History YMMV / MalcolmintheMiddle

** For most of the series Reese is clearly a jerk but he never goes further than a normal bully would. That is until “Block Party,” when he says he’ll be charging neighborhood kids to beat him up as payback, only to [[spoiler: put a bag on an innocent’s neighbor’s head so he can sadistically watch the kid take his beatings for him]]. It’s hard to see Reese as anything other than a full on psychopath after that episode.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: Having an episode introducing Piama in some capacity would've gone over well (while still maintaining a surprise with them being married), given how she suddenly appeared out of nowhere and was already married to Francis.

** "Son, you know once you start, there's no turning back?" [[labelnote:Explanation]] In one episode about roller skates, Hal says this to Malcolm when the latter says when he wants roller skates. This is used as a reaction to when some people want to join franchises like ''VideoGame/{{Yakuza}}'' and ''Franchise/KingdomHearts''. [[/labelnote]]

** Spangler's hook hand and other amputations made for some great visual gags during the show's original run, but the missing limb-themed comedy became harder to watch later on for those who may be aware that his actor Daniel von Bargen eventually lost one leg to diabetes, and [[BungledSuicide attempted suicide (and missed)]] when he thought it might take the other.

** Spangler's hook hand and other amputations made for some great visual gags during the show's original run, but the missing limb-themed comedy became harder to watch later on; his actor Daniel von Bargen eventually lost one leg to diabetes, and [[BungledSuicide attempted suicide (and missed)]] when he thought it might take the other.

** Spangler's hook hand and other amputations made for some great visual gags during the show's original run, but the missing limb-themed comedy became harder to watch later on; his actor Daniel von Bargen eventually lost one leg to diabetes, and [[BungledSuicide attempted suicide]] when he thought it might take the other.

** Alanna Masterson, sister of Christopher Masterson (Francis), appears in "Malcolm's Money"; she'd go on to achieve wide recognition as Tara in ''Series/TheWalkingDead''.

** Spangler's hook hand and other amputations made for some great visual gags during the show's original run, but the missing limb-themed comedy became harder to watch after his actor, Daniel von Bargen, would later lose a leg to diabetes and [[BungledSuicide attempted to shoot himself]] when it looked like he might lose the other one.

** "Krelboyne Picnic" has Lois being told by another student's parent that Malcolm has been throwing around "the R-word," which is meant to be a joke about PoliticalOvercorrectness as there was no offensive "R-word" in the early 2000s. Now that the word "retarded" has crossed the line to being considered offensive, it comes off rather differently, especially with Malcolm being the InsufferableGenius that he is.
*** Also in the same episode, Lois gets offended when the same parent vigorously tosses the brownies she made because they have walnuts and the parent isn't sure if any of the kids have allergies (though it's implied that she's really doing this to publicly humiliate Lois). Lois gets so angry by her attitude that she encourages the other mothers to stand up to this busybody. However, with increased instances of severe food allergies in the 2010s it's very likely that a teacher would at least warn Lois beforehand that she can't serve the kids those brownies unless they made absolutely sure nobody has severe nut allergies.

* In “Thanksgiving,” Malcolm has the chance to have sex with a girl in his class but doesn’t because she’s too drunk. When he expresses regret, Francis matter-of-factly tells him that he did the right thing. Considering how even in the 2020’s there are still people who think that a drunk woman deserves whatever she gets, the obviousness this lesson is treated with was way ahead of its time.

** Infancy and Toddlerhood are very important to a person’s development. We know that Lois tortured Francis throughout his Infancy and weather it was being around the woman that did that to him, being fed chocolate every five seconds or him just being an EnfantTerrible she psychologically scarred him to stop his TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior. The result an instinctive hatred of his mother which causes him to commit delinquent behavior just to spite her. What makes this worse because they happened when he was so young Francis isn’t aware of just how much Lois abused him making him com across as just having a severe NeverMyFault mentality to others. The only way he was able to get his life together was just to pretend to be unemployed.

