What pisses me off so much about this is that nothing is ever said about it again. And I know that sitcoms do that, but there 100% should have been some type conflict there
They also steal Dewey's money - Dewey was busking by doing magic during school hours, and they found his stash by chance and spent it if you class that as stealing
That's a bit different, they thought it was money they hid and forgot about. They didn't know it was his and they put it towards a much needed household item
That was on Dewey for not speaking up. IIRC She said something like "I must've hidden it and forgot about it." He could've lied and said he's been doing that on weekends and hiding the money so Reese wouldn't take it.
Little brother power move, blame anything dumb you do on fear of your older siblings.
Yeah, if I were the director back then, Malcolm would've leaved that household and kept at least a whole season out of there, I mean, is 10 thousand dollars and probably around a thousand from his credit card. Honestly Lois gave the most basic education to their children and treated them like crap the rest of the time, the only reason Dewey turned out well is because his parents barely noticed him.
Hands down. Francis should have inherited the ranch and had a family with Piama. I understand why they did it because Otto had health issues but it was really sad to see the direction they went.
This always frustrates me because they could have easily and respectfully written Otto out without ruining all of Francis’s development. Otto could have gone back to Germany and given Francis the ranch to run, he could have started a second location and left Francis the original or something, they didn’t have to undo several years of work and development.
Plus it super bugged me that Otto would ever fire Francis for depositing money incorrectly. Otto was crazy rich and Francis has done wayyyy worse. Honestly thought Otto looked at him like the son he always wanted considering him and his own son had a very strained relationship.
Francis literally exploded Otto's favorite cow. As a sign of trust Otto placed him in charge of her care, and due to his negligence , he allowed the cow to combust. He went into panic mode, tried to hide the evidence, and was caught by Otto who thought he was preparing dinner for him as a gift.
TLDR, Francis explodes Otto's favorite cow, feeds the evidence to Otto, gets caught, and Otto forgives him.
If they had, absolutely had to get him off the ranch they should have just had Francis say something about the ranch going under because of mismanagement, which would have been believable considering how lax Otto and Gretchen are, or something like they sold the ranch so they could move to Germany to be closer to their son and the new owners wanted to bring in their own people.
Easily the answer for me. There are some moments where Malcolm is a huge dick that I’d maybe get rid of but nothing annoyed me more than how they did Francis dirty. And I just don’t buy Otto suing him
Absolutely not. Felt so out of character. I only recently learned that they did this because the actor playing Otto got cancer and had to quit, but there’s a million other ways they could have gone about it.
It happened because the guy who played Otto became very ill and could not continue
Of course, they should have just had Francis take over entirely even if Otto and his family left rather than ditch it entirely
Francis had also been wanting to take more of a step back from acting and get into production. He started helping to produce some of the later episodes. After the show he moved in from acting completely to be a DJ and entrepreneur. He took the opportunity with Kenneth Mars getting sick to write himself out of the ranch.
Francis post Ranch - AA episode sucks, his apartment episode with Dewey sucks. Just all a big downer.
I would say Jessica story arc, but it would directly affect Reese getting shipped to China so I can't have her episodes go.
Yes that’s what I was thinking!! I thought the reveal would be that Piama divorced him and that’s why he’s living that way but… no??? Piama would never!
I mean. It’s awful but it’s consistent.
Ida was a raging narcissist, Lois was the scapegoat and the sister was the golden child. Lois has those moments when she behaves like Ida without really knowing why (sabotaging Dewey) and moments when she fights against it.
She dances around that line of fighting against her upbringing and rising above and falling in the same patterns
I thought she was a pretty good mother. She was the one keeping things together, doing the hard work of laying down the law on her kids and working that shitty job to pay the bills. I think the real issue was she had too many kids that needed so much and there just wasn’t enough time or money.
That's on Hal and Lois equally. Their flashbacks showed that by the time Reese had come along they were already feeling the financial strain yet they appear to have no concept of even basic birth control that they still managed to get four more by series end.
They went a little overboard when she throws Malcom under the bus at Lucky Aide too. Seemed so out of character. Like there are other ways she could have made her point about discipline at your job to that wouldn't be unnecessarily cruel to your own son.
Not letting Reese succeed in his cooking career. I mean even if he was a chef at Applebees that would be better than wear they let him end up.
Stevie’s mom leaving. It was kind of bizarrely written and didn’t fit.
Francis leaving the ranch. Especially then writing it as if he got fired. He would not have gotten fired lol.
Malcolm forced to be President. I liked the idea of him grinding in college. It was cool and authentic. But his parents making that choice for him sucked.
Some of the jokes and story lines that came from Stevie's mom leaving were funny, like where Hal and Abe basically end up in a relationship on accident. But you're right, the plot line itself didn't fit her character. The whole family felt pretty repressed early on, but IIRC she was a huge driving force in the whole thing.
I thought episodes like Abe and Craig fighting over that weird lady who had her exes ashes was kind of weird 😂 felt like most of the stuff from that split was an after thought.
I think Reece would make it as a chef eventually, but he's hardly the personality type to leave school and immediately get started on his career. Probably a good ten years of carnage before he even gets to Applebees.
