Shameless

Dysfunction has always worked well on television.

Whether they were comedic bunches like the Bluth clan on “Arrested Development” or dramatic like the Soprano clan on “The Sopranos,” we’ve always liked our fictional families served with a huge helping of ridiculousness.

So it’s no wonder that four seasons in, the outlandish Gallagher brood on Showtime’s “Shameless” is as ludicrous and hysterical as ever.

Chronicling the exploits of an alcoholic father played by William H. Macy and his six children growing up below the poverty line in a grisly Chicago neighborhood, the show has consistently delivered some of the best acting on cable.

I’ve never watched the long-running original United Kingdom series on which the United States version is based, but it’s hard to imagine topping the American incarnation.

Macy might take top billing, but the true star of “Shameless” has always been Emmy Rossum as Fiona, the eldest and most responsible Gallagher child.

If you know the show, you know being the most responsible Gallagher doesn’t mean much.

This season finds Fiona working a stable job and dating her boss. Things seem to be going well in the beginning, but remember — this is “Shameless.” Good luck lasts only so long.

Macy has played Frank as a rather one-note mess since the show’s debut in 2011.

Frank is currently down on his luck, his liver finally beginning to fail him after his decades of abusing it. He has enlisted his son Carl to help him find a donor who matches his blood type.

It’s easy to deride Frank’s character as flat and unchanging, but “Shameless” would get boring pretty quickly if he decided to sober up and be the father he needs to be for his children. If this were the case, there wouldn’t be a show anymore.

Ian Gallagher, played by Cameron Monaghan with a brooding finesse, is absent. Ian was last seen assuming his older brother’s identity and shipping off to the military.

It remains to be seen if and when Ian will return to the show, but until he does, television is missing one of its brightest and most fully fleshed-out homosexual characters.

Not to mention his closeted, punk ex-boyfriend isn’t getting on well without him.

Critics have derailed “Shameless” as being too over the top and crazy, placing these young children in mature predicaments and juicing them for uncomfortable comedy.

But to pick at these points is to miss the show’s humanity. Blink and you’ll miss those family moments that spring up when you least expect them.

They may not be your idea of family, and they may not be my idea of family, but “Shameless” is the brazen reminder that family is what you make it, no matter what your situation.