Have they toned down the "clever" Malcolm

admin

Retired Administrator
Is it me or for the past 2 seasons have they made Malcolm seem less clever and more socially rejected.

I haven't seen many of his "clever" ideas in a while, nor has anything really gone right for him.

The last clever idea I can remeber was in the episode where he auctioned off people's embarassing moments, but it is not like previous seasons where the clever ideas would be popping up every episode.

On another note, where are the krelboynes, Malcolm still goes to High School, as do the other krelboynes Lloyd, Kevin, Dabney and a few others. Surely they are still friends with Malcolm. Currently Malcolm is socially rejected, well as far as I can see from episodes such as the one where they interpreted haunted house from empty house! The writers are really giving Malcolm a hard time lately.
 

ReMoss85

New member
Yeah, he's not clever and they don't let anything remotely good happen to him anymore. It's like when the simpsons writers came up with the idea that Moe was depressed and lonely and suicidal all of a sudden. And somebody must have thought that was funny because now Moe has a good minute of every episode devoted to him wanting to kill himself. Of course Malcolm's situation isn't quite so extreme, but who knows what the fateful seventh season has in store? At least he still has Stevie.
 

Malcolm

New member
Malcolm has a big problem.
He is not victim of a terrible destiny; he is choosing to be socially rejected. He is choosing to be weird. And he isnt doing anything to improve his potential

If he becomes a loser, it will be his entire fault.

Hey, wait a minute... Im talking about ME!!!:eek:
;)
 

admin

Retired Administrator
The problem with Malcolm I feel, and I see it with other kids at our school, is that they know they are clever, they tell everybody that they are clever, and people begin not to like them.

Malcolm clearly has some insecurity issues and his "intelligence" is the only thing he can rely on - he has no sport (what ever happened to the basketball) no music and no hobbies, and he has this awful bitter, negative attitude on life.

Maybe it goes with clever, people with wide knowledeges become angry and depressed that the people around them don't know as much and seem stupid in comparision.
 

Amigo22

Super Moderator
I agree; you would have thought that when he started High School and was no longer a Krelboyne that he would have changed and become a happier person, but even now, two seasons later, he is still just as insecure and depressed and socially rejected.

Although there is the possibility that they may have toned down on Malcolm's cleverness to emphasize more on Dewey's.
 

Garbage Kills Megan

parties with your mom
I really haven't liked this "everyone hates malcolm" thing they did these season. Reese never had any friends, and that was fine, but now BOTH of them don't have any friends (as shown in the episode about the "haunted" house) I don't like it. They've made Reese and Malcolm too similar, and Malcolm always had friends.

And I don't think they use Malcolm's intelligence as much as they used to. The show isn't focused on that anymore. It's more about the whole family. Every now and then they add some little tiny thing, like "oh, by the way, Malcolm's smart" but they don't work it into episodes like they used to. It probably gets hard after 6 seasons.
 

allison

New member
Garbage Kills Megan said:
I really haven't liked this "everyone hates malcolm" thing they did these season. Reese never had any friends, and that was fine, but now BOTH of them don't have any friends (as shown in the episode about the "haunted" house) I don't like it. They've made Reese and Malcolm too similar, and Malcolm always had friends.

