Is MITM a real view of Teenage life?

tjpeople

Site Administrator
Staff member
Now i have been pondering this for a while, do you think MITM is a real view of teenage life?

Now to start off with i know MITM isnt purely aimed at the adult market and was at first aimed in part to younger people.

I feel there is a lack of real teenage activites such as Drinking/Drugs/Sex

These are key thibgs that all the boys would definatly expericane, now we have a had a little bit of drinking 2/3 episodes and a few small referances to sex, and if im remeber correctly no referance to drugs such as Cannabis (and others)

These are key issue which i think would 1 make good story line and 2 make it feel a little real. I mean i know and am friends with some people who life for Cannabis/Sex/Alchole, and am surprised its not covered much.

I have in part the feeling that its sorta too obvious and would be expected therefore why do it?

Also becuase FOX wants to air this a Pre - Watershed times and for younger people it doesnt want issue like that (FOX is know for its supid censorshiip and how it doesnt live in the real world)

Your thoughts?
 

yardgames

Retired Administrator
I'm a teenager. And I think it's completely stereotypical of you to say that every teen experiences sex, drugs, and alcohol.

I've mentioned before that my father is an alcoholic, and I take that issue very seriously. I'm quite strongly against the whole drinking thing, and I don't know anyone under legal age who's done it.

You say that you know people who have done sex and drugs, and I would question how different your culture is from American culture. It's certainly more common in intercity areas like Chicago or New York, but in smaller cities, like where I live, and where Malcolm presumably lives, underage sex and illegal drugs are the exception rather than the rule.

Laws are pretty harsh for that sort of thing here, and if people do it, a lot of times, they spend the better part of their lives in jail. In Wisconsin, having sex with a minor is considered rape because anyone under the age of 18 cannot legally give permission to; and the alcohol is also almost-completely-zero before teh age of 21 here. I say almost because there is a loophole in the law (Wisconsin law, anyway) that minors can have a drink if they're parents are present; like a beer at a bar, or some wine at a Christmas party. But other than that, alchohol before age 21 is punished pretty severely. Same thing with drugs.
 

packer-backer

New member
I think alchohol is a pretty big thing here in Wisconsin. Almost everybody drinks a lot. But underage drinking here I think is pretty rare.
 

tjpeople

Site Administrator
Staff member
hmmm, im aware of the different age on alchole in the US and thats seems to make a big differnce, underage drinking is very comman thing in the UK, id say most teenagers have been drunk by about 15 (a general guess) and some of my best friends are quite big Cannabis smokers (for bout 2 years or so, there 17 like me now).

As far as sex, its legal at 16, and many people have sex before but thats normally between people of the same age.

i think my UK view may be a bad comparision for the US

however i still feel they havent covered these issues much malcolm 16/17 now and reese 18 and the issues have only been skimmed.

do u think FOX's influance has anything to do this?

welcome to the forum lifeisunfair :D
 

Garbage Kills Megan

parties with your mom
Now, in my highschool tons of people tons of people drank at parties, and tons of people smoked pot. I do live in the biggest city in Oregon, so that could be a part of it. I never drank or smoked pot. I've never been into that kind of stuff. But if I wanted to do such things, it would have been hard for me to do that because my mom always knew where I was at all times. I think Lois is the same way with the boys. And anyway, I think the show has dealt with sex and alcohol enough. There was the thanksgiving episode, and then there was the Stereo store one where Reese was at that party where there was alcohol. I think that episode implied that the boys go to parties where alcohol is present, more than just in that episode. And there was also Watching the Baby. I think the show kind of makes it seem like social groups that they don't really belong to drink. And as far as sex goes, I think that really depends on location and the school. I've heard of schools where casual sex is the norm. But at the same time, I think there has a growing "sex can wait" trend in schools. There is a group called S.T.A.R.S (Students Today Aren't Ready for Sex) that had a chapter at my school, and many other schools.

I'm know there are a lot of teenagers who's whole life is centered around drinking and drugs and sex, but this is definitly not true for every teenager in america. The couple episodes that there have been are plenty. I really don't there needs to be more to make it more realistic.
 

samboo1

New member
i think my UK view may be a bad comparision for the US
It sounds like the UK is a lot worse than the US (or parts) with this issue.
I think its terrible how easy it is for people underage to get alcohol and cigarettes in the UK. My friend ,who is the same age as me, walked into a corner shop and bought some alcohol with no questions asked. It shocks me.
MITM, trys to reflect on teenage life, and sometimes does a good view about it. But there are certain things they cant go heavy on like drugs/sex/alcohol or it will turn into a different show.
 

NeCoHo

Retired Mod
Well, my (trumpet playing) friend claimed he spiked his own water with "mucho tequilla" once,(he used spannish with me because he didn't anyone to hear him, and we were in the corner of the room) but, I really don't think so. He wouldn't let anyone drink it to see how much tequilla was in it, and he drank a lot of it, a lot, but he was in no ways intoxicated, and besides, he's a trouble maker. And another of the trumpet players has a beard, so he looks like he is 25, or sometimes 30, so he could get alchol anytime, and they all tell me last year before the Halloween parade, the drank 1 can of root beer, and filled the can up with real beer, so they want to do it again this year, again, I doubt it, unless they go into a bathroom stall and fill them up. Ahh... I'm rambling again.
 