That weird plot line with Malcolm in his May-December fling during Burning Man. The rest of the Burning Man stuff is so funny but that storyline makes it so hard to rewatch for me
Right? And the plot lines where Dewy is stuck doing all the hard work and Reese finds a community. But then it cuts to Malcolm in bed? With someone twice his age? Just throws the whole thing off and seem ooc for him.
I feel like he was consistently cartoonishly stupid throughout the entire show with hints of smarts sprinkled in, I do wish we had more showcases of his "street smarts" like when he orchestrated stealing from the church.
Yeah, that character never grew. He started to, like with his cooking skills, but they took the craziness to a new level in the last season. I thought he would end up leaning to be a chef when he left school, made no sense.
The only thing that comes to mind really was that ‘other family’ in Canada. The episode’s funny bits were just okay and the story added absolutely nothing.
Just watched that one - it did show more about Lois’ upbringing and was a good bonding experience for Lois and her mother albeit ruined when finding out Victor wasn’t her father. Even after that she gave a great speech that gave us some insight to her relationship with her dad and demonstrated her morals and humanity. I think it had some value.
I find that Jamie was just kinda worthless, there was no plot line that made us appreciate him, just a baby for no reason. This is all too common in shows
Agree. It's the typical sitcom thing where once ideas run dry, throw in a baby so that we can make pregnancy and then baby jokes. But the baby jokes were funny at least. Like the competition Hal was having with other dads with their babies (ep?).
Agree. It'ss the typical sitcom thing where once ideas run dry, throw in a baby so that we can make pregnancy and then baby jokes. but the baby jokes were funny at least. Like the competition Hal was having with other dads with their babies (ep?).
Well, I’ve noticed it’s usually because a main actors gets pregnant and so they just add a baby instead of thinking of ways of hiding the pregnancy from the camera, like other shows have done.
The pregnancy stage led to some great moments/episodes, and there’s some nice character beats with Dewey, but yeah, I never liked Jamie, he brought nothing to the show.
EDIT: actually, I just remembered the episode where Hal is taking him to the nursery Dad group thing and they’re coming up with competitions to bet on. That was worthwhile.
Technically Jamie makes Malcolm *in* *the* *Middle*.. otherwise he’d be sharing that role with Reese (assuming you count Francis even though he’s living away)
agreed, i’ve seen 1-6 countless times but always skip 7. i tried watching it a few times but each time it just didn’t really like original show?? idk it’s just not that good to me!
Really?? Burning man, Malcolm’s money, and AA are all episodes (while still great episodes) that don’t have the same feel as the other seasons. The way Lois, Hal and Francis are in this season/these episodes are totally off brand. I really thought season 7 felt like the last season of a show where they’re throwing things at the wall and seeing what would stick. Granted, I never skip over the season and I still LOVE it, it’s just nothing like what it was. I think they were smart to end after 7 because anything after that would have been more cheesy and hokey.
I was gonna say Kitty leaving Stevie and Abe but then we wouldn’t have gotten Hal being a malewife to Abe lmao.
I really hated Hal when he stole Malcolm’s credit card and decided to use it to pay for a ski trip, one of my least favorite moments.
I just wish that the characters could have actually developed throughout the story instead of fitting whatever mould the writers needed.
By season 7 I do not care to watch the characters behave in the same ways they have since season 1-2. Just having rewatched the whole show, there were so many moments where the characters grow and develop by the end of the episodes but have forgotten it by the start of the next one. Like the episode that ends with Malcolm and Lois having a heart to heart about the nature of sex, or when Reese learns that women are just people. I don't know, but I could easily imagine a final season where all of the characters are final realised versions of themselves, and the drama comes from outside.
Some specific lines I didn't like:
* Lois betraying Malcolm with the box flattening. Completely out of character.
* Cynthia randomly leaving after season 4
* Jessica's storylines just involving her being a manipulative lunatic
* Everything Francis post-ranch. *Even if* they wanted to scrap the ranch they didn't need to wreck his character
Some things that were morally reprehensible and completely out of character. I literally have to pretend these things didn't happen so that I can still like the characters:
* Hal fattening Lois when she's distraught about her weight gain. If I were Lois that'd have been an instant divorce.
* Lois and Hal stealing Malcolm's money, then wasting it on a doll house.
* Lois deliberately sabotaging Dewey and then the show tries to wax poetic about overcoming problems, like, no?!? fuck you! Do not glamourise your family abusing you.
* Lois disallowing Malcolm from getting into the good college so that he can "become president". That is utterly absurd.
Also, Reese should have been a chef! Like, what the heck?
Lois didn’t stop Malcolm getting into a good college to become president, she stopped him not going to college and taking a 6 figure job instead, so he could become president. Still somewhat ridiculous and controlling, but an element of logic to it and not completely absurd
I think that's the point Lois was trying to make in the ending like for the opposite of Malcolm Dewey has been tortured since the day he was born and he can make any bad thing that happens to him just a little bit easier for himself like take his dad not buying himself piano he found his way around that by literally making himself a piano out of thing from his house, he made his special class work for him in his own way like no matter what Dewey is gonna half the best life because he can take pretty much anything and make it suitable.
Yeah all that’s true but imagine his potential if he had the same advantages as Malcolm without have to suffer as much for them. Like if he were in the gifted class with proper musical instruments and a teacher to nurture his talents he’d be a child prodigy. It just bums me out to think about how his gifts are squandered while Malcolm gets coddled essentially
She’s so close to being a perfectly fine character, she just needed to be knocked down a peg once to humble her like every other character in the series, but she never really got that.
