This review contains spoilers for both shows.
Tuesday night at the SCAD Savannah Film Festival featured the premieres of two Showtime series, the return of “Shameless” and the pilot of the new show “SMILF.”
The “Shameless” season eight premiere is great for both veteran and new viewers to the series. For returning viewers, the show picks up where it left off: with the families new-found inheritance of meth after Monica’s sudden death.
Even if you’ve never seen “Shameless” picking up the show at season eight is possible; you may be missing out on previous events and plenty of entertaining antics, and while you may be confused on the characters and their relationships, you wouldn’t be missing out on anything vital to the season eight story line.
As a first-time viewer of “Shameless,” it pulled me in and makes me want to go back and watch the previous seasons. The show does a good job at recapping the previous season with flashbacks to dialogue from the and hints towards past events and the story line of episode one made me curious about what the future holds for each of these characters.
It’s enough to hop on board, late or not, and enjoy this insane family of seven.
You can catch the premiere of season eight of Shameless on tonight, Nov. 5, at 9:00 p.m. on Showtime.
“SMILF” is a new show premiering on Showtime on Nov. 5, directly after “Shameless,” at 10 p.m. Frankie Shaw stars as Bridgette Bird, a young single mother who is trying to get back into the dating game with her infant son, Larry Bird.
“SMILF” is an anagram for “single mother I’d like to f—.” Though the show was marketed as a comedy, it was too vulgar to really be funny. The unfiltered and bawdy display of female sexual liberation felt too awkward and uncomfortable. “SMILF” could greatly benefit by filtering out some jokes in order to appeal to a wider audience as well as having a clearer focus, beyond just sexual antics.
About a quarter of the pilot episode took place in the bedroom and played out similar to porn. Though female audience members may have a different takeaway from “SMILF,” it’s not something I’d recommend due to its overt sexual focus. Creating a filter and erring on the side of film and not pornography would be better. The show has potential to be great, but a lot rides on what future episodes present.
