History YMMV / ShamelessUK

* NightmareFuel:
** BlackComedy aside, Ian Gallagher being a marked man by the Maguires all because he rejected Mandy Maguire's advances is pretty grim.
** [[spoiler: Jamie digging up Joe's dead father's corpse and dumping it outside his shop at the end of Series 7.]]
** [[spoiler: Paddy Maguire being tied to a bed for days on end and being turned into a heroin addict]].

** Pedophile Tom. As revealed, he grew up without any parents in an orphanage, became attracted to his co-worker only for her to use his feelings to manipulate him a few times, was able to track down his birth mother only to discover she'd already died, he [[QuestionableConsent fell in love with a girl who was too young]], and once she was old enough she broke up with him when he asked her to move in with him. To top that off, he spent the rest of the season being rightly or wronglycalled a stalker or creep whenever he ended up in the same room as Debbie and her friends, before being fired after his prank on Stan as payback for Stan's own pranks leading Stan to claim compensation, and him having to leave town to avoid being punished for all this.

** Tom. As revealed, he grew up without any parents in an orphanage, became attracted to his co-worker only for her to use his feelings to manipulate him a few times, was able to track down his birth mother only to discover she'd already died, he fell in love with a girl who was too young, and once she was old enough she broke up with him when he asked her to move in with him. To top that off, he spent the rest of the season being called a stalker or creep whenever he ended up in the same room as Debbie and her friends, before being fired after his prank on Stan as payback for Stan's own pranks leading Stan to claim compensation, and him having to leave to avoid being punished for all this.

* BrokenBase: Nearly everyone agrees that the show has undergone serious SeasonalRot as it went on and eventually the writers lost sight of the original point of the series. The point where it becomes unwatchable, however, is hotly debated: common turning points cited include the end of Series 2 (where Steve and Fiona leave the series), Series 4 (where the series has a reboot, the Maguires join the cast as regulars, and many more major characters leave), Series 6 (where the CerebusSyndrome starts kicking in full force and crosses the line into dark dramedy, as well as ''more'' characters leaving), and Series 8 (where overarching plotlines are done away with, humor becomes cheap, character development reaches new levels of inconsistency, and [[RunningGag the vast majority of the original cast have left]]).

* CriticalResearchFailure: When Frank is ranting about his children having been a burden to him in the last episode of Series 11, he uses Socrates, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar and Leonardo Da Vinci as examples of men who were not "stupid enough" to have any kids. All of them had either biological or adopted children[[note]]Socrates had three sons; Alexander the Great had a son, Alexander IV; Caesar had two biological children, a son and a daughter, and an adopted son, the future emperor Augustus. Even Da Vinci had an adopted child.[[/note]].

* TheWoobie: Fiona. Forced to grow up and take care of her family because her parents were either physically or emotionally neglectful, all the while being picked on at school for being dirt poor. Eventually she falls in love with Steve, but he's forced to leave her when they get engaged due to accidentally killing a drug dealer in self defense and being tied to the scene, her family then has to deal with legal troubles, including having every penny they have stolen by a corrupt cop. She gets pregnant from a one night stand, resulting in her having to pick between running off with Steve and living with the baby's father. At least she got to leave Chadsworth.
** Tom. As revealed, he grew up without any parents in an orphanage, became attracted to his co-worker only for her to use his feelings to manipulate him a few times, was able to track down his birth mother only to discover she'd already died, he fell in love with a girl who was too young, and once she was old enough she broke up with him when he asked her to move in with him. To top that off, he spent the rest of the season being called a stalker or creep whenever he ended up in the same room as Debbie and her friends, before being fired after his prank on Stan as payback for Stan's own pranks leading Stan to claim compensation, and him having to leave to avoid being punished for all this.

* NightmareFuel: [[spoiler: Jamie digging up Joe's dead father's corpse and dumping it outside his shop at the end of Series 7.]]