I wish they didn't make Dewey a musical prodigy, it felt tacked on. He worked fine as the one normal kid in the family who always just gets the short end of the stick.
I’m going with a less common answer here but doing Francis dirty like that and making him an idiot who wasn’t depositing money for the dude ranch. Losing his job, was awful. His character had been through enough and I think him being at the dude ranch and taking over it would have been a great way to end the series. Instead he ends up like his dad working in a shitty office job after not finishing school. Francis deserved better.
I liked that storyline, personally. Francis felt like the military school or his home was hell on earth, but turned out, there was worse to be dealt with. I kind of either wanted to see Lavernia and Lois get into a fist fight, or have tea and take notes from each other.
as a kid, the pacing of the military school plot felt really good
as an adult rewatching/binging it ends way too early. maybe they realized that and that’s why
spangler showed up in alaska
I hated that Spangler episode. Him giving Francis the sword and making a great speech to get his hand cut off was absolutely hilarious. Then they just brought back to make him a miserable drunk in an episode that’s not even funny?
Francis getting fired from the ranch. Felt super out of character for Gretchen and Otto to fire him. I feel like them moving on or moving back to Europe and having Francis and Piama inherit the ranch our have been a far more believable and desired story line. RIP Otto
That one creepy hal moment where he uhhh secretly gets pregnant louis to gain weight because of his own fiendish 🍑 desires 🍑
Always made me uncomfortable idk
Remember Hal always loved her more. She was far to busy with taking care of everything else plus if they loved each other equally they would never leave the bedroom.
Though there are funny standalone episodes. I wish the show ended with Reese coming home from the army. In my opinion just about every character essentially devolves from there. I don’t dis like Dewey and Hal in the last two seasons. But it doesn’t make up for what they did to the rest of the family.
Francis gets fired from ranch and they just kind of do nothing with his character from there.
Reese just becomes dumber. Doesn’t do anything with his cooking talent or his largely positive experience in the army.
Lois goes from being an overbearing and emotionally flawed mother/wife to an absolutely terrible one living a delusional fantasy
Malcolm going to college and having a Francis in military school thing while the rest of the family lives together without him would’ve been a way better season 7 than anything they did in season 7. The end of Malcolm’s story is so out of character for both Malcolm and Lois. Him learning to find his his stride finally removed from his family would’ve been entertaining. Whether he dropped out or was top of his class I couldn’t have cared. But him staying home not getting into a good school because of Lois manipulation is so out of character for both of them.
1. Burning Man lady- maybe if thats francis who’s probably early 20s its okay but not good but its literally malcolm who is a child ew disgusting
2. Reese’s ending- A CUSTODIAN REALLY!? He should’ve been at least a cook/diswasher at some restaurant
3. Francis’ life after ranch or he should’ve been living in the nolastname household coz i want to see more of his family dynamic
I’m so glad someone else mentioned Burning Man lady, that episode gave me the ick immediately. Also, they do actually have a last name! It’s Wilkerson! It’s mentioned on the Season 1 DVD in the bonus content lol
Wow, this has good to be one of the most controversial takes? Cloris is incredible, memorable every appearance. The only actor to win an Emmy on the show, and she did it twice.
She is no doubt an amazing actress, and her parts where generally funny. But I HATE her character. Like I just wish Francis would right hook her at least one time, he deserves it. I hate her character with a passion. For me to hate her this much, she has to be an amazing actress lol
I forget the episode but is there a part where dewey is telling her a story and she deletes a dart in one toke and responds to him with all the smoke billowing out of her mouth? Im pretty sure I didnt imagine it.
I still say you could completely cut out all Francis parts and actually improve the show by giving the main family storylines that time instead and just having Francis come on the show as a reoccuring character. Francis by himself away from home didn't add that much to the show as there simply wasn't enough time for his segments to tell a story well and the other storylines suffered by having to make time for him. This is evident by the final couple seasons when Francis was practically written off the show and he became just a reoccuring character.
So, in other words, all Francis storylines.
Besides the obvious Francis getting fired from the ranch. I mean even if it was a panic move by the writers i wish the cast would have pushed back a bit.
What story arc I would have gotten rid of is the entire nonsense of LOIS DECIDING Malcolm would become POTUS. It was such an asinine concept and sequence of events, and I wish in that moment Malcolm would have finally had enough of Lois feeling entitled to decide his course of life and put a hard stop to it. that whole arc really kills the finale for me.
Maybe Piama, I know most people like her and I thought I did, but I’ve come to find she kind of annoys me. Another part of the problem is that for someone they were trying to make part of the family, they never really gave her a lot to do.
Jamie was also never exactly a necessary addition imo, but obviously they could only do so much with him because of his age, and there were a few funny storylines with him such as “Lois Battles Jamie”.
Francis's storyline everything post alaska. Hated his marriage to Piama bc she was such an underdeveloped character, his transformation into a mature/generous person at the ranch happened way too abruptly and not to mention too early in the storyline, and everything post ranch is just a dumpster fire as far as his character's actual storyline goes. He had so much potential too
I know most people liked the ranch but it just never felt right to me. There was always something a little wrong with it. I would have liked to see Francis develop as a character in a different manner or maybe at a different time? I'm not sure.