Kratos

New member
samboo1 said:
It sounds like the UK is a lot worse than the US (or parts) with this issue.
I think its terrible how easy it is for people underage to get alcohol and cigarettes in the UK. My friend ,who is the same age as me, walked into a corner shop and bought some alcohol with no questions asked. It shocks me.
MITM, trys to reflect on teenage life, and sometimes does a good view about it. But there are certain things they cant go heavy on like drugs/sex/alcohol or it will turn into a different show.
In the end if you want to do it your find a way no matter what country you live in. ;) The UK has a media that loves nothing more than to create moral panics, if you read certain papers like the Daily Mail or The Sun on a regular basis your start to think the world is ending. :p

I suspect that FOX does have a huge hand in what gets shown and how, although it does shock me about the huge amounts of gay suggestion in many of the episodes. Not in a bad way, shocking simply because most of it can be seen in a postive light, "Its OK to be gay" Pearl Habour had the brothers being supportive of one another, for me that's not normal pre watershed US TV. I think it was Standee which had the race issue... Normally both issues spark intense debate, by bringing out the bigots and Ida' wannabes:rolleyes: . But MITM deals with the issues in a comical way. YET it never really shuns away from a moral story behind them. :)
 

Wemboy

New member
I think we have quite a different culture here in the UK, which is why it may seem to some of us that the way teenage life is treated in MITM is a bit sanitised. For instance, when i left school, (at 16) the way everyone celebrated was to go to the park and drink litres of cider. Some also smoked weed, and some took other drugs. This wasn't really frowned upon, it was kind of expected of us, the police came down, but it's not like anyone was surprised at the behaviour. This just reflects life across the UK, including the kind of small town i grew up in (Wem). This is obviously quite different from the right of passage that is prom night. There were no limos, but there were a few boy racers thrashing Vauxhall Novas around!

In Britain our social lives tend to be very focused on getting drunk, and from what i can tell, we drink alot more than in the US. So getting drunk as a teenager is not frowned upon so much, because everyone knows that's what people are going to do when they get older. I don't agree with any of this, i think our reliance on drink is an incredibly sad reflection on our society, but for now it's just the way things are. In the end, MITM is an American show, about growing up in the US, so it's bound to reflect this more than growing up in the UK.

One more thing, i can think of the odd, very subtle drug reference in MITM. Like Francis says at one point to Malcolm "did you find that coffee pot in the garage?", because he's acting all weird. They don't talk about drugs much, but they also don't try and pretend they don't exist.
 
Personally I think the program 'Malcolm in the Middle' is sending messages to viewers that it's what teenage life is about. It puts you in the position of one of the Wilkersons say if your a kid or adult. You always will have the annoying bothers taunting yuou, perhaps the zany dad or the Mum that shouts constantly. Malcolm's family are not in any way 'wierd'. Most family's are in some way like the Wilkersons. Say there was a little boy in Dewey's Situation: Fairly small, only had annoying brothers (older ones) and there was only Jamie he cxan turn to. Though Dewey to me seems to think quite a lot of Jamie (season 6ish!), hew can't speak. Reese is horrible to Dewey and if you watch it enough, you will see their rivalry like 'Reese Drives' when Dewey hits a toy sack on Reeses head whilst Reese is being tied up. Malcolm is the fairly nice and very intelligent one while Francis seems to know how to get out of anything so i think it is a real view of Teenage life!!
 

lala

New member
i don't think that it is really based on teenage life because half of the things on the show would never actually happen......
 

fox123

New member
I think that mitm is very true about teenage life. Obviously teenagers don't have all of those problems but teenagers always have problems.
I think that if you don't know what to do in a situation you should watch MITM to find out how Malcolm handles it.
 

tjpeople

Site Administrator
Staff member
I agree in part however, i think you should watch MITM to see what malcolm does and do the opposite! cause it allways turns out bad for him!
 

anit

New member
I think that you're sort of right; the show isn't about being a teenager (although it was initially about being a kid) it's just about the characters and because of certain circumstances these boys aren't neccessarily a representation of your average teenagers even though in a sense they can be. I think it's largely cuz they don't get so many opportunities for this kind of behaviour - Malcolm and Reese aren't very well liked if you know what I mean.:D

Yay! First post! Hi everyone, I'm a junior... and willing to bet I'm older than a few ppl on this forum. hehe.
 

tjpeople

Site Administrator
Staff member
Welcome Junior, nice comments keep em coming :D Your right thats wat in part i meant to say they aint that typical.

So how old are you? active users ages range from 9 to about 25 (correct me if worng)
 

yardgames

Retired Administrator
Don't forget Ryebeach; he's in his thirties, I believe. :) (Sorry, Rye, I hope I don't make fun of you too often.)

Welcome to the forums, anit. Lookng forward to hearing more thoughts from you.
 

anit

New member
tjpeople said:
Welcome Junior, nice comments keep em coming :D Your right thats wat in part i meant to say they aint that typical.

So how old are you? active users ages range from 9 to about 25 (correct me if worng)

Hehe, I may've been wrong, I've read a lot of comments by people about 12/13 here so I figured that my opinion didn't fit with the majority. I'm 17 in 9 days. Thanks for the warm welcome people!!!
 

tjpeople

Site Administrator
Staff member
The forum is generlly much older than 12/13, id say average is probly around 17/18
 
Top