I'm a day late with this review. So shoot me. Actually, I figured by now you'd probably be suffering from Shameless withdrawal, as this week's episode marked the end of Series 6. Or maybe I'm just a lazy git. Either way, as predicted last week, the series finale had some tricks up its sleeve. Everyone probably predicted one of these tricks would involve Mad Maureen, but few could have expected just how far her madness would take her.

The final minutes of the final episode were cleverly foreshadowed by the opening scenes in which Paddy chases Maureen in his dreams, and in case we should worry that Joe's really turned over a new leaf, his discovery of Karen's pregnancy, and his terrifyingly evil breathed "oh, now you're really mine" should have put paid to any concern for his long-term future as a complete bastard.

Light relief was provided in the shape of Carl and Chesney, who through an extreme stroke of luck found themselves in proud possession of a brand new 4x4, and Maxine, who with some clever manoeuvres and a stint playing the part of Uma Paluma at the celebs' ball, managed to finally get it together with Carl.

Karen finally found the stones to tell Mandy that Joe was playing them both, and had cornered her in the changing rooms at the footie, only to find that Joe, the master of mind games, had beaten her to it, and told Mandy that it was Karen who had come on to him. Mandy's pitying attitude and suggestion that Karen find professional help was too much for the overwrought lass, still reeling from the discovery that she is pregnant and doesn't know who the father is.

But aside from all that, this was Paddy's story. A lucky coincidence - finding a schoolgirl with a heroin overdose and rushing her to hospital - leads to Paddy crossing paths again with Nurse Maureen and enables him to follow her home. His intention is to apologise, finally, having got himself clean and realised what he'd done, but in conversation it transpires that Maureen had given up on her daughter long before she got to Paddy, so she was looking in the wrong place for somebody to blame.

Paddy's disdain stokes the fires of Maureen's madness again - literally. With a simple ruse she tricks Mandy into coming to the house, opens a gas pipe and tries to strike a match. Paddy, having realised what's going on, rushes with Mickey to the house. In the end was it Maureen's match that ignited the gas, or the spark from Mickey's finger on the doorbell? Or both? Either way, the house goes up, the door is blown off, and Mandy enjoys the most explosive exit of any character so far.

As for her ashes, well this is Shameless innit? Plans to scatter them in the Shannon are thwarted when Frank picks them up and gets into the party mood. It's an Irish wake: the music is bumping and the drink is flowing. And the ashes are scattered in the Jockey. How fitting.

This never reached the heights of a classic Shameless series, and in some ways maybe a run of sixteen weeks was too long. On the positive side, it gave us chance for some longer-running threads (like Maureen) while on the negative side it left us with quite a few episodes where not much happened - funny or otherwise. The days of belly laughs and rolling on the floor are long gone where Shameless is concerned, but we still do laugh, and in a strange way we still do care about what happens to the "Chatsworth buccaneers." With Channel 4 having invested heavily in the production of Shameless, and viewing figures holding up pretty well in spite of the patchy quality of the episodes in this run, you can bet it will be back next year. Shortened possibly. With one less character certainly. But with Mandy out of the picture, new dramatic possibilities are opened up for the Karen/Joe/Jamie triangle, and her death will either herald a new era of hatchet-burying in the Maguire household or - dramatically preferable in my view - an increase in level of feuding as accusations and recriminations fly.