The Cutprice Guignol

Malcolm in the Middle is one of those shows that has a profoundly special place in my heart.

Growing up, it was the closest thing that TV had to a live-action version of my beloved Simpsons; the focus on a low-income family with errant kids, the stylized set-pieces, the sense of scale and absurdity that serves as the groundwork for so much of the comedy, it scratched an itch I hardly even knew I had when it first came out in the early 2000s. As an adult, I went back to it again, and on the re-watch found it even more brilliant than I’d remembered, distinct and sharp-elbowed in the way that sitcoms aren’t often allowed to be, especially when they revolve around family.

In fact, when I think of the defining moment of this show, it’s probably this one from the second episode of the third season:

It’s such a genius scene; it hits all the beats you’d expect from a cathartic bonding moment between mother and son, a chance for Francis and Lois to finally move past their problems and accept each other for the people they are. The way it’s shot, acted, written, Lois’s tender little “well, I’m listening” – it lulls you into that false sense of security that you’re getting some warm and fuzzy emotional resolution. And then – you don’t. Francis and Lois scream at each other in the yard while the rest of the family looks on. It not only makes me screech-laugh every time, but it’s a reminder of just what makes MitM such an iconic and enduring comedy; its willingness to acknowledge those tropes, and then complete T-bone them in belligerent, mean, and often hilarious fashion. That’s not to say there isn’t heart to the show, because there is (mostly in the form of Hal), but it’s gleeful subversion of standard family comedy sitcom tropes is always what made it sing to me.

Which is why I found the recent reboot, Life’s Still Unfair, a bit of a let-down. With most of the original cast and creator Linwood Boomer returning to helm this four-episode return to the Malcolm family twenty years later, I was cautiously optimistic about how the revival might go. The show’s unique perspective and fourth-wall-breaking central conceit really paved the way for plenty of the comedy that would come to define the following couple of decades, like How I Met Your Mother and Scrubs, and it seemed pretty fun to plant Malcolm right in the middle of that as one of the original and best.

And, look, there’s plenty to like about this revival if you’re a fan of the original show. The returning cast are, across the board, fantastic, with Frankie Muniz as the titular Malcolm slipping with enormous ease back into his iconic role – Bryan Cranston obviously had the most acting career success in the years since the show’s conclusion, and these four episodes really make the most of his range and commitment. Jane Kaczmarek as Lois (here planning the anniversary bash of the century for her and Hal) was and remains one of my favourite comedy characters of all time, and Justin Berfield (who, somehow, both looks completely identical and entirely different to his child self) saunters back in to pick up where he left off with Rhys. When the show gets into its groove, there’s some genuinely hilarious writing, and Boomer does a solid job handling the delicate matter of updating an iconic child character to a parent in their own right.

But there are issues here, many of them pretty much inherent to the reboot mini-genre as a whole – in just a handful of episodes, we have to speed around this community and check in with as many of the supporting cast as would agree to return, giving especially the last couple of episodes a hectic and slightly impersonal feel. The new characters, despite perfectly decent performances, inevitably feel far less fleshed-out than the originals and more a distraction than an expansion of the world, and Boomer can’t help but dredge up some pretty dull teen girl storylines for Malcolm’s daughter Leah (Keely Karsten) that feel weirdly out-of-place in the show, even though it started as a story primarily focused on characters her age.

But, more than anything I missed the show’s bite. What with this being a reunion, I understand the urge to tell a sweeter, gentler, more emotional story that focuses on familial connection rather than constant battle-stations, but it all just felt a bit soft around the edges for my liking. The mini-series climax with the family and friends putting together a video for Hal about just how much they appreciate him, and it’s played entirely straight, the focus on Lois and Hal’s anniversary serving as the spark that kicks off this series just leads to a lot of people smiling fondly at each other. There’s a little sniff of bite towards the end, as Malcolm’s proposal gets rejected, but it just doesn’t feel entirely true to the original Malcolm in the Middle for everything to be so…nice. The original ending of the show, for me, balanced those tones beautifully, but this reboot sinks into soggy schmaltz far too often for my liking. It sets up all those beats, just like the scene above, and then plays them almost entirely straight.

Life’s Still Unfair is a perfectly serviceable revival, in a lot of ways, but for me it lacked some of the subversive sense of wit that the original series had in spades. I would love to hear what you made of the reboot in the comments below, and also practically insist that you leave your favourite Malcolm moment or episode too, because I need an excuse to rewatch at least 50% of the original series.

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(header image via Inkl)