Did you prefer the show when it was centered on malcolm?

theblinddevil

New member
I was just wandering what everyone thought, but first read what i meant by it. In the earlier seasons, the show was centered on Malcolm, but now the show focuses on other characters more. You may have favorite episodes from different seasons, but altogether, do you prefer the show hen it was all about Malcolm, or do you think it is better now, with episodes that focus on Dewey, and the other characters more?

It is quite a hard question; personally i think i liked the show better when its main focus was on Malcolm. I guess that is because Malcolm is my favorite character. I do like that they have no main focus now, it gives other characters a chance in the spotlight :D, but especially in season 6, Malcolm has quite weak storylines. I guess it all depends on which character you like.

Any thoughts?
 

yardgames

Retired Administrator
I enjoy the show now that we see more of the other characters; however, I wish it were still being seen and told in the eyes of Malcolm, instead of being more third-person.
 

Garbage Kills Megan

parties with your mom
yardgames said:
I enjoy the show now that we see more of the other characters; however, I wish it were still being seen and told in the eyes of Malcolm, instead of being more third-person.
That's a good way of putting it. I agree. There are tons of story lines that I love that are not focused on Malcolm, but I like it when Malcolm still interacts with the story line in some way. There were a lot of story lines this season in particular where there was no presence of Malcolm at all. I think that's what's missing from a lot of Busey story lines. Malcolm never has a single thing to do with those. I mean, does Malcolm know that Dewey doesn't need to be in that class? Does Malcolm have any opinion on it at all? They don't really let us know. There are many story lines where, as Yardgames put it, you aren't seeing it through the eyes of Malcolm. Sometimes I still really like them, but there just seems like there's a little something missing.
 

Dabney

Deutscher Moderator
i prefered the show when there was more importance of the character of malcolm, but i can't explain exactly why. Maybe it's just that the show is called malcolm in the middle and you expect malcolm to be the "star". And i also think that since the other characters are as important as malcolm is, malcolm has become more stupid, and less happy.
 

admin

Retired Administrator
Yes I did prefer it centered around Malcolm. It was much funnier to see things through his eyes, rather than this generic 3rd person view we have now.

I also don't like that fact that nothing goes right for Malcolm anymore, when we had it centered around Malcolm 99% of the time things would end up OK at the end of the episode for him, now its just one depressing storyline after another for him.
 

Jimmy Junior

New member
I'm not sure that they did always go right for him - he'd usually put a brave face on the outcome (most often a punishment from Lois) and look for a positive aspect, but things rarely seemed to end up the way he planned.
Maybe because his voice is deeper now he can't get away with complaining so much?
 

MITM-Fan

New member
It's not really important to me having Malcolm's character centered on the show, it's not only about him, it's all about the whole family. But what makes me a little sad is how the character of Malcolm changed by itself, he used to be VERY funny..now, he is still funny but most of the time this "new Malcolm" which of course sometimes can be funny, too; he makes his life harder than it actually is. But I prefer and really LIKED the old Malcolm.
:cool:
 

allison

New member
I agree with MITM-Fan. I also liked the show better before the characters (especially Malcolm and Dewey) changed. Malcolm should get some decent storylines. In my opinion it was better when the stories were told from his point of view, but the main problem are his lame subplots. I´d like it better if they gave him some good storylines (even if he isn´t the main character which isn´t the important thing in my opinion) and if they didn´t focus the show almost entirely on Dewey and Hal. It´s actually a good thing that they feature the other characters, too, now, but still they shouldn´t forget about the less important characters in those episodes. It appears to me that they write their mainplot (featuring Hal and Dewey most of the time) and then realize that the other characters should make an appearence, too. So they make up a silly story for them. I also had this impression when Francis still worked at the ranch. Some of his plots were so silly and pointless I can´t even remember them (probably because I didn´t pay any attention or even changed the channel).
That´s what I loved so much about the earlier seasons. There was so much attention to details and all plots were great. It´s not so important who´s the main character (in my opinion), but if "random" characters get stupid subplots all the time it gets annoying.
 

NeCoHo

Retired Mod
admin said:
Yes I did prefer it centered around Malcolm. It was much funnier to see things through his eyes, rather than this generic 3rd person view we have now.

I also don't like that fact that nothing goes right for Malcolm anymore, when we had it centered around Malcolm 99% of the time things would end up OK at the end of the episode for him, now its just one depressing storyline after another for him.
That pretty much summed up what I would say. But I kind of disagree. If we were to see things in Malcolm's view today, what would we see? It would be so distorted from the real thing, and almost another tv show. His views on things in general are... that everything in the world is out to make his life misreble, and his family's life better.

Anyone remember (I forgot the name of the ep.) where Malcolm finds an old computer game, like the sims. He sets his family's traitsbad, and his perfect. As Malcolm said it, "Dad used the milions from his car repair buesiness to find and party with aliens in his space station, Mom is the Cheif Justice of the Supreme Court, Reese is the emporer of China with 3 super model wives, and Dewey is the pope." While Malcolm, 400 pounds overweight, sits on the kitchen floor, with whiskey, burning himself with cigerattes and making sandwhiches, and ends up killing himself.

