How Fans Really Feel About Lip's Story Arc On Shameless

In the course of its 11-season, 134-episode run on Showtime, the tragicomic marvel known as "Shameless" took no uncertain pleasure in pushing its narrative into heavy dramatic spaces rarely glimpsed in the television realm prior to its debut. In doing so, it put its central characters through trials and tribulations that the term "emotional ringer" doesn't even come close to describing. That approach didn't let up in the series' final season either, with the "Shameless" creative team finding new ways to test the mettle of the Gallagher family, even as it essentially set them all off on a path of relative happiness.

That was particularly true of the second-born, fan favorite Gallagher sibling Lip (Jeremy Allen White), who spent the final season struggling to raise his newborn son Fred, make things work with Fred's mom Tami (Kate Miner), keep the peace within his feisty family, find a decent job, and finally sell the gang's soon-to-be gentrified South Side abode. For the most part, Lip was successful in those endeavors, though most fans would agree that was not the expected path for the genius-level lad we met in the series' first season. And if a recent Reddit thread is to be believed, "Shameless" fandom has some pretty serious opinions about Lip's 11-season story arc. 

In fact, some "Shameless" fans was pretty unhappy with the way things went for Lip as that Reddit thread opens with a pointed meme about the "gifted kid" turning into "a burned out f*****g disappointment" on his way to a lowly death just like his ne'er do well dad Frank (William H. Macy). Per the comments section, in the eyes of many "Shameless" Lip's narrative descent began with the storyline that took him to college, where the golden opportunity slipped away in a haze of alcoholic self-sabotage.

Redditor 1Rlegend is clearly in that group, who responded to the original post by bluntly stating, "Torched his story line the second he turned into good will hunting in college." User _ _syzygy promptly agreed, adding, "100%. I almost dropped the show due to his storyline in college." Meanwhile, along4theride-13 was quick to more or less defend Lip's narrative side-tracking (and the slippery slope he followed in ensuing seasons) noting his troubled background alone likely merited it, "I think the people saying he was a burn out don't come from situations like him, it's almost unrealistic to think that he was going to make it out of a situation like that."

Though some felt the writer's were merely playing roulette with Lip's college and post-college life, there were quite a few "Shameless" fans who were more-or-less pleased with the way things turned out, with twitch_Mes noting, "Idk. He was ok. He didn't have to become bill gates. He has a family, he got his addiction under control. He has a normal family and life. He's fine." And we can likely all admit "fine" is actually pretty damn good in the "Shameless" realm.