And I don't think they use Malcolm's intelligence as much as they used to. The show isn't focused on that anymore. It's more about the whole family. Every now and then they add some little tiny thing, like "oh, by the way, Malcolm's smart" but they don't work it into episodes like they used to. It probably gets hard after 6 seasons.
I agree with you. They just mention Malcolm´s intelligence, but they don´t show it (like in Hal sleepwalks: "The smart one scares me. You´re normal, like me." (Hal about Malcolm).
I also don´t like the fact that they made malcolm a social reject and a very random character. He never was popular with "normal" kids, but he was kind of the leader of the Krelboynes. So in his way, he was popular.
I liked it better when the show focused on Malcolm instead of Dewey or Hal. Dewey can´t take over Malcolm´s role in my opinion. For me, he has become too perfect. There´s nothing interesting about him. He´s popular with the Buseys, he´s very smart and a genius when it comes to music. But personally, I don´t think that´s interesting to watch. Malcolm always had to deal with his problems. He was funny and believable. I actually don´t find it very believable that Dewey all of the sudden became a genius, too.
I think one of the reasons why Malcolm isn´t that popular is that he uses his brain too much (ok, that sounds weird:D ). But he overthinks everything. He´s one of the people who never can be happy because they always think "everything seems perfect, but there HAS to be a catch." It´s mean, but most people don´t like unhappy people who are complaining most of the time. Maybe writers thought the idea of Malcolm being a genius got old, so they didn´t focus the show on ít anymore. That´s ok, but I don´t think it was a good idea to make Dewey a genius, instead.

malcolm wrote:
malcolm said:
He is not victim of a terrible destiny; he is choosing to be socially rejected. He is choosing to be weird. And he isnt doing anything to improve his potential

If he becomes a loser, it will be his entire fault
I think you´re right. On the other hand it´s pretty difficult to change yourself. And whenever he tried not to be a social reject and to make people like him (like in Humilithon) his attempt backfired on him. We also got to know that people don´t always appreciate his sarcastic comments, though maybe it was just his way to entertain them. I think he tries to fit in, but there´s something about him that turns other people off.
Though I´m sure Reese isn´t very happy about the fact that he doesn´t have any friends (remember the Mini bike episode where Malcolm told him that he doesn´t have any friends and Reese went "Mom told you you´re not allowed to talk about this"), I think he never tried as hard as Malcolm to fit in. He also didn´t care too much. Sure he was sad when he realized that people don´t like him, but either he didn´t show it or he created his own way to feel popular (like following people around who don´t even know him).

From the beginning they made Malcolm and his brothers (excluding Francis) kind of outcasts. That was good in a way, because this show was never about a perfect family who doesn´t have any problems. It´s not that I love to watch depressed people who have a lot of problems (don´t get me wrong:D ), but that was what people could relate to. That´s also why I think Dewey became a boring character.
But still I think they overdo their "everyone hates Malcolm" concept now.
 

MITM-Fan

New member
It has always been obvious why Malcolm was rather a lonesome person than someone who's popular amongst others: he always wanted it like that. He always had something to critisize on all the others, that's why he's always been this loner.
But now they completely changed the direction, now it seems that everyone else doesn't like HIM. Maybe it's because of the critisizing thing that almost everyone has to strike with vengeance upon him. I don't know. The fact is, that now he tries to get rid of his status as a social reject but why they had to curb down his cleverness is a mystery to me. :confused: To be frank (^^)....since that was happening I wasn't enjoying the Malcolm storylines as I used to. There are still episodes I like, e. g. when Malcolm gets his guitar :D and some others but it isn't funny anymore..it's sad, uninspired etc...but the same goes for the character of Dewey, as well as for Reese...etc..The episodes itself do have great ideas but the characters are a little worn out. Although I'm a huge fan....the end is near, believe me, it's better this way. ;)


:cool:
 

ekimanisirf

New member
maybe its just me, but I think they are making playing down Malcom's role so they can develope more on other characters... more specifically Reese and Dewey
 

MITM18

New member
Very true, while Malcolm is in the title, I believe it of course shouldnt always revolve around him.

Its fun learning about the other characters
 

ekimanisirf

New member
Exactly. The show is called "Malcom in the Middle" right, not "Just Malcom"? So he has to be in the middle of something... like a family... therefore it makes perfect sense to not concentrate soley on Malcom.
 

Amigo22

Super Moderator
Since Season 4 they stopped emphasizing on Malcolm's genius IQ (because he was out of the Krelboyne class and in High School) and from then onwards they have emphasized on his unhappiness. Like I said in my previous post, this will have been done so they could introduce Dewey as a genius in Season 5.
 

