Malcolm in the Middle - Why nobody is speaking about it?

  • Want to keep track of this thread?
    Accounts can bookmark posts, watch threads for updates, and jump back to where you stopped reading.
    Create account
TV's Adam West said:
The context is Lois made everyone record videos about what Hal means to them. Hals arc is about how much he sacrificed for everyone, even to his detriment. This is a segment where it's Lois' having everyone show the sheer love they have for him. In context, it's sweet.
Click to expand...
It is not funny though. This isn't how the family expresses themselves. If this was twenty-years ago, they would have shown how much they loved Hal the way the showed Lois they loved her in the episode where they forgot her birthday.
 
TV's Adam West said:
The context is Lois made everyone record videos about what Hal means to them. Hals arc is about how much he sacrificed for everyone, even to his detriment. This is a segment where it's Lois' having everyone show the sheer love they have for him. In context, it's sweet.
Click to expand...
Kelly did a great job making it all about her!
 

I haven't seen the new reboot because I'm not willing to fork over money for Hulu and I'm also unwilling to pirate it, so this guy gives a summary of the new mini series.

I really think it failed every character on every front. Everyone has been Flanderized. The best example of this is Reese, Reese is just a perma-loser sponging off of his parents and trying to do an Angry Granpa ripoff by filming Hal in secret for Youtube bux. What should've happened is Reese should've ended up with his own food truck, a situation where his raw cooking talent keeps him afloat but his business competence reached its limits. You could even have a moment where a nigger tries to steal money out of Reese's tip jar while he has his back turned, Reese spots the theft and starts wrestling with the nigger through the window over the money. Then the cops arrive and arrest Reese for a hate crime. A perfect commentary on how modern life is unfair, fitting in perfectly with the spirit of the original show and Reese's character.

And on that note, I just figured out why all these modern reboots suck beyond the simple political jargon bullshit that gets wedged in, it's because character actions aren't character-driven anymore, character actions are driven by muh zeitgeist. There is no story, only events. Reese is filming Hal for Youtube not because that's his natural inclination, but because it's modern times and the writers have to address the modern zeitgeist because Youtube is what people relate to now. Never mind the fact that Reese is the least likely person in the family to be computer literate enough to even operate a Youtube channel. Thus, this version of Reese is essentially an imperfect clone of the real Reese grown in a lab and only has a hazy patchwork of the original's memories, so while he maintains some characteristics of the original, he behaves in radically different ways than before. A symptom of this fact is clone-Reese's character is boiled down and distilled to a few key characteristics where any nuance of his personality is gone and only an exaggerated caricature of him remains. In other words, Flanderization.

The only thing I do like is that Malcom isn't president and is on a political grind by running a charity org. There's a lot of potential to be had here, someone in the charity embezzling funds for themselves, somebody Malcom trusted dearly, and now they're holding the charity hostage by threatening to go to the press and blame Malcolm for the theft, and Malcolm has to figure out a way to oust the weasel from his charity without said weasel pulling the pin on the press grenade. That is something the original show would've done, expose rot and corruption in a system and either the characters are forced to accept it or they burn it down.

And on that note, I just figured out yet another reason why all these modern reboots suck. All of them have returned to this 1950s-esque passive attitude of trusting the institutions and society unquestioningly. There is no such thing as unfairness, corruption or even shitty people, and if there are, it's all due to white people white-ing around. There is no room for scathing critique of anything in an era where everyone speaks in therapese because there is no room for cutting truths or brutal insights because that would disrupt the hippy drum circle for five minutes. After all, you can't have a commentary on the human condition if the human condition has been refined into perfection. Truly, we have returned to the Garden of Eden.

I hate the new sister and I hate that she's, predictably, a tranny. Not even a real tranny, a Tumblr tranny-in-name-only type. I really wish there was at least one of these modern shows that didn't feature trannies at all. If this were still the 2000s, this show would've had the balls to have another character get fed up with her bullshit and call her a fraud who's only using transgenderism as a form of emotional blackmail, like all trannies do. In fact, the old show would've had a montage of her jumping from one bullshit political cause to the other while also jumping from one identity to the next, like before being a tranny she was an otherkin instead. Really hammer home the point that she's just a trend chaser.

