Drama
The Faithful: Women of the Bible
Fox’s ‘The Faithful’ explores stories from the Bible through the eyes of biblical matriarchs, highlighting these women’s incredible faith.
“How is being rich throwing my life away?” boy genius Malcolm screams at his mother, Lois, in the final episode of Malcolm in the Middle.
“Because it’s not the life you’re supposed to have!” Lois retorts. “The life you’re supposed to have is you go to Harvard, and you earn every fellowship and internship they have. You graduate first in your class, and you start working in public service—either district attorney or running some foundation—and then you become governor of a mid-size state, and then you become president.”
Malcom is stunned. “What?”
“Of the United States,” Lois clarifies.
“Dad!?”
“I’m sorry, son,” his dad, Hal, says. “It’s true.”
Some two decades later, and Malcolm seems to be on that exact path. He went to Harvard, working as a janitor to pay for his studies. He graduated and started a charity connecting food banks and shelters to food manufacturers who’d rather donate the unsold food than throw it away. And he’s starting to look into politics, too.
But one thing Lois didn’t predict: For most of that time, Malcolm’s been intentionally avoiding his family. Every time he’s with them, they function as a catalyst that causes him to explode in anger. Of course, he makes the effort to email and send birthday cards and act too busy with his charity work to make the inconvenient layovers home—just so they don’t think he’s closing them out. But ever since Malcolm stopped coming home, his life has been nothing but blissful peace.
Simply put, whenever Malcolm’s with his family, chaos abounds. And he really wants to be the perfect father to his intelligent daughter, Leah, and the perfect boyfriend to his amazing girlfriend, Tristan. The best way to accomplish those goals, Malcolm figures, is to keep them from ever meeting his family.
That, of course, doesn’t work for Lois. Her and Hal’s 40th wedding anniversary is fast approaching, and for the first time ever, Hal is letting her prepare the celebration. She’s desperate for the whole thing to be magnificent and perfect, too, since Hal always goes to the nth degree in romantic gestures. And part of that perfect picture requires all of her children attending the party.
That’s why, just as Malcolm is introducing his girlfriend and daughter to each other for the first time, Lois and Hal burst in through his front door unannounced, demanding he come to celebrate with the rest of the family.
Then Lois spots Leah.
“You have a daughter!?” Lois yells.
“She’s alive!?” Leah joins in.
It seems Hulu is in a bit of a reboot phase as of late: King of the Hill and Scrubs both turned out new seasons recently, and now it seems to be Malcolm in the Middle’s turn.
The four-episode miniseries, Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair, brings viewers back into the dysfunction that the original series wrought. As someone who grew up watching that original showing, I can confirm that it’s just as chaotic as before. Though it doesn’t bring quite the same charm, it nevertheless comes with a few laughs and sweet moments on par with the original series.
But, true to form, this miniseries also brings back some of the content issues, too: Hal still finds reasons to be naked (with critical anatomy strategically hidden just out of sight), sex is a frequent topic between Hal and Lois, and we hear the occasional crude joke, too.
Sometimes, however, rebooting a show also means dealing with issues that, even if hinted at in the show before, become overt rather than just winking nods: An episode’s B-plot centers on Hal enduring a psychedelic drug trip; crude language now includes the s-word; the show reveals Malcolm’s friend Stevie is in a relationship with another man; and Malcolm’s sister, Kelly, identifies as non-binary.
While fans of the original series may enjoy watching the dozens of returning characters pop up on screen again (even Dewey’s class hamster, Bernard, rolls by in the final episode), we know many won’t appreciate that update in content. (I know I could have done without it.) But, as the series title sequence says, life is unfair.
(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at letters@pluggedin.com, or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out.)
As Lois plans her and Hal’s 40th wedding anniversary celebration, Malcolm plans to introduce his daughter to his girlfriend.
A recap reveals notable moments from the original series, which include Hal in his underwear, Reese grabbing a girl’s clothed chest and someone squeezing a man’s clothed crotch. We also see plenty of slapstick violence.
Lois shaves Hal’s body hair as Hal stands naked in the kitchen (critical parts are hidden from the viewer by clever camerawork). He’s talking to his son, Dewey, via a computer video feed, and Dewey is obviously disgusted by seeing his father naked. Hal and his friends sing Bruno Mars’ “Locked Out of Heaven” (which uses spiritual language to describe sex) to Lois as a romantic gesture. Hal admits he’ll do anything Lois says when she does “that … thing.” Elsewhere, Hal professes his enjoyment of his wife’s sexual generosity in front of families at a park.
We see Malcolm shirtless in bed and his girlfriend in a nightgown. Tristan tells Malcolm she’s proud they made it all the way to the bed this time before starting sex.
Hal struggles to refer to his daughter, Kelly, using “they/them” pronouns, and Kelly mocks him for it. A pride flag hangs in the background of Kelly’s room. Malcolm jokes that his daughter was “kind of a trophy I won in college for attending my first kegger.” Malcolm clarifies that Leah was conceived when he slept with a woman in college: We see a picture of the woman holding a cigarette and beer as she swaddles her newborn baby with the other hand. Malcolm explains that Leah’s mother abandoned them three days after Leah was born.
Two men kick each other over a free sample.
We hear one use of the s-word and one use of “a–.” God’s name is used in vain twice, and Jesus’ name is likewise used in vain once. Hal is unintentionally called a “tool.” Someone says her father purchased an “aura camera.”
Kennedy Unthank studied journalism at the University of Missouri. He knew he wanted to write for a living when he won a contest for “best fantasy story” while in the 4th grade. What he didn’t know at the time, however, was that he was the only person to submit a story. Regardless, the seed was planted. Kennedy collects and plays board games in his free time, and he loves to talk about biblical apologetics. He’s also an avid cook. He thinks the ending of Lost “wasn’t that bad.”
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