Frankie Muniz, Jane Kaczmarek and Bryan Cranston in ‘Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair.’

Disney/David Bukach

Share on Facebook

Share on X

Google Preferred

Share to Flipboard

Show additional share options

Share on LinkedIn

Share on Pinterest

Share on Reddit

Share on Tumblr

Share on Whats App

Send an Email

Print the Article

Related Stories

Movies

Morgan Jay to Host 2026 Golden Trailer Awards (Exclusive)

Critic's Notebook: Why Spring TV Has Us Seeing Stars

“I love intergenerational trauma,” replies Rudd’s Griff.

“Who doesn’t love intergenerational trauma?” Doug affirms.

I imagine a very similar conversation taking place as Linwood Boomer pondered whether he actually had anything he wanted to say or do with his new reboot of his beloved Fox comedy, Malcolm in the Middle.

Grief and revenge probably wouldn’t have made any sense as part of the Malcolm in the Middle brand, though the death of Cloris Leachman’s Ida is featured in the reboot’s first episode.

But intergenerational trauma? It’s a surprisingly plausible thematic underpinning for a show about the often nightmarish upbringing of the genius middle child growing up in a family that was simultaneously wholly dysfunctional and allegedly loving. The torment that Frankie Muniz‘s Malcolm experienced growing up was the fodder for over 150 chapters of wacky hijinks, and it’s reasonable to assume that it would have some long-term effects on Malcolm’s life.

Enter Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair, which picks up with the family 20 years after Fox and viewers parted ways with them.

I watched nearly all of Malcolm in the Middle, a tonally and aesthetically adventurous comedy by broadcast standards, but unlike some recent sitcom reboots, which have been able to coast on a wave of nostalgia, Life’s Still Unfair is far from comfort food. It’s bizarrely discomfiting. It’s almost audaciously unpleasant.

If fact, I’d argue that Life’s Still Unfair exposes the misery beneath the regular jokes about sibling misbehavior, body hair shaving, rollerskating and other domestic misadventures, as well as the hollow banalities of sitcom sentiment. I found it to be interestingly sad, vaguely haunting and not the least bit funny, almost a punishment for wanting a reunion with these characters in the first place.

So if that was the intent…Kudos! Full marks.

My suspicion, though, is that it was only partially the goal. My extreme visceral reaction stems from how effective these new episodes are at one thing — underlining intergenerational trauma — but how ineffective they are at finding the reservoir of affection that made the original show simultaneously so exhausting and so likable.

Life’s Still Unfair brings us up to speed on Malcolm, who has created a piece of technology that allows grocery stores to easily transfer unsold inventory to charities. The job itself is nearly irrelevant, fulfilling a basic purpose of being both admirable and somehow disappointing, since it exists primarily as a way for Malcolm to avoid his family. He has decided that he doesn’t like the man he is when he’s around his parents (Jane Kaczmarek‘s Lois and Bryan Cranston‘s Hal) or his siblings, so he bails on family events feigning charity-based emergencies.

Malcolm insists that he’s now happy and healthy, utilizing therapy-speak to raise his teenage daughter, Leah (Keeley Karsten). She is the product of a brief liaison at Malcolm’s first college kegger, and Malcolm says that Leah’s mother ran off three days after Leah’s birth. But based on Malcolm’s terrifying intensity when discussing his current happiness, his approach to parenting and, well, everything else, I think it’s fully a part of the s

Malcolm in the Middle: Life's Still Unfair Review: Hulu Sitcom Sequel