Crossover November: Does ‘Shameless’ plus ‘Orange is the New Black’ equal instant entertainment?
How much fun would it be seeing someone like Fiona Gallagher interact with some of TV’s most-famous inmates? Even though “Shameless” and “Orange is the New Black” in some ways do not have that much in common with each other, in other ways they are very much alike. Both are premium cable shows that love bold, brash storytelling, and both have often confused awards shows in terms of where to classify them. They each have dramatic elements, but also funny moments and quirky characters.
So do the common bonds these shows share help to make up for all of the differences? This is something we are more than happy to explore further in this latest Crossover November article.
The case for a crossover – We have in our head right now the following crazy scheme where Fiona somehow ends up at Litchfield after committing some crime while on a road trip, and some of her family ends up forging some sort of grand escape plan with Lip and Frank coming up with particularly crazy shenanigans that blow up in their face. Meanwhile, on the inside Fiona makes some of her trademark bad decisions and needs the help of Piper to bail her out. Maybe we’re just making this into fanfiction, but it just feels like this could work fairly organically and be a lot of fun as a sort of one-off “Shameless” special that could boost interest in both shows.
The case against it – It’s a big one: There is zero reason for Showtime and Netflix to cooperate with one another creating such an event would be messy, take up a lot of time and resources, and would probably be viewed as not worth it. Also, you’re somewhat limited by the setting of “Orange is the New Black,” and it would probably not work that well unless it was a “Shameless” episode featuring these characters rather than the other way around. There’s no reason for diehard “Orange is the New Black” fans to care as much about the Gallagher family if they’ve never seen that show.
So ultimately, this is not going to work out because of logical reasons … but we still think that there’s fun material to be mined from a Gallagher family women’s prison break. We stand by that and will continue to do so.
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