Wildcat

Retired Moderator
But they've never actually said Dewey's a genius (although I personally believe he is.) He's obviously very smart, probably even smarter than malcolm in some ways because he posseses "book sense" and he's a musical "genius" as well. It's kinda funny how Malcolm and Dewey turned out so bright and Reese turned out dumb as a rock. :D
 

rzombie1988

New member
I think Malcolm's cleverness has been toned down. In fact, in the last few episodes he's seemed to me, like he's just a little bit more clever than Reese.
 

yardgames

Retired Administrator
Wildcat said:
But they've never actually said Dewey's a genius (although I personally believe he is.) He's obviously very smart, probably even smarter than malcolm in some ways because he posseses "book sense" and he's a musical "genius" as well. It's kinda funny how Malcolm and Dewey turned out so bright and Reese turned out dumb as a rock. :D
They've hinted that Jamie may become a genius one day, as well. Come to think of it, it would be fun to see an allusion to that as Malcolm is graduating HS, some doctor decides to test Jamie and assures Malcolm that his legacy will live on in the Krelboyne class.
 

Amigo22

Super Moderator
IMO it wouldn't be goot to only find out something new this close to the end of the series. Although it would be odd if Jamie was a genius too, because Francis isn't and Reese certainly isn't. But then again, Hal could technically be a genius too since he was a rollerskate champion and had a perfect game at Bowling (except it was sabotaged by Malcolm and whats-her-face falling down and knocking over the pins). I think there are more things but I can't remember them at the moment.
 

Jimmy Junior

New member
Malcolm's progression makes sense to me because in a way I experienced 'the life or Malcolm' when I was younger:
Malcolm was seen as the geeky kid who hung around with other geeky kids, but then realised that you can be clever without being a 'geek', and that he would become more socially acceptable by shedding his nerdy image.
The reason he is portrayed as still having few friends could be attributed to the fact that he is still surrounded by people who know 'the old Malcolm', or (as we have discussed here in the past) the programme sometimes shows events as seen through the eyes of the characters (as in the steam rising from Lois in 'Smunday') ie although Malcolm may have become more popular he realises there is still much room for improvment.

In my opinion it would be logical for Malcolm to fall in with 'the wrong crowd' for a while, in an effort to further increase his popularity.

I may have missed something here because I haven't yet seen the last series.
 

Amigo22

Super Moderator
I haven't either; which is really annoying because I've missed out on a lot - I've been able to read all the analyses and stuff on here but it's better to actually see the episodes too.

By the way, have you posted in the "MIM Older Viewers" thread?
 

Wildcat

Retired Moderator
Jimmy Junior said:
The reason he is portrayed as still having few friends could be attributed to the fact that he is still surrounded by people who know 'the old Malcolm', or (as we have discussed here in the past) the programme sometimes shows events as seen through the eyes of the characters (as in the steam rising from Lois in 'Smunday') ie although Malcolm may have become more popular he realises there is still much room for improvment.

In my opinion it would be logical for Malcolm to fall in with 'the wrong crowd' for a while, in an effort to further increase his popularity.

I was kind of thinking the same thing. That's why I wish there was going to be at least one more season. I think it would be very interesting to see what happens to Malcolm once he gets to college--how his life will be differnt once he escapes the cruel world of high school and has a chance to start over again.

He could possibly fall into the wrong crowd as an unconscious act of rebellion after growing up with such a strict parent, or in an effort to be more popular. However, on the other hand, he's going to Harvard so he'll be surrounded by people who are just like him--really smart, only a handful of friends because they were probably seen as geeks or nerds in high school (sorry for the stereotype)--so he may finally realize that he's not so strange after all. He'll find a place where he'll be accepted for who he is and won't be seen as a social outcast anymore. Maybe then he won't be so depressed and miserable with himself as he's been for the past few seasons.
 
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