This review doesn't give you much of a gleam into Malcolm's daughter as a character, but from what was shown on screen, I really don't care for her that much either. I guess the idea is she's like Malcolm in that she's neurotic, but it just doesn't work, I can't really place why.

Also, I noticed there's no mention of Jamie at all. Did they just forget that Jamie exists?
 
I do think the original run was unafraid of occasionally making a political point here or there, or pointing out that life fucking sucks much of the time if one was not born with a silver spoon in their mouth, but the Redditoids took that to mean that "what are you talking about?! the show was always 'WOKE'! Remember?! there were black characters [who were well fleshed out and not caricatures] and even occasionally a mention that some people are gay! this means it was always 'woke' and now we're going to claim it for ourselves!" essentially.

And so they will pretend that throwing in a genderspecial [and the worst flavor, too, considering anyone can claim to be "non-binary" without actually making any changes to their lifestyle, personal appearance or habits, which is why it is so often claimed by teenage girls who want to feel special or subversive in some way, but they also don't want to actually DO anything or change themselves at all, so they can chase the trend with zero effort and receive asspats] is totally on-brand for the show, always was, and maybe this show was just NEVER intended for you, chud!

Because somehow the political climate of the late '10s and early '20s is totally retroactive and was totally relevant in fucking 2003, too. And you know why these people think this way? Because believe it or not, a lot of them either WEREN'T FUCKING BORN THEN, or were too young to actually know what shit was like back then culturally and politically. So as a result, the new "reboot" is pretty much worthless [outside of fan service and memberberries, like 'hey remember this character??? isn't it cool we got this guy back???'] to the original target audience who watched the show when it was popular back in 2005. And I think more or less, they did that because really it was a veiled pitch for a new series about the new characters, which is why this 'reboot/reunion' spent so much time on unestablished, new, uninteresting characters that nobody actually cares about, except it did so without actually establishing them first, so even new watchers probably won't be into it unless they are convincing themselves to be because it owns the chuds.

And the subreddit for the show has, as always, become a toxic positivity circlejerk, now if you criticize the reboot over there, you just don't like it because you're a bigoted chud, even if you never mention the genderspecial character at all or the fact that they made an established straight character gay. I think for me, Stevie is the only funny part of the reunion for me, and unintentionally so: they have now made him almost the perfect 2020's oppression stack character. He's black, he's disabled, he's 'queer' - all they need to do next is have him convert to Islam and BANG, he's perfect. The only way they could make it any better is if he decided he were in reality a "straight" woman and have him date a "straight transman", essentially heterosexual with extra steps.
 
Last edited:
Ensok said:
I know the guy playing Otto died but I was really disappointed with where Francis's character ended up going after the Grotto. Francis was easily at his best when at the Grotto, it was the best part of his character arc.
Click to expand...
I have a pet theory that Hal, Francis and Reese are all ADHD sufferers, it goes far in explaining all their erratic and self-destructive behavior, especially when Francis started becoming negligent at his job at the Grotto.
 
MarvinTheParanoidAndroid said:
I have a pet theory that Hal, Francis and Reese are all ADHD sufferers, it goes far in explaining all their erratic and self-destructive behavior, especially when Francis started becoming negligent at his job at the Grotto.
Click to expand...
I dislike this line of reasoning, both for characters in media and people in real life, because it attempts to understate an individual’s agency in his life by claiming the issue is he’s undermedicated. As far as the boys are concerned, the show was pretty clear that their misbehavior stems from Hal and Lois’s inattentive, reactionary style of parenting. Whenever the parents are forced by the gimmick of the episode to provide structure for the boys, every time it results in an immediate turn-around in their behavior with a return to the status quo being an ironic punchline. The show even hits this home with the subtlety of a sledgehammer in the finale where Francis talks about how well he’s doing in a boring 9-5.
 
Solomon Bundy said:
Even Malcolm himself forgot the show.

Pro wrestler-turned family annihilator Chris Benoit is wrestling Bret Hart, a childhood favorite of mine, in the original intro (no doubt edited out now, I haven't even checked). I always think of that when the show comes on. It's a quick clip within a montage, but us nerds zero in on shit like that.
Click to expand...
It was never edited out, more than likely nobody knew or gave a shit about it aside from wrestling fans, and by the time Benoit killed Vince McMahon's secret family, the show was in syndication and redoing the opening wouldn't be bothered with.
 
