Malcolm (Frankie Muniz) is the second youngest in family of 6 (later 7) consisting of dimwitted, indecisive and weak willed father Hal (Bryan Cranston), domineering, hot tempered, disciplinarian mother Lois (Jane Kaczmarek), irresponsible but street smart military school bound delinquent oldest son Francis (Christopher Kennedy Masterson), dimwitted destruction loving second oldest Reese (Justin Berfield), and manipulative, quiet, and youngest son Dewey (Erik Per Sullivan). When Malcolm is determined to be a genius by the school Malcolm is forced into the Krellboyne ("nerd") class with his family, school and most of society often leaving Malcolm precariously hanging onto what little self-respect and dignity he had to begin with.
Appearing as a mid-season replacement in January 2000, Malcolm in the middle was an oddity among sitcom contemporaries. With most sitcoms in live action format either in front of a live-studio audience or using canned laughter, Malcolm in the Middle was a single camera comedy where the jokes spoke for themselves without feeling the need to tell audiences when to laugh. The show became a sleeper hit for the infamously cancel heavy Fox network with the show lasting seven seasons and its first two getting numbers that nearly equated to early Simpsons levels of viewership.
The show (especially in its earliest seasons) is really good at capturing the all too often ignored side of childhood with the awkward adolescence, causal humiliations both familial and social, and the overall meanness that has defined many a person's public school career. With the different age groups of the brothers there's a wide umbrella of pre-pubescent and post pubescent shenanigans that will familiar to many on some level. Malcolm in the Middle when it aired shared a night with predominantly animated sitcoms such as King of the Hill, Futurama, and of course The Simpsons. Because it's live-action Malcolm was always kind of the oddity in the group and yet still felt appropriately placed due in part to the show's exaggerated style that allowed for over the top mischief and comic setpieces that were larger scale and sillier than anything on King of the Hill, but still restrained enough that it never went into full on cartoon logic. As the show went on we saw changes in characters with Malcolm no longer being the "main character"(though he would still break the fourth wall to address the audience) and the show shared focus with other characters giving them more time and storylines. Some storylines such as Francis who goes from being away at military school to becoming emancipated and getting a series of jobs and eventually a marriage start out well enough but degrade over time for one reason or another (particularly with seasons 6 and 7 where it feels almost like he's back to Season 1 version of himself) and others don't feel like they're given the attention they deserve (such as Dewey possibly being a Genius himself, but development on that plotline is scattershot at best.).
I think the biggest issue in the show was they hit a wall in terms of development after season 3 when Malcolm leaves middle school. While the show was always mean, the high school Malcolm seasons are almost schadenfreude levels of cruel with Malcolm's humiliations amped up to inhuman levels and while Lois had always been a domineering powderkeg as time went on Lois became crazier and crazier with almost a sadistic undercurrent that she enjoyed humiliated Malcolm. Hal also became increasing whiny and childish with his character's irresponsibility often taken to hateful levels with how thoughtless he was in regards to taking preventative or corrective action including a number of pregnancy scares throughout the show that showcase really dumb reasons why Hal won't get a vasectomy (or Lois a hysterectomy). Even though the characters on the show age the only one who show's any emotional maturity is Dewey (and maybe Francis to an extent) but other characters basically stay at the same level. Malcolm despite being a "genius" 6 years later is still tormenting Dewey like he's still in Middle School because "he can" and he's still handling his relationships like an eighth grader. The series finale also left me somewhat cold with the show taking the Lois "control freak" to an absolutely ludicrous degree that was honestly one of the more souring points of the series (especially since it tries to frame it in a happy almost nostalgic way).
Malcolm in the Middle is one of the most innovative sitcoms of its time and its legacy can be felt in pretty much every other post 2000 sitcom and paved the way for shows like Arrested Development, The Office, and 30 Rock. While the show does have some really great opening seasons it doesn't do all that well at building upon itself past the 3rd season where the show has to scramble to readjust its status quo. Characterization also degrades over time with characters eventually morphing into caricatures and becoming parodies of themselves (or in some cases stagnating) but there's some terrific comic work at play both in front of and behind the camera that make this show a benchmark in sitcom history.
Appearing as a mid-season replacement in January 2000, Malcolm in the middle was an oddity among sitcom contemporaries. With most sitcoms in live action format either in front of a live-studio audience or using canned laughter, Malcolm in the Middle was a single camera comedy where the jokes spoke for themselves without feeling the need to tell audiences when to laugh. The show became a sleeper hit for the infamously cancel heavy Fox network with the show lasting seven seasons and its first two getting numbers that nearly equated to early Simpsons levels of viewership.
The show (especially in its earliest seasons) is really good at capturing the all too often ignored side of childhood with the awkward adolescence, causal humiliations both familial and social, and the overall meanness that has defined many a person's public school career. With the different age groups of the brothers there's a wide umbrella of pre-pubescent and post pubescent shenanigans that will familiar to many on some level. Malcolm in the Middle when it aired shared a night with predominantly animated sitcoms such as King of the Hill, Futurama, and of course The Simpsons. Because it's live-action Malcolm was always kind of the oddity in the group and yet still felt appropriately placed due in part to the show's exaggerated style that allowed for over the top mischief and comic setpieces that were larger scale and sillier than anything on King of the Hill, but still restrained enough that it never went into full on cartoon logic. As the show went on we saw changes in characters with Malcolm no longer being the "main character"(though he would still break the fourth wall to address the audience) and the show shared focus with other characters giving them more time and storylines. Some storylines such as Francis who goes from being away at military school to becoming emancipated and getting a series of jobs and eventually a marriage start out well enough but degrade over time for one reason or another (particularly with seasons 6 and 7 where it feels almost like he's back to Season 1 version of himself) and others don't feel like they're given the attention they deserve (such as Dewey possibly being a Genius himself, but development on that plotline is scattershot at best.).
I think the biggest issue in the show was they hit a wall in terms of development after season 3 when Malcolm leaves middle school. While the show was always mean, the high school Malcolm seasons are almost schadenfreude levels of cruel with Malcolm's humiliations amped up to inhuman levels and while Lois had always been a domineering powderkeg as time went on Lois became crazier and crazier with almost a sadistic undercurrent that she enjoyed humiliated Malcolm. Hal also became increasing whiny and childish with his character's irresponsibility often taken to hateful levels with how thoughtless he was in regards to taking preventative or corrective action including a number of pregnancy scares throughout the show that showcase really dumb reasons why Hal won't get a vasectomy (or Lois a hysterectomy). Even though the characters on the show age the only one who show's any emotional maturity is Dewey (and maybe Francis to an extent) but other characters basically stay at the same level. Malcolm despite being a "genius" 6 years later is still tormenting Dewey like he's still in Middle School because "he can" and he's still handling his relationships like an eighth grader. The series finale also left me somewhat cold with the show taking the Lois "control freak" to an absolutely ludicrous degree that was honestly one of the more souring points of the series (especially since it tries to frame it in a happy almost nostalgic way).
Malcolm in the Middle is one of the most innovative sitcoms of its time and its legacy can be felt in pretty much every other post 2000 sitcom and paved the way for shows like Arrested Development, The Office, and 30 Rock. While the show does have some really great opening seasons it doesn't do all that well at building upon itself past the 3rd season where the show has to scramble to readjust its status quo. Characterization also degrades over time with characters eventually morphing into caricatures and becoming parodies of themselves (or in some cases stagnating) but there's some terrific comic work at play both in front of and behind the camera that make this show a benchmark in sitcom history.