Showtime’s hit t.v. show “Shameless” returned this month for its third season with, as always, entertaining plots and complex characters who have to deal with their everyday lives of barely getting by. The series, a remake of the popular British show of the same name, has garnered many positive reviews and has been nominated for several awards ranging from Best Actor and Best Actress to Outstanding Drama Series throughout it’s past two seasons, and the show looks as though it could be up for several more.

The premise of “Shameless” is about a poor and dysfunctional family of six children living in the South Side of Chicago. The kids have to raise themselves because their mother walked out and because their father is a raging drunk who spends most of his time high or wasted. Most of the show deals with the entire family looking for ways to make money and entertaining themselves with alcohol, sex, and drugs. Whether it is Fiona, the oldest of the six children who works a bunch of odd jobs, or Philip “Lip,” the second oldest who finds ways to scam money off people, the family always finds some way to get by.

This season, the show kicked off in the spring about four months after the season 2 finale aired. While the months have changed, the Gallagher family is still up to the same antics. As usual, the family is without their deadbeat dad, leaving Fiona and her boyfriend Jimmy to take care of everyone else. However, there are new twists that come about for each character, leaving them to have to make tough decisions. What makes these choices so important is how the family is always in need of cash, and therefore any mistake not only affects one person but the whole family. These decisions and the fact that the family is struggling to get by is what makes the show so good. When watching, viewers can see how close the Gallagher family really is, which justifies each one of their decisions.

For the third season in a row, “Shameless” seems to have continued its recipe for success with great writing, acting, and directing, and it looks primed to earn an award for at least one of the great elements that all combine to form this fantastic show.