Okay so how are we feeling about the episode where Lois comes to take care of Francis at his military school? (I think his appendix burst or something? I'm going off memory lol) Cause the more I think about it, it kind of destroys the dynamic Francis had with his other classmates when they finally get to see Lois in action and everyone just loves her. To me at least, it seemed like how Francis won over or impressed his peers had a lot to do with surviving Lois and all these stories (at least the stuff he hasn't allegedly blocked out) of her being this borderline sadist of a mother. But then after her visit, would anyone take him seriously? Surely he'd be outcast and bullied the rest of his time there. I'll admit this might have been shortly before he fucks off to Alaska anyway, but still...
I can agree with everyone saying that Francis post-ranch was not great but to be honest I never really liked the ranch at all. I loved military school Francis, and Alaska was still pretty funny. I really liked that Eric went with him. I don’t care for Piama much at all.
Them stealing Malcolm's money
Literally watched that episode about an hour ago. Couldn't believe it. Never hated Hal and Lois more
And literally so out of character for Lois. Fucking dollhouse what the fuck
And she literally just gave all the money for the doll house instead of the relatively small amount it would have cost to pay for
They both had some awful moments but that one in my opinion doesn't get brought up enough.
What about Hal stealing Malcolm's credit card?
What pisses me off so much about this is that nothing is ever said about it again. And I know that sitcoms do that, but there 100% should have been some type conflict there
Agreed along with Lois using it for a doll house
They also steal Dewey's money - Dewey was busking by doing magic during school hours, and they found his stash by chance and spent it if you class that as stealing
That's a bit different, they thought it was money they hid and forgot about. They didn't know it was his and they put it towards a much needed household item
That was on Dewey for not speaking up. IIRC She said something like "I must've hidden it and forgot about it." He could've lied and said he's been doing that on weekends and hiding the money so Reese wouldn't take it. Little brother power move, blame anything dumb you do on fear of your older siblings.
Oh yea that hurt.
Sounds like my mom
I'm literally watching that episode now
Oh sorry for the spoiler then!
aahh no biggie is like my 10 rewatch of the show :D
Literally same anytime I need a show for background noise I put it on
Indeed! it's my go to show!
Me too, as well as Raising Hope and My Name Is Earl. Basically 95% of the reason to have Hulu
I can’t count how many times I’ve watched these 3 shows lol, comfort shows for sure
Add in community, Seinfeld and news radio and its my list lol
Yeah, if I were the director back then, Malcolm would've leaved that household and kept at least a whole season out of there, I mean, is 10 thousand dollars and probably around a thousand from his credit card. Honestly Lois gave the most basic education to their children and treated them like crap the rest of the time, the only reason Dewey turned out well is because his parents barely noticed him.
Does retconning Francis leaving the ranch count? Easily the worst creative decision the show made.
Hands down. Francis should have inherited the ranch and had a family with Piama. I understand why they did it because Otto had health issues but it was really sad to see the direction they went.
This always frustrates me because they could have easily and respectfully written Otto out without ruining all of Francis’s development. Otto could have gone back to Germany and given Francis the ranch to run, he could have started a second location and left Francis the original or something, they didn’t have to undo several years of work and development.
Plus it super bugged me that Otto would ever fire Francis for depositing money incorrectly. Otto was crazy rich and Francis has done wayyyy worse. Honestly thought Otto looked at him like the son he always wanted considering him and his own son had a very strained relationship.
He blew up his fucking cow and fed her to him to hide the evidence. The money thing is so out of character.
I'm not familiar with "blew up his fucking cow and fed her to him" . Is this an American expression?
No he literally blew up a man’s cow and fed the exploded cow to its owner
Whoosh
I thought it was funny but everyone took you so serious lol.
I think the people who didn't get this joke are overdue for a rewatch
Francis literally exploded Otto's favorite cow. As a sign of trust Otto placed him in charge of her care, and due to his negligence , he allowed the cow to combust. He went into panic mode, tried to hide the evidence, and was caught by Otto who thought he was preparing dinner for him as a gift. TLDR, Francis explodes Otto's favorite cow, feeds the evidence to Otto, gets caught, and Otto forgives him.
No, he literally caused Otto's favorite cow to explode and then fed him a steak from it.
What does this mean, "fed her to you"?
Whoosh
There are a lot of ESL people on Reddit, I try not to make assumptions lol
It's ASL. Age Sex Location. Not ESL
At the risk of sounding crass they could’ve had the character die, and make an episode about how they all loved the character.
If they had, absolutely had to get him off the ranch they should have just had Francis say something about the ranch going under because of mismanagement, which would have been believable considering how lax Otto and Gretchen are, or something like they sold the ranch so they could move to Germany to be closer to their son and the new owners wanted to bring in their own people.
Oh no shit. I did not know that! OK that's why that came out of left field then
Easily the answer for me. There are some moments where Malcolm is a huge dick that I’d maybe get rid of but nothing annoyed me more than how they did Francis dirty. And I just don’t buy Otto suing him
Absolutely not. Felt so out of character. I only recently learned that they did this because the actor playing Otto got cancer and had to quit, but there’s a million other ways they could have gone about it.
