Shameless made a mistake making Frank an "inscrutable mouthpiece" of coronavirus conspiracies

The A.V. Club

"I understand that Shameless continues to find Frank useful, but the results are never actually interesting, nor do they ever add up to anything," says Myles McNutt of William H. Macy's character in the final season premiere. "The choice to set Shameless’ final season in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic means that we land on Frank throwing out talk of 'the Vid,' calling it a hoax, and thanking China for manufacturing the virus and thinning out the number of coffee shops, and the show loves this kind of sh*t: every season, Frank becomes an inscrutable mouthpiece of the latest hodgepodge of current events, and we’re just supposed to lap it up because he’s controversial and unfiltered," says McNutt. "But while Frank is the easiest way to reflect current events, he’s also the least effective: there’s a reason why, despite the fact that Frank introduces the Here’s what you missed on Shameless sequence that opens the season, he never actually appears in it. Nothing Frank did last season, or the season before that, or the season before that has mattered after the credits rolled, and when you contrast that with a story like Ian and Mickey’s relationship it just makes you wonder why we’re wasting time on another topical, empty Frank diversion when we could be reflecting on the journeys his children have had over eleven seasons."