Last edited:
The "non-binary" daughter aside from being a shitty and unfunny addition, really showcased how little the reboot understood the family's dynamic from the original show. It was very out of character for all of them to treat her retarded pronouns with kid gloves, especially Reese. The Reese of the original show would have called her out for the attention-seeking faggot that she is, considering how frequently he called anything he disliked gay. Hal would be the only one to tolerate her bullshit, but he would still talk behind her back, just as he often did to Lois.
 
McMitch said:
I dislike this line of reasoning, both for characters in media and people in real life, because it attempts to understate an individual’s agency in his life by claiming the issue is he’s undermedicated. As far as the boys are concerned, the show was pretty clear that their misbehavior stems from Hal and Lois’s inattentive, reactionary style of parenting. Whenever the parents are forced by the gimmick of the episode to provide structure for the boys, every time it results in an immediate turn-around in their behavior with a return to the status quo being an ironic punchline. The show even hits this home with the subtlety of a sledgehammer in the finale where Francis talks about how well he’s doing in a boring 9-5.
Click to expand...
Best one was when the boys behaved nice to each other while playing Mortal Kombat.
 
The main issue is the sheer lack of the family (the actual family, not young John and Jane Actor) actually interacting with each other, which is after all the core of the show. Cranston spends a significant fraction of his time onscreen alone, for Christ's sake.

And if they'd had any guts, when Dewey's actor pulled out, that would have become a one-line mention of Dewey becoming one of the best pianists of all time before ODing in a Milan hotel room. Having him only there via webcam and also played by a replacement actor smacks of being too lazy for even a minor rewrite.
 
Fun Factory said:
Having him only there via webcam and also played by a replacement actor smacks of being too lazy for even a minor rewrite.
Click to expand...
That's the core of my issues with this soft reboot, its so FUCKING lazy. No actual care or thought into where this family might actually be after several decades. No one bothering to truly learn about the original characters beyond the surface level, endless references to the original in the most boring and pointless ways imaginable, I could go on and on.

That's before we get into it sanitizing everything down so its just another shitty soft-woke TV show, which is the exact opposite direction the original series went. The entire premise of the original is about a semi-realistic TV show oriented around a very poor and very crass lower middle class highly dysfunctional family.
 
Fun Factory said:
And if they'd had any guts, when Dewey's actor pulled out, that would have become a one-line mention of Dewey becoming one of the best pianists of all time before ODing in a Milan hotel room. Having him only there via webcam and also played by a replacement actor smacks of being too lazy for even a minor rewrite.
Click to expand...
They tried until the very end to get the original actor back and that's why the replacement is confined to a webcam.

Fun Fact.
Erik never ever acted again after MitM, not even for the Zoom reunion meeting he was there.
 
Tinnitus said:
They tried until the very end to get the original actor back and that's why the replacement is confined to a webcam.

Fun Fact.
Erik never ever acted again after MitM, not even for the Zoom reunion meeting he was there.
Click to expand...
Sure, but it's cheaper to write two lines than it is to cast an actor.
 
Fun Factory said:
The main issue is the sheer lack of the family (the actual family, not young John and Jane Actor) actually interacting with each other, which is after all the core of the show. Cranston spends a significant fraction of his time onscreen alone, for Christ's sake.

And if they'd had any guts, when Dewey's actor pulled out, that would have become a one-line mention of Dewey becoming one of the best pianists of all time before ODing in a Milan hotel room. Having him only there via webcam and also played by a replacement actor smacks of being too lazy for even a minor rewrite.
Click to expand...
Why would he OD? A simple "he's so busy touring" and some one sided phone calls would have been enough.
 
I don't think Dewey would OD, just being a touring musician is enough. The video call thing was a decent idea but the actor they chose wasn't Dewey enough.
 
MarvinTheParanoidAndroid said:
I have a pet theory that Hal, Francis and Reese are all ADHD sufferers, it goes far in explaining all their erratic and self-destructive behavior, especially when Francis started becoming negligent at his job at the Grotto.
Click to expand...
If I remember correctly, and correct me if I'm wrong, I think Hal was suggested to have some kind of OCD in the original show. Remember when Dewey invited that spergy kid over and he wouldn't calm down til Hal brought out his encyclopedia where he filled out all the empty spaces in the letters, revealing he himself had filled out several sets already? So maybe if not ADHD, definitely OCD.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom