The Buseys/The School

Ryebeach

Moderator
The Buseys/The School (split off of what we do NOT want to see in Season 7)

Mod Edit: Here is the split thread of "what we no not want to see in season 7"


Emrysgirl said:
Plus, too laugh at the Krelboynes for being dweebs felt ok b/c they were smart and would do fine in life (billionares with supermodel girlfriends to quote Reese). The Busey's weirdnesses are they're actual problems. It's either too sad to laugh at or if I do laugh, I feel guilty.
Excellent point Emrysgirl! :) I think this is one of the reasons I never laughed at the scenes with the Buseys. The Busey's were children who had real serious problems and they were portrayed in a comedic light. As I know many folks with problems such as the Busey's, I had a hard time making lite of their situations. If I had been laughing, I too would have felt guilty.
 
Re: What we DO NOT want to see in Season 7

I have to agree with you, I think as Dewey grows older his character is naturally going to change, however I think the change has made him a less amusing character. The main comedy behind Dewey in the early seasons, is the initial idea of his niaviety- due to his age, but then dispelling these opinions with his cunning. I think as he grows older this is a less amusing quality.
 

Frankie'sgirl

New member
Re: What we DO NOT want to see in Season 7

I actually would rather have Dewey in the K-class because it annoys me when he's with those emotion-rejects. But only because it reminds me that Malcolm ****ed up.
 

Frankie'sgirl

New member
Re: What we DO NOT want to see in Season 7

Deweyrules! said:
I have to agree with you, I think as Dewey grows older his character is naturally going to change, however I think the change has made him a less amusing character. The main comedy behind Dewey in the early seasons, is the initial idea of his niaviety- due to his age, but then dispelling these opinions with his cunning. I think as he grows older this is a less amusing quality.
Yeah. I stopped liking dewey because he seemed mean and stuck up in his older years. It wasn't funny to me when he wasn't in second grade or whatever.
 

yardgames

Retired Administrator
Re: What we DO NOT want to see in Season 7

Frankie'sgirl said:
I actually would rather have Dewey in the K-class because it annoys me when he's with those emotion-rejects. But only because it reminds me that Malcolm ****ed up.
I think that the Buseys have been developed quite a bit since we first met them, and we now know that may of them are not "emotional rejects," as you put it, but rather have a few social problems, and have thus been labelled by the school district. Like Dewey.

Thanks for using the astericks, but in the future, let's just try and find a non-cuss synonym for what you're trying to say, please. Thanks. :)
 

allison

New member
Re: What we DO NOT want to see in Season 7

@Emrysgirl:

Good point, I agree with you and Ryebeach. It´s like making fun of other people´s serious problems. Though I´m not sure if it´s supposed to be funny. Maybe the show goes in another direction now. It doesn´t only try to be funny and I sometimes have the feeling it´s not as light-hearted as it used to be. Don´t get me wrong, I like sitcoms which can be deep, but the Buseys just depress me. I never saw the point in adding them.

There´s so much I could write about Dewey and why I don´t like him anymore (but I don´t want to upset people again, right Dewey? (from the forum)) :D But seriously, someone said he´s become to sensitive. I don´t think that´s true. One example:
In "Reese joins the army" his family had to deal with lots of problems which made Lois even fall into insanity. But Dewey was angry with his family because they didn´t know about him leaving for a music competition. I mean there were so many times when Dewey was neglected and I felt sorry for him and I could understand him, but with Reese missing and everyone else in the family having serious problems I thought Dewey´s reaction was a little insensitive. In previous seasons his family behaved worse (without a good reason) and he still didn´t complain (though I would have understand him) but in Reese joins the army he didn´t care about the others and just felt neglected.
It´s weird, he cares about the Buseys now and helps them but still he appeared nicer to me when he was younger (and only did things like punching Reese´s broken leg or hitting him with a big bag while he´s tied to his bed) :p
 

Emrysgirl

New member
Re: What we DO NOT want to see in Season 7

allison said:
Though I´m not sure if it´s supposed to be funny. Maybe the show goes in another direction now. It doesn´t only try to be funny and I sometimes have the feeling it´s not as light-hearted as it used to be.
I don't think the Buseys were put in just to serve some moral agenda. Most of their problems are supposed to be funny. But, because they're real, the problems usually aren't funny. Sometimes they are (I'm thinking of the 'it's been half an hour you can spit the gum out' instance) and you feel guilty. And even when it's not supposed to be funny (like the slave labor) it feels like everyone (including the family) is taking it way too lightly. It doesn't feel appropriate.

To some extent, the show always had serious moments and morals behind it. In fact many of the initial shows ended with close personal scenes or Malcolm telling us of some lesson that he may (or may not as is the case with Home Alone 4) have learned. In the last few seasons those moments have become more direct (as in Lois' sister). Perhaps this is because as Malcolm gets older, his problems get more serious.
 
Re: What we DO NOT want to see in Season 7

I don't exactly know what the Busey's are, but from what I have read, it appears that they are the new 'krelboynes' in a sense. They provided humour, as many left at that intreverted nature and lack of social skills. It appears that as they have been phased out, to fit in with the 'new' malcolm, similar characters have been introduced to fill that 'void'.
 

yardgames

Retired Administrator
Re: What we DO NOT want to see in Season 7

What you guys are missing about the Buseys is that most of them have been inappropriately labelled by the school. Most are not "bad," or "emotionally disturbed;" they just have minor childhood problems. Like Hanson has an overactive imagination. Chad's disease is a bit more serious, but most of the rest of them simply suffer from being held down because no one believes they have potential.
 

Emrysgirl

New member
Re: What we DO NOT want to see in Season 7

I just reread my last post and that did not come out they way I wanted it to. Ignore the part about the Buseys, it makes no sense:eek:.

I think the Buseys were originally put in for the sake of comedy, as replacement for the Krelboynes. But, as they became regular characters, the writers found that they had to, or maybe just wanted to, deal with the social issues surrounding them. As a result, the characters are caught somewhere in between.

Replacement for Krelboynes:
With the Krelboynes, the comedy revolved around their characters. We laughed at how weird they were. As replacements, the Buseys were made just as weird and were given strange problems. But, these problems are so outrageous that you (well, I) can't take them seriously or laugh at them. They're not regular psychological problems, but they are serious.

Social commentary:
In many eps, especially Busey's Take a Hostage and Dewey's Special Class, we see how the teachers and administrators disregard the Busey's needs and treat the class more as a way to keep them away from the general population than a way to help them.

(This may see off topic but I have a Busey related point coming...)
I have always been confused about the school district the children have been in. I think this is a flaw on the writers' part. We know that the family is poor. In fact, they moved into the home for budgetary reasons. But their neighbors are all well to do (doctors and lawyers: professionals as Hal calls them). How could they possibly afford a house in such an affluent district? This confusion spreads to the school as we get conflicting evidence of its quality. On one hand, it's able to offer courses that are challenging to Malcolm and the other geniouses. On the other, the school is filled with corruption and dissatisfactory teachers.

(And now for the Busey related point...)
In bad school districts, the Busey class would not exist. The emotionally disturbed students would either be rejected from the school or be left to fend for themselves. In good school districts, they would probably be put into the special school district affiliated with the school or at least given proper attention. The concept of caring enough to designate a special class but then illtreating them seems flawed and unreal to me. Its seems to be like a good school from the '60s or earlier, when mental illness was seen as punishment for sins or whatever.

Another flaw: the school has a psychologist, why aren't the Buseys seeing her?

Somewhere in between:
yardgames said:
What you guys are missing about the Buseys is that most of them have been inappropriately labelled by the school. Most are not "bad," or "emotionally disturbed;" they just have minor childhood problems. Like Hanson has an overactive imagination. Chad's disease is a bit more serious, but most of the rest of them simply suffer from being held down because no one believes they have potential.
I think this has to do with the 'making them as weird as the Krelboynes' thing. Whatever the school district is, I don't think they would put the children in based solely on the problems shown in the show. In fact, despite the fact that we've seen many of these problems in Malcolm, Reese and Dewey (Malcolm's outbursts, Reese's antics, "Dewey's been fighting (biting) again", the monster under the bed), they were never suspected to be emotionally disturbed. Dewey was put in because of his test results, not because of his behaviour.
I think the Buseys do have serious problems, but that those have been lost in an attempt to make them weird and funny. They are appropriately labelled, but not appropriately dealt with. No matter how serious the problems, I'm sure the school could have helped at least some of the Buseys (case in mind: Hanson) with therapy and teaching. They needed to be in the class but could have been helped out of it and weren't.
 

yardgames

Retired Administrator
Re: What we DO NOT want to see in Season 7

But there are eps where we see the school district realizing the problem and potentially offering better support. For example, and I forget which ep this is, but some bad kid nominated Hanson and Kate (I think) to run for student president. The students had, at that point, progressed to having lunch/recess with the other kids.

Before the Buseys, the class is briefly referred to as the remedial class in a couple of eps; namely, Tutoring Reese. We see what may be the infancy of this class at that point. Later on, we see the Busey program has morphed even since then, and maybe in the course of that year, the administration has made more improvements.

I think the only teacher corruption lines we can draw lie with the middle school principal. The high school principal is just a big jerk, not corrupted; and there are lots of teachers (e.g. Caroline Miller) that mean (or in the case of Caroline, meant) well.

