Christmas in Chatsworth

I decided that since it's getting closer to Christmas, I decided to take a another quick look at the Christmas special for Shameless, which I believe shows a much more serious view of how the family has to deal with their social and quite dysfunctional problems as well as escaping society's wrath.

The episode looks at how people can become very greedy, and they intend and want something more then ever. What they'll do is they'll do anything to swipe the gift, even if it means nearly killing an entire town.

This 1 hour feature has many more serial and dramatic elements than being funny. Most of the time, I'm laughing at many of the comedic moments Shameless has to offer, but however here. It is not the case. The episode mainly offers some horror/thriller like elements with some tension building scenes because of how the contamination and infection scenario is played out. This element takes it's time to show us as an audience about how this theme is developing over the course of the storyline, giving us general and quite unpredictable surprises.

If you're a fan of Shameless and even Horror films which include 28 Days and Weeks Later as well as The Crazies, I'd highly recommend this episode. Not saying that anyone turns into a maniac or blood-thirty being, but I mentioned those films because they have theses aspects going for them strongly.

Overall, I like this episode. It's definitely not my favorite of the many Shameless episodes which came before and after it. I thought that New Year's Eve Special from Season 3 in my honest opinion was slightly stronger in storyline, character build up/development, dramatic moments and comedic elements. But I like it because it briefly presents some horror elements in it's own style.

8.5/10

Two different Army units are playing Chemical war games by sending each-other tainted meat to see which unit can determine the virus first. Unfortunately the truck breaks down in the thieving territory of the Gallagher boys who in a quest to make some quick cash decide to sell it to the residents of their projects. People die, the word gets out and the Army quarantines everyone. The Ghallagher boys are now trapped inside fleeing from a roving lynch-mob of sickened customers.

This episode rang so True for me, living in the "Projects" and being an inner-city cop i know how contagious craziness is. i've seen people by meets from crack-heads, I've seen when some new device or boot-leg video wrecked a bunch of DVD players, and then they called us.

At one point the MOB who knew they shouldn't have bought the meat, blames the sellers, the sellers in turn blame the Army. and the most truest words ever spoken are uttered "Why you've been doing everything you can to make your situation worse, a lot of people have been working hard to get you out of the situation you've gotten yourself into. This describes my job to a tee.