If I need to turn my brain off and decompress, streaming old episodes of Malcolm in the Middle is a great option. (Another great option is sticking my head in a large vat of lukewarm penne pasta while placing my left foot in slightly warmer oatmeal and listening to ABBA, but we won’t get into that right now.)
For the uninitiated, Malcolm was a genius family sitcom that ran for seven seasons from 2000 to 2006, featuring the title character (Frankie Muniz), an extremely smart kid who breaks the fourth wall and narrates episodes about his toxic yet hilarious family.
Bryan Cranston, who would go on to be Walter White of Breaking Bad, and Jane Kaczmarek played his loving and completely maniacal parents, Hal and Lois, with Christopher Masterson (Francis), Justin Berfield (Reese) and Erik Per Sullivan (Dewey) playing his mischievous brothers.
Everyone except for Sullivan (replaced by Caleb Ellsworth-Clark) is back for a four-episode miniseries on Hulu and Disney+. Does director Ken Kwapis, who directed 19 episodes of the original show, recapture the magic? Sometimes.
There are moments in these episodes when the comedy leans a little too slapstick, and it’s missing some of the brilliant evilness of the original show that helped create a nice balance of salty and sweet. This series is a little more on the sweet side, even schmaltzy at times. Still, it’s a lot of fun to see this crew back.
It’s been 19 years, and Malcolm has been hiding from his parents. They don’t even know he has a teen daughter, Leah (a very likable Keeley Karsten), who possesses a lot of her dad’s neurosis and addresses the camera in a similar way. Hal and Lois are planning an anniversary party, and they want Malcolm to attend. Much of the new show involves his inner worries about being in the physical presence of his family again.
Some stretches do achieve the original series’ lunacy, especially with one involving Hal taking a lot of drugs and facing off against a hallucinatory evil Hal. (Shades of Walter White!)
Cranston and Kaczmarek haven’t missed a step in their portrayals of Hal and Lois; they lock back in better than anybody in the cast. This is not a surprise; they’re a couple of old pros.
Because it’s a relatively short run, we don’t really get enough of the legendary Reese causing mayhem, or Francis as the mild-mannered but somehow far more evil ringleader. They are primarily in the background in order to get the full story in across in two hours.
David Anthony Higgins returns as Craig, Lois’ former co-worker who admired her to stalking-like levels. That element of his character is completely jettisoned in favor of a bathroom bit involving explosive diarrhea after eating bad shrimp. (That sounds worse than it is—as bathroom bits go, this one is well-staged and a highlight of the show. Props to the sound crew.)
Muniz, who is 40, has aged gracefully and still looks a lot like Malcolm did at the end of the original series. He effortlessly jumps back into the role. He’s spent much of the last two decades driving racecars, with less of an emphasis on acting. Hopefully this marks a long-lasting return.
As with the recent return of The Muppet Show, I’m hoping Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair leads to a new series. These four episodes might not completely recapture the old vibe, but there are flashes when it’s evident that the vibe could be recaptured with further efforts.
Disney, please give us more of Bryan Cranston hallucinating, Jane Kaczmarek bossing everybody around, and adult Malcolm whining. If you stop at four episodes, you are just teasing us.