I think that episode is a turning point in Malcolm's attitude. From "ok, it will get better" to "why try?" Maybe Zoo had some to do with that too.
 

allison

New member
You made a good point. By the way, the episode was called "Hal coaches". Zoo is a pretty good example. While he sees everything in a negative way Dewey doesn´t want him to ruin his "wonderful day at the zoo". And even if something turns out good for Malcolm he realizes that still something is wrong and complains (his last sentence in this episode is "my life sucks, I´m going to bed.")
Though if he is surrounded by the "right" people he can be happy (like in Victor´s other family until he realizes they aren´t even related and in "Malcolm´s other family").
I don´t think the show really was told "from his point of view", but he commented on things and people around him and that´s what made the show more "personal" and something special. So even with his negative attitude (which he always had, even if it wasn´t that much before) he couldn´t really change the show in my opinion.
 

arach

New member
I guess they oversized it a bit with Malcolms pessimism. At first it was fun, because he always interpreted the worst into things, but as time went on, it got really annoying that he could never have fun anymore and enjoy something. Now, this image is stuck to him. And it's not funny, it's just sad. Maybe a writers idea that turned out to be a complete flop?

Anyway, i'm an optimism. So here is what I say: It was really funny seing the show out of Malcolms point of view. But I don't want to complain, because it's a chance for the other characers, like Dewey or Hal, to play a central role in the show (mainly because Malcolm is nothing but a whiny bitchy teenager anymore).

The question is hard to answer, because the shows Seasons are so completely different. The jokes were always excellent, but the show has changed enormously over the last years. It's not only the point of view that has changed. But I can't say which seasons are better - the new ones or the old ones - because I don't want to compare them directly. The old ones are classics and the new ones are (partly) wierd - but ingeniously funny - pieces of art.

But if I had to, I guess I would choose the old ones, when Malcolm talked to the camera, in a time, long long ago, where he still had charisma.
 

NeCoHo

Retired Mod
With the comming of season 7, I think it just may be that it is being centered on Malcolm a little bit more. We see him talking to the camera (what once, twice, I forget) but still, it is better then before. What does everyone else think?
 

Dabney

Deutscher Moderator
I don't know if I already answered in this thread, but I'll have a go anyway.

I couldn't say that I liked it better when the show was centered around Malcolm or when the show started to focus on all Wilkersons. The show was simply a bit different, but not different in quality. I loved the older seasons in which Malcolm spoke to the camera all the time etc., but after boring season 4 it was good to get to know stuff about the other guys, too. I love the season 6 Dewey, he's just amazing. Nevertheless I was very happy when I realized that Malcolm was a bit more put back into the spotlight again...
 

Wildcat

Retired Moderator
I agree Dabney, I enjoyed seasons 1-4 when the show was really focused on Malcolm, but I also enjoyed it when it started getting away from that a little too. Seasons 5-6 focused on the Wilkersons as a whole, and while good, they didn't have that same MITM "feel" to it, if you will. Season 6 had some really great episodes that focused more on Reese and Dewey though, as you mentioned. I think season 7 has been good because it's brought back a lot of the classic themes from earlier seasons--Malcolm talking to the camera, reese being a bully (although I liked sweet, sensitive season 6 Reese too), Francis being immature and self-centered again. It seems that they're trying to take MITM back to it's roots here in the last season.

It's good to see you again, BTW, Dabney. Haven't seen you around much lately. :)
 

Amigo22

Super Moderator
I liked it when Malcolm talked to the camera because in doing so he was giving us extra background information about whatever was going on.

But in episodes where the main subplot is not centred on Malcolm, it means we don't get to see the other character's point of view. It would have been great to have seen more episodes like "Cheerleader" where we see things from Dewey's point of view, like the Herby commercial.
 

Wildcat

Retired Moderator
Yeah, it would have been interesting to see different points of view for different characters' storylines. I'm just sitting here wondering what the show would have been like if all the boys talked to the camera. Then we could really see what they were thinking and how their views on situations differ. Like in A.A. it would have been cool to see what Dewey was thinking when Malcolm and Reese were torturing him. Or what Reese was thinking when he ran off with Raduca to get married or to join the Army.

Of course, having all the boys talk to the camera would really take away from the whole idea of the show being focused on Malcolm, but it still would have been interesting to see. Maybe they could have done it for a special sweeps episode or something. Too late now though.
 
That is a very good question. Though i love all of the malcolm in the middle episodes, it seems kinda more interesting when it's about all of the characters but as i said i love it all!!
 

han_keep_smilin

New member
it just like what i have leart in english about is face to face with the camara a solioquy!:D

i think it was good when he have his own talk to the camaa but i dont mind it the way it is i like it:)
 

Amigo22

Super Moderator
Wildcat said:
Of course, having all the boys talk to the camera would really take away from the whole idea of the show being focused on Malcolm, but it still would have been interesting to see. Maybe they could have done it for a special sweeps episode or something. Too late now though.

For the whole series, it would certainly take away the whole idea of the show being focused on Malcolm. But it would be different if they had not had Malcolm talking to the camera and instead had the person who the main subplot was focused on, talking to the camera since that particular episode is mainly focused on them.

Each character would have had a totally different point of view. It would have especially been interesting with Reese, since we've seen him as the 'dumb kid', school bully, male cheerleader, showing responsibility in Reese's Apartment (except for the credit card of course), etc.
 

tony_montana

Semper Fidelis
Well, thinking back to season one eps. and such do you really think they EVER focused on Malcolm? To me, they seemed to focus on Malcolm and Francis. Then by the time season two came the eps. focused on everyone, which is what I like because we can see all the other great characters on the show do their own...thing.:D
 
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