Based on a long-running British drama, Shameless stars William H. Macy as the alcoholic patriarch of a big blue-collar family in Chicago, the Gallaghers. The mother is AWOL, and with the alcoholic patriarch (Macy) usually passed out on the living-room floor, their smart but unpredictable 18-year-old daughter, Fiona (Rossum), is tasked with keeping her five younger brothers and sisters on the straight and narrow.