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When I first heard the news about Disney+ Malcolm in the middle revival, I decided to return to the original series on Hulu with guarded enthusiasm. Although I do have a penchant for re-watching the sitcoms I grew up watching (nobody watches Frasier and the golden era The Simpsons more than me), I was reluctant to tune into the goings-on of the Wilkerson family, worried that the series wouldn’t last nearly 20 years after its seven-season run concluded. Fortunately, it only took a few episodes for my memories to come flooding back to the point where I was quoting lines I hadn’t heard in decades as if I had watched the series last week.
Malcolm in the Middle is a timeless family sitcom
Most sitcoms tend to have one or two characters that carry the show, but Malcolm in the middle it is cut from a different fabric. From the first episode, when Malcolm Wilkerson (Frankie Muniz) discovers he has an IQ of 165 and is placed in the gifted “Krelboyne” class, you’d think he’d be front and center. That is, until you meet Malcolm’s lovely but dysfunctional family.
At home with Malcom live his two siblings: his stupid and hot-blooded older brother Reese (Justin Berfield) and his innocent but mildly manic and possibly gifted younger brother Dewey (Erik Per Sullivan). The trio of troublemakers also have an older brother, Francis (Christopher Masterson), who has been sent to Marlin Academy, a military school for troubled teens.
Each sibling in Malcolm in the middle he means well, but boys will be boys, so their primary way of showing affection is to hit each other, pull elaborate pranks on each other, and regularly get into trouble with the law.
Enter The Parents
Despite the differences, the boys in Malcolm in the middle they have one common enemy and that is their mother Lois (Jane Kaczmarek). Lois rules the household with an iron fist and is a bully with a heart of gold as she always seeks out her family the only way she knows how: through yelling, psychological warfare and humiliation. While a woman like Lois might seem insufferable in any other context, she is the perfect mother figure Malcolm in the middle because her children are unpredictably destructive, so her harshness is absolutely necessary to keep her family out of trouble.
You might think that Francis, Reese, Malcolm, and Dewey’s problematic behavior is a result of their upbringing and environment (read: Lois is a bad mom), but when you learn more about their father, Hal (Bryan Cranston), it is clear that their myopic impulsiveness may in fact be genetically inherited.
Hal Wilkerson is more complicated than Walter White
Hal, who lives in constant fear of Lois’s brief but absolutely necessary outbursts of anger, frequently alludes to his bad boy past, which through stories reminds him of the current behavior of his four sons. Hal works as a corporate drone and is a slave to his impulses, with a penchant for gambling, smoking cigars, drinking, walking around the house (or front yard) in tight white shirts, and bribing his kids to fall whenever he can. he engages in behavior that may land 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 just about the most graceful technical skater you’ll ever see. . Breaking 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 were to weigh myself.
Think about it…Walter White started at point A and ended at point B and it took five seasons to get there. As a big fan of the team Breaking Bad universe, I can’t help but think that Hal as a character goes much deeper than Walt because he’s a living, breathing antithesis of the highest order.
Hal is paternal but criminally negligent as a parent.
Hal offers wise, life-affirming advice to his sons, but he doesn’t follow it himself.
Hal is always the first person to try to bail the boys out of trouble, but he almost always makes things worse when he sees red, and when things happen, he’s just as unhinged as his offspring.
Hal is unreasonably confident when you look at his life situation from the outside, but he’s self-aware enough to know that he’s completely hopeless without Lois squirming and pushing him to be his best self.
The technological sweet spot
But maybe one element Malcolm in the middle what makes it a truly timeless series is the time it took place in what I call the “technological sweet spot”. Malcolm in the middle is an old enough series to be perfect nostalgia fodder, yet modern enough to remain relevant without suspending too much disbelief. Predating our everyday interactions, the series takes on smartphones and internet culture and focuses so aggressively on family dynamics that it feels like something that could come out today and be just as effective without seeming dated.
Francis’ phone calls home from Marlin Academy may seem hackneyed, but these exchanges simply show the audience how a homesick young adult wants to stay connected to his family, even though they’ve decided he’s too unstable to live under their the roof. More often than not, whatever B-story takes place at the academy will affect how Malcolm, Reese and Dewey behave at home as they conspire against Lois under the guidance 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 in any significant way, so these interactions still hold.
Binge Malcolm In The Middle On Hulu
The Malcolm in the middle the reboot is due out sometime this year, but as of this writing has no set release date. If you’re ready to see what Malcolm and company will be up to during the upcoming four-episode run, then he strongly advises you to go back to the year 2000 and watch the entire series instead. Friends already after 100.