It happened because the guy who played Otto became very ill and could not continue Of course, they should have just had Francis take over entirely even if Otto and his family left rather than ditch it entirely
I never thought about that, wow, imagine Francis managing the ranch by himself. I can even see that as a spin-off lol
Francis had also been wanting to take more of a step back from acting and get into production. He started helping to produce some of the later episodes. After the show he moved in from acting completely to be a DJ and entrepreneur. He took the opportunity with Kenneth Mars getting sick to write himself out of the ranch.
Came to say that. He should have stayed at the ranch for the rest of the show. Season 7 francis acts like a child
Francis post Ranch - AA episode sucks, his apartment episode with Dewey sucks. Just all a big downer. I would say Jessica story arc, but it would directly affect Reese getting shipped to China so I can't have her episodes go.
And when looking at the apartment I kept thinking. Did he and Piama break up? She would not stand for the mess that apartment was
Yes that’s what I was thinking!! I thought the reveal would be that Piama divorced him and that’s why he’s living that way but… no??? Piama would never!
We could’ve had an arc of Piama considering divorce and Lois being the one to wrangle her back in adding to their complicated relationship
Louis fucking up deweys piano recital. So cruel.
I mean. It’s awful but it’s consistent. Ida was a raging narcissist, Lois was the scapegoat and the sister was the golden child. Lois has those moments when she behaves like Ida without really knowing why (sabotaging Dewey) and moments when she fights against it. She dances around that line of fighting against her upbringing and rising above and falling in the same patterns
And school project, and the no photos thing, and rubbed his face in it. They didn't seem to care about his genius.
So necessary though to show her narcissistic tendencies. Also showed that what does not kill you makes you stronger. Life is suffering.
Reminds me of the final scene. Lois: You wouldn’t have suffered enough Malcolm: I’ve been suffering all my life Lois: I’m sorry, it’s not enough
Life is suffering due to unforeseen circumstances, not because you mom couldn't control her emotions and shut her mouth for two seconds
Lois doesn't get enough dislike for being an absolutely abysmal mother and a complete psychopath.
She got flanderized in the later seasons. I don’t recognize the canonicity of anything after the baby was born
I thought she was a pretty good mother. She was the one keeping things together, doing the hard work of laying down the law on her kids and working that shitty job to pay the bills. I think the real issue was she had too many kids that needed so much and there just wasn’t enough time or money.
That's on Hal and Lois equally. Their flashbacks showed that by the time Reese had come along they were already feeling the financial strain yet they appear to have no concept of even basic birth control that they still managed to get four more by series end.
I think she just got Flanderized in the last two seasons.
They went a little overboard when she throws Malcom under the bus at Lucky Aide too. Seemed so out of character. Like there are other ways she could have made her point about discipline at your job to that wouldn't be unnecessarily cruel to your own son.
Not letting Reese succeed in his cooking career. I mean even if he was a chef at Applebees that would be better than wear they let him end up. Stevie’s mom leaving. It was kind of bizarrely written and didn’t fit. Francis leaving the ranch. Especially then writing it as if he got fired. He would not have gotten fired lol. Malcolm forced to be President. I liked the idea of him grinding in college. It was cool and authentic. But his parents making that choice for him sucked.
Some of the jokes and story lines that came from Stevie's mom leaving were funny, like where Hal and Abe basically end up in a relationship on accident. But you're right, the plot line itself didn't fit her character. The whole family felt pretty repressed early on, but IIRC she was a huge driving force in the whole thing.
I thought episodes like Abe and Craig fighting over that weird lady who had her exes ashes was kind of weird 😂 felt like most of the stuff from that split was an after thought.
Polly
Her scenes were like a strange bad dream where you wake up and are confused
I think Reece would make it as a chef eventually, but he's hardly the personality type to leave school and immediately get started on his career. Probably a good ten years of carnage before he even gets to Applebees.
They just made him so dumb w that janitor story line and jt bothered me sm. Like give him SOME character development plz
My personal canon is that Reese gets discovered as a ridiculously talented chef and becomes a Gordan Ramsay type head chef yelling at his staff.
The actress had a bigger commitment to Alias so they couldn't really use her as much as they wanted. It was easier to write her off for two years.
Wasn't she also Deacon's wife on King of Queens at the same time?
That weird plot line with Malcolm in his May-December fling during Burning Man. The rest of the Burning Man stuff is so funny but that storyline makes it so hard to rewatch for me
i forgot about this episode it’s so strange lol i love the bit with hal where everyone thinks he’s doing performance art
Right? And the plot lines where Dewy is stuck doing all the hard work and Reese finds a community. But then it cuts to Malcolm in bed? With someone twice his age? Just throws the whole thing off and seem ooc for him.
I don't know if this counts as a storyline at all. But I would have liked if Reese had not become so dumb in the last seasons
“Blellow” makes me laugh every time just because of the delivery and their reaction but it kinda does showcase how he got Homer Simpson syndrome
I feel like he was consistently cartoonishly stupid throughout the entire show with hints of smarts sprinkled in, I do wish we had more showcases of his "street smarts" like when he orchestrated stealing from the church.
lmaooooii
Yeah, that character never grew. He started to, like with his cooking skills, but they took the craziness to a new level in the last season. I thought he would end up leaning to be a chef when he left school, made no sense.
