User reviews

This may very well be the greatest sitcom to ever be created. Many people argue that Friends, The Office, or Seinfeld are the best but nothing beats Malcolm in the Middle. It's relatability, perfectly executed jokes, and clever episode plots are just some of the reasons it's so great. It constantly finds ways to reinvent itself with episodes like Backwards Forwards, Clip Show, and Blackout. Anyone who hasn't watched this, I would highly recommend it.

"Malcolm in the Middle" may have lost a bit of steam recently, but some of the earlier episodes are absolutely, side-splittingly hilarious. Although Malcolm (Frankie Muniz) may be the titular character, it is really Bryan Cranston's characterization of the father figure, Hal, that makes the show so fun to watch. Cranston turns Hal into a boy at heart (as all fathers are) - only, like everything else with the show, extends it into a complete satire and goes completely wacky. This show, for lack of a better word, is crazy.

It's absurd. And it couldn't be any better. The wild antics and over-the-top gags are similar to a cartoon, and even the fast-cut editing between scenes (with the "whoosing" sound) is reminiscent of an animated program.

Like "The Simpsons," "Malcolm" manages to successfully interweave everyday family/social topics into silly plots involving all types of nonsensical stuff. Some of the physical gags are absolutely hilarious - the episode with Hal running out of the supermarket, a parody of "Raiders of the Lost Ark," is gut-busting - but at its heart this really is a tender and witty comedy that manages to be effective on more than one level.

The rest of the cast are great too. It really "feels" like a genuine family. They bicker, they complain, they whine and moan and fight - this is America today. If we were to go back fifty years in a time capsule and present this to the "I Love Lucy" crowds, they'd be shocked.

For whatever reason when the show originally aired I never watched it, but flipping through the channels one day I started to watch it then set it to record everyday and then eventually caught up with the whole series. The show is absolutely awesome with all the hijinks that Malcolm and his brothers pull. Plus Bryan Cranston is cast perfectly as the dad.

What makes the show so great is you can actually see most of this stuff potentially happening in real life. If anyone grew up in a house full of boys we can all admit that they can all be a bunch of sh**disturbers. Even Malcolm who's a prodigy is as bad as the rest of them. Reese who's not book smart can be just as crafty at pulling off pranks as the rest of them.

This must be one of the best shows in existence!

I have been watching this program since this came on the air back in 2000 and never once have I been disappointed about it! It has its occasional not as funny episode but has kept me laughing all this time as I have just finished watching the last ever episode!

I thought that the last episode was a perfect way to end the 7 season run of the show!

I think one of the things that make this show so popular is that is more like a real life family than anything else on the air. Its a show thats not afraid to show that families do have bad days with each other!

Thanks for reading this comment!

10/10 Show!

I have only recently discovered this show, after years of having ignored it when flipping through channels, having written it off as "a silly kids' show." Now I consider it up there with "Seinfeld" and "Scrubs" in terms of its superb writing, creativity and savvy.

Things I like about this show: it is consistently funny; no laugh-track; it doesn't hit you over the head with an annoying "message" at the end of the episode, but instead there is usually is an implied message; the family is loud and brash but still loving; although wacky and cartoonish in style, the show feels highly realistic; for a show with kids, these kids are very funny; the show has "edge"—it deals with topics like sex that other family sitcoms either wouldn't touch or would treat with stupidity; excellent cast, with witty verbal and physical humor. 10/10

This is the only show that I cannot miss - even in re-runs. It is right up there along-side The Simpsons, 3rd Rock, and Married with Children for style, uniqueness and down-right hilariousness. The writing is amazing, the acting incredible and the characters have been mined from pure gold. I agree and disagree with the comparisons to the Simpsons. The shows are definitely on a par in terms of smarts and humor and the way the plots develop from seemingly random happenings are definitely similar. But to my mind the difference is in the way the jokes are presented: the Simpsons writers pummel you in the gut with punch after hilarious punch while the Malcolm writers hold your head and force you to watch while they cringe-fully punch each other. Genius pure Genius.

This was one of the funniest shows ever aired on Fox Channel.

Back then, it never failed to made laugh.

Clever comedies like this have become a rarity nowadays.

