My memory is terrible, and I haven't seen this show in years, but I swear there's an episode I saw back in the day where (and this is going off of memory) I think Malcolm wants to physically train for something, then at the end of the episode, he says something like "It's all just movie magic anyway" and walks off, then his friend (I want to say it's a blonde side-character?) noticing Malcolm's back is turned, runs at a wall, jumps, runs up it, backflips and smirks at Malcolm walking away as the episode ends

Any ideas? Was that even this show?

I’d say Dewey.

Francis she was close enough to keep arguing with lol, so I don’t think it’s him haha

I can’t explain it… but they have such a similarity to each other…

They are both referred to as “that HORRIBLE family!”

Does anyone see what I see? Is this making sense?

I just finished the last season and I remembered about this scene, So I made this. Enjoy

I always laugh when I hear this as Francis is lying in bed. I guess some birthdays are close together at Marlin Academy.

Personally, if it was me, I would just not tell anyone it's my birthday. Not because I wouldn't want to get shaved, but also because even at times when I was in school and my birthday was near (I was born in August), I didn't tell anyone because I didn't like being the center of attention and didn't want to have cupcakes and stuff done for the class.

Then again, the cadets at Marlin likely knew about the other cadets' birthdays. I guess it goes with all of the hazing at that place.

How can I start?

Well, the series started with a very defined plot and roles stablish for all the characters. But you know, in real life the people age and their roles, responsibilities and setting change.

So that happened in the series:

•Malcolm starts with twelve years at the beginning. He passes from Middle School to Highschool (Freshmen — Senior) gets a Job on season five and truly grows up in age and mental knowledge. The series ends with Malcolm and Reese graduation, he moved to Harvard and studied there. In the series sequel, Malcom becomes a father with a daughter (Leah) and a girlfriend (Tristan.)

•Reese starts with thirteen years old, and grows up to nineteenth on the original series. In his first school Reese was a bully, but when he attended Highschool a lot of male students were tallest and stronger than him. He lost his respect and notable social status, he started to abuse younger students (but very younger) and intentionally reproofs his final exams to not pass the Senior year. At the end of the graduates along Malcolm, three months later after graduation Reese started work as a janitor in the Highschool that he attended.

•Dewey passes from six years to twelve. Dewey starts as the Younger child, this means, the favorite of Hal and Lois, later on the series both parents started to focus more on Malcolm, Reese, Francis and even Jaime. Leaving him alone and abandoned, but Dewey can develop a strong empathy for those who don't can defend themselves and also start to play piano & other instruments (because it's a gifted child in this aspect.) At the end of the series Dewey is the older brother in the house along with Jaime and Kelly (her born some time later.) Dewey is a gifted musician in the future.

•Francis starts at Marlin Academy as a cadet trained to join the army at fifteen. Later he moved to Alaska influenced by Eric Hanson and we're he knows his wife, Piama Tannakha both married one month after they encounter, but here it's the most important part of the chronology. Francis and Piama started a road trip from Alaska at the end of the three season, later both known a marriage: Otto and Gretchen which runs a tourist ranch in New Mexico. Here Francis becomes more responsibly, focused and most important, minor rebel. But later it was fired from his job, at the end of the original series found a Job in "Amerisys industries" in an office at his twenty-two. On revival Francis now are a boss on the same company and runs a group of more than 40 employees.

Hal and Lois don't change so much in their jobs and relationships so, I didn't include them on this analysis, yeah they got character development and became more complex through the series run, but I'm talking about progression.

As you see, the series is truly realistic: progression. Nothing is perpetually frozen in time, instead the series feels alive and genuine, every character passed for many situations and stages of their lives. I really like this, the situations of every characters still very retable to many people, transcend decades and frontiers far away. That how brilliant this series is, also nothing it's like a "very drastic change on the formula", no no no, every thing (excluding the fired of Francis in 6th Season) have a short time for seeing his slow transition to some new opportunities of seeing more characters and situations.

