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The Family

    General 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/image_2578.jpg
From left to right: Reese, Malcolm, Dewey, Lois, Hal, Francis

Francis: Look, guys, I appreciate your sentiment, but they're not gonna decide my whole future based on how I behave over one weekend without even telling me about it. It's too arbitrary; it's... unreasonable.
Malcolm: It's Mom!
Francis: ...Okay, let's clean up!
"Home Alone 4"

  • All of the Other Reindeer: In one episode, they discover that their entire neighborhood has a block party whenever they go on vacation. Hal is the least hated of them, since his neighbors seem to dislike him only when he is around his wife.
  • At Least I Admit It: In "Malcolm Babysits", Malcolm decides he'd rather be with his openly dysfunctional family than the seemingly wholesome, but backstabbing and secret-keeping, family he had enjoyed babysitting for. A running theme of the show is that they're not so much worse than other people, as much as they either don't bother or are incapable of hiding their faults.
  • Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: It's very much a Sadist Show, but even at their most destructive, there are still frequent moments that remind the audience they are still a family.
  • Badass Family: All have their badass moments. This Dysfunctional Family is composed of Papa Wolf Hal, The Dreaded Mama Bear Lois, Boisterous Bruiser Francis, Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass Reese, Badass Bookworm Malcolm, and Chessmaster Dewey. Even Jamie, who is the first child Lois genuinely fears at times despite being a baby, has his moments. The "badass" part equals with the craziness of this family.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Hal and Dewey are the nicest members of the family, but that doesn't mean they're harmless. For example, Hal ruthlessly blackmails Lois' parents into giving them three thousand dollars and makes it clear that he will have them thrown into jail if they don't comply, showing a cold-bloodedness that you'd expect from Walter White. Likewise, Dewey develops into The Chessmaster in later episodes, not above pulling devious tricks on his brothers if they mess with him, or anyone else who screws with his family.
  • Butt-Monkey: Bad things happen to all of them in every episode.
  • The Corrupter: They rubbed off their behavior on the uptight Kenarbans in one night. As Malcolm puts it, "I think we’re contagious."
  • Dysfunctional Family: They provide the page image, although the level is more comparable to Big, Screwed-Up Family, unsurprisingly due to the creators wanting to make the worst Dysfunctional Family possible.
  • Everyone Has Standards:
    • This trope page alone is proof that they're anything but saints; and each of them has their own list of flaws in addition to their group flaws, and they can all be judgemental of others. However, NONE of them are racist and they're frequently disgusted by Ida and other side characters' prejudices.
    • Malcolm, Reese, and Dewey often get into fights and rat on each other, but they swore to NEVER rat on each other for making Lois think she had cancer so they could get away with bad report cards. They felt so bad about it they referred to the evidence as "The Nuclear Option".
  • Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: In early seasons, Teen Genius Malcolm is the Responsible to all his brothers' Foolish, though he has plenty of foolish moments as well. In later seasons, Character Development make Francis and Dewey much more responsible, but it's still played straight with Reese who, even after he Took a Level in Kindness, is still the most foolish and irresponsible of the family.
  • Four-Man Band: The boys serve as this.
  • Hated by All: The entire family is hated by their neighborhood, to the point that said neighborhood throws a huge block party to coincide with their annual vacation.
  • Jerkass: All of them. Reese is a violent bully, Malcolm is a condescending egotist, Hal regularly puts his own wants and desires ahead of those of his family, Francis was a troublemaking delinquent for most of his life, Dewey is a devious and manipulative Bitch in Sheep's Clothing, and even Jamie is shown stealing, framing his brothers and being an overall asshole, even by toddler standards. The mother of them all is the overbearing and ill-tempered Lois: specific examples are numerous but for simplification, while the entire family is generally disliked by their neighbors, they seem willing to at least tolerate everyone except Lois.
  • Massive Numbered Siblings: The family starts out with four brothers (though Francis frequently lives separately from the family), but the birth of Jamie makes five, which qualifies them for this trope. In the final episode, Lois discovers that she's pregnant again, bumping the number of siblings up to six.
  • Men Can't Keep House: A Running Gag when a pregnant Lois goes to stay with her sister is that the men completely wrecks the house, including a demolished wall.
