One of the great benefits of being a Millennial Malcolm In The Middle fan is that I've been able to watch the show from two different perspectives. I was around the same age as the titular character when it first aired, and I watched locked principally into the viewpoint of the kids, but rewatching as an adult lets one more clearly see and respect the comedic chaos in the lives of Hal and Lois. My love for the brilliant sitcom has only deepened over the years as a result, and my appreciation of that fact makes me particularly love the approach with the parent characters in the amazing new revival Malcolm In The Middle: Life's Still Unfair.
Now available to stream with a Hulu subscription, the limited series has excellent storylines for the formerly kid characters from the original show (plus the inclusion of the new sibling Kelly and Malcolm's daughter Leah), but when I interviewed series creator Linwood Boomer and executive producer Tracy Katsky Boomer earlier this month, they explained how Hal was the real catalyst for the project. The former said that he can very much relate to where the Bryan Cranston character is at his age, and understanding the changes in his own life inspired where Hal would be. He told me,
Hal was the real through line. I start from where I am in my life, which is: what is this thing when you, you know, the bandwidth you get back when your kids are grown? You don't wake up every morning thinking, 'Oh god, are we on time to get to school?' You're not at three o'clock waiting to see if, you know, some teacher's going to tell us something they did, or something that they come home and they're crying about. All that stuff where you're just sort of being a parent in this very intense way.
Through seven seasons of Malcolm in the Middle, Hal lived through constant chaos thanks to the unceasing rambunctiousness of his children, but when we catch up with him in Malcolm In The Middle: Life's Still Unfair, he is ready for a very different kind of life. Kelly, his youngest child, is grown and ready to join their brothers in independence. His offspring aren't out of his life (for example, Reese is still around to monetize Hal's clumsiness with secret internet videos), but his relationship with them is ready to change.
Article continues belowContinuing, Linwood Boomer told me that he recognized Hal and himself entering a new phase – but, of course the emotional pull of being a parent never ends:
When that's gone, and especially with someone who was as focused as Hal was on their kids, and you know, me too as a person, like, when that's gone and you have this bandwidth, what are you seeing and what are you realizing? And that was a big part of it. And then the other thing hanging on it was a dad seeing a kid who's just like him and because of that really suffering and not knowing what to do about it when he feels like he knows how to do everything… The Malcolm thing and the Hal thing kind of came together at the same time and it was like, okay, there's a shape to that.
Lois was a completely different story, and fans of the original show will certainly appreciate the direction that was chosen for her in the writing of the new series. In short: if it ain't broke, don't fix it. From 2000 to 2006, Jane Kaczmarek played one of the most self-actualized characters on television, and there was no instinct to mess with that fact even after 20 years have passed. Linwood Boomer added,
I wanted Lois to be the same. Malcolm is very different. Hal is very different. All the kids are now grown up and that's very different. And Lois is exactly the same. She was fine 20 years ago and she's fine now. I really like that as a thing to say about Lois.
For most revival shows, characters being exactly who they were even decades after we last saw them registers as bad writing, but I don't think there's a Malcolm In The Middle fan on Earth who would argue this wasn't the absolutely necessary approach to Lois.
Hal and Lois are ultimately the best part of the critically acclaimed Malcolm In The Middle: Life's Still Unfair, but the whole show is truly terrific and a wonderful reunion with a brilliant cast of characters. If you haven't yet watched or haven't carved out time this weekend to check it out, I promise you that you are making a mistake.
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