Per Robert Scucci
| Published
When I first heard the news about Disney+ Malcolm in the middle revival, I decided to rewatch the original series on Hulu with restrained enthusiasm. Although I have a penchant for binge-watching the sitcoms I grew up watching (nobody does Frasier and the golden age The Simpsons more than me), I was hesitant to follow the events of the Wilkerson family because I was afraid that the show wouldn’t last nearly 20 years after its seven-season run. Luckily, 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 show last week.
Malcolm at the Center is an eternal family series
Most sitcoms tend to have one or two breakout characters that carry the entire series, but Malcolm in the middle it is cut from a different fabric. From the very first episode when Malcolm Wilkerson (Frankie Muniz) finds out he has an IQ of 165 and is placed in the gifted “Krelboyne” class, you’d think he’d be front and center. Until you meet Malcolm’s lovely but dysfunctional family.
Living at home with Malcolm are his two siblings: his stupid and hot-headed older brother, Reese (Justin Berfield), and his innocent but subtly maniacal and possibly gifted younger brother, Dewey (Erik Per Sullivan). The troubled trio also have an older brother named Francis (Christopher Masterson) who is sent to Marlin Academy, a military school for troubled teenagers.
Every brother and sister in there Malcolm in the middle he means well, but boys will be boys, so their primary means of showing affection is beating each other up, pulling elaborate pranks on each other, and regularly getting into trouble with the law.
Enter Parents
Despite the differences, the boys in Malcolm in the middle they have one common enemy, and that is their mother Lois (Jane Kaczmarek). Ruling the household with an iron fist, Lois is a tyrant with a heart of gold, as she always provides for her family in the only ways she knows how: yelling, psychological warfare, and humiliation. While a woman like Lois might seem unbearable in any other context, she is the perfect mother figure Malcolm in the middle because of how unpredictably destructive her children are, making her abrasiveness absolutely necessary to keep her family out of trouble.
You might think that Francis, Reese, Malcolm and Dewey’s problematic behavior is a product of their upbringing and environment (read: Lois is a bad mom), but when you learn more about their father, Hal (Bryan Cranston), it becomes clear that their myopic impulsiveness may actually be genetically inherited.
Hal Wilkerson is more complex than Walter White
Living in constant fear of Lois’ brief but completely necessary outbursts of anger, Hal often alludes to his bad past, which through stories reminds him of the present day behavior of his four sons. Working as a corporate drone, Hal is a slave to his urges and has a penchant for gambling, smoking cigars, drinking, walking around the house (or yard) in his tight white pants, and bribing his kids to fall over whenever he behaves to be in the cottage. for dogs with Lois.
Hal is arrogant but lives in fear, spontaneous but too short-sighted to stay out of trouble, a reckless spendthrift even though he lives on the edge of poverty and, somehow, the most graceful technical skater you’ll ever see in your life. 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 had to weigh.
Think about it…Walter White started at point A and ended at point B, and it took him five seasons to get there. As a big fan of the whole Breaking Bad universe, I can’t help but think that Hal as a character is far deeper than Walt because he is a living, breathing contradiction of the highest order.
Hal is fatherly 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 get the boys out of trouble, but he almost always makes things worse when he sees red and acts just as recklessly as his offspring when things get messy.
Hal is disproportionately confident when you look at his life situation from the outside, but he’s self-aware enough to know that he’s absolutely hopeless without Lois cheering him on and pushing him to be his best.
The technological sweet spot
But maybe there is one element Malcolm in the middle What makes it a truly timeless series is the time it took place in, which I call the “tech sweet spots”. Malcolm in the middle is a series old enough to be perfect fodder for binge-worthy nostalgia, but modern enough to stay relevant without too much disbelief. Anticipating smartphones and internet culture taking over our daily interactions, the series focuses so aggressively on family dynamics that it feels like something that could come out today and be just as effective without feeling dated.
Francis’ phone calls home from Marlin Academy may seem old-fashioned, 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 volatile to live under their roof. More often than not, whatever B-story that plays out at the academy affects how Malcolm, Reese, and Dewey behave at home as they plot against Lois with the guidance of their beloved older brother, so these phone calls are absolutely necessary, even if this one aspect of the show it seems a little dusty.
In other words, the mobile phone would not significantly change the narrative, so these interactions still exist.
Drink Malcolm in the Middle on Hulu
The Malcolm in the middle The reboot is supposed to come out sometime this year, but as of this writing it doesn’t have an exact release date. If you’re ready to see what Malcolm and company are up to over the course of the upcoming four-episode series, then it comes with strong recommendations to go back to the year 2000 and skim through the entire series instead of watching it Friends for the 100th time.