  • A Mistake Is Born: In regards to the boys, Lois and Hals' overactive sex drive has led to, according to the episode "Reese's Party," a "rhythm child, a diaphragm child, a condom child, and two abstinence children!" The final episode shows that Lois is pregnant with a sixth child.
  • Never My Fault: The series finale reveals that they blame their horrible situation on society as a whole, which is why they concocted a complicated plan that would result in Malcolm becoming a president that would care about the plight of families like theirs, rather than face the fact that they bring a lot of their misfortunes down on themselves because they're all self-absorbed, destructive, spiteful and somewhat mentally unhinged individuals who can't help but knowingly do bad things.
  • No Last Name Given: An early script for the pilot gave their last name as "Wilkerson" though Francis still wears a Wilkerson name tag in the first episode. In the finale, he has a name badge saying "Francis Nolastname". Also in the last episode, the principal announces Malcolm as the speaker, clearly mouthing "Nolastname" as his voice is drowned out by microphone feedback. A publicist for Fox said that "officially the family's last name should be considered a mystery". On the other hand, episode blurbs from the UK DVD sets refer to the family as "the Wilkersons" quite liberally, as if the name was canon.
  • Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Brainy Malcolm and creative Dewey are the Sensitive Guys. Rebellious Francis and aggressive Reese are the Manly Men.
  • Single Sex Offspring: The family only has sons.
  • Throw the Dog a Bone:
    • Malcolm being a genius is a welcome surprise to the family.
    • Most of their "respectable" neighbors and Malcolms' wealthier classmates' parents hate their guts. But the Kenarbans and Abe and Hal's Poker group, aside from a few condescending remarks, are well-off intellectual professionals who adore the family.
  • Token Good Teammate: From the neighbors' perspective, friendly and amiable Hal is too good for his shrill wife and destructive children. However, that's less that he's "good" and more that he's better at pleasant social interactions than his wife or sons.
  • Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: It doesn't matter if they deserve it or which member of the family is being the biggest Jerkass of the episode, all their suffering is Played for Laughs.

    Malcolm 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/images_4_3966.jpg
Played by: Frankie Muniz

The titular hero and occasional to-the-camera narrator, Malcolm is the middle child in a large, dysfunctional, lower-middle-class family. He also has genius-level I.Q. - but rather than making his life easier, it, in fact, makes it considerably more miserable, thanks to the neurosis he develops and the degrees of separation it instills between him, his family, his peers and society in general. Indeed, most episodes of Malcolm in the Middle revolve around the self-made catastrophes our hero becomes embroiled in. His victories are almost always of the Pyrrhic or bittersweet variety, and more than any other character, he is made to suffer.

As the series progressed, Malcolm developed from being a relatively normal young boy into a considerably more cynical and neurotic individual. Justified firstly by what he endures, and secondly because puberty ensued.


  • Allegedly Dateless: Malcolm has plenty of dates and girlfriends in the show, (though few of these last more than one episode), but he's still always referred to as a pathetic loser with no social life.
  • And Starring: "And Frankie Muniz".
  • Aside Comment/Fourth-Wall Observer: Malcolm often monologues to the camera his thoughts regarding whatever situation he's in. While none of the other characters notice him doing it, it's occasionally implied that time is actually passing as he soliloquizes, as he'll sometimes return his attention back to the action only to find whoever he was speaking with has walked away by that point.
  • Badass Bookworm: Malcolm is very smart and is shown to be nearly as competent a fighter as Reese in some episodes whereas he can be seen to be very vulnerable in some other episodes.
  • Big Brother Bully: While not to the same extent as Reese, Malcolm still takes pleasure in tormenting Dewey.
  • Big Brother Worship: For Francis. Reese, Malcolm, and Dewey all look up to their older brother Francis because he dared to rebel and stand up to their aggressive, domineering mother Lois, while the rest of them are still at home under her control.
  • Brilliant, but Lazy: Being the biggest subversion of the TV Genius, Malcolm hates being in an advanced class because he has to do twice as much homework as the regular kids when he'd rather be scheming with his brothers, playing tricks, or watching TV. In one episode, he decides to use his full capabilities to break his teacher's ranking system and outmatches his peers so vastly that they all suffer nervous breakdowns.