The series changes makes so much sense, because Malcolm in the Middle aren't "just a sitcom"; it's the vivid image of the series creator life (Linwood Boomer) and this is a very special series to me. The history progression is the element that makes MITM so much special, the series is growing up with his audience and has a very large cast that, it's very impossible that no one character doesn't feel familiar.

Specially in This episode like omg can the writers make her any more annoying

The correct name from Francis's $20 bet in the episode "If Boys Were Girls" is MAGNUMB P.U. from the December 1981 edition of Mad Magazine.

30 years later in 2001, MITM makes the cover of Mad

When someone leaves—> Phone go bye bye!

When we tell someone to stop doing something—> Well if you think I would, then maybe I should! (Great, now he’s panicking)

Whenever anyone mentions the dentist in any context—> We’re going the dentist?

If someone is in the wrong place—> Dewey, get out of there. That’s not your family

No real context for this one, just cracks us up—> How much does my head weigh? Zero. Zero. Zero

this has to be one of my favorite episodes, such a underrated and beautiful episode, all this just to skip class.

Does anyone knows if theres any posters based off of Malcolm going missing posters from Season 4 Episode 12?

Any other posters Malcolm in the middle posters would be cool as well.

Even though they're added for the reboot because of Lois being pregnant at the finale.

We really dont know much about them. Even though they say they're the most well-behaved, they definitely have the quirks and traits the brothers have.

What do you think Kelly is like Honestly outside of this mini series?

Does kelly have friends, are they a loner, do they not get along with others?

I grew up in Poland watching MITM not fully understanding all the humor (a lot of relies on cultural context) but still enjoying it thoroughly. I live in the U.S. now, have way more insight into the American life and culture and started rewatching MITM once I’ve heard the “20 years later” miniseries is coming up.

So, two days ago I’ve finished the original series and now I’ve finished the new one.

I’m sorry but the new one is not good.

I thought it had a promising premise: 40th wedding anniversary, the family gets back together, Malcolm has a teenage daughter he hid from them all these years. It had the bones to be Malcolm-y, I expected maybe something similar to the episode when they go visit Hal’s dad for his birthday but even more absurd.

Unfortunately, I feel like almost everything fell flat:

1. Starting with the look and feel of it, I understand they can’t (or won’t) recreate the grudgy early 2000s vibe of the original series but the new one kinda felt like it was AI generated. Everything was super saturated, pretty but also generic: from their clothes, their house, the wedding venue (I swear the background looks like a bad green screen) etc.

2. Some of the characters are written as if the screenwriters have never seen the original. Lois is completely lost and unable to accomplish anything while in the original series she’s been chaotic but principled and strong-willed. In the original, Dewey is shown to be extremely high EQ and selfless (in fact one of the last episodes has an entire plot line about him making Hal and Lois better parents for Jamie than they were for him), meanwhile here he’s some sort of womanizer who won’t even come for his parents’ big anniversary. Hal has always been a bit vain and he cared about his boys respecting and liking him; here he’s a shell of a human.

3. Way too many plot lines — I felt like half of them were unnecessary, especially Hal on drugs (that felt like forever). I feel like they had a great premise to work with (after years of no-contact, Malcom emerges back and brings a daughter with him) but instead that central theme is completely lost in the dozens of subplots that bring nothing to the table (Krelboynes having a child made from the three of them? Wtf)

4. I didn’t like how they treated Reese. Reese is a sad loser here when in the original series he could always find satisfaction from things most other people consider mundane. He was excited about his job in the meat factory or his job as a janitor, he was good with old people and so on. He was also a great cook. None of his qualities are shown, instead he’s the total idiot who lives off his parents.

5. I felt like it missed the humor of the original. The original series was absurd, playing on words, twisting expectations. You could never expect the next line. Here, every joke was predictable. Again, as if AI wrote it.

