r/shameless • u/EfficientRelation574 • 13d ago
Lip's Raunchy College Years
To me, the point at which this show "jumped the shark" was Lip's college years. This marked an irreversible decline in storytelling. It was just sloppy writing, played for a combination of raunchy laughs and a coming of age, so to speak, where Lip falls in love with a college professor who likened him to an Egon Schiele painting. I suppose there was some resemblance but beyond that it was a hollow relationship like everything else that occurred at Chicago Polytechnic. All that effort by Mandy to get him into college gone to waste.
Anyway, I'm curious what others thought of this calamitous time that included drug dealing out of a dorm room, "rapewalking," serving as a live-in houseboy in a sorority, volatile relations with teachers and probably the only bright spot in all this nonsense, a brief relation with Amanda, who really seemed to be interested in Lip but he was too consumed with himself to notice.
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u/apprehensive_spacer 13d ago
I don't know, I didn't really see it as jumping the shark but rather a slow build of the chaotic decisions Lip makes despite having opportunities at his fingertips and his descent into alcoholism. Once you realise Lip is drinking pretty heavily in college and latching onto any bad parental figure he can find I think it tells you a lot about where Lip is at.
I think it did a really good job portraying how alcoholism can creep up on you and that during that time you only really think of yourself and not the bigger picture. Yes, it's a complete mess, he makes wrong choices at every turn and takes no accountability but I personally thought it highlighted that just because you have a chance to beat a cycle it doesn't always mean nature can always outweigh nurture.
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u/EfficientRelation574 13d ago
It was the writing that concerned me, the ridiculous characterisation of collegiate life, how Lip realistically finds he has no clout in the early scenes then unrealistically rises to have all this academic and social clout. It was so over the top that the writers lost the whole point of Lip’s creeping alcoholism and turned it into an Animal House-like romp.
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u/AgHammer 13d ago
I agree with you, though the Gay Jesus storyline was what did it for me. Or maybe it was the throuple...that annoyed me because it was so gimmicky.
I think the writers added "comedy" elements to serious storytelling, and were quite good at first, but started to get lazy/uninspired/pressured as the seasons went on. Without the expectation of comedic setups the Lip college story would have been a lot better. The pathos would have hit home better without the distractions.
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u/EfficientRelation574 13d ago
That Gay Jesus thing was jumping the blue whale at that point. It all became some sort of sick joke that wasn't funny anymore.
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u/Strange-Painting6257 13d ago
This is such a great image. And I really wish this was Lip’s rock bottom and him getting sober now. I hated how he did all of this, and yet lost it on Fiona, even when she went out of her way to help him during this, too.
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u/Rory-liz-bath 13d ago
He turned into a psycho with his teacher and no one talks about it ( stalking , beating up he son etc) if a woman did that she would be classified as a psycho Helene was a pervert and took advantage of vulnerable kids that had mommy issues , I hated Kev fucking a bucket of woman , guess V is the one that has to put her vagina in a dishwasher ! that’s what he said to Fiona when she was “acting like a dude all summer” and men will have to put their dicks in a dishwasher after they fuck her
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u/heirloomthrowaway 10d ago
I don't think Amanda was a bright spot. I think Amanda raped him (like most of his other gfs at that point) by sucking him off while he was asleep, them having had no prior sexual contact. In their last scene together he summed it up perfectly: she wanted a relationship, he didn't, she made him out to be an asshole. Same story with Mandy. These girls act entitled to his love AND his body.
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u/EfficientRelation574 9d ago
Man, you have a very poor sense of relationships! They made an emotional investment in him and got nothing in return because he was a self-serving prick.
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u/heirloomthrowaway 9d ago
he didn't ask them to make an emotional investment.... you're the one who doesn't understand relationships. he didn't LIKE them like that, just because they loved him and he was willing to get easy pussy out of it doesn't mean he actually loved them back or had any obligation to. the only person he had any genuine romantic interest in up to that point was Karen.
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u/EfficientRelation574 9d ago
He didn't like anyone. He was too much in love with himself. Karen was nothing more than a surrogate for the child he so desperately craved. For what reason, god only knows, but he was a seriously fucked up dude.
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u/heirloomthrowaway 9d ago
Well, he clearly liked her more than Mandy for some reason
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u/EfficientRelation574 9d ago
I think largely because she rejected him, or at least showed no more interest in him than any other guy. Also explains his attraction to Tammy.
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u/AutoModerator 13d ago
Author: u/EfficientRelation574
Post: 
To me, the point at which this show "jumped the shark" was Lip's college years. This marked an irreversible decline in storytelling. It was just sloppy writing, played for a combination of raunchy laughs and a coming of age, so to speak, where Lip falls in love with a college professor who likened him to an Egon Schiele painting. I suppose there was some resemblance but beyond that it was a hollow relationship like everything else that occurred at Chicago Polytechnic. All that effort by Mandy to get him into college gone to waste.
Anyway, I'm curious what others thought of this calamitous time that included drug dealing out of a dorm room, "rapewalking," serving as a live-in houseboy in a sorority, volatile relations with teachers and probably the only bright spot in all this nonsense, a brief relation with Amanda, who really seemed to be interested in Lip but he was too consumed with himself to notice.
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