  • Book Smart: A Brilliant, but Lazy example. He's a prodigy who excels in school, even when compared to his other gifted peers, but he's a troublemaker like his brothers. And it's clear that whilst he is intelligent, he's not exactly wise, prone to making stupid mistakes, not thinking things through and acting on impulse.
  • Brutal Honesty: It's a plot point in one episode where he decides to just hold everything in and stop being brutally honest with people. He becomes more pleasant for a while but he ends up developing a really bad ulcer at the end.
  • Butt-Monkey: "Life is unfair", after all. Bad things never stop happening to him and his family.
  • Calling the Old Man Out: Frequently does this to Lois over her harsh attitude, though it never sticks.
  • Crazy Jealous Guy: Becomes suspicious, neurotic and obsessive over his first girlfriend to the point of beating up a foreign exchange student for talking to her. When he realized he was becoming this, he gets her a pager so he could know where she was every second of the day, thinking that would make them be able to trust each other more. She breaks up with him because of this, causing him to have a complete breakdown and arguably leading to the first step of drastic character building which builds up to his higher levels of neuroticism and cynical behavior.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Always, always snidely fuming at everyone and everything. One time he attempted to shut this off so he would stop offending everyone and it only led to him swallowing down so much snark that he wound up hospitalized with a peptic ulcer.
  • Flanderization: Malcolm became more of a whiny jerk as he got older. However, one could argue that this is a justified flanderized character trait as he goes through puberty throughout the various events of the series. He also becomes more cynical and exaggerates his "miserable" situations, often starting arguments with other characters of the main cast or other characters in the general story as observed in the twentieth episode of Malcolm in the Middle when he made a bigger fool of himself.
  • Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The Responsible Teen Genius to Reese's Foolish Book Dumb delinquent.
  • Fourth-Wall Observer: Malcolm frequently turns to the camera and comments on his feelings or the events taking place, generally in the manner of inviting the viewer to observe the shenanigans unfolding or to explain things to them. No one else ever asks who he keeps talking to.
  • Good with Numbers: Incredibly so. His act at a talent fair demonstrates just how good he is: two audience members show Credit Card numbers to Malcolm who then memorizes them within seconds and does math with them. He takes crowd suggestions and churns out the answer within a second flat, and everybody looks at him like he's on fire.
  • Guile Hero: His biggest strength is definitely his intelligence. Being cunning, street-smart, and witty, Malcolm frequently resolves his problems outsmarting, manipulating or deceiving others.
  • Hair-Trigger Temper: Like his mother, he does suffer from anger problems to the point that he sometimes resorts to violence when he's ticked off.
  • Has a Type: Of the numerous girls Malcolm dates (or wants to date) throughout the series, only Cynthia lacks blonde hair.
  • His Own Worst Enemy: A mild version, but Malcolm self sabotages frequently. This is present even from the first episode when Malcolm strongly resists being put into the gifted class in spite of his obvious high level of intelligence. He later claims he lost all his friends when he was put in the class, but these mysterious friends are never named and other characters say things that indicate he was always smug and neurotic. Until becoming a Krelboyne and meeting Stevie, Lloyd, and Dabney, he doesn't seem to have had many friends. He also creates new problems for himself socially whenever he gets a break, and destroys any chance he has to advance academically. When he has the opportunity to go to the best prep school in the world on a full ride, his father says 'you don't get to leave!' And makes a case for him staying with the family because they need him to solve their collective problems. His decision to stay is admirable in its familial charity, but it's another instance of him sacrificing his own opportunity and happiness because of some hypothetical struggle his family may experience in his absence.
  • Hypocrite: Biggest one in the family. He has done as many questionable and immoral things as his brothers, but he will be judgmental about the other's behavior when it suits him. In Lois Strikes Back, he tries to stop his mom to prank some girls who humiliated Reese, because it's "wrong". Only in the previous episode before that, he was excited to use Hal's car along with Reese, to prank the school's band practice by spilling a pig's blood over them.
  • Inferiority Superiority Complex: While he acts condescending and smug about his intelligence, Malcolm is well aware that his genius intellect makes him an outcast, and is actually insecure as a result.
  • Insufferable Genius: Especially after he Took a Level in Jerkass. Downplayed in the earlier seasons, where Malcolm viewed his intelligence as something that made him a freak and was extremely self-conscious about alienating his friends and family if he demonstrated it. Played straight in later seasons when he shows Smug Snake tendencies often overlapping with his petulance and selfishness.