Started watching these in order from the pilot, I have seen a lot of these over the years here and there, but I can't remember ever laughing so much! This series had the best chemistry with the actors, the finest writing, and is bust the gut laughs in every episode. One of my faves is the one where the boys make up a bunch of dirty bombs with soiled diapers, dirty gutter water balloons, whole raw chickens, rotten eggs and cheese wiz bags and they build a large slingshot on the roof and fling them throughout the neighborhood at various homes and at people.

I am so glad I decided to start watching the series again, with all of the crap that has been going on in our world I am so glad for a brief time I can watch Malcolm and it's good for a few laughs.

Can you repeat the question? You're not the boss of me, now etc.

I guess everybody remembers "I'll be there for you" from "Friends", but how about that catchy intro made of clips from the show and inter-cut with other excerpts of Manga and TV/movies gems, as if it foresaw that the show itself was going to evolve to the same cult-status, after having ensured a qualified transition between "Married with Children" and "Modern Family".

"Malcolm in the Middle", a creation of Linwood Boomer, is one of the first sitcoms to set itself apart from the usual family-friendly clichés and feature a totally irredeemable, dysfunctional family, and in the process, get rid (for the first time?) of that annoying laugh-track. indeed, the show is so confident on its comedic quality that it doesn't need to tell you when to laugh. And as far as laughs go, this is one of the funniest and most entertaining family series that is not "The Simpsons", and coincidentally, the closest live-action series to "The Simpsons" goofiness without that meaning the material isn't any fresh or original.

Indeed, if I had to nominate a show that is totally devoid of clichés, well, "Malcolm" is the one, starting with its titular character, played by blue-eyed Frankie Muniz: a genius and the middle-child of four bratty siblings. Boys of his intellectual condition are called Krelboynes, in homage to Moranis' character in "Little Shop of Horrors", but this is where the comparison stops. There have been eggheads or misunderstood middle- children in the past, but Malcolm is as mischievous as his brothers and he's a genius who hates his intelligence, or at least its social repercussion on the field of school popularity.

Malcolm is like Lisa Simpson trying to act like Bart. But no matter how hard he tries to pretend having nothing to do with his Krelboyne friends, composed of so many natural misfits (his best friend is a wheelchair-bound one-lunged kid), he's inevitably branded as so and has no other choice than keeping the lowest profile. The film uses a fourth-wall breaking device allowing him to share his fears, concerns and comments on the peculiar habits that inhabits his family's house. The character strikes for his self-centered nature, but as the show progresses, he became more of an occasional Greek Chorus and the foil for his brothers or father's funnier antics.

Meanwhile, Malcolm's blessing (or curse, depending on how you look at it) is the source of his funny interactions with the normal world, and I'm not sure I want to include his mother in. Because he might be the titular and central character according to the title, he's got a great competitor in Lois, played by Jane Kaczmarek. She's a TV mom like no other TV mom, maybe the fact that each of her four boys, and a fifth one over the course of the show, is as ill-behaved as his predecessor and/or follower, have to do with it. Still, calling her strict is an understatement as the woman is the ringmaster of a real menagerie-like family, and who can blame her? she's in a position that can't afford any sign of weakness.

There's a scene where Reese, probably the worst of all, says he wishes she was dead, which is something you'd never hear in a sitcom. A shocked Lois leaves the room, which astonishes Reese who's used to hear "I'll take you with me". And that's very typical of the show, just when you think it rings the same emotional notes than your typical soppy sitcom episodes, it delivers a line that reminds you this is "Malcolm". In another episode, Lois admitted to her husband, Hal, that she didn't feel any love toward her newborn child Jamie, to which Hal stoically answers that she never loved any of her sons as babies, and that's what helped her.

And before you're shocked, remember they're all boys, no girls for love or gender equity issues. The oldest one, Francis (Christopher Masterson) is an irresponsible and immature teenager who keeps blaming every failure on her and seems incapable to transition into a normal adult, Reese (Justin Berfield) makes Bart Simpson feel like Milhouse, Dewey (Erik Per Sullivan) is the eternal punching ball and perhaps the most immune to sadistic mistreatment, if he doesn't strike for a malevolent spirit, his behavior is sometimes enough to drive anyone crazy. And I must also count an infatuated loser and colleague named Craig and of course, Hal, the goofy but lovable father who picked the option of never interfering with his wife's methods.

