu-ray set is a hefty beast weighing in at nearly two pounds, with the seasons spread across 27 discs split between two industrial-strength plastic clamshell containers housed in a slipcase. The discs are on hinged flip trays, which can lead to accidental unhinging in transit, but my set arrived fully intact. While those thick clear plastic cases aren’t all that popular with complete series collectors, they do make for a very sturdy home with a much smaller footprint than 11 individual cases. It’s a pretty typical Warner Bros. design, with the only real surprise that it arrives split into two cases instead of one. 

As for video/audio quality and bonus features, the discs are identical to the original releases, with the exception of the new seasons 10-11 releases, so if you’ve owned any of the Blus in the past, the specs are the same. As a fairly modern series, the technical quality is robust, although its shoddy suburban settings don’t really lend themselves to vibrant cinematography. Video is presented in 1080p hi def 1.78:1, with DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 sound. It’s a dialogue-heavy series, so surround never gets much of a workout, but all audio tracks are crisp and clear.