Malcolm in the Middle

Malcolm in the Middle is an American situation comedy on the Fox Network. It first aired in 2000.

The family

Originally there were only four children (although Malcolm's eldest brother attended a military school away from home, so he was still the middle child left at home). The fifth child, a new baby, was introduced in the show's fourth season to coincide with Jane Kaczmarek's pregnancy, although it was not made clear what sex the child was until the beginning of the fifth season (a boy). The boys are, from eldest to youngest: Francis, Reese, Malcolm, Dewey, and Jamie.

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At the beginning of the series, Malcolm's principal recognizes him as a gifted student, and places him in an accelerated learning class. Much to his dismay, the move brands him as a "Krelboyne," a member of the gifted class. The name "Krelboyne" comes from the surname of one of the characters in the movie Little Shop of Horrors. Many episodes revolve around Malcolm's attempts to reconcile his genius-level IQ with his desire to lead a "normal" social life.

Related Topics:
Little Shop of Horrors - IQ

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Reese, the second oldest, is also the dumbest. This is because at an early age he learned how to get rid of his troubles, by turning his brain off, or singing the "Minty Mint Song" in his head. He is overall the most destructive of the brothers, and arguably the biggest trouble maker (the full extent of Francis' deeds have yet to be revealed, but occasional glimpses of the past have shown presumably why Francis was exiled from the house). He has a reputation as a bully, but over the show's development has begun to show Reese becoming more responsible. He is an excellent chef and loves to cook, and revoking Reese's access to the kitchen has become Hal and Lois' only effective punishment against him.

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In the fifth season, Malcolm's younger brother Dewey begins to exhibit a high degree of intelligence, seen mainly in his talent playing the piano. Dewey was about to follow his brother into the gifted class, only to have Malcolm help him stay in normal classes by using Reese to complete Dewey's tests, which accidentally gets Dewey thrown into the "Special" class, full of kids considered lost causes (the class is known as the "Buseys", an apparent reference to actor Gary Busey.) He has since organized the class to want to be all they can be, and is teaching them standard lessons as their teacher/leader. He has been trying to show that they are just as capable as others, and has organized them to do things like perform an opera he wrote based on his family.

Related Topics:
Gary Busey - Opera

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The eldest brother, Francis, is a regular character on the show, though he has not lived at home with his brothers since Hal and Lois sent him to military school (part of the backstory to season 1). After the second season, at only age 16, he legally emancipated himself with the help of an unscrupulous Alabama lawyer. He left the academy and headed up to Alaska to find work as a logger. By season 4 he found himself working as a farmhand at a Texas ranch/hotel owned by Germans. (They are Danish in the German-dubbed version of the series.) Now married to Piama (an Alaskan Native), Francis has become a responsible adult; he has begun to discipline his younger brothers, who used to regard him as a rule-breaking role model.

Related Topics:
Military school - Backstory - Emancipated - Alabama - Alaska - Texas - German - Danish

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Lois works as a clerk at Lucky Aide, a local drugstore. She has unconventional ways of disciplining her children. Her mother is still alive, much to the family's dismay. Lois also has a sister, with whom she is on uneven ground. Her co-worker, the domineering but socially inept Craig Feldspar, has romantic feelings for her, which he makes known in several episodes. Lois is of undetermined Eastern European descent, an aspect only explored in a single episode in the latest season.

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Hal is a bit squeamish and more relaxed in his parenting than Lois, mainly because he is afraid to make the wrong choice. His indecisiveness supposedly stems from a childhood incident in which he caused a clown to get attacked by a snake (both of which he is now afraid of). He's smart enough to know not to cross Lois. When Lois is away, he quickly begins to lose self-control and indulges in his baser enjoyments such as smoking, loud music, and building "killer robots" (as explored in one episode). He is arguably the biggest dreamer of the family, usually daydreaming about enjoyable situations. He is quite passionate about a range of activities, from roller-skating to pirate radio to race-walking. He comes from a large rich family, with all of the family members having some (repressed) problem or another. They rarely visit because of the friction between Hal's relatives and Lois.

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The most dysfunctional members of the family are Lois's parents, Victor and Ida. They were first introduced in the episode "Grandparents". Victor got off to a bad start by giving Reese a hand grenade which he accidentally set off. Malcolm's quick thinking prevented the house from blowing up by shoving it in the fridge. Not much is known about Victor, except that he left his home at a young age and that he was in the war. In the episode "Christmas" we learn that he is now dead. He kept a secret from Lois, he had another family. They were introduced in Season Six. Then it was revealed that Victor was not really Lois's father. Her real father has yet to be revealed.

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Ida is a bigot; when she isn't badmouthing other races she gets scared by them. She has done a lot of nasty things in her life, such as drugging a Chinese man into marrying her. Luckily he snapped out of it before the marriage ceremony ended. She keeps Christmas gifts locked up, thinking that the family doesn't deserve them when they have no idea that they annoyed her. The only good thing Ida has ever done was saving Dewey from getting run over by a truck; in the process she lost a leg.

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Victor and Ida come from an unknown place dubbed "The Old Country", which has been hinted to be either in Eastern Europe or inside Russia.

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