  • Intelligence Equals Isolation: Makes this the focus for the earlier seasons, before getting past it.
  • It's All About Me: He's extremely self-absorbed, though this was emphasized more due to Flanderization in later episodes.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Shown in many episodes. He can be self-serving, whiny, and hypocritical, but he's also able to be a decent, caring person (even towards his family), depending on his mood.
  • Karmic Trickster: His most heroic moments (mostly against authority figures like Herkabe) utilize this. He plays this role to get even at adults who abuse their power, and normally does so for the sake of his friends and family.
  • Middle Child Syndrome: Malcolm gets some form of this. He's frequently ignored/abused in favor of the older and younger siblings. Francis once unknowingly ranked all the brothers from most to least liked among them and put Malcolm at the bottom.
  • Money Fetish: Spoofed when Malcolm realized he was rubbing money against his face.
  • Never My Fault: Malcolm puts much, if not all, of the blame on his family for everything wrong in his life.
  • Nice Mean And In Between: Believe it or not, he is the Nice to Francis' and Dewey's Mean and Reese's In-Between, having had a few Pet the Dog moments here and there.
  • Not So Above It All: He's not always the voice of reason. He often joins his brothers in their antics.
  • Only Sane Man: To his delinquent, dysfunctional family, his impossibly nerdy, neurotic, and socially inept friends, his evil, petty, stupid neighbors and classmates, and the entirety of the selfish, unappreciative, unfair society around him. Deconstructed, as being this trope for too long and going through too much frustration as a result of his sane-ness turns him cynical and bitter enough for his OSM-cred to start slipping in the last couple of seasons (thought the finale strongly hints that he earns it back once he dares to live up to his potential).
  • Only Sane by Comparison: While he's usually more reasonable and down-to-earth than the rest of his family and his friends, Malcolm is still a cynical, neurotic and self-centered individual and always put the blame on others for everything wrong in his life. He also often joins in his brothers' antics and pranks, bullies Dewey like Reese, and does many stupid and self-harming actions all by himself.
  • Photographic Memory: One episode has him memorizing two credit card numbers within seconds as part of a numbers act, and another has him reciting which items a robber stole from a neighbor's house. Not to mention the first episode demonstrates that he can memorize an entire picture with just a glance.
  • Positive Friend Influence: Even with the kind of friendship they have, Abe notes that Stevie became more confident and outgoing from hanging out with Malcolm.
  • Renaissance Man: Malcolm demonstrates mastery of almost every subject that is thrown at him, from advanced math to mechanical engineering to chemistry to literature to acting - in just the first couple of seasons, when he was still a preteen. In fact, he angsts about not being able to decide what career to pursue, since he excels equally at everything he tries. Subverted in two episodes where he demonstrates how completely inept he is musically, even failing basic music appreciation, causing friction between him and Dewey as it is the one talent he can't seem to master that Dewey did.
  • Rite of Passage: For millennial boys who wore tight underwear and pajamas, exchanging their tight briefs and pajamas for loose boxer shorts as underwear and sleepwear was a rite of passage as they started to change in middle school locker rooms and attend sleepovers. Malcolm like most boys his age transitions from briefs to boxer shorts as his rite of passage as seen in later episodes. He asks for them at the beginning of season 2 episode 12.
  • Smug Snake: Especially in the later seasons as his egotism gets worse and worse.
  • The Snark Knight: A couple episodes try to tackle this directly (with him trying to suppress his desire to grumble and condescend for various reasons) but ends up blowing up in his face (he gave himself an ulcer once by swallowing down too much snark).
  • Stepford Snarker: He does this to hide his insecurity and loneliness over his Dysfunctional Family, the fact that his only peers are sheltered rich nerds who don't understand how poor peoples' lives work, and the fact that almost everyone else ostracizes him for being smart. In his words, "I pretend it doesn't bother me and then lash out at people who don't deserve it."
  • Teen Genius: A somewhat realistic one, in that he is not very stereotypically nerdy. He only hangs out with the nerds because other kids find him abrasive and condescending.
