Malcolm In The Middle Review: Hulu's Messy Family Reunion Struggles To Recapture The Original's Zing
Four half-hour episodes seems like a curiously short run for Hulu's "Malcolm in the Middle" revival... but midway through it, you might start to feel like it's actually too long.
"Malcolm" was an absolute breath of fresh air when it debuted on Fox in 2000, blending the blue-collar family dysfunction of "Roseanne" and "Married... With Children" with an anarchic single-cam filmmaking style that made it feel like a live-action cartoon, ditching the traditional laugh track for a vividly real portrait of suburban chaos. Now with Hulu's revival, cumbersomely titled "Malcolm in the Middle: Life's Still Unfair" (premiering this Friday; I've seen all four episodes), we get to see how Malcolm and his wacky family turned out, a quarter-century later. But the revival never quite recaptures the distinctive zing we loved about the original. Trading the classic family dynamic for a series of weird solo detours and piling on too many new characters, it feels thin and ill-conceived, like an Emmys reunion sketch stretched out to fit four half-hours.
Played once again by Frankie Muniz, Malcolm the former boy genius is now grown-up, well-adjusted, and successful, all because he's "stayed completely away from my family," he tells us in his familiar narration. But against his better judgment, he's drawn back into the swirling mayhem of his childhood when his parents Lois (Jane Kaczmarek) and Hal (Bryan Cranston) throw a big anniversary party. Oh, and Malcolm has a family of his own now, with a teen daughter named Leah (Keeley Karsten) who displays some of her dad's precocious wit... and narrates her thoughts to camera, too.
The revival has too many new characters and not enough of the core family
In the world of "Malcolm in the Middle," some things never change: Lois is still shaving Hal's back, for one thing. (Original series creator Linwood Boomer returns here as writer and executive producer.) Malcolm's brothers Francis (Christopher Kennedy Masterson) and Reese (Justin Berfield) are back as well, but Dewey has been replaced — Caleb Ellsworth-Clark takes over the role from Erik Per Sullivan — and only appears briefly via Zoom, with the excuse that he's a touring musician. Plus, Lois and Hal have a nonbinary kid named Kelly (Vaughan Murrae), and with Malcolm having a girlfriend and Leah getting her own self-contained storyline that feels like a test run for "Leah in the Middle," we end up spending a lot of time with characters we don't know and aren't invested in. Too much time, really.
The claustrophobic feel of the original "Malcolm" is missing here, too. Back then, Malcolm and his family were all stuck bouncing off each other in the same cramped house, and that created the fizzy, surreal magic that made "Malcolm" special. But here, they're all spread out, confined to their own scenes — Malcolm doesn't really interact with his family much at all until the finale — and the revival loses something as a result, like those later seasons of "Arrested Development" where only one or two actors were available for each scene. There's a strange undercurrent of anti-woke humor laced throughout as well, with clumsy pronoun jokes and Malcolm spouting touchy-feely parenting jargon that comes off more as mocking than authentic.
It's nice to see Hal and Lois again, though
If nothing else, the "Malcolm" revival serves as a reminder of Bryan Cranston and Jane Kaczmarek's vast comic gifts. Cranston, of course, went on to deliver one of the greatest dramatic performances in TV history as Walter White on "Breaking Bad," but he's back in full goof mode here, dancing to Bruno Mars and mugging it up at every turn. A little of Hal goes a long way, though; at one point, he goes off on his own trippy psychedelic journey that doesn't generate enough laughs to justify the extended screen time. Kaczmarek, meanwhile, is relegated to a back seat here — which is a shame, because her volcanic performance was really one of the original show's biggest strengths. But she does manage to reclaim some of Lois' original spirit, especially in an inspired bit when Lois details for Francis exactly how low he ranks right now on her list of life priorities.
Frankie Muniz hasn't acted much in recent years, but he makes a surprisingly strong return as Malcolm, hilariously conveying the crippling anxiety he feels at seeing his family again. (It's easy to see Muniz leading his own sitcom again, if he wanted to.) The finale's anniversary party brings with it some fun cameos, and it comes the closest to reproducing the zany feel of the original "Malcolm." But the final moments seem to tease a possible spin-off centered on Malcolm and Leah, which would just be leaning into the parts of the revival that don't work. Family reunions are nice and all... but this one might only prove you really can't go home again.
THE TVLINE BOTTOM LINE: With too many new characters and not enough family togetherness, Hulu's "Malcolm in the Middle" revival can't recreate the anarchic thrill of the original.