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‘Malcolm In The Middle’ revived for new episodes on Disney+ with Frankie Muniz, Bryan Cranston and Jane Kaczmarek
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- Authors
- Nellie Andreeva
- Published
- Dec 13 2024
- Word count
- 867 words
Wow. I'm cautiously optimistic about this.
The title made me worried it would be a whole new team behind the cameras but the article makes it sound like the whole gang's back together. Hopefully they get Reese, Dewey, and Stevie too.
I wonder what career they'll pick for Malcolm. Like of course he's genius enough to be anything, but I really hope they do the whole former-gifted-student-but-burnt-out-at-a-dead-end-job trope that would fit right in with this series.
I need an episode where Malcolm basically relives Office Space.
YES!
Also good would be a recreation of that scene in Breaking Bad where Walter quits his job at the car wash place and tells Bogdan "Fuck you, and your eyebrows". Would be especially funny since Bryan Cranston is on the show.
Would be so much more interesting than just going the supergenius route of him being like a mathematician or something. Maybe a burnt-out college/university professor would be a good middle ground between supergenius yet still relatable?
Yes, but that's a Reese line, all the way. Complete with being a carwash attendent.
I like the idea of a season arc with Malcolm transitioning from Office Space to NASA scientist, and down to high school teacher...getting burned out inside of 3 episodes each time.
Also, the timelines are such that his teachers might be working still, offering more opportunity for shenanigans.
What's great is that I can imagine every single character on that show saying that line, lol. But yeah I agree that it would make the most sense for Reese (or Hal, obviously). Just picture Stevie doing it ("Fuck...... you, and...... fuck.... your eyebrows" before wheeling away).
Also it's easy to forget that there's gonna be entirely new characters too, mainly Malcolm's wife and daughter. Plenty of opportunity for interesting characters there. Maybe a terrible boss for the wife or teacher for the daughter. Maybe the daughter's best friend (like Stevie was to Malcolm) or a bitter classroom rival. The more I think about it the more I get excited about the show. I really hope they do the original justice and don't go too generic-feel-good-tv-family with it. The great thing about the show was how relatable it was, the characters weren't perfect and their daily shenanigans were such that you can imagine yourself in their shoes doing the same things. I hope they nail that same vibe.
edit: Fuck me I just realized they neeeeeed to do a Jesse Pinkman cameo. Given all the jokes about Hal/Walter being the same person it would be incredible if Aaron Paul shows up for a line or two. Even just as a random guy in the background.
I think Dewey is impossible which makes me a little sad - and kind of worried for the project (though since he'd be an adult maybe they'll just go with a different actor?)
I looked it up to make sure he didn't die or something, but thankfully it seems like he just stepped away from acting. I don't know anything about him or his life, but if there's no bad blood and he just stopped acting voluntarily, I could maybe see him being interested in returning (possibly in a smaller role, limited episodes) if he enjoyed his childhood playing Dewey. But again that's just speculation and wishful thinking.
I guess the show could also just say he's off in college or something if they don't want to recast. That's mostly what they did with Frankie in the original show (though he did appear a lot towards the end). If the focus of this new show is on Malcolm and his new family, then it wouldn't be too crazy for the brothers to have little-to-no screen time.
Found that while looking him up and thought it was interesting! Hope he's happy wherever he is, reading Victorian literature while saying to himself 'The future is now, old man'.
He also turned down offers in the last few years to do a reunion show (like they did with Friends, not actual new episodes).
Didn't they also have another baby toward the end of the series?
Shit you're right, totally forgot about Jamie. I guess he would be a young adult now, maybe college-aged, while the others are more full-blown adult with jobs and kids and whatever.
They also are revealed at the end of the very last episode to be pregnant again
SPOILERS FOR END OF MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE
The last episode of Malcolm ends on the quite poignant note that his entire family feel with great certainty that he would go on to be president one day, specifically because the harsh grinding life he leads would make him empathetic to the people in the world who most need help.
I feel like the fact that we don't see if this admittedly unlikely destiny ever comes through is part of the magic: we get to hope that they were right, even though we know they probably weren't and he wound up successful in a boring career that doesn't change anything.
The age of spinoffs has not been kind to poetic ambiguity.
I love this.
I personally resort to having my own "head cannon" - after all, it's not like any of it is "real" or "facts" or anything. Which is then borderline fan-fiction...but also it's my entertainment, I can make it as I want.
It's hard because I don't disagree with how unkind it's been, but I also think it's arrogant to claim what should or shouldn't exist; something existing doesn't preclude me from enjoying X without it, so I can enjoy X without it and those that do want it can enjoy X with it. And I think "official" stuff is a lot of times capitalism speech - a lot of "official" stuff is basically just fan-fiction with a budget anyway. Different in this case since it's the actual creative team, but just macro level talking about the age of spinoffs and just plain not taking them into consideration to "deal" with them.
Yea that's why the Dark Tower movie was a hallucination from a bad trip I had, and they never made a sequel to Phantom of the Opera.