Thanksgiving

[Wemboy]

I agree with yardgames and Megan as regards the overall theme of this thread. But, (and you'll have to excuse me here if this turns into a rant) there's an underlying theme of this thread that i have trouble agreeing with. There seems to be a consensus that underage sex and drinking is morally wrong. Now, don't get me wrong, i'm not saying that alcohol is good for you (at any age, in fact i pretty much avoid it all together) and underage sex is not necessarily good for those involved. But partaking in these kinds of things as a teenager doesn't mean you have to grow up to be some king of degenerate criminal, you can do all this and still go on to be a successful and well rounded adult.

One of the things i like about MITM and this episode in particular is that it doesn't shy away from these kind of storylines. Most teenagers have some experience of the kind of thing that happens to Malcolm in the episode, so there's no use pretending that teenagers are wholesome and well behaved, i've met very few like that myself anyway. So it can make parents and kids realise that although this kind of thing isn't the ideal way to spend your teenage years, it's not the end of the world if you find yourself in a similar situation.

 

[Deweyrules!]

One of the things i like about MITM and this episode in particular is that it doesn't shy away from these kind of storylines

I completely agree with Wemboy on this, I think MITM strives not to be the typical US 'family' (use the term loosley) sitcom. Rather than focusing on patronising irritating moral issues that are completley cliched, it turns them around, creating amusement, without forcing the characters to state 'alcohol is bad for you'.

By the way, where's Wem??

 

[Garbage Kills Megan]

I agree with yardgames and Megan as regards the overall theme of this thread. But, (and you'll have to excuse me here if this turns into a rant) there's an underlying theme of this thread that i have trouble agreeing with. There seems to be a consensus that underage sex and drinking is morally wrong. Now, don't get me wrong, i'm not saying that alcohol is good for you (at any age, in fact i pretty much avoid it all together) and underage sex is not necessarily good for those involved. But partaking in these kinds of things as a teenager doesn't mean you have to grow up to be some king of degenerate criminal, you can do all this and still go on to be a successful and well rounded adult.

That is a valid point to consider. I don't think anyone was saying that you would grow up to be a degenerate if you do these things. We shouldn't assume that everyone agrees about what is morally right or wrong. You can debate morals until the cows come home and never reach an agreement, which is why we probably shouldn't debate such things on this forum. But I think there are two facts that we can all agree on. One, drinking under the age of 21 is illegal in the united states. And two, when a authority figure came into the room, all the kids hid their drinks. This shows that they knew they were doing something they shouldn't be doing. I think that's enough for us to just lable what Malcolm and the other kids were doing as "wrong" (a horribly ambiguous word, I know) without getting into a debate about morals.

I'm not trying to slap down your oppinion or anything. I'm really just trying to keep other people from going off on a tangent.

 

[Wemboy]

I completely agree with Wemboy on this, I think MITM strives not to be the typical US 'family' (use the term loosley) sitcom. Rather than focusing on patronising irritating moral issues that are completley cliched, it turns them around, creating amusement, without forcing the characters to state 'alcohol is bad for you'.

By the way, where's Wem??

It's in Shropshire, which is the next county south of Cheshire. It's about ten miles north of Shrewsbury, the county town of Shropshire, and about 20 mile from the Welsh border. It's only small though!

@Garbage Kills Megan: Yeh i see your point, we could spend hours debating these kind of morally ambiguous points, but, from a purely legal standpoint what Malcolm did (and the girl wanted to do) was "wrong".