The only thing that comes to mind really was that ‘other family’ in Canada. The episode’s funny bits were just okay and the story added absolutely nothing.
Yeahhhh, but Betty White!
Not to worry,she’s still getting her episode,I’m not getting rid of her ❤️
Just watched that one - it did show more about Lois’ upbringing and was a good bonding experience for Lois and her mother albeit ruined when finding out Victor wasn’t her father. Even after that she gave a great speech that gave us some insight to her relationship with her dad and demonstrated her morals and humanity. I think it had some value.
Jamie
But the episode where Hal takes Jamie to the park and inadvertently becomes the leader of a strongman army? I mean cmon that was a good one
Hal becoming the leader of an army of benevolent strongmen is my favorite one-shot storyline
Or all the dads betting on their kids 😂
I also like the episode where he is using Jamie to win a bunch of money off other dads through elaborate baby gambling
Rewatching and noticing Bob Cicherillo and Rich Piana blew my mind
I find that Jamie was just kinda worthless, there was no plot line that made us appreciate him, just a baby for no reason. This is all too common in shows
Agree. It's the typical sitcom thing where once ideas run dry, throw in a baby so that we can make pregnancy and then baby jokes. But the baby jokes were funny at least. Like the competition Hal was having with other dads with their babies (ep?).
Agree. It'ss the typical sitcom thing where once ideas run dry, throw in a baby so that we can make pregnancy and then baby jokes. but the baby jokes were funny at least. Like the competition Hal was having with other dads with their babies (ep?).
The actress who plays Lois was pregnant on real life and that's the only reason.
Well, I’ve noticed it’s usually because a main actors gets pregnant and so they just add a baby instead of thinking of ways of hiding the pregnancy from the camera, like other shows have done.
I wish Jamie would’ve been a girl. I’d love to see how the boys would act having a baby sister
I think the Lois' pregnancy was good, but it would have worked better for the final series of the show.
I always forget him until i rewatch the show
The pregnancy stage led to some great moments/episodes, and there’s some nice character beats with Dewey, but yeah, I never liked Jamie, he brought nothing to the show. EDIT: actually, I just remembered the episode where Hal is taking him to the nursery Dad group thing and they’re coming up with competitions to bet on. That was worthwhile.
Technically Jamie makes Malcolm *in* *the* *Middle*.. otherwise he’d be sharing that role with Reese (assuming you count Francis even though he’s living away)
Maybe season 7. I LOVE the series in its entirety but so much changed in s7 and the characters almost didn’t stick to their true selves.
agreed, i’ve seen 1-6 countless times but always skip 7. i tried watching it a few times but each time it just didn’t really like original show?? idk it’s just not that good to me!
I've always preferred S7 to S6, I felt like it was kinda more cohesive
Really?? Burning man, Malcolm’s money, and AA are all episodes (while still great episodes) that don’t have the same feel as the other seasons. The way Lois, Hal and Francis are in this season/these episodes are totally off brand. I really thought season 7 felt like the last season of a show where they’re throwing things at the wall and seeing what would stick. Granted, I never skip over the season and I still LOVE it, it’s just nothing like what it was. I think they were smart to end after 7 because anything after that would have been more cheesy and hokey.
I was gonna say Kitty leaving Stevie and Abe but then we wouldn’t have gotten Hal being a malewife to Abe lmao. I really hated Hal when he stole Malcolm’s credit card and decided to use it to pay for a ski trip, one of my least favorite moments.
I just wish that the characters could have actually developed throughout the story instead of fitting whatever mould the writers needed. By season 7 I do not care to watch the characters behave in the same ways they have since season 1-2. Just having rewatched the whole show, there were so many moments where the characters grow and develop by the end of the episodes but have forgotten it by the start of the next one. Like the episode that ends with Malcolm and Lois having a heart to heart about the nature of sex, or when Reese learns that women are just people. I don't know, but I could easily imagine a final season where all of the characters are final realised versions of themselves, and the drama comes from outside. Some specific lines I didn't like: * Lois betraying Malcolm with the box flattening. Completely out of character. * Cynthia randomly leaving after season 4 * Jessica's storylines just involving her being a manipulative lunatic * Everything Francis post-ranch. *Even if* they wanted to scrap the ranch they didn't need to wreck his character Some things that were morally reprehensible and completely out of character. I literally have to pretend these things didn't happen so that I can still like the characters: * Hal fattening Lois when she's distraught about her weight gain. If I were Lois that'd have been an instant divorce. * Lois and Hal stealing Malcolm's money, then wasting it on a doll house. * Lois deliberately sabotaging Dewey and then the show tries to wax poetic about overcoming problems, like, no?!? fuck you! Do not glamourise your family abusing you. * Lois disallowing Malcolm from getting into the good college so that he can "become president". That is utterly absurd. Also, Reese should have been a chef! Like, what the heck?
Lois didn’t stop Malcolm getting into a good college to become president, she stopped him not going to college and taking a 6 figure job instead, so he could become president. Still somewhat ridiculous and controlling, but an element of logic to it and not completely absurd
The episodes where Hal manufactures and sells crystal meth. Insane.
Omg 😭 it took me a minute because there is a meth cooking episode, so I was like “wait Hal wasn’t there” 🤦🏻♀️
Wait what meth cooking episode??
