10 Malcolm In The Middle Episodes That Aged Poorly

Familial dysfunction, a neurotic protagonist, and a commitment to showcasing a realistic low-income family on primetime made "Malcolm in the Middle" a defining sitcom of the 2000s. The characters fought and bickered, but somehow, they found ways to make things work while having plenty of great jokes along the way. It's hard to narrow down the best episodes of "Malcolm in the Middle," but if you're planning a rewatch, get ready for some ... unpleasantness.

Look, there's no two ways around it: "Malcolm in the Middle," like any other sitcom of its era, is a product of its time. Every so often, you'll watch an episode, and a character will casually drop a slur that may have been socially acceptable in 2002 but has since fallen out of favor. Like many 1990s and 2000s TV series, there are ample jokes at the expense of the gay community. It doesn't make the show "evil" per se, but it shows how much society has progressed since that time.

With that being said, it's not always a single line that ages poorly. "Malcolm in the Middle" isn't immune to having an entire plot line that feels absurdly in poor taste even just a couple of years after it came out. As you rewatch "Malcolm in the Middle" on Hulu or Disney+, watch out for these "Malcolm in the Middle" episodes that aged poorly (or perhaps just skip them entirely).

The following slides includes references to sexual assault.

Bringing Malcolm (Frankie Muniz) and his family to Burning Man sounds like the perfect way to break the show out of its rut. It gets them out of their usual environments and around a bunch of weird hippies to play off of. Unfortunately, season 7's "Burning Man" also makes the baffling decision to have Malcolm sleep with Anita (Rosanna Arquette), losing his virginity in the process, which is disturbing considering he's probably underage at this point. 

It's hard to lock down Malcolm's exact age, but by the time "Burning Man" comes around, Malcolm's likely in his final year of high school. If you really wanted to justify this decision, maybe you could argue Malcolm's 18, but he's likely 17, which would put him within the legal age of consent in Nevada where Burning Man take place. But if you're having to look up age of consent laws on a state-by-state basis, you're already in icky territory. 

The episode has absolutely no interest in exploring this dark subject matter, as Malcolm's just upset when Anita breaks up with him because he's too malleable and agrees with whatever she wants. Even today, it's common to see articles about adult women sleeping with underage boys and finding comments like, "Where were all these teachers when I was a kid?" But it's hard to watch "Burning Man" when considering the fact Malcolm was taken advantage of. 

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

"Future Malcolm" has all the makings of a classic episode. Malcolm meets a bitter genius who serves as a depressing example of what he himself might become one day while Francis (Christopher Masterson) gets into nude modeling. Unfortunately, among all this, there's a subplot where Hal (Bryan Cranston) realizes he has a preference for somewhat heavier women and makes his wife Lois (Jane Kaczmarek) gain weight. He does this by adding sugar to her orange juice and injecting butter into rice cakes. Lois is pregnant at this time but worried about putting on too much weight, so while Hal's doing all that, she's exercising rampantly to try to manage everything. 

Controlling your partner's weight is abusive. He's not only going against his wife's wishes but could actively be endangering both her health and that of the baby's by having her consume an excessive amount of sugar and fats. If Hal was going to extreme lengths to keep Lois skinny, most viewers would instantly clock that as abusive, but since it's the reverse, it may not even register for some that Hal's doing something really despicable. 

Cranston nearly turned down "Breaking Bad" due to "Malcolm in the Middle." However, "Future Malcolm" is a prime example of how Cranston didn't need to journey to Albuquerque to play a manipulative figure. 

One of Hal's defining qualities on "Malcolm in the Middle" is his utter devotion toward Lois. He's hopelessly in love with her, which is charming most of the time, but in other instances, it can lead to him going down some dark paths. Once again, a Hal B-plot causes an episode to age poorly with season 7's "Army Buddy." The crux of the episode is that Reese (Justin Berfield) has one of his army friends come to visit, and Lois thinks she has found relief for some pain with new orthotic inserts. This makes Hal think she won't rely on him as much anymore, so he ruins the inserts without her knowledge, making her think she's doomed to endure the pain indefinitely. 