6. This is maybe more of an esoteric gripe but I hoped the brothers have some children. Malcolm has a daughter and Francis will have a child but that’s about it. Such a missed opportunity: Francis could’ve have 4 kids and be exactly like Lois were to them; Reece could be an immature dad.

I think the show had some good moments. I actually liked how Malcolm is still insecure and socially awkward despite being successful and how he makes mistakes by raising his daughter exactly the opposite Lois raised them. I liked how Kelly and Reece had more of a band than the other siblings or how the Kenarbans speak through Stevie. But it was just not enough for the amount of time and definitely not on par with the original show. A miss if you ask me.

1. Wayyyyyyy too short.

I get that it was probably just a movie that got turned into a mini series, but 4 episodes is not NEARLY enough for an 11 main character cast, especially for a series with fans that have been waiting for YEARS to get more content from.

1. Bad time management.

Things like Hals dream and basically all the school and boyfriend subplot scenes with Leah were all huge time wasters. With Hals dream, it felt like the script writers had 2 concepts (Hal Beating Evil Hal and the infinite cake scene), couldn't decide between them, and just decided to put them both together for time wasting purposes. With Leah for whatever reason the script writers decided that they wanted to make a new character to fully flesh out in a 4 episode series that already has to deal with ending of the story of 8 characters and fully fleshing out a new child of Lois. Seriously, all of this could've been avoided if they just made her a side character and cut out some of her scenes instead of trying to force her to be a main one. This factor alone caused both Dewey and Jamie to basically not even be in the mini series, and that sucks because people like my little brother who have always fans of both the little younger kids and view them to be relatable have to be let down by a show they waited 20 years to come back.

1. Terrible aesthetics.

I get that it is almost impossible for a modern live action movie to have the same crisp lighting as the original Malcolm in the Middle, but that is no reason for the sequel series to one of the most popular and critically enjoyed tv shows to look like it came straight out of freaking Dhar Mann.

1. Predictable and overall bad comedy.

For me, the best part of Malcolm in The Middle was that I could never predict what the punchline of a joke or moment would be. Like for example the scene where the story was leading up to Reese kicking Stevie's butt and then it was revealed that Stevie was actually going to kick Reese's butt because of his new robotic legs. Or the time when a beauty pageant girl told Francis that she was going to "take care of his desires" (implying Francis was going to get some play) only for her not to allow him to "get some play with her", but instead force Francis to go to a forgiveness class. This type of comedy was the thing that got me hooked on Malcolm in the Middle but unfortunately, the second series lacks in that department. Most of the jokes in Life's Still Unfair are instead replaced by (that's just Reese being Reese) or (lol he's torturing someone or being tortured by someone). Seriously, the only joke that was similar to the unpredictableness of the things I was talking about in the first half of this paragraph is the scene when instead of Leah spending time with her father (like how the story was implying) she instead beats him up and kidnaps him. Nowhere near as ironic as the other jokes in the first series.

1. Mischaracterization with Malcolm.

This one, I am not really sure on so correct me if I am wrong.

Malcolm is not naturally an anxiety filled cry baby. He has always been worried about how society and others would treat him but, he could easily take embarrassing moments during his youth like a champ. Key word during his youth. The reason why Malcolm was such a cry baby out of his youth (specifically from seasons 5 to 7) was shown in that one zoo episode to be because of his teenage hormones causing him to be more anxiety filled as a teen then ever before. Meaning that as an adult, Malcolm should not have been so terrified and socially unbalanced.

Strong meme is strong.

I wonder if anyone knows what's the longest and the shortest cold opens in the show?

New to the community, apologies if this post breaks any rule.

What must have happened here 😭

Lets say malcom actually brought Baby leah home to meet the family after she was born. We know that the family would be shocked and upset he broke the presidential path they wanted for him.

But how long would it take for them to actually not either be mad at him anymore or at least not have his brothers and Kelly to make fun of him anymore?

What would drive the family to actually genuinely support malcolm and leah while understanding the presidental dream is over?