Hal, played by Bryan Cranston, as a time where Walter White wasn't even a concept on a piece of paper, is the good cop to Lois' bad one, and when you see that Lois is surrounded by such specimens, you gotta give her credit for not letting the house fall apart. She might have taken that from her Polish mother, Grandma Ida, who's nothing like the usual grandma you see on TV (boy, do I feel like a broken record) and whose portrayal by Cloris Leachman is absolutely priceless. This is one of the great delights of the show, to provide some memorable supporting characters, from a sadistic army trainer to a sweet ranch owner played by the late Kenneth Mars (my only complaint from the show is the way he was written off).

Each character, each situation is like an inexhaustible source of gags, yet the show ended after 6 years while it was doing well. And this is another great thing about it, it never had to jump the shark, it was nice the time it lasyed, it grabbed many Golden Globe and Emmy Nominations (mostly Muniz and Kaczmarek) and it launched Bryan Cranston's career.

Indeed, without Hal, there would probably be no Walter White... another (of the several) reason to love the show.

I was so excited when this show premiered on FOX. It was original, interesting, funny, and with some interesting people. Some of them I had never heard of before seeing the show. Jane Kaczmarek would later guest-star on The Simpsons as a female judge named Constance Harm while Bryan Cranston would later go on to Breaking Bad (which I never saw since I don't have cable). But the real show-stealers on this program were Frankie Muniz (as the gifted brother) and Chris Masterson (the oldest brother and real-life brother to That 70s Show star Danny Masterson). Those two were my favorites when the show first started. But after four seasons it started getting about as fun as a stale, week-old cupcake. Some episodes were decent; others weren't and the series finale felt like a cop out. No spoilers for those of you who haven't seen it. If it were up to me, we would have ended after season four or five. And maybe there could have been an alternate ending or two to the series finale. That would have been nice. It also would have been nice if the others seasons (besides the first) had been released on DVD here in the States. What's the big holdup? I'd watch the other seasons if they ever showed up on DVD or whatever just to relive some fun and happy memories from the early 2000s. As Family Guy's Joe Swanson would say, "BRING IT ON!!"

What can be said about a twenty year old sitcom that hasn't been said already? This show debuted on Sunday January 9th, 2000 when I was in third grade. I had never seen a television show that not only starred the "bad family" in the neighborhood, but made them protagonists. Having grown up in a very loving but flawed lower middle class family constantly struggling to scrape by, this show really hit home for me growing up. Every episode is as cleverly written as it is genuinely hilarious and strangely wholesome. Malcolm in the Middle is a perfect representation of early 2000's television, and will remain a gem that stands the test of time. It's absolutely worth a full watch through on steaming services. If you're a fan of shows like Arrested Development, That 70s Show and Friends, I think you'll be a fan.

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.

I remember having absolutely loved this series as a kid later on I switched the TV on and off when it was just aired but it did not leave a lasting impression. I've been oversaturated with sitcoms and comedy series, so it's nice to see something for a change without tinned food and completely exaggerated forced scenarios

Malcolm in the Middle tells the story of a US lower middle class family; Mother, father and four (later five) sons from the fictional suburb of Newcastle. that's exactly what I love and it's interesting that we all care about something

In addition to a series of parallel acts, especially in the first seasons, the main theme is the confrontation of the third oldest son Malcolm with his giftedness and its impact on his life. That's exactly what I can deal with and identify one of the few slice-of-life things that actually resemble my life or I can understand

How could you save the movie? The first three seasons are among the best and most entertaining things I remember in the previous TV. But what broke the series is not the fifth child it's not that the series went every now and then in the crazy comedy aspect. It's also not that the last seasons have always been boring and dry and not that the opening is getting smaller and smaller. What broke the series is that Malcolm got too old. You probably could have written an interesting thing about this fact around but since the fourth season, the series lives too long and Malcolm was no longer a sweet carefree gifted kid that the world does not understand and that everyone else does not understand but he became a typical teenager and had the typical teenage problems. I do not really want to see something like that, I do not know if you can do a lot with a highly talented character of this kind but I do not want to see him milking as he goes to parties, trying to get into conversation with girls and suddenly drinking his first beer and trying cigarettes , if that were the focus of the episodes and its development as a human being and character you would have been able to portray the super interesting and perfect pages as the company takes us all and leaves bad marks on us even at the top. But Malcolm when no longer the focus of his own series which even bears his name in the title he was literally in the middle. In the middle of the series, in the middle of ridicule in the scrap in the middle of his inability to get into conversation with girls and in the middle of a series by stealing his own brother's girlfriend. After that time, the series was no longer funny but just overly ridiculous and had already developed into a parody of its own. in the middle of the third season would probably have been my favorite series but this is how it happened here is how it ended and as uncreative as it was later I can not say anything good about this series.