I don't think you can assume that every home is filled with doctors and lawyers; this is coming from Hal, who obviously is going to feel that way. Where I live, those types of homes are not for doctors and lawyers. But maybe there's one or two low-on-the-totem-pole "professionals" in the neighborhood that make Hal feel inferior.
 

Emrysgirl

New member
Re: What we DO NOT want to see in Season 7

yardgames said:
the administration has made more improvements.
But, later, they're used for slave labor. I get what you're saying about improvements. But it's not constant. And that's what I was reffering to with the inconsistancies.

yardgames said:
I think the only teacher corruption lines we can draw lie with the middle school principal. The high school principal is just a big jerk, not corrupted; and there are lots of teachers (e.g. Caroline Miller) that mean (or in the case of Caroline, meant) well.
The middle school teacher by himself would by curruption enough to spell bad school district. Also, remember, he had the support of other staff members. And, what about Reese's teacher in Tutoring Reese? And, Herkabe?

yardgames said:
I don't think you can assume that every home is filled with doctors and lawyers; this is coming from Hal, who obviously is going to feel that way. Where I live, those types of homes are not for doctors and lawyers. But maybe there's one or two low-on-the-totem-pole "professionals" in the neighborhood that make Hal feel inferior.
It isn't just what Hal said. In the Baby eps, one of the friends tells Ida he's a successful dentist who makes more money than she's had in her whole life. And remember Abe's fancy car and the trip to Jamaica they missed because of Hal? And, the family is generally looked down upon. All this could be explained if they were struggling to keep an expensive house just so that the boys could go to a good school. But, in flashback, they say that they moved in because it was very cheap and they couldn't afford anything better.

My point is, the writers messed up with consistancy in a few places and it's sometimes hard to judge because of that.
 

yardgames

Retired Administrator
Re: What we DO NOT want to see in Season 7

Emrysgirl said:
But, later, they're used for slave labor. I get what you're saying about improvements. But it's not constant. And that's what I was reffering to with the inconsistancies.
That's all I read when I wrote this, so maybe I should finish reading the rest of your message, but, like I said, the principal is corrupt. Most people aren't, but we conclude that the principal is, and if I remember right, he blackmails the Busey teacher into doing it. That's the prinicpal to blame there; not the dozens of other people working hard to earn those kids a quality education!
 

yardgames

Retired Administrator
Re: What we DO NOT want to see in Season 7

How was Herkabe corrupt? Herkabe wasn't corrupt, he just disliked (and still does dislike) Malcolm because he was supposed to be the smartest--he suffered and suffered and now Malcolm is smarter than him, somehow.
 

yardgames

Retired Administrator
Re: What we DO NOT want to see in Season 7

emrysgirl said:
It isn't just what Hal said. In the Baby eps, one of the friends tells Ida he's a successful dentist who makes more money than she's had in her whole life. And remember Abe's fancy car and the trip to Jamaica they missed because of Hal? And, the family is generally looked down upon. All this could be explained if they were struggling to keep an expensive house just so that the boys could go to a good school. But, in flashback, they say that they moved in because it was very cheap and they couldn't afford anything better.
Ahh, while we know they're in the same general neighborhood, we don't know that they're on the same block. Perhaps this block is lower scale, while a block over, there are some more upscale homes. I happen to live in a neighborhood where upper-scale and lower-scale homes are sort of mixed together. And sure enough, the lower-scale homeowners are looked down upon by the rest of us. (sorry)
 

Emrysgirl

New member
Re: What we DO NOT want to see in Season 7

yardgames said:
Ahh, while we know they're in the same general neighborhood, we don't know that they're on the same block.
Yeah we do...in the baby eps, they said they all lived in the same area (opposite, down the street, etc.) and that Ida was surrounded.

yardgames said:
I happen to live in a neighborhood where upper-scale and lower-scale homes are sort of mixed together.
That's usually when one political district doesn't have a school of its own and is joined to another school district. Or it could be old houses vs. new houses. eitherway, as you say, the divide is usualy in blocks and across streets.
 

Emrysgirl

New member
Re: What we DO NOT want to see in Season 7

yardgames said:
How was Herkabe corrupt?
I said the school was filled with corruption and dissatisfactory teachers. I listed Herkabe as dissatisfactory.

Wow did we get offtrack. From improvements to Dewey to Buseys to Inconsistancy to school districts.:D
 

yardgames

Retired Administrator
Re: What we DO NOT want to see in Season 7

I should probably split this thread up a bit. J, would you do that, please?
 

Frankie'sgirl

New member
Re: What we DO NOT want to see in Season 7

Oh- and dealing with Dewey, wouldn't it be weird if while Dewey was with the emotion kids he suddenly started talking to the camera like Malcolm? I'd be so confused at first.
 
Top