DVD 240 mins IMDB 8.4
NR (Not Rated)
Malcolm In The Middle - The Complete First Season
20th Century Fox (2004)
In Collection
#84

My Rating:
8

Seen It:
Yes

Episodes
1: Pilot
2: Red Dress
3: Home Alone 4
4: Shame
5: Malcolm Babysits
6: Sleepover
7: Francis Escapes
8: Krelboyne Picnic
9: Lois Vs. Evil
10: Stock Car Races
11: Funeral
12: Cheerleader
13: Rollerskates
14: The Bots and The Bees
15: Smunday
16: Water Park
Comedy, Série tv
USA  /  English

Frankie Muniz Malcolm
Justin Berfield Reese
Catherine Lloyd Burns
Evan Matthew Cohen
Bryan Cranston Hal
Jane Kaczmarek Lois
Christopher Masterson Francis
Erik Per Sullivan Dewey
Kyle Sullivan
Craig Lamar Traylor Stevie Kenarban
David Anthony Higgins Craig Feldspar
Malcolm in the Middle
Christopher Kennedy Masterson

Director Jamie Babbit; Bryan Cranston; Todd Holland
Producer Maggie Bandur; Michael Glouberman; Andrew Orenstein
Writer Jack Amiel; Maggie Bandur; Linwood Boomer

In the words of They Might Be Giants' rollicking Grammy-winning theme song, "life is unfair." The inventive and wholly original sitcom Malcolm in the Middle has been honored with a Peabody Award and Emmys for directing and writing, but if life was fair, it would have earned an Emmy for Best Comedy Series, not to mention statuettes for its pitch-perfect cast. With his perpetual "yes, me worry" expression, Frankie Muniz instantly earns audience empathy as Malcolm, whose chances for a normal life are thwarted not only by his genius IQ (as discovered in the pilot episode), but also by his outrageously dysfunctional family: Lois (Jane Kaczmarek), his obsessive, control-freak mother; Hal (Bryan Cranston), his loving but ineffectual father; Francis (Christopher Masterson), his eldest brother waging his own private war at military school; middle brother Reese (Justin Berfield), a delinquent savant; and Dewey (Erik Per Sullivan), the put-upon youngest. As Malcolm observes at one point, "This family may be rude, loud and gross, and have no shame whatsoever, but with them you know where you stand."

This three-disc set contains all 16 episodes from the irreverently funny first season. The series instantly toned things down a tad from the pilot episode that saw Lois body-shaving a naked hirsute Hal in the kitchen. But it brilliantly sustains its subversive tone, from episode two, in which the brothers stand united against Lois's increasingly desperate methods to uncover who burned her red dress, to the season finale, in which Malcolm dares to push her down a water slide. Not that there aren't sublimely sweet moments, as in that season finale when Dewey bonds with his elderly babysitter (Bea Arthur!) over Abba's "Fernando." Before you get out your handkerchiefs, said sitter collapses and is carted away in an ambulance. --Donald Liebenson

Edition Details
Series Malcolm In The Middle
Distributor 20th Century Fox
Edition Special Edition
Barcode 024543052951
Region Region 1
Release Date 2002
Packaging Keep Case
Screen Ratio Fullscreen (4:3)
Subtitles English; Spanish
Audio Tracks Dolby Digital 4.0 [English]
Layers Single Side, Single Layer
No. of Disks/Tapes 3

Features
Disc 1: Color Closed-captioned Box set