Effective Immediately: Your Illinois State Workers' Compensation Has Been Terminated

Shameless. I mentioned this show in my Midseason Replacements list. It's a great show - airs Sunday night on Showtime. The show follows Frank Gallagher.

Frank is a drunk on worker's comp, who neglects his family, has moved in with an agoraphobic woman and her sex-crazed daughter Karen, and who seems to have no direction in his life except to wait for his workers' comp check with which he buys booze. BUT, at the beginning of this week, Frank gets some bad news: his workers' comp has been terminated. So he sets out on a quest of sorts. Frank goes to find a job. "How noble!" you might say. But no, Frank doesn't want a job to work...he wants a job where he can get hurt and quickly back on benefits. So he and Debbie and Karl set out on the quest, going from work-site to work-site, to find the most dangerous job possible. The first one looks like a winner, but as Frank is filling out his application one of the other workers gets hurt. You can just see the dejection on his face knowing he just missed his chance. So...they move on. The second seems promising until they reach the actual workroom. There has been a safety overhaul and there hasn't been an accident in 93 days. They RUN out of there as fast as possible. Finally, at the third workplace, there are nails all over the place, there are powertools everywhere...Frank has hit the jackpot. He starts working, thinking he'll be out of there in a day, but he comes to realize that he has an overprotective coworker and they won't let him use any power-tools. It seems like it may take some finesse to get back on workers' comp...

Meanwhile, Steve (Jimmy) is still lying to Fiona about the fact that he is not from the South side, but actually from ---Lake Forest---!!! (I grew up in Lake Forest). Debbie knows, and he is buying her things to keep her quiet. Their relationship seems to be going well, but unbeknown to Steve, Tony (a cop and Fiona's ex) becomes wise to the fact that Steve steals cars for a living. He follows him and catches him red-handed, giving Steve an ultimatum: leave or go to prison. It's situations like these that give us moral choices as viewers. I LIKE Steve as a character. He's fun. I'm pulling for him in the

long run. Sure, he's a criminal with a hidden past (and maybe a wife?!), but he seems to genuinely like Fiona and vice versa. So, that makes me kinda dislike Tony and his obsession with Fiona. Tough to root for the bad guy here, but, well I do.

Lip and Ian are off trying to find Ian's father, this episode. They meet their grandmother who tells them Frank had 3 brothers (having found out last episode that their mom slept with one of them). When they finally find the one they think is Ian's real dad, it is pretty clear he is. Ian, however, freaks out a bit and decides to leave. Will he be back? Absolutely. This story line doesn't end here.

The episode ends with two unfortunate events. First, Tony, thinking that he has seen Steve again in stolen car, pulls it over and has the driver arrested. BUT, it's not Steve. It's Lip and Ian in the car that Steve lent to them for the day. Second, Frank, deciding he can take no more of the job grabs a nail gun and nails his hand to a piece of wood. This ought to get him his workers' comp he so desperately desires. But he goes home, drinks some Old Style (excellent) and pops a few pills when he hears something downstairs. It's Karen (the aforementioned sex crazed daughter of the woman Frank is living with). She's still mad at her father for the purity ball issues, has cut her hair off, dyed it black, tattooed whore on her arm and more or less gone off the deep end. She grabs the pills, downs a few and jumps on Frank as the episode ends with them caught on webcam "in flagrante." Both of these situations will certainly not go over well.

Next episode I expect to see Karen's dad coming after Frank, Steve somehow weaseling himself out of his situation, and Lip and Ian in some real trouble with Tony under the gun. I thought this episode was great, albeit somewhat setting up the events which took place at the end. I still think Steve and Fiona are a great match, regardless of Tony's meddling. Yes, they are not good role models - but no one on this show really is. It is a show that shows a reality that most of us don't deal with on a daily basis and the choices these people make. I also think that the show will either have Steve splitting or Fiona getting Tony to leave him alone. I highly doubt that Fiona is going anywhere, especially with the kids still around. It all depends on if the producers and story writers want a clean ending or a more dramatic one. If I were to guess, Steve will leave on his own and many further episodes will focus on the two of them dealing with the issues that arise from this.

Overall, this is a great show. Comedy, drama, awkwardness and awesomeness abound. And the acting is off the charts. Definitely worth checking out.

