History Headscratchers / MalcolmintheMiddle

** To fool their husbands, of course. The idea of their wives attending a boring old book club probably goes over most of their husbands heads, they couldnt't care less. But if they knew their wives were getting together and gossiping - sharing all their marital secrets... They may be not as comfortable with the idea. And I can't remember exactly, were the girls drinking also? Another reason the men wouldn't be happy.

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<<|JustBugsMe|>>

** Russian magazine? The ad being [[ThisAndThat extremely vague]] about what it was offering? The guy's actually senile?

*** Tell that to his toddler self pouring gasoline/lighter fluid onto his teddy bear with the intention of setting it on fire, or his child self torturing his brothers, or apparently scarring Reese with a bayonet. Heck, not only was Francis doing something like that before his mom got strict, but the incident with the bear is the reason why Lois snapped and became strict. Besides, just because someone's neither out of touch with reality nor delusional doesn't mean they aren't insane. I mean, look at [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI Kefka Palazzo]] or [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Professor Hojo]].
*** You're placing the blame on a toddler? seriously? I mean, yeah, what he did was pretty awful, but that's only because of Hal and Lois shitty parental skills. Each and every one of the boys demonstrated that they were actually *better* without Hal or Lois' influence on them(Hell, Dewey self-taught himself piano). I'm not saying they are entirely to blame either, but having some therapy for their own fucked up upbringing would have helped the family A LOT.

[[WMG: How did Mr. Herkabee keep his job for so long?]]
* At the end of the first episode, the boys in his class are seen acting crazy (save for Malcolm), and the girls are in a near-fetal position. All of this is seen by the superintendent or some other important figure. You'd think he would have lost his job after that, but no, he kept it and mentally abused kids on a daily basis. Somehow he was made a disciplinarian of Malcolm's high school and even kept a cattle prod in his desk. How did no one find out about that? Even the teachers can't carry weapons at school. How did he not get fired despite being such a horrible person and teacher? It's not like he kept it a secret, and he didn't have the money to bribe anyone.
[[WMG: Finances?]]
When Lois got pregnant with Jamie, they claimed that they wouldn't be able to afford it. However they would have been in the same situation, needing to support four children, when Dewey was born, and Francis had emancipated himself. Furthermore, Francis was slowly paying back his loans, and one or both of the parents should have gotten a raise in the twelve years.

[[WMG: Why bother pretending?]]
In one episode, Lois meets up with a group of women for a book club. Then it turns out none of them actually read the books, they just get together to relax and rant. But why bother pretending it's a book club? Why not just say they're getting together, or having a night out? Maybe it started out as an attempt at an actual book club, but why not just drop it after going a while without reading anything?

*** Tell that to his toddler self pouring gasoline/lighter fluid onto his teddy bear with the intention of setting it on fire, or his child self torturing his brothers, or apparently scarring Reese with a bayonet. Heck, not only was Francis doing something like that before his mom got strict, but the incident with the bear is the reason why Lois snapped and became strict. Besides, just because someone's neither out of touch with reality nor delusional doesn't mean they aren't insane. I mean, look at [[FinalFantasyVI Kefka Palazzo]] or [[FinalFantasyVII Professor Hojo]].

* Malcom's current personality transitioned from an epiphany, so what was going on when Lois was preaching her animal instincts at telling who is feeling what? Malcom's stupid acts at times clearly indicates emotional stress damage.

** Also, its quite clear that Lois is trying to become the female, adult version of Malcom. Even if the extent is nowhere implied, it just seems like her ability to redirect imperfection with logic has an uncanny similarity with Malcom.

*** Tell that to his toddler self pouring gasoline/lighter fluid onto his teddy bear with the intention of setting it on fire, or his child self torturing his brothers, or apparently scarring Reese with a bayonette. Heck, not only was Francis doing something like that before his mom got strict, but the incident with the bear is the reason why Lois snapped and became strict. Besides, just because someone's neither out of touch with reality nor delusional doesn't mean they aren't insane. I mean, look at [[FinalFantasyVI Kefka Palazzo]] or [[FinalFantasyVII Professor Hojo]].

* Okay, I'll just out and say it - Exactly how is the series ending supposed to be positive? Lois has apparently decided to continue her emotional abuse of Malcolm well into adulthood, and if she succeeds, will place an emotionally unstable man with mother issues as President. Not to mention that all the "hardships" she expects him to solve were caused by the familys own dysfunction and selfish behavior.

**** Exactly, the family has ALL suffered because of their own actions, yet havent learnt one iota from it. If anything, Malcolm is going to grow up thinking its totally cool to manipulate people into fitting the image YOU have for them, and take the abuse from your parents with good humor because "theyre family" or whatever bullshit message it was they tried to tack on in the last episode. I think thats the worst part, the characters are constantly confronted, barraged even, by proof that their behavior is wrong, but do they change? No. Do they even care? No no. It has its moments of comedy, but when the writers expects us to sympathize with that, theyve gone way over the line.

* Why does everyone panic over Reese' future? Why does he angst over what sort of genius he is? With his cullinary skills he should able to do fine.
** Short answer: He's an idiot that can't behave himself. There are several episodes that show that Reesee has potential to have an happy, if not ideal life if he could stop making pranks and stupid things at his job place. He *is* a culinary genius, but even with that he would have to behave himself to be able to get (and hold) any kind of job.

** I'm pretty sure it's not supposed to be positive.