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When it came to shooting “Shameless” Season 11 during the height of the COVID-19 Pandemic, staying completely in Los Angeles was no one’s first choice. “We just had to compromise on our love of seeing Chicago, and being out on the streets in Chicago,” John Wells told The Chicago Tribune in December 2020. “That really wasn’t an option.” One silver lining was the spacious executive lots that were empty because of remote work. “We took over an executive parking lot and rebuilt the front of the street,” Wells explained, though they used VFX to flesh out the surrounding blocks.
The crew also used VFX to insert Chicago-centric details, such as including “a Chicago bus” or a “Chicago police car” in certain outdoor scenes. Most fans wouldn’t notice, Wells believed, but a Chicago native would be considerably more eagle-eyed. “For anybody who knows Chicago and knows how hard we’ve tried to really make it be Chicago, you’ll notice.” He continued, “We’re changing as much as we can, but there is a limit to how much you’re going to do in visual effects to bus signs. Or are they the right parking meters? Are there parking meters, period? All of those sorts of things.”
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For some fans, California’s undeniable presence became distracting. “I used to be able to look the other way by the occasional palm tree in the background or the obvious California neighborhoods,” wrote u/erncub on Reddit. “This season it’s too much and it’s actually making the show less enjoyable for me.”