Until the next episode...
Chris

Midseason Replacement Shows

Every year there are a bunch of midseason replacements - whether to replace a failing show, or to take the place of one that is going on hiatus. Some of the more famous ones from years past include: Grey's Anatomy (replaced Boston Legal), The Simpsons (replaced Booker), and All in the Family (replaced To Rome with Love) to name a few.

This season there are some very good new shows, some that need more time to develop and some that will not last very long at all. Here are just a few of the many that came out in 2011.

Leaders of the Pack

Shameless

This US spinoff of the UK show stars William H Macy and Joan Cusack among others. This is one of my favorite shows of 2011. It is funny, serious, exciting, dramatic, sexual, and many other things all at once. The series focuses on Macy's family - he is an alcoholic and his daughter played by the lovely Emily Rossum has to take care of the "kids" (she is just 21 herself). Joan Cusack plays a agoraphobic with seriously kinky sexual desires, and if I had a vote, she'd win a lot of awards this year. Must watch.

The Chicago Code
This "The Wire" wannabe is a new crime drama set in Chicago. It follows the chief

of police and her ex partner as they look to fight crime (especially corruption in an alderman's office). I'm not sure yet if a show like this can be as gritty as it calls for on network TV. That's what made The Wire so gripping - the fact that it was on HBO and could do/show whatever it needed to to get the message across. That being said, it's a fantastic show with great dialogue especially if you're from Chicago. The only thing that bothers me is that there isn't an authentic Chicago accent on the whole show (well, that and that the lead character is a Sox fan). I hope this show gets the ratings it needs to carry on.

Mr. Sunshine
Matthew Perry's new show Mr. Sunshine - which he also stars in - is a hit. Will it say on TV? Who knows. It seems to me that single-camera shows like this one and SportsNight from years ago have trouble finding an audience. That said, Perry and Allison Janney are absolutely fantastic together. The humor never stops in this show, and the dialogue is quick and witty.


On the way, but not there yet

Breakout Kings
This new A&E drama stars Domenick Lombardozzi from The Wire. It is about a group of convicts who work with the police to catch people who have broken out of prison. The show is good, but it is hard to believe a show like this when episodes wrap up neatly in an hour. I think the show would be greatly helped by having a storyline that runs through for a season - even if it is a back story. More about tracking those that broke out than catching them. That being said, the drama and characters do have an attractive quality about them, and I hope this can turn into a great show.

Fairly Legal
This is a new USA show starring Sarah Shahi (who I recognize very clearly from Season 1 of Alias).

She plays a former lawyer turned mediator who can get just about anyone to agree with her point of view and to see the light of the beauty of compromise. The show is a fun one, it will never be a great law drama, but it is fun to watch.


Need to pick it up

Off the Map
The new drama from Sandra Rhimes - creator of Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice.

I actually have started to like this show a bit more the past couple of weeks; however, I still think it tried to jump us directly into the middle of the jungle without a parachute and lacks a bit of focus. I think the writers want to keep the show moving and fresh, but one of the great things about a show like Grey's Anatomy or ER (et al.) is not the medicine, but the relationships with the characters. This we don't get in Off the Map. One of the characters has been diagnosed with heart disease and I could seriously not care less. That's not a good sign. I want to be invested in characters and I want to care what happens to them. I'm not there yet with Off the Map. Sure, the awkward moments and funny comments are enjoyable, and there is real drama with the medicine cases, but overall the show still isn't captivating for me.

Mad Love
The midseason replacement for Two and a Half men (after Charlie Tiger Blood Sheen stopped #winning) is Mad Love. It stars Jason Biggs (American Pie) and Sarah Chalke (How I Met Your Mother) as an unlikely couple that fall for each other in the first episode. It also centers around their two friends who just cannot get along. For the first episode, this was funny. Even the second. But now we're quite a few in, and I'm not sure how many times they expect to play the same scene over and over again with Biggs and Chalke being lovey-dovey and their friends hating each other. I can't see this show lasting past summer - if it even gets that far.


So, that is a wrap-up of a few of the new shows out there this season, there are many more, and I'm sure I'll get to them at some point.

Until the next episode...
Chris