What Shameless Fans Hate Most About Debbie
Fans who have followed the dramedy series Shameless for the past 11 seasons know that the characters are mainly lovable but also severely problematic. While it's easy to criticize consistently awful characters, such as the swindling father Frank (William H. Macy), it's more complicated when characters who start out wholesome begin to make terrible decisions that leave you questioning their morality.
One of the characters with the biggest transformation is Debbie (Emma Kenney). When she was just ten years old, Kenney landed the role of Debbie, bringing an innocence to the show that helped to balance out her family members' issues. Over the years, however, Debbie has lied, manipulated, and done whatever she had to do to get what she wants — much like Frank. The extreme shift in her personality has left fans not only missing the sweet Debbie we've all come to love but hating this new version of her.
Good girl gone bad
When asked for their thoughts on Debbie's character arc, fans on Reddit were quick to point out that although she started off as a sweet and kind child, Frank's influence was so strong that she's turned out to be eerily similar to him. Reddit user Umamiluv24 had some strong thoughts about just what caused Debbie's shift in character: "Nature vs nurture. With parents like hers, it's not surprising. The only thing that bothers me is that they made her such an empathetic, genuine, and thoughtful kid in the first couple seasons. The questionable things she did were mainly for survival and due to the fact that she didn't really know right from wrong because of her environment. She had such an abrupt personality change. Now she's selfish, greedy, and immature." Other Redditors expressed similar sentiments.
Whatever the cause may be, there's no doubt that fans are disappointed to see the one seemingly pure Gallagher family member turn out to be following in the footsteps of her father, and possibly turning out worse than him.