subject: Malcolm In The Middle One Of The Three Home-based Sons Of Lois & Hal [print this page] Malcolm is the middle one of the three home-based sons of Lois and Hal. Lois, who works in a department store, is a barnstorming matriarch, a true life force who dominates the family home. Hal is almost surreally detached from the rest of the family, seemingly marching to the beat of a different drum. A fourth and eldest son, Francis, is away at military school, his parents hoping it will instill some discipline into the lad with a history of juvenile delinquency. The next eldest boy, Reese, is a thick-eared sort, like a diluted Francis; the youngest, Dewey, is a strange kid with an off-centre view of the world; in the middle is Malcolm, a regular enough lad whose pursuit of a normal childhood is thwarted by his odd parents and by the fact that, owing to a 165 IQ, his school has designated him a genius and his classmates a Kralboyne (the nerdy, bespectacled lead character in the musical Little Shop Of Horrors). Malcolm's only real friend is the wheelchair-bound, Stevie Kenarban, a bright boy with breathing difficulties who delivers pithy put-downs between gasps. Episodes centred around Malcolm's adventures, his take on life being imparted to the viewer in voiceover or direct-to-camera monologues. Subsequent seasons showed the kids growing up (a fact-of-life curiously ignored in some family shows); Francis marries a hard-nosed Asian girl, Piama, whose clashes with Lois create another outlet for high-octane strife.
