Stilts Analysis

yardgames

Retired Administrator
I'm going to begin the Stilts analysis thread this week, because I have quite a bit to say.

I can do a pretty slick analysis when I have something to use as a springboard (appanah) but this week I'm trying it myself first....

A Fox promo said before the episode that if you watch one MITM ep this season, make it this one. I went in with high hopes, and they were delivered on. Contrary to the episode's title, the crowning jewel of this episode (no pun intended) was the "Stash." Using the footage from years ago was brilliantly done; this is one of the things MITM does so much better than other sitcoms--it uses things that were done a long time ago to its benefit for current episodes. In this case, it was easy to tell the flashback was geniuinely done a long time ago, since Frankie and Justin looked a lot younger. I remember seeing Francis with that hair-do in an early episode, but the exact one escapes my mind. The point is, using footage that was never aired for one reason or another to benefit an episode five years later is simply ingenius.

During Hal and Lois' escapade, we discovered a lot about their relationship, as well. For example, our only clue to Lois' age thus far has been Lois' Birthday; we now know she's two years older than what she told us. Another tidbit I caught onto was an allusion to Red Dress. You may recall that no one discovered Hal was the perpetrator in this episode, but he openly admitted it during the confrontation, which I also found to be quite interesting.

Golly, this is more my thoughts than an analysis, I guess I just can't do that without appanah's help, but I'll just go ahead and finish my thoughts, here:

I'm looking for a job and I'll be the first to tell you the teen job market isn't great. Reese certainly found a brilliant loophole that allowed him to pose a question to all of America: Why doesn't everyone try developmental drugs for a living? I certainly think he answered it riding Jamie's pony through the Lucky Aide later in the episode, but the question is still posed: Why does anyone work harder than they need to? Is The American Dream all it's made out to be? For all you Brits and just about everyone other than Justin and myself, the American Dream says that if you work hard and have a good attitude, you can achieve just about anything, you can be happy. It's sort of the stereotypical white picket fence, ranch, your beautiful wife and two perfect kids.

Haven't Hal and Lois been working toward the American Dream since they met each other? Francis was the first to ruin it, putting Lois into labor during the wedding, and since then they've never had "perfect" children. They haven't had the perfect house and the white picket fence. All Hal and Lois have had was each other. Even that exploded in their face for awhile during this episode.

But why should we work hard to achieve the so-called "American Dream" when we can get more money doing something simple? In this case, trying experimental drugs. Why do humans go above and beyond, striving to do more than is really necessary?

Sam's American Dream is to be America, ironically. His American Dream is different than other people's. He's the stereotypical Yankee who'll do anything for his country. In some ways, his character mocks America by sitting around doing the absolute minimum and getting drunk all day, and then going out to fight others for no reason at all. (I'm a Bush supporter and don't intend to start a political coup here.) Yet, this was his American Dream. He achieved that, until all was lost. Was he happy? We don't know, but he was certainly living his American Dream.

Malcolm, on the other hand, has never had a chance to live his American Dream. His life has always been run by his mother. His mother will always treat him like a child, (Malcolm's Job) even when he's 28 and a billionaire (Malcolm's Girlfriend). Malcolm would like little more than to be free from his mother. Yet, his little wish is the Impossible Dream. It may be the one thing the American Dream cannot accomplish. You can buy just about any material possession if you work hard enough, but you can't buy that beautiful wife or that perfect set of kids. Some of it has to be left up to fate.

So how did I do in the second half appanah? Did I get deep enough? I need the practice, I have to do something very similar for a term project after I'm finished reading a book.
 

ahelm13

New member
Hate to spoil your little idea of the old footage thing, but if you notice that there were two different shots, one of Francis and Lois talking, and the other of the three boys on the couch never really doing anything. This leads me to think they took the footage of the boys on the couch from a season 1 episode and they taped the Lois/Francis part for this episode specifically (neither of them have really aged much since season 1). Either way it's still pretty cool.
 

admin

Retired Administrator
I thougt this was a very good episode, I especially liked the link back to Red Dress.

I do agree thought with ahelm13, it is difficult to tell whether the Francis stuff was really old footage. The boys on the couch was defintely old footage though, as they all looked very much younger.
 

yardgames

Retired Administrator
David, you posted in an analysis thread! Good for you!

I guess I thought the Francis footage was old, because the wig rung a bell to me from a long time back. Not that it couldn't be the same wig worn again, that's just how my brain processed it.
 

admin

Retired Administrator
Slightly not analysis, but I have justed added 32 pictures for this episode to the gallery

Plus interestingly this is the first season 6 episode to hit the top 25 list! I wonder how long it will stay there, currently after 7 votes it is ranked #1 :D

I am suprised how quickly you could pinpoint it to an episode, I really couldn't have done that.
 

yardgames

Retired Administrator
I just thought of this, after reading appanah's initial ideas.

Maybe the finale is greater than any of us could have ever imagined. Maybe it will be a flashback, a flashback that was actually taped in secret in season one or two, when the boys were still young. A complete episode like those from season one to end the series--now that would be a fantastic finale!
 

allison

New member
appanah said:
Over all this was a superb episode. The random chaos towards the end reminded me of the oder episodes from times gone by. The way things used to be!
That´s exactly what I liked so much about this episode. This time all the subplots had something to do with each other. If it wasn´t for Reese, this episode wouldn´t have ended very greatly for Malcolm. That reminded me of the "Zoo" episode where Reese threw the goat into the cage and wasn´t aware that he saved Malcolm and Dewey.
Another example is "Tutoring Reese" where Reese´s teacher doesn´t believe Lois that she can be pretty callous to her own kids until he sees Francis desperately begging Lois to let him come in.
In episodes like these you can see how much thought the writers put into their storylines.
 
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