Shameless - older episodes

The last few days we have been watching a few episodes from season 7 of Shameless which we somehow seem to have missed at the time. In the latest episode, Chesney and Carl are on the run after being accused of murdering some guy. They wind up on the Welsh border and take shelter in a farm where a rather attractive older lady is busy with a sideline in growing marijuana. For a brief period, this seems like heaven to them. Or, as they express it, "a Milf on a weed farm, what more could you want?"

Inspired by watching last year's episodes, I have also gone back to season 4 and 5 and my all time favourite character - Carrie, the mad policewoman. A real shame when she left I thought. So maybe we will watch season 4 and 5 again next.

One of Carrie's rare raunchy moments

And the slightly fetish version of Carrie from the closing credits. There is also a James Bond spy themed closing credits in which she appears.

A year or so ago the actress who played Carrie - Amanda Ryan - was in one of the period dramas that we were watching. After Shameless, it was pretty odd to see her in something like that, but she has, apparently appeared in some quite high-brow things

The theme of growing marijuana led us back to Saving Grace, one of our favourite films. I was particularly taken this time by the two old ladies who make themselves what they think is a pot of tea. But like It's Complicated, that we also saw recently, some films are more or less adverts for smoking weed.

Two old ladies from Saving Grace

The return of "Shameless"

Apparently there is now a US version of Shameless, starring William Macy as the equivalent of Frank. That seems a bit unlikely. I wonder whether it will be shown in the UK - such remakes of British TV shows rarely seem to get shown here - perhaps The Office is the main example.

And the Uk version has returned for season 8, with 22 new episodes. We have been intermitent fans of this programme, sometimes watching it regularly, sometimes missing whole series and catching up later. In fact, I didn't see the first two or three series at all, though Linda did. They were first on when I was still a long distance commuter and 10:00 was too late for me to stay up and watch something during the week. I missed the first 8 series of ER for the same reason

Two characters have stood out for me in the last couple of series. Karen is just about hanging on and appeared for about 15 seconds in the episode screened last night. Like many of the characters in Shameless, she is likeable for sheer raunchiness.

But the absolute stand out character for me is not in the show any more - the totally mad policewoman from series 5 and 6. Way over the top in every bit of police work she did, I loved just about every moment she was on screen. A shame she's left.

Trapped up to her waist when she fell through a weak floor while handcuffed to the gay-McGuire son, his reading of some of his writings has a surprising effect

Her failed attempt to recreate the same effect later on