Shameless

I am hardly one to be addicted to television. Quite frankly, I don't have time. Good TV is hard to come by, in a world where MTV doesn't have a single video on anymore, and CMT is ruled by Wife Swap and Hillbilly Handfishing (ok, I don't know what channels that shit is on, but CMT seems logical.)

However, I have recently fallen under the spell of the Showtime series "Shameless." William H. Macy plays a glorious drunk in Frank Gallagher; who wouldn't be drunk as much as possible with six kids and no woman to take care of them? Viewers come to learn, though, that there is good reason Frank's wife left. (He was a drunk before.)

We find a hero in Fiona, Frank's eldest daughter, who has taken over as mother-figure to the five younger Gallaghers, each of which is their own brand of broken. She is sexy and sly, street-smart and savvy, yet even the most timid viewers tend to relate to her. After all, all she really wants is love. And a semi-normal family.

I'm not going to give away any of the plot here, so don't fret. Watch it yourself, and become just as hooked as I am. (Sunday nights, 8C, Showtime--channel 600 for Duluth Charter subscribers.) And know that you can go forth in this world without shame, because your life cannot seriously be as f*cked as these folks.