you know we never really hear about shirley's family. we see her in-laws in the thanksgiving episode, but other than her kids/Andre, we never see her parents. are they living? are they dead?
everyone in the study group has some kind of parental issues. addiction is a genetic trait, and it's possible her alcoholism was hereditary. maybe she had a faith crisis in her 20s. she wanted to be a business owner, but what did she want BEFORE that? obviously she loves her kids, but how would her life have gone if she never had them in the first place?
something that seems to come up a lot when episodes are more shirley-centric is shame, and she seems to ignore the things she finds shame in. she was ashamed to be pregnant with Ben, so she ignored the pregnancy test in her purse. she was ashamed that she (and why she) wanted to start a business in the first place, so she made an excuse. she was ashamed about how she acted as a child, so she supressed it.
but the shame had to come from somewhere.
it would be fun to explore shirley's relationship with religion under a more critical lens, because maybe she doesn't even want to think about it.
it's a sitcom, but I have so many questions and there's so much POTENTIAL