  • This Cannot Be!: Malcolm displays this attitude any time he tries to tackle the arts and fails. One of the earlier examples is when he buys a guitar and his mother explains to him that he'll end up returning it, because he takes after her and his mind just doesn't work that way. Although she turns out to be correct (his magnum opus is the melody from a cat food commercial), he doesn't remember this and tries again a few times. He takes a music appreciation class in the expectation that it will be an 'easy A', but it becomes evident that he's totally inept when he fails the first assignment and the teacher writes 'it's obvious you didn't even listen to it' when in fact he did. He's unable to connect emotionally to music or even understand what the music is attempting to provoke in its audience. What would otherwise be seen as basic jealousy toward his brother Dewey, who is a musical savant, seems more like a tantrum when compared to the considerable gifts he already has. It seems that he just can't stand the idea that there's anything he's not good at, and he sees Dewey's talents as less important (and deafens him temporarily out of vindictiveness). It's partly jealousy, but also disbelief that he could fail at something of any value. He seems to appreciate the arts only when he is successful, as he was with dancing, which may have something to do with how he finally appreciates music after recovering his hearing.
  • Too Dumb to Live: He's a genius but, like his brothers, often does moronic things. In a flashback he hangs his head over an open pair of scissors while Reese stands behind him, about to pop a balloon. A cop even calls him out on it after asking him why he didn't call the police instead of trying to dispose of a gun he found.
    Cop: So let me see; you found the gun, didn't tell your father, handled it, hid it inside the house, handled it again to move it and tried to destroy it with a hacksaw. And at no point did you contact the police until after the gun went off?
    Malcolm: Yes.
    Cop: What did you say your I.Q. was?!?
  • Took a Level in Jerkass: In later seasons, he became more arrogant, selfish and prone to anger and whininess.
  • Unreliable Narrator: Not exactly a narrator but many of his asides just prove how lacking in self-awareness he is.
  • Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Sometimes, especially in later seasons, where he becomes more arrogant and whiny.
  • White Sheep: His family routinely refers to him as "the good one" in contrast to his brothers. According to Hal, Malcolm's destructive streak is the only thing that keeps him from suspecting that he was switched at birth.

    Lois 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/download_16_5485.jpg
Played by: Jane Kaczmarek

"Fate is just what you call it when you don't know the name of the person screwing you over!"

The unquestioned head of the household, Lois is a very temperamental and overbearing woman. She is this because (to her mind) her borderline uncontrollable sons and scatterbrained husband would destroy themselves otherwise. It is demonstrated frequently that she loves her family more than anything, and would (and does) do anything for them. Doesn’t save them from the fact that she makes their lives a living nightmare as an unwanted, unlucky necessity.


  • Abusive Parents:
    • Aside from the well-known Financial Abuse, she is also implied to be physically abusive, given what Francis commented on what things his brothers should resist in regards to possible methods of extracting who burned her dress, and his being completely unfazed by the tortures a cult puts him through which resulted in their adopting Lois' methods. Of course, then again, given his obvious hatred towards his mother, it's possible that he either lied about it or led himself to believe it.
    • She originally intended to subvert it, as she intended to make her household lax of rules specifically because she didn't want to have her children go through the life she herself had to put up with Ida. Unfortunately, Francis as a child proved how faulty that line of thought was when he did several bad things which came to a halt when he attempted to douse his teddy bear with gasoline and set it on fire.
    • Lois herself was abused by her own mother, who is shown to be far, far worse than Lois ever gets with her sons. And unlike Lois (who mainly acts this way in order to keep her admittedly rambunctious boys safe), Ida is just a horrible, spiteful Jerkass.
  • Action Mom: Not a perfect mom by any means, but she's definitely this. The best example of her badassery is "Lois Strikes Back".
  • Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: She is often this due to her controlling, confrontational and wisecracking nature. In "Bowling" she unknowingly humiliates Malcolm by choosing to stay to chaperone the kids when she learns there's no adult to chaperone the party, and with her overbearing cheering attempts to and help him at bowling by making him bowl with a lighter ball with the name "Connie" on it. In several episodes she has also embarrassed her children by showing herself half-naked.
  • Anti-Hero: An Unscrupulous Hero at best and a Nominal Hero at worst.
  • Anti-Villain: The "woobie" type, her mother and her first son eventually led her to this.
  • Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: As harsh, abusive and uptight as she is, she really does love her family within all of her heart.