** As mentioned under AssPull Francis was fired offscreen as a result of PlotInducedStupidity. However In season 4’s "Boys at Ranch" Francis states that sometimes Mom's right while calling out his brothers for their antics, and given his relationship with Lois there is a chance that he deliberately got himself fired.

** The little girl biting Reese? It's Creator/DacotaFanning.

* HypeBacklash: Back when the show was released, it received acclaim from critics and audiences and even managed to win a Peabody Award, seven Emmy Awards, one Grammy Award and seven Golden Globe nominations. But because of [[WorldOfJerkass cast]] and [[SadistShow humor]], many late-time viewers don't understand why the show is so popular, deeming it as an [[SoOkayItsAverage average or okay]] show at best.

* {{Moe}}: EnfantTerrible moments aside, Jamie is absolutely adorable.

** In Season 5, Principal Block tries to censor a novel Malcolm was trying to publish and repeats six times "S*ck my D...", bleeped, but still, to illustrate his anger with all that cursing. Malcolm even lampshades it when he tells Malcolm to censor the words with asterisks.

** Francis gets kidnapped by a cult that starts at military school. They get frustrated on learning he's TooKinkyToTorture, and he calls their attempts to scare him amateurish. He reveals that Lois hardened him because she crossed the line from AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents to AbusiveParents, from: arguing with a basketball coach over a fun game, showing pictures of her giving birth to Francis, to yelling at Francis about scratching her car while he's in the school locker room...etc. The cult leaders are so horrified that they make ''Lois'' their new idol and adopt her methods to shame victims.

* AssPull: A few episodes into season 6, Francis abruptly mentions that he was fired offscreen from his job at the ranch due to [[OutOfCharacterMoment his stupidly losing Otto's deposits to something he thought was an [=ATM=], but wasn't. It's bizarre that the usually discerning and savvy Francis would do something so idiotic]], and it's equally strange for the seasons-long ranch job was suddenly aborted offscreen, making it seem that the writers just didn't know where to go with it anymore and ended it as awkwardly as possible. It's also not consistent with the character of Otto to suddenly terminate and sue Francis for an honest (if horrific) mistake when he's always forgiven worse and fallen for much worse scams himself. Not to mention a rather poor move logically as it was made evident several times Francis was the only one who did any work there and even bailed Otto out of several disasters. It's suspected that Francis's actor having other commitments that took a lot of time away from this show (Francis has drastically less appearances in the final seasons) led to the writers scrapping the ranch plot. Then again, Francis has been known to show occasional lapses in judgment, the "Alaskan Dollars" incident coming to mind, so it's not ''completely'' out of character for him to have done what he did.

** In a Season 4 episode, a {{Jerkass}} comic book store owner tricks Hal by making up a fake superhero named [[WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles Mr. Incredible]].

* HypeBacklash: Back when the show was released, it received acclaim from critics and audiences and even managed to win a Peabody Award, seven Emmy Awards, one Grammy Award and seven Golden Globe nominations. But because of [[WorldOfJerkass cast]] and [[SadistShow humor]], many late-time viewers don't understand why the show is so popular, deeming it as an [[SoOkayItsAverage average or okay]] show at best or an outright bad one at worst.

* HypeBacklash: Back when the show was released, it received acclaim from critics and audiences and even managed to win a Peabody Award, seven Emmy Awards, one Grammy Award and seven Golden Globe nominations. Because of [[WorldOfJerkass cast]] and [[SadistShow humor]], many late-time viewers don't understand why the show is so popular, deeming it as an [[SoOkayItsAverage average or okay]] show at best or an outright bad one at worst.

* SpiritualSuccessor: ''Malcolm in the Middle'' is basically ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'' taken UpToEleven. It also occupied the same Sunday night timeslot on Fox that ''Married...With Children'' had for most of its ten year run.