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: In the first episode following baby Stella's birth, there is a storyline which involves her communicating telepathically with Frank and Monica. Random, stupid, makes no sense even in context, and after that one episode nobody mentions the incident again.
* BrokenBase: Nearly everyone agrees that the plotlines of Shameless get worse as the series goes on and eventually the new writers have missed the point of the original series'. The point where it becomes unwatchable however, is hotly debated: common turning points cited include the end of series 2 (where Steve and Fiona leave the series), series 4 (where the series has a reboot, the Maguires join the cast as regulars, and many more major characters leave), series 6 (where the series suffers from CerebusSyndrome and crosses the line into dark dramedy, as well as more characters leaving), and series 8 (where overarching plotlines are done away with, humour becomes cheap, character development reaches new levels of inconsistency, and [[RunningGag the vast majority of the original cast have left]]).
* CriticalResearchFailure: When Frank is ranting about his children having been a burden to him in the last episode of series 11, he uses Socrates, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar and Leonardo Da Vinci as examples of men who were not 'stupid enough' to have any kids'. All of them had either biological or adopted children[[note]]Socrates had three sons; Alexander the Great had a son, Alexander IV; Caesar had two biological children, a son and a daughter, and an adopted son, the future emperor Augustus. Even Da Vinci had an adopted child.[[/note]].
* EnsembleDarkhorse: Lillian, a support character who is incredibly popular with fans despite her limited screentime.
* HollywoodGenetics: Little Katie is blonde haired and blue eyed, while both her parents Lip and Mandy have dark brown hair and brown eyes.
** Illegitimate son Ian bears a greater resemblance to adoptive father Frank than any of Frank's actual, biological children. Of course, Ian's biological father is an {{Expy}} of Frank anyway.
* MoralEventHorizon: In series 2 Frank agrees to take care of an expired friend's dog. Cut to him [[spoiler: on a bridge luring it into a sack with some meat]]
** Throughout series 2 episode 1, where Frank's dad Neville makes an appearance, he persistently belittles Frank and puts pressure on him to man up to his responsibilities as a father and do something with his life. Fair enough, you'd think. Then he beats Frank, and its [[FreudianExcuse heavily implied he did it regularly while his son was growing up]]. Well, Frank DID neglect said responsibilities again to go drinking and partying in the pub by himself at midday... Maybe it's excusable... a bit. But then he finally crosses this by [[spoiler: shaking a ladder that Frank was on, saying he wished he'd killed Frank at birth.]]
** Monica is a terrible person. She left her children and caused Frank to become the mess that he is now (not to mention apparently was abusive towards him prior to leaving), and acts selfish and self serving, as well as giving terrible advice to her children. However, she doesn't truly become an irredeemable person until the beginning of one episode in the later seasons when, after the rest of the family hide Liam's trip to Blackpool to star in an add, she takes their pet mouse and sticks it in the microwave and threatens to turn it on until they tell her. When they begin to do so, she still edges towards pressing the button just to get more detail.
* NightmareFuel: [[spoiler: Jamie digging up Joe's dead father's corpse and dumping it outside his shop at the end of series 7.]]

* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: Kelly Ball started life off as Kev's annoying sister. After annoying the hell out of everyone in one episode per series (2-4), she was promoted to the main cast as Shane Maguire's girlfriend and has shed her previous image.

* SeasonalRot: Critics and fans alike agree that Shameless gets shakier and declines in quality as it goes along. See BrokenBase above.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: Lip returned towards the end of series 11 for an episode, and they seemed to be building up a plot about how he was struggling to raise and provide for Katie despite the "new life" he thought he'd eventually achieve by going to university (and for those who graduated in the past 15 years or so, especially after the recession hit in 2008, this is an all-too familiar story). However, the episode focuses more on Lip's strained relationship with Frank and that side plot just fizzles out.

* RetroactiveRecognition: [[Creator/JamesMcAvoy The actor who portrayed Steve]] is now known to international audiences as the younger [[Characters/XMenFilmSeriesProfessorCharlesXavier Professor X]] in the ''Film/XMenFilmSeries''.

* RetroactiveRecognition: [[Creator/JamesMcAvoy The actor who portrayed Steve]] is now known to international audiences as the younger [[XMenFilmSeries/ProfessorCharlesFrancisXavier Professor X]] in the ''Film/XMenFilmSeries''.