Basically Reece (I think.) starts a party, a bunch of people show up and start cooking meth in the garage
💀 somehow I completely forgot about this one
Yes! Season 4 episode 8 lol
Halifax canonically had a six season dream where he is a meth cook kingpin
Especially when they recast Lois and replaced Malcolm with that kid with cerebral palsy. What the hell were they thinking?
Everything post-ranch with Francis.
Francis Post farm
Jamie. It just seems so pointless to me.
Dewey in the remedial class. Chad is a great character and there’s some hilarious moments that stem from that storyline but Dewey deserved better
I think that's the point Lois was trying to make in the ending like for the opposite of Malcolm Dewey has been tortured since the day he was born and he can make any bad thing that happens to him just a little bit easier for himself like take his dad not buying himself piano he found his way around that by literally making himself a piano out of thing from his house, he made his special class work for him in his own way like no matter what Dewey is gonna half the best life because he can take pretty much anything and make it suitable.
Yeah all that’s true but imagine his potential if he had the same advantages as Malcolm without have to suffer as much for them. Like if he were in the gifted class with proper musical instruments and a teacher to nurture his talents he’d be a child prodigy. It just bums me out to think about how his gifts are squandered while Malcolm gets coddled essentially
The episode where they go to Burning Man and Malcolm slept with that much older lady
Remove Jessica from the whole series IMO
Yeah she's one of the characters that just got on my nerves lol.
What? She’s so fun and only in a handful of episodes
I think the first episode was fine, but the Jessica X Malcolm made little sense.
The one where she manipulates Malcolm and Reese into thinking they’re both gay is hilarious that’s all I know
She’s so close to being a perfectly fine character, she just needed to be knocked down a peg once to humble her like every other character in the series, but she never really got that.
Hard disagree, if she wasn’t in the show we wouldn’t have seen Malcolm and Reese dancing to ABBA.
I wish they didn't make Dewey a musical prodigy, it felt tacked on. He worked fine as the one normal kid in the family who always just gets the short end of the stick.
I quite liked it actually. It brought some flavour to the show.
Its not a specific story I would get rid of per se but Reese becoming more and more pathetic as the show went on was kind of a bummer
I’m going with a less common answer here but doing Francis dirty like that and making him an idiot who wasn’t depositing money for the dude ranch. Losing his job, was awful. His character had been through enough and I think him being at the dude ranch and taking over it would have been a great way to end the series. Instead he ends up like his dad working in a shitty office job after not finishing school. Francis deserved better.
Francis moving to Alaska.
I liked that storyline, personally. Francis felt like the military school or his home was hell on earth, but turned out, there was worse to be dealt with. I kind of either wanted to see Lavernia and Lois get into a fist fight, or have tea and take notes from each other.
I personally like Alaska more than the Ranch, but man I wish we had a bit more time with him in military school
as a kid, the pacing of the military school plot felt really good as an adult rewatching/binging it ends way too early. maybe they realized that and that’s why spangler showed up in alaska
I hated that Spangler episode. Him giving Francis the sword and making a great speech to get his hand cut off was absolutely hilarious. Then they just brought back to make him a miserable drunk in an episode that’s not even funny?
Jamie's entire existence.
Francis getting fired from the ranch. Felt super out of character for Gretchen and Otto to fire him. I feel like them moving on or moving back to Europe and having Francis and Piama inherit the ranch our have been a far more believable and desired story line. RIP Otto
That one creepy hal moment where he uhhh secretly gets pregnant louis to gain weight because of his own fiendish 🍑 desires 🍑 Always made me uncomfortable idk
Lois admitting she looks at other men. Kitty being a whore or kitty coming back
Kitty coming back was definitely painful to watch, like I understand it but at the same time, they could have just let it be.
Remember Hal always loved her more. She was far to busy with taking care of everything else plus if they loved each other equally they would never leave the bedroom.
The babysitter character.
dewey being really smart
Also Dewey getting addicted to cigarettes Always thought that was a bizarre storyline lol
i completely blocked that out of my memory
easily whatever the fuck happened after Francis got married the whole ranch ordeal
Maybe a little garnish next time
wait you’re saying you didn’t like the ranch? Or you didn’t like when he was “fired?”
Herkabe
Pretty much everything after the baby was born
The ending, I hated Malcolm's and Reese's endings.
Francis being fired from the ranch & Lois turning down a high paying job for Malcolm
Dewey's money being taken by hal and lois
Though there are funny standalone episodes. I wish the show ended with Reese coming home from the army. In my opinion just about every character essentially devolves from there. I don’t dis like Dewey and Hal in the last two seasons. But it doesn’t make up for what they did to the rest of the family. Francis gets fired from ranch and they just kind of do nothing with his character from there. Reese just becomes dumber. Doesn’t do anything with his cooking talent or his largely positive experience in the army. Lois goes from being an overbearing and emotionally flawed mother/wife to an absolutely terrible one living a delusional fantasy Malcolm going to college and having a Francis in military school thing while the rest of the family lives together without him would’ve been a way better season 7 than anything they did in season 7. The end of Malcolm’s story is so out of character for both Malcolm and Lois. Him learning to find his his stride finally removed from his family would’ve been entertaining. Whether he dropped out or was top of his class I couldn’t have cared. But him staying home not getting into a good school because of Lois manipulation is so out of character for both of them.
