Shameless - The Complete Fifth Season

The white trash, black trash and gay trash of a certain slum of Chicago face a particular challenge in "Shameless: The Complete Fifth Season." The lesbians.

It seems that monogamous and well-behaved lady lovers are pushing their way into the ghetto. That's great for the drunks and drug-addicts that want to collect some quick cash on the homes they can't afford, but it raises problems for the homeless people who want to exercise their God-given right to wake up in a puddle of their own sick in the middle of a playground.

Frank Gallagher (the multitalented William H. Macy), a superhero of substance abuse and the unpredictable patriarch of a family of libidinous and barely-legal children, is also a prophet. And his prediction is Starbucks.

Boutique coffee houses, franchises and other small businesses are the plague that will result from the invasion of Sappho's sisters, says Frank, and those things will destroy his neighborhood. They will eat away at its charm by sweeping up its abandon crack pipes and hypodermic needles.

Frank's hotter than Hell daughter Fiona (Emmy Rossum) has problems of her own. As the family becomes more independent, she has time to rush into impulsive relationships. In addition to the unrequited lust for her new boss (Dermot Mulroney) and the return of her old boyfriend (Justin Chatwin), Fiona manages to slip in a marriage to melt-in-your-mouth musician. (And your mouth is exactly where you'll want this guy when he sings his ballads about his sweaty balls in bed.)

The rest of the family is as horny as their head mistress. Lip's (Jeremy Allen White) girlfriend is opening herself to vagina sex, while Carl (Ethan Cutkosky), whose voice is barely changing, has become a master of cunnillingus. Sammi (Emily Bergl) and Veronica (Shanola Hampton) are looking for lays in all the wrong places, while Debbie (Emma Kenney) decides the best way to lose her virginity is to get a guy drunk and rape him.

Then there's our favorite gay couple Ian (Cameron Monaghan) and Mickey (Noel Fisher). The later has become more responsible after coming out of the closet. But the former, the Gallagher boy, suffers desperately from manic depression. Oh well, one of the side effects is a wild sex addiction!

Binge watching is the only way to indulge in this collection of self-destructive pleasures, and you'll want to get caught up before Season Six returns to Showtime on January 17. In addition to all twelve episodes of the fifth season, this Blu-ray collection has two bonus featurettes that highlight this shows unique take on sex and violence, an audio commentary and unaired scenes.

"Shameless: The Complete Fifth Season"
Blu-ray ($44.96) or DVD ($39.98)
www.sho.com