  • Berserk Button: Having motorcycles inside the house.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Though viewers almost always see the "Bitch" part, she's very good at hiding her true self from people outside of the family. It's implied that she does this to the department of child services.
  • Catchphrase: "Oh, for cryin' out loud!" and "What is wrong with you?!"
  • Character Development:
    • Mostly revealed through flashbacks, it's apparent that she wasn't always such a harsh or abrasive person. In flashbacks, she's shown occupying more traditionally feminine roles - while always strong-willed, she was apparently a cheerleader in college when she was dating Hal, and initially was quite sweet and tender about their growing family. Likewise, he was apparently very reckless and self-destructive as a young man, drinking and smoking and getting into fights, but she eventually beat that out of him. Parenting seems to have changed both of their personalities in a noteworthy way, it made Hal baffled and hapless, whereas it made Lois volatile and vindictive.
    • She also undergoes some later in the series, when she starts examining her parenting and relationships with her children. This is primarily focused on Francis. The first time she acknowledges her negative influence is after her mother is injured and she's leaving Francis to care for her mother, and she apologizes to Francis about not being a good mother to him, and that he deserved a more patient parent. She said she hopes she's been a better parent to the other boys, but it's unclear whether she was really worse toward Francis or if she just tends to feel guilty once the child in question starts to fly right out. At a later point, Piama calls her out, saying "no one is as useless as you think I am!", to which Lois stares for a moment and then agrees. This shows some self-reflection totally lacking in earlier seasons.
  • Control Freak: To the point where a random police officer calls her out on it, along with a Resident Advisor at a school she was visiting with Malcolm, though the RA admitted he was one too.
  • Deadpan Snarker: A trait passed down to Malcolm. Lois is pretty sarcastic at times.
  • Determinator: After Reese is sent to Afghanistan, she crosses half the earth in order to bring him back home.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: Played frequently and famously as a major character flaw, such examples would be in "Evacuation" (she grounds Malcolm for being late home from studying at the library, while insisting on continuing the punishment during a neighborhood-wide evacuation) and "Health Scare" (where Lois grounds Malcolm and Reese for a week for simply tracking mud on the kitchen floor, even after they promised to clean it up, though it's somewhat justified as she was distracted by a potentially terminal condition Hal had).
  • Distracted by the Sexy: One of the only healthy things Lois has is her sex life. Deconstructed however as while it's a good thing that Lois and Hal are still so attracted to each other even after five kids, it turns out that they are 'so' attracted to each other that a big part of why they live close to the poverty line is because they prioritize sex over home maintenance, money, raising their children and virtually everything else. When forced to not have sex for a week their lives dramatically improve in every other way. Plus, there’s the fact that their constant love-making is how they end up with the sons who torture them in the first place.
  • The Dreaded: Easily one of the feared characters of the show, if not the most. Even Francis' classmates at military school seem pretty frightened of her just from hearing stories of her.
  • Establishing Character Moment: In a flashback, she is seen as a meek mother that a young Francis walks all over due to her desperation to not be a horrible mother like her own mother. This continues until she definitively becomes the Lois we know today when she notices Francis playing with lighter fluid and matches.
    Lois: (taking away the matches and a teddy bear Francis spilled fluid on) Fire. Is. Dangerous. (takes the teddy bear and thrusts it into the fireplace, holding it there as it burns) Fire can hurt you. Fire can kill you. I will not let that happen. Let me make one thing clear: I love you, and I will do whatever I have to to take care of you and keep you safe, and happy, and alive. I don't care if you grow up to hate me, but you will understand this: I. Will. Do. Anything. That is how much I love you.
  • Evil Matriarch: She does have her moments, but it's nowhere near the level of her own mother.
  • Freudian Excuse:
    • Her mother was herself an Abusive Parent, reflecting what Lois would grow up to become.
    • For Francis directly, it's revealed a fair amount of her resentment towards him was due to being stuck in the hospital unable to care for him when he was born, and feeling rejected after finding out he was perfectly fine and oblivious to her absence when she came back. She made some attempts afterward to still maintain a gentle bond with Francis, but as he became more of a terror, she embittered into the matriarch of today that made damn well sure he (and his siblings afterward) knew precisely her role in his life.
  • Hair-Trigger Temper: She's easily provoked and often yells at her kids. Then again, being the mother of four rambunctious and rebellious boys will do that to any mom.