Lois eventually learns the truth and insists that she's always going to need Hal because ... of course she will. This is the kind of season 7 subplot that flanderizes Hal to such a degree where he's really acting like an idiot (and again, abusive if you want to get into the nitty-gritty). The two of them have been through so much together that it seems exceptionally dumb for him to feel threatened by orthotics. 

It leads to a sweet moment between the two, but if you heard a story about a husband intentionally wanting his wife to live in pain, you'd tell her to get out of there so fast. The "Malcolm in the Middle" writers likely didn't mean any malice with this plot line, but it gets dark if you think about it too long. 

As mentioned earlier, "Malcolm in the Middle" had its share of jokes at the expense of gay people. You could argue this is due to it being the 2000s, but "The Simpsons" dismantled the groomer narrative back in the '90s. That leads us to one of the first episodes of "Malcolm in the Middle," called "Lois vs. Evil." We're not so much concerned about Lois though, as the problematic storyline comes from Francis pretending to be gay so that he can get close to all the women participating in a beauty pageant. 

He doesn't immediately start that way, as the contestants all assume he's homosexual due to him being invested in theatre and being obsessed with his mother. He plays into the idea so that he can spray their thighs and give massages. Eventually, he suggests to one contestant, Tanya (Elise Horn), that maybe he's not gay after all, if he could find the one woman able to change him. It plays into the idea that homosexuality is something to "fix." 

To be fair to this storyline, Francis does get some comeuppance. Instead of Tanya sleeping with him, she sends him to conversion therapy. At least his underhandedness gets punished, but everything preceding it, which plays up gay stereotypes, can be tough to watch now. 

"Boys will be boys" is a refrain often used to hand-wave away sexual harassment and occasionally even assault. Society seems to expect young men to treat women like objects, but that shouldn't be the norm. "Malcolm in the Middle" had plenty of these moments, but few were as disgusting as what's seen on season 3's "Cynthia's Back." 

Cynthia (Tania Raymonde) is one of Malcolm's classmates who went to Europe for a bit. When she returns, Malcolm realizes she's gone through puberty and has developed larger breasts, which makes him awkward, but his older brother Reese wants to see them for himself. As such, he acts nice toward Cynthia and even keeps a calendar for when he thinks he'll have earned her trust enough to cop a feel. However, Malcolm outs him, making Cynthia disgusted in him once more, but instead of slinking away, Reese grabs her breasts and promptly receives a well-deserved beatdown. 

It's clear the writers don't condone Reese's behavior. Malcolm calls him out for being a creep, and he's punished for his behavior by the end. Still, it can be hard to watch him acting so manipulative, with the episode ending with something that's clearly assault. Even when there's a narrative punishment for misogynistic behavior, it's hard to watch and like Reese after this knowing what he's capable of. 

Malcolm tends to overthink everything, which makes it hard to connect with most anyone else. In season 4's "Stupid Girl," he gets a crush on Alison (Brittany Renee Finamore), who's comically dumb and incompetent. It's honestly kind of amazing she's gotten as far in school as she has since she literally can't seem to do anything. To get with her, Malcolm learns from Reese how to shut off his brain, so he can be just as stupid as her and thus might like him more. 

Malcolm's actions are completely demeaning to women. He can't just accept that Alison's a bit (okay, a lot) dumber than he is, so he has to sabotage his own intelligence to stand being with her, going so far as to tank his own grades in the process. One would assume Alison's stupidity would be a turn-off for Malcolm, even if he does find her attractive, but that's when you remember that as smart as Malcolm is, he's a dumb teenager at the end of the day. 

While Malcolm doesn't go so far as Reese in "Cynthia's Back," he still fundamentally changes who he is to try to get a girl to sleep with him. What's disturbing is that Malcolm's plan probably would've worked had Lois not accidentally caught him with a six-pack of beer as they're making their way to the football field. 

It's right there in the "Malcolm in the Middle" theme song: "Life is unfair." This particular sitcom wasn't the kind of show where everyone learned a neat and tidy lesson, came together, and hugged it out at the end of every episode. Many times, characters wallow in their own misery. It's probably not everyone's cup of tea, but if you were okay with some cynicism, it definitely scratched an itch. That doesn't mean some episodes didn't take things a step too far and felt overly nasty.

