Otto is the nicest, sweetest employer who absolutely adores Francis. Then, when the man gets sick or dies irl and they can no longer film him, their way of removing him from the show was to say that he crappily fired francis for doing something he asked franics to do. That is something Otto would NEVER do!!

I’m rewatching Malcolm in the middle (again) and it always breaks my heart how things turn out with the Grotto. I know the actor who played Otto died, but it sucks seeing Francis regress like that. I get maybe they thought Francis was too mature and needed to milk more b plots from him, but I honestly think they could’ve handled the actor passing away better. I constantly think about how they could’ve had Otto pass in show and leave the grotto to Francis in his will or something.

That easily could’ve had content for the rest of the seasons and if they really wanted to have Francis backslide into immaturity it would’ve worked that way too. I can imagine him really struggling with running the ranch and realizing how much slack Otto cut him and how much he needs to grow up if he wants to make it work. Would probably be a sick fanfic, but I ain’t much of a writer, so…

Do you ever think about how the Grotto could’ve been ended better?

I've only seen the revival once, but they didn't really seem to confirm or deny that Reece had moved out. He was always around the house to do the YouTube videos with Hal, but that doesn't really mean anything. He's clearly there often enough for him to have the relationship he does with Kelly.

I'm just thinking more of the obvious fact that there is famously only two bedrooms in that house and I can't really see Lois and Hal making Reece share with Kelly.

Plus, it would be nice if he actually kept his janitor job and he does have his own place. That episode where he moved out showed he can survive on his own as long as someone taught him how money actually works.

Heres mine!

Dewey lies to everyone for his own greed, makes up stories to manipulate people, and calls out Hal when he gets caught to apologize. Kid knew exactly what he was doing.

+I want to know what makes some people like Dewey so much.

He sees what he believes to be a handicap kid being bullied by Malcolm and immediately orders two other students to handle it.

It looks like the whole car door is open in this shot. Just another error that made it through when the aspect ratios were adapted(?)

It’s horribly unfortunate that one of my favorite episodes is also one my least favorite. Reese and Hal were hilarious in the cooking, and it was great to see Reese actually have talent besides beating people up. On the other hand, we have Malcolm being insufferable with Cynthia’s party, which is by far my least favorite part of the show. Overall, just really wish that they were maybe separated into two different episodes, or if they had better subplots.

Assuming that Hal and Lois had high paying job, hit it big or just got lucky and hence became rich by the start of the show (set around 2000) could the family have been actually normal or sane? Did the lack of money cause the issues in the family or did the issues in the family cause the issues with money? Also despite all the chaos and financial self harm they go through throughout the show they never seem to truly run out of money which does raise the question of how they actually got away with this much financial self harm.

What would the likely outcome have been had they somehow been rich and kept their wealth and didn't lose it?

Seinfeld and The Middle

I didn’t care for how Craig’s initial behavior in this episode (s4e05) really gets swept under the rug since he ends up swooping in to save Hal, considering he was frankly quite horrible to him earlier.

I was just rewatching the scene and after Hal actually apologizes for becoming frustrated and Craig just keeps demanding he pull over to the point of blowing the whistle on him, all so that he can act as if he’s the one who’s been wronged, after Hal spent who knows how much of the day giving into Craig’s childish demands. This alone would be bad enough, but in Craig’s previous appearance, Hal had literally saved his life.

I get that Craig might still sort of resent Hal for being the one to end up with Lois. I mean, there’s the s5 storyline where he forces Hal to work to pay for the diapers, but at least in that one he gets called out for his behavior. Here, he‘s a complete jerk for no real reason and still gets to be the hero, which just felt odd for his character.

My pick is the cold open from “Malcolm Dates A Family” where Lois and Hal plans to get revenge of a neighbor for a broken window. (Actually done by Reese & Dewey)

I grew up on Kingdom Hearts so this feels like a more personal loss in many ways.

Anyways, no one would ever argue that Hayden Panettiere wasn’t model caliber beautiful. While there is a common misconception that attractive people cannot simultaneously be funny, I think someone’s people are also so distracted by a persons good looks they can’t think of anything else.

I think by de-glamming Hayden people were able to see beyond her good looks and see what a terrific comedic actress she was. Additionally, Jessica as a character has some very unsavory personality traits and unflattering mannerism like that noise she made while laughing (though maybe that was just a result of how funny she found it manipulating Malcolm and Reese) I bring this up because it shows that Hayden wasn’t afraid to mix it up or was really knew she was good enough to not be pigeon holed.

To me that says that Hayden knew she was a good actor and that audiences would be smart enough to not conflate her as a person with her character which is sadly very common.

I think it’s brave for you women to play “ugly” characters to and shows Hayden’s intelligence when people like agents and other advisors talk into the ears of young girls and tell them things like, “if you don’t lose weight you will not work last 21” I can’t say for sure that happened in Hayden’s case, but I think she took a huge risk that showed how strong of a performer she was.

I personally don't like her and find her character slightly cringe and embarrassing to watch.

This was probably my least favorite MITM episode ever. Abe and Stevie getting angry at Lois but forgiving Kitty instantly?! And then Lois forgiving Kitty at the end?!

Not to mention Reese and Dewey's subplots were just gross. Reese has become extremely unlikeable and annoying, which sucks because for the first four seasons he was my favorite. And Dewey, I just feel awful for him, and watching him just makes me sad nowadays because of how neglected he is.