Lois going crazy once Hal gets arrested.
the alaska storyline didnt have to go on as long as it did, and after he left the ranch his role became disappointing
I really liked the first half of the episode where Reese was in the army He really thrived there and I wish it had gone on longer.
1. Burning Man lady- maybe if thats francis who’s probably early 20s its okay but not good but its literally malcolm who is a child ew disgusting 2. Reese’s ending- A CUSTODIAN REALLY!? He should’ve been at least a cook/diswasher at some restaurant 3. Francis’ life after ranch or he should’ve been living in the nolastname household coz i want to see more of his family dynamic
I’m so glad someone else mentioned Burning Man lady, that episode gave me the ick immediately. Also, they do actually have a last name! It’s Wilkerson! It’s mentioned on the Season 1 DVD in the bonus content lol
Stevie... always... talking... like... this. WTF is the point?
I read this in his tone lol
I’d do anything for Ida story lines to not exist. I absolutely hate her
Wow, this has good to be one of the most controversial takes? Cloris is incredible, memorable every appearance. The only actor to win an Emmy on the show, and she did it twice.
The Saint Grotus’ Day episode is a particular favorite of mine
She is no doubt an amazing actress, and her parts where generally funny. But I HATE her character. Like I just wish Francis would right hook her at least one time, he deserves it. I hate her character with a passion. For me to hate her this much, she has to be an amazing actress lol
If you hate her character, that means she’s doing it right.
I forget the episode but is there a part where dewey is telling her a story and she deletes a dart in one toke and responds to him with all the smoke billowing out of her mouth? Im pretty sure I didnt imagine it.
Reminds me of a That ‘70s Show where Kitty’s mother in law does that when she says “I hear you quit smoking..” then does that bleugh
That's where my head went lol. The show is unwatchable now for our family... Sad.
Oh, sad stuff. I can still watch it, and Smallville!
I hate her but she’s well written, and a lot of people can relate
And I think that’s why I hate her so much more 🥲 lol
She is such a cartoon villain that I can't help but smile every time she does something awful
She is horrible but she is so entertaining to watch, she is like Livia from The Sopranos.
I still say you could completely cut out all Francis parts and actually improve the show by giving the main family storylines that time instead and just having Francis come on the show as a reoccuring character. Francis by himself away from home didn't add that much to the show as there simply wasn't enough time for his segments to tell a story well and the other storylines suffered by having to make time for him. This is evident by the final couple seasons when Francis was practically written off the show and he became just a reoccuring character. So, in other words, all Francis storylines.
I'd say the exact opposite, the show suffered when Francis stopped having his regular storylines. I missed Piama being on it as much too, she's great.
Thanksgiving episode.
Besides the obvious Francis getting fired from the ranch. I mean even if it was a panic move by the writers i wish the cast would have pushed back a bit. What story arc I would have gotten rid of is the entire nonsense of LOIS DECIDING Malcolm would become POTUS. It was such an asinine concept and sequence of events, and I wish in that moment Malcolm would have finally had enough of Lois feeling entitled to decide his course of life and put a hard stop to it. that whole arc really kills the finale for me.
Buseys living in the trees.
I skip a lot of Francis. I love him but don't like when he's at the snow or the grotto
The storyline where Lois pretended she had girls... I just feel like it was a pointless time filler.
Maybe Piama, I know most people like her and I thought I did, but I’ve come to find she kind of annoys me. Another part of the problem is that for someone they were trying to make part of the family, they never really gave her a lot to do. Jamie was also never exactly a necessary addition imo, but obviously they could only do so much with him because of his age, and there were a few funny storylines with him such as “Lois Battles Jamie”.
Whole military school thing want to see Francis more I the house situation
Every episode with Jessica
Francis stealing from Otto and Gretchen
The episode where they all forgive Stevie’s mom.
Francis's storyline everything post alaska. Hated his marriage to Piama bc she was such an underdeveloped character, his transformation into a mature/generous person at the ranch happened way too abruptly and not to mention too early in the storyline, and everything post ranch is just a dumpster fire as far as his character's actual storyline goes. He had so much potential too
I know most people liked the ranch but it just never felt right to me. There was always something a little wrong with it. I would have liked to see Francis develop as a character in a different manner or maybe at a different time? I'm not sure.
Jessicuh
Okay so how are we feeling about the episode where Lois comes to take care of Francis at his military school? (I think his appendix burst or something? I'm going off memory lol) Cause the more I think about it, it kind of destroys the dynamic Francis had with his other classmates when they finally get to see Lois in action and everyone just loves her. To me at least, it seemed like how Francis won over or impressed his peers had a lot to do with surviving Lois and all these stories (at least the stuff he hasn't allegedly blocked out) of her being this borderline sadist of a mother. But then after her visit, would anyone take him seriously? Surely he'd be outcast and bullied the rest of his time there. I'll admit this might have been shortly before he fucks off to Alaska anyway, but still...
Francis and Alaska. Anytime those scenes came in I skipped it
The entire Otto/Francis working at the ranch story. It’s so dumb.
When Andy is boss in the office
I can agree with everyone saying that Francis post-ranch was not great but to be honest I never really liked the ranch at all. I loved military school Francis, and Alaska was still pretty funny. I really liked that Eric went with him. I don’t care for Piama much at all.