Streaming the ‘Malcolm in the Middle’ revival made my week
Streaming the ‘Malcolm in the Middle’ revival made my week
Four episodes might not have been enough for this revival, which was a nostalgia trip in all the right ways.
At what point does nostalgia become an exercise for its own sake? It could be argued that Hulu is pushing the envelope. The streamer has revived several popular TV shows from the 2000s in recent months, including “King of the Hill” and “Scrubs.”
The latest entry on the list is “Malcolm in the Middle: Life's Still Unfair,” a revival of the 2000 series “Malcolm in the Middle” that debuted on Hulu on Friday, April 10. While the show leans pretty heavily on its legacy, it’s an incredibly well-executed return to form, and it was my favorite stream of the week.
“Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair” picks up with its titular hero years after the original show’s finale. Hal and Lois are planning their 40th wedding anniversary, and can’t get a firm answer from Malcolm as to whether or not he’s coming. The reason? Malcolm has been avoiding his family for years and has shielded his girlfriend and teenage daughter from ever meeting them.
The series reunites much of the original cast; the only member of Malcolm’s immediate family who isn’t back for the revival is Erik Per Sullivan, who portrayed Dewey in the show’s original run. That leads to the minimization of Dewey’s character a bit, but with only four episodes to work with, “Life’s Still Unfair” doesn’t really have time to give the focus to its ensemble cast that it could when the show ran for 20+ episodes per season.
Watch the trailer for ‘Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair’
As cramped as the four-episode run feels sometimes, everyone gets a chance to shine in their own storyline. Malcolm gets to allow his neuropathy to spiral out of control as he tries to justify his decision to hide his family from his other family; Francis gets to go head-to-head with Lois; Reese meets his match in deviance in his youngest sibling, the non-binary Kelly; and Hal goes on a psilocybin-induced journey of self-discovery. Malcolm’s daughter, Leah, is even given some time in the spotlight, though not enough in my eyes.
The show’s characters aren’t treading much new ground. Each of them gets a chance to show that they’ve grown somewhat, while staying exactly the same in others. Instead, “Life’s Still Unfair” gives Malcolm, his family, and show creator Linwood Boomer (who returned to produce the revival) exactly what they do best — what they did so successfully over “Malcolm in the Middle“‘s initial run.
It’s also why I enjoyed “Life’s Still Unfair” so much. Of course, I was a fan of the original show, but by its end, it felt as if it had run out of new and compelling things to say about its characters. That’s why picking up a series 10 to 20 years after it first went off the air is so successful in my eyes: the audience is given enough distance from these titles that when they’re brought back, it feels like there are new and relevant stories to tell with characters that are already well established.
That isn’t to say that every reboot or revival is automatically good because it’s been off the air for a few years. But in this case, it worked almost to perfection; all four episodes of “Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair” are available to stream on Hulu now.
Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair
After shielding himself and his daughter from his family for over a decade, Malcolm is dragged back into their orbit when Hal and Lois demand his presence at their 40th anniversary party.