Malcolm's Character Development

Since the title of this show is called, Malcolm In The Middle, Malcolm's role has lessened from Season One to now Season Seven. During Season One and the earlier seasons, most if not all the stories, revolved around him and what happened.

As we have just seen in Army Buddy, Malcolm goes to the lowest state in that he degrades his self respect just for money. On another occassion, he flat out tells Stevie that he will never walk again. Then again with "Secret Boyfriend" where he dates a girl just for the lust factor.

Earlier in the shows, I had more respect for Malcolm and hoped they'd show him change for the better. Since I could compare myself with him on alot of occassions and understand his struggles.

But his character traits havent changed really. Maybe its just me, but I'd have liked to seen some change with Malcolm's immaturity and social skills.

Anyone have any opinions on how the writers have treated this character?

As a teen talking about a teen, I feel that at least part of that development is rather normal for a teen. Certainly it's taken to an extreme, reaching its climax in the sixth season, but MITM takes everything to an extreme.

Malcolm has totally changed since season 1!! In season 1-2 he was a normal kid who was on the borderline to worry. In season 3 he started to get a lot more moody!! This carried on until around season 4-5 where i think he must've hit puberty as it shows in the zoo episode!! In season 6 he's not like he was in any of the seasons!! It seems really weird but i think that's what's happened!!

I know what you mean. Malcolm has always been on the cynical side. That’s what makes Malcolm Malcolm. But overall, he seemed so much happier in earlier seasons. In seasons 6 and 7, he just seems downright depressed and miserable with life. His social skills have worsened over the seasons. He used to have friends and be more outgoing. I guess he still has Stevie, but they don’t spend nearly as much time together as they used to. I can understand why Stevie wouldn't want to hang around with him that much though.

I think he degrades himself like he did in Army Buddy and Secret Boyfriend because he obviously lacks self esteem. Like Sam said, it’s normal for teens, but he really should be growing out of it somewhat by now. He’s 17 and a senior in high school. I think most people are starting to grow out of the normal teen angst phases by then. Everybody’s different though, I guess. I don’t think Malcolm will ever change that much, but it would be nice to see him develop socially and be a little happier again before the series is over.

He started being misunderstood and a total misery at the beginning of season 4!! He's still a misery!! It would be cool if for one episode he was nice!!?? Would it happen..........?

Season 6 and 7? I thought the climax of depressed Malcolm is season five and six. In my opinion, he's started to emerge from what we've seen so far in season seven.

I'm trying to refresh my memory cause I haven't watched any seasons five eps lately (there's only a few that I really like.) Yeah, it seems that he was pretty depressed in that season too, but I think it was worse in season 6. I don't really see where he's emerging from it much this seaon though. Blackout and Halloween are really the only episodes that come to mind where he doesn't seem mostly depressed to me. He was happy in Jessica stays over when he was getting along with Lois, but he ended up being depressed again by the end.

This kind of fits in with the discussion we were having on reruns, but I'm going to say it here in response to Christina's comments:

You know what the fun of watching reruns is? When you have them randomly chosen, you're bound to get ones that you think you remember well and don't like as much as others (i.e. season five) but when you watch them again, you're reminded of just how ingenius they are. As a whole, season 5 was the worst but still better than anything else on TV, and you're reminded of how good it really was anytime you go to watch a season 5 ep.

It seems nobody likes me... bah, I already knew it, anyway...

yardgames said:

You know what the fun of watching reruns is? When you have them randomly chosen, you're bound to get ones that you think you remember well and don't like as much as others (i.e. season five) but when you watch them again, you're reminded of just how ingenius they are. As a whole, season 5 was the worst but still better than anything else on TV, and you're reminded of how good it really was anytime you go to watch a season 5 ep.

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That's true. I guess you kind of forget about all the little subplots and things like that. Now I need to go watch some season 5 eps. BTW, I thought you were going to upload your random episode list.

Malcolm said:

It seems nobody likes me... bah, I already knew it, anyway...

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Why do you get that feeling? I like you.

wildcat said:

I thought you were going to upload your random episode list

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I said I would if anyone wanted it, but no one replied so I haven't. I'll do that in the rerun thread as soon as I get a chance.