Malcolm in the Middle is an incredible show. My feeling toward the show was rather mixed when they began showing promos. It looked funny, but silly and unoriginal. After all, the concept of a family that doesn't get along is nothing new. The show turned out to be better than I expected. It's not a live action version of The Simpsons like some critics claim, but it is very funny. Don't be quick to judge the show or you might find the jokes go over your head. Thumbs up on this one.

The title basically says it all. I truly loved this show and still watch it at times. It is never boring and the characters are truly fantastic. Seven seasons were too few.

Ever since i was a little kid i loved this show. I think it defines the word hilarious. It is the best show that has ever been on TV it is so creative and funny. I love the atmosphere the jokes and the innocents of Dewey, the stupid it all stuff recklessness of Reese, the complaining all the time of Francis, and the know it all stuff from Malcolm and i don't know how to explain Jamie. I don't just love the show because its funny also because i can relate to the family I'm the middle child, we r in trouble with money I'm one of the kids know one likes because I'm smart. I'm a fanatic i watch it on netflicks, on IFC and bought the DVDs in case it comes off netflix i give the show a 1,000,000 out of 10.

This is one of the funniest offbeat comedy about a lower class family. The family has 4 rumbustious boys. The oldest Francis (Christopher Masterson) is sent to military school. This leaves Malcolm (Frankie Muniz) as the middle child in the house. Reese (Justin Berfield) is the older and Dewey (Erik Per Sullivan) is the younger brother.

The parents are played by the hilarious pair Bryan Cranston and Jane Kaczmarek. Individually everybody has incredible energy and comedic power. Put everybody together and you got an incredible team.

The chemistry with this family is off the charts. However shows with smaller child leads don't last long as they grow up and the tone change. There is some of that here, too. But it was still funny when it ended after its 7 years run.

I mean there is not even a debate about that, This is the pure Greatest comedy show ever, every episodes is so perfect in its acting , writting and directing.

As much as Breaking Bad was great and Bryan Cranston was great, he is even more here as Hal.

Malcolm will go down as a show to remember for a lifetime, even Friends and HIMYM have to fall to second place. No force laugh soundtrack , just pure comedy, You Can watch that show 10 Times and still be amaze.

I haven't seen yet a 20 minutes episode that has so many brilliant ideas that are twisted together to form a very unique well-planned structure. This is the second time I watch the whole 7 seasons (I rarely watch a show twice), and will never get bored!

I used to love this show. Only after binge watching it, I realized how, especially during the start and end of the series, most episodes are easily skip-able. I think season 3 was the show's most entertaining year, but more often than not it failed to keep me interested and amused. These characters were not meant to be sympathetic, I know that, only their flaws were pushed to such extremes sometimes, it wasn't even fun and too hard to overlook sometimes. I'm a few episodes before the series finale, and all I got from it, was how most of the episodes felt like fillers. And the best ones were those I've already seen on TV... One thing I can appreciate though, was how producers made the effort to have each episodes with its regular set of songs, on all mediums. And that's something so rare with all these TV soundtracks with copyright issues, it can't be ignored and needs to be pointed out.

This could be what you would call a typical family sitcom without a laugh track except for two things. The first is that Malcolm, the middle child, played by Frankie Muniz breaks the fourth wall and narrates and give insight into what is going on during a particular scene and the second is that there is no bad actors in the main cast which is in itself remarkable for a child actor heavy show. All the main cast of child actors can actually you know....act and were not just hired because they were cute (which they are in different degrees). The adults on the show are also fantastic and don't disappear as the children age up which also often happens in this kind of show which is nice. This is a family show in every sense of the word. All the family members matter and even some side characters matter as well. It stands the test of time and is relatable even now. Worth watching.

I give a show a 3 if I really enjoyed it for the first year or two, but then found it growing stale, stopped planning to watch it, and eventually turned it off when I accidentally ran across it. It's especially annoying to be disappointed by a show you used to consider a favorite. (When I give a low score for this reason I always comment so that it's clear I'm not slamming the entire run of the show but only the later seasons.) Good performers but the material degraded across time. Hope to see them turn back up on the schedule, preferably not in a spin off but in fresh scenarios that allow them to develop and show off aspects of their talents we have not yet seen.