Shameless

I recently got turned on to a British Drama-dy called Shameless and I have to say it's pretty good. It's about a poor Manchester family of six kids (they call the boys lads), a town drunk for a father and an absentee mother. The kids are all of various ages and all have quite different personalities. Each episode I've seen invloves some kind of trouble that daily life seems to bring for each of the characters. The reasons I like this show only highlight the difference between U.S. and British Network TV. I must say the Brits do way better with less. The BBC doesn't have anywhere near the budget that American TV networks have and yet they seem to be able to produce a better quaitly show. Using Shameless as an example, the Brits keep it fairly real. There are really no beautiful people on this show. These are regular looking peeps playing characters who have a rough life. In the U.S. there's be no way they'd allow such a thing to occur. The leads would always be uber attractive people and therefore less believable. Even the supporting actors would be good looking. Secondly the amount of shit they allow on British TV is amazing. This show in the US would only be able to be seen on HBO. They get to say "fuck" if they want to, get drunk, show some boobs, have sex , smoke weed, deal with being gay etc. Basically everything that would make a show about "people" and the things that real people do seem believeable. I guess that's really only two points, but to me they're significant points. I really don't watch much U.S. network TV outside of Lost so I have no idea of what's even on these days, but I do know that until the execs at the Networks quit trying to apply chastity belts to our eyes and ears here in the states and try investing in some quality shows more and more people will turn to HBo etc. for their TV fix. Anyway, Shameless is a good show and a total departure for me because I normally crave the pure British comedies. I reccomend you put it in your Netflix queue.