Jan 03 2008
Middle Means Mediocre
In the fall of 2000, one of the season’s new shows caught my eye. Its premise was quirky and strange, it had a theme song by They Might Be Giants and it was being placed on the schedule between the The Simpsons and X-Files. It was a perfect mix. Surely this show would be one of those strange gems, those oddball shows that you bring up in conversations 20 years later to show how cool you are for remembering obscure awesomeness. I thought I was getting the next Adventures of Pete and Pete. What I got was disappointment.
It says a lot about Malcolm in the Middle’s breathtaking mediocrity that its claim to fame is sticking us with Frankie Muniz. For a show about an oddball family dealing with the bizarre side of life, Malcolm in the Middle was awfully tame. There weren’t any moments of inspired madness, nor were there the kind of freakish-but-lovable side characters that make shows like this memorable. In the half season I managed to sit through, Malcolm never rose above the level of Slightly Different. This was the first prime time show to use a They Might Be Giants theme song? We’d been had.
I’m in the minority when it comes to this show. At least, I think I am. The show lasted for something like 6 seasons, so someone had to have been watching it. It’s possible the might of The Simpsons carried it along, or that the show was cheap enough to produce that it did need big ratings to survive. It’s also possible the disturbing pseudo-cuteness of Frankie Muniz was enough of a draw on its own to pull in the required demographics. It’s hard to say.
I have a real fondness for crazy shows. I still talk about that first, truncated season of Eerie, Indiana. I remember my excitement upon learning that Michael Stipe would be appearing in Pete and Pete. Nothing made me happier than a new episode of Ren and Stimpy. At least, back when Ren and Stimpy was pure genius, which was for maybe 6 episodes. Still.
Malcolm in the Middle felt like corporate America hijacking a long tradition of underground, crazy-as-hell television series’ and throwing out everything but the window dressing. It’s not that it was a bad show. It’s just that it wasn’t the show we were promised, even though it never stopped pretending to be that show. When out of their minds writers manage to get their dreams onto the screen for the 8 or 10 episodes it takes a studio to wake up and cancel them, what you get is a sort of magic like nothing else. Malcolm in the Middle may have been funny, but, by getting my hopes up just to sell me out, it left me with a feeling of disappointment I never shook.
Plus it gave us Frankie Muniz.
