Twenty years later, Malcolm is stil in the "Middle."
What else can you say about the revival of the beloved sitcom, which ran on Fox from 2000-2006? Hulu's "Malcolm in the Middle: Life's Still Unfair"reunites Frankie Muniz, Bryan Cranston and Jane Kaczmarekin a slapstick recreation of the iconic family and their equally iconic antics. There are big box store flash mobs, horses, prat falls and, of course, lots and lots of screaming. The humor is broad and cozy, like a warm bowl of chicken and dumplings. Muniz's Malcolm talks to the camera, as does Leah (Keeley Karsten), Malcolm's equally gifted and perceptive teen daughter. It's one of the few instances in which the lack of character development in spite of the 20 years of aging and learning works: Sitcom tropes don't really work if your dysfunctional characters experience personal growth.
But is the reboot any good? It almost doesn't matter. "Middle" (all episodes streaming April 10 on Hulu, ★★½ out of four) does exactly what it's supposed to: Pull on our nostalgic heartstrings and remind us of own mispent youth. And when I talk about a "we," I'm speaking of us good ol' Millennials for whom family sitcoms like this were so formative and comforting. Hollywood was obsessed with bringing back the pop culture of the 1980s and 90s for years, appealing to the sensibilities of Generation X with the likes of Netflix's "Fuller House" and even "Stranger Things." But now the generation blamed for killing whole industries (everything fromnapkinstoAmerican cheese) is old enough and tired enough to see our favorites brought back to life. And as long as those reboots are like "Middle," and don't ruin the memory of the original, it's all hunky dory. Heck, it's nice to feel seen.
The new "Middle" is both wildly different and exactly the same as the original. On the one hand, all the kids are grown up (even baby Kelly is a rebellious teen). Malcolm is professionally successful, as one would imagine, running a respected charity. He is a single father to Leah, but is trying to raise her in every way he wasn't. His siblings are in varying degrees of stagnation, although Francis (Christopher Masterson) is married. But Hal (Cranston) and Lois (Kaczmarek) are still in loopy love and still trying to manage one crisis after another. Malcolm still feels ostracized by his family, so much so that he's nearly cut off contact from them. And nobody seems able to keep their emotions in check.
Hal and Lois's upcoming 40th wedding anniversary, and a big blowout party, forces Malcolm to reconnect with his family, and not in the way he intended. They may (mostly) live apart, but they are all drawn into orbit with each other, with very amusing and catastrophic results.
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The biggest joy of any show like this is those reunions, and the cast doesn't disappoint. It's a particular giddy joy to see Cranston − now most famous and celebrated for hisotherlong-running TV role, intense crime drama "Breaking Bad" − exercise his immensely strong funny bone. The actor's face is hilariously expressive, his range of anger and outrage is massive and his exasperation with his TV sons knows no bounds.
Muniz, who has been further removed from the spotlight in the intervening decades, slips easily back into the role that made him a child star. He's sardonic and witty, and a little bit desperate. Like so many of the 30- and 40- somethings who will be tuning in, he's reckoning with how to parent after he didn't love the way he was brought up. His daughter, meanwhile, is reckoning with a changing social and technological world Malcolm never experienced in adolescence. (There is an unfortunate amount of "soft" and "woke" Gen Z/Gen Alpha stereotypes, which the show would be better off without.)
The show's creator, Linwood Boomer, told USA TODAY that he wasn't able to reel Sullivan (seen here in 2007) back in despite his best efforts; the former actor is now working toward his master's degree at Harvard University. "Eric Sullivan hasn't been an actor for decades. I asked him to repeat [Dewey]. We still talk all the time. I love him, and he didn't want to be an actor anymore," Boomer says. "He didn't like [acting] 10 years ago, and he sure doesn't now. I had to respect that."
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'Malcolm in the Middle' cast then and now – 2000s show to reboot
The show's creator, Linwood Boomer, told USA TODAY that he wasn't able to reel Sullivan (seen here in 2007) back in despite his best efforts; the former actor is now working toward his master's degree at Harvard University. "Eric Sullivan hasn't been an actor for decades. I asked him to repeat [Dewey]. We still talk all the time. I love him, and he didn't want to be an actor anymore," Boomer says. "He didn't like [acting] 10 years ago, and he sure doesn't now. I had to respect that."
When the chaos starts in "Middle" it never stops (stay tuned for the big surprise ending to the first episode). And unlike the chaos in our real lives, it's fun and silly to enjoy this family falling to pieces. Of course, they pick themselves back up again. And there's something so deeply reassuring about that, nostalgic and cheesy or not.
So is this latest reboot any good? It's good enough for now.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:'Malcom in the Middle' revival review − Millennials get nostalgia, too
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