Case in point: season 2's "Surgery." Malcolm suffers from intense stomach pains and initially thinks he has appendicitis and requires surgery. But he second-guesses this and wants another blood test to be sure. During this whole ordeal, the doctors are incredibly mean and dismissive to Malcolm wanting another test. Meanwhile, Malcolm's family exclude him from fun activities, like everyone going to Pancake Pete's before visiting him in the hospital the next morning. 

Sure enough, Malcolm doesn't have appendicitis, but when he gets back, his parents are upset over spending so much money on the hospital bill, despite him not even getting a surgery. People are mean to Malcolm all the time, but usually, these actions stem, in part, from Malcolm's own foibles. Here, he was genuinely sick but wanted to make sure he got the proper care. It goes to show that life truly is unfair sometimes. 

There are ample modern horror movies about grief, but if you want something a little on the lighter side, season 7's "Hal Grieves" also tackles this subject matter. Hal's father dies, and he doesn't exactly manage his emotions great at first. Few people would, but Hal decides to shower his sons with praise and gifts, trying to be the dad his father never was to him. The boys are more than happy to take advantage of Hal's delicate mental state to get as much out of him as possible. 

It's hard to watch people, even if they're kids, take advantage of someone suffering and unable to manage their emotions. Malcolm even tries to talk some sense into Reese and Dewey (Erik Per Sullivan), but they try to milk him for everything he's worth. Even Malcolm can't resist the temptation once Hal offers to buy him a car. 

There's a sweet moment at the end where Hal finally cries and admits how much he misses his dad, even if he wasn't always great toward him. Even with that, it's immensely hard watching the boys take advantage of someone who's clearly not well. Yes, they're immature teenagers, but Malcolm taking that to such an extreme that he tries to scam Hal out of a car feels like a step too far, even for him. It's a tough watch, especially when you've had to watch someone suffer in silence.

Season 6's "Pearl Harbor" involves Hal realizing he can't outdo his neighbor's Christmas display, but he can still give him a run for his money on Pearl Harbor Day. Hal and Dewey then sabotage the neighbor's display by spreading worms everywhere, causing birds to dive down and reenact the tragedy that happened on that fateful day in 1941. Some may not appreciate this sequence, but it's hard to say it's aged poorly when it's about as offensive today as it was when it first came out. 

But then there's the subplot where Jessica (Hayden Panettiere), the family's teenage neighbor, keeps barging into their home to do whatever she wants. She then convinces Malcolm and Reese that the other brother is gay, which causes both of them to act strangely toward the other. It's a classic case of gay panic, but believing someone is gay shouldn't cause them to act any differently toward them. They even freak out when their hands touch grabbing popcorn, which ... what's the problem? They're still brothers, so what are they scared the other one is going to do? 

However, maybe that's being too hard on this subplot. Reese, for as much as he's a bully, is actually supportive of Malcolm and buys him a gay pornographic movie to support him, even watching a bunch of them to find one he thought Malcolm would like. It's kind of sweet in a subversive way. 

"Baby: Part 1" is a seminal episode. Hal and the boys accidentally wind up at a bridal fest as Lois and Francis prepare for the arrival of a new baby. Lois' virulently racist mother Ida (Cloris Leachman) shows up, but the episode makes it clear that Ida's beliefs are abhorrent. No, the part about this episode that doesn't age well is when Malcolm asks Hal if he can go to a prestigious boarding school in London, freeing up space and money in the house so that Hal and Lois can have an easier time raising the new child along with the boys they already have. Hal adamantly refuses this, saying, "You don't get to leave! Malcolm, you're our only hope." 

It's a moment that gets echoed in the "Malcolm in the Middle" finale where Lois turns down a great job opportunity for Malcolm, believing he needs to go to Harvard and pursue this path to eventually become President of the United States. Both scenes show how Malcolm has no agency. He's incredibly gifted and could do amazing things in the right environment. But both Hal and Lois clearly think they know what Malcolm needs to do to be both successful and to be downtrodden folks like his family. 

The "Malcolm in the Middle" reboot will undoubtedly shine a light on how well Malcolm is doing these days. Did he become president? Is he on the way to doing so? Most importantly, is he happy? Or did his parents doom him to believing he could become president and always feeling inadequate because he never reached those heights? These questions are likely far too existential for the revival to handle, but hopefully, there are some good jokes.