By Robert Scucci | Published
When I first heard the news of a Disney+ Malcolm in the Middle revival, I decided to revisit the original series on Hulu with guarded enthusiasm. Although I tend to repeatedly watch the sitcoms I grew up with (no one watches Spawn and the golden age The Simpsons more than me), I was reluctant to tune into the goings-on of the Wilkerson family because I was afraid the show wouldn’t hold up nearly 20 years after its seven-season run ended. Luckily, it only took a few episodes for the memories to come back to me to the point where I was quoting lines I hadn’t heard in decades, as if I had just watched the show last week.
Malcolm In The Middle is a timeless family sitcom
Most sitcoms tend to have one or two main characters who carry the entire series, but Malcolm in the Middle is cut from a different fabric. From the first episode, when Malcolm Wilkerson (Frankie Muniz) discovers that he has an IQ of 165 and is placed in the “Krelboyne” gifted class, you would think he would be at the forefront. That is, until you meet Malcolm’s adorable but dysfunctional family.
His two siblings live at home with Malcolm: his dim-witted and hot-headed older brother, Reese (Justin Berfield), and his innocent but subtly manic and possibly gifted younger brother, Dewey (Erik Per Sullivan). The trio of troublemakers also have an older brother named Francis (Christopher Masterson) who was sent to Marlin Academy, a military school for troubled teenagers.
Every brother or sister in Malcolm in the Middle has good intentions, but boys will be boys, so their main way of showing affection is by fighting each other, playing elaborate pranks, and regularly getting into trouble with the law.
Enter the parents
Despite their differences, the boys of Malcolm in the Middle have a common enemy, and it’s their mother, Lois (Jane Kaczmarek). Ruling the house with an iron fist, Lois is a tyrant with a heart of gold, as she always watches over her family in the only way she knows how: screaming, psychological warfare, and humiliation. Even though a woman like Lois may seem insufferable in any other context, she is the perfect mother figure in Malcolm in the Middle due to the unpredictable and destructive nature of his children, making his abrasiveness absolutely necessary to protect his family from trouble.
You might think that Francis, Reese, Malcolm, and Dewey’s problematic behavior is a product of their upbringings and environments (read: Lois is a bad mother), but when you learn more about their father, Hal (Bryan Cranston), it becomes clear. that their short-sighted impulsivity might actually be genetically inherited.
Hal Wilkerson is more complex than Walter White
Living in constant fear of Lois’s brief but entirely necessary outbursts of rage, Hal often alludes to his past as a bad boy, which, through his stories, resembles the current behavior of his four sons. Working as a corporate drone, Hal is a slave to his impulses and has a penchant for gambling, smoking cigars, drinking, wandering around the house (or yard) in his tight white clothes, and bribing his children to they take responsibility every time he does it. adopts behavior that can put him in the doghouse with Lois.
Hal is arrogant but lives in fear, spontaneous but too short-sighted to stay out of trouble, a reckless spender despite living on the edge of poverty, and somehow the most technical roller skater graceful you have ever seen in your life. . Break the bad Creator Vince Gilligan once described Bryan Cranston’s portrayal of Walter White as “Mr. Chips turns into Scarface,” but Walter has nothing on Hal Wilkerson. Malcolm in the Middle if I had to weigh.
Think about it…Walter White started at point A and ended at point B, and it took five seasons to get there. As a huge fan of the entire Breaking Bad universe, I can’t help but think that Hal as a character goes much further than Walt because he is a living, breathing contradiction of the highest order.
Hal is paternal but criminally neglectful as a parent.
Hal offers his sons wise and affirming advice, but fails to follow it himself.
Hal is always the first person to try to get the boys out of trouble, but he almost always makes things worse when he sees red and acts just as unhinged as his offspring when things get complicated.
Hal is disproportionately confident when looking at his life situation from the outside, but he is self-aware enough to know that he is absolutely hopeless without Lois to rein him in and push him to give his best.
The technological sweet spot
But perhaps the only element of Malcolm in the Middle what makes it a truly timeless series is the era in which it took place, which I call the “technological sweet spot.” Malcolm in the Middle is a series old enough to be perfect binge-worthy nostalgia fodder, but modern enough to remain relevant without suspending too much disbelief. Before smartphones and internet culture took over our daily interactions, the series focused so aggressively on family dynamics that it seemed like something that could come out today and be just as effective without seeming dated.
Francis’ phone calls home from Marlin Academy may seem old-fashioned, but these exchanges simply show the audience how much a nostalgic young adult wants to stay in touch with his family even though they’ve decided he’s too unstable to live under their roof. More often than not, whatever B story takes place at the academy influences the behavior of Malcolm, Reese, and Dewey at home as they plot against Lois with the advice of their beloved older brother. So these phone calls are absolutely necessary, even if this one aspect of the show seems a little dusty.
In other words, a cell phone wouldn’t change the narrative significantly, so these interactions still hold up.
Binge Malcolm in the Middle on Hulu
THE Malcolm in the Middle The reboot is expected to release this year, but as of this writing, there is no set release date. If you’re ready to see what Malcolm and company will be up to over the next four-episode series, then it’s highly recommended that you go back to the year 2000 and go through the entire series instead of watching. Friends for the 100th time.