  • Happily Married: With Hal. For all their differences and dysfunction, they genuinely do love one another and are supportive of each other. They're even shown to have a pretty active and passionate sex life.
  • Hidden Depths: When the family attend Burning Man, Lois gets really into it and gets along extremely well with the people there and has the best time of anyone except perhaps Reese. The episode even ends with her and Reese making plans to go back next year.
  • Hollywood Atheist: Averted. She has no qualms with religion (even being willing to join a church community) or with her husband believing in Heaven, but when asked for her honest opinion, she reveals she believes what's on Earth is all we have.
  • Hypocrite:
    • In the episode she gets Malcolm a job at her store, in a variety of different ways. Malcolm calls her out on it repeatedly given how strict and principled she is at home, but she is utterly remorseless about it, spinning it as him learning harsh lessons about life.
    • In "Grandma Sues", she blows a fuse when her kids are upset about the new baby when she and Hal are just as upset.
  • Jerkass Has a Point: while she may be pretty harsh, if one takes into consideration how her children usually behave, it may not at all surprising why she acts the way she does.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Lois is the biggest jerk of the family. Despite this, it is shown that she does love her sons at the end of the day; they're just a handful to deal with at times.
  • Karma Houdini: Usually gets away with her immoral actions.
  • Karma Houdini Warranty: However, there are times (i.e. "Evacuation") where she gets her comeuppance, usually when her Control Freak nature finally comes back to bite her in the ass.
    • In "Jury Duty", despite the fact that she and all of the other members of the jury believed the defendant was guilty, Lois forced the other jurors to look at every single piece of evidence. This, in turn, caused a member who before voted guilty to vote innocent based on nothing other than the defendant went to church.
    • In "Traffic Jam", she spends a majority of the episode screaming at all of the emergency response crew members on how to perform their jobs, simply so she can get on moving. This culminates in her hijacking one of the cranes where one of firemen tells her flat-out that she's a control freak who can't expect to just yell at a massive traffic accident and expect it to instantly fix itself.
  • Karmic Trickster: In "Lois Strikes Back", after Reese gets pranked by a band of Alpha Bitches, Lois briefly turns into a Vigilante Woman and torments the girls to the point that they lose the things they cherished the most, e.g. a girl named Kristin having her hair shaved off due to getting gum on her head.
  • Knight Templar Parent: For all that she gets exasperated by her sons' antics, she will make you suffer if you harm a hair on their heads.
  • Lack of Empathy: Towards Malcolm, to some extent. Which explains Reese's callous nature.
  • Mama Bear:
    • She's overbearing, bossy and manipulative, but if you know what's good for you then you won't harm a hair on her sons' heads. She once ripped off her boss' wig for insulting Dewey.
    • In another episode where Reese lied to join the army she became an Afghan warlord solely to bring Reese home. All off screen of course.
  • Manipulative Bitch: The only one who is better than her at manipulating the family is probably Dewey.
  • Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: She and Hal have this dynamic. She's the harsh and authoritative one while Hal is much more wimpy and sensitive.
  • My Beloved Smother: Lois treats Malcolm (and only Malcolm, much to his misery and rage) this way. Her attempts to help him reach his full potential run the gamut from embarrassing (see "Malcolm Visits College") to nonsensically insane (see the quote below):
    "When I pick you a wife, I'll let her give you your precious space."
  • Not So Above It All: Sometimes she ignores or condones the rest of her family's behavior because it benefits her, like the time the boys framed Craig for a motorbike injury and Lois let them do it to get him out of their house.
  • Oblivious to Love: Lois was oblivious to Craig's obvious crush on her during the first few seasons.
  • Obnoxious In-Laws: Lois initially doesn't get along with Piama because of her sudden marriage to Francis and their clashing personalities. Lois herself is also horribly bullied by Hal's side of the family. When Hal's siblings trick Lois to exclude her from the family photo, Lois breaks down crying, and right after their family leaves the party, she starts to treat Piama with more respect and accepts her into the family.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Francis is thrown for a loop when he's hospitalized for appendicitis, expecting that Lois is going to resent that this time he's not responsible for ending up injured...and she's nice to him. Lois stands up to Commander Spangler trying to assign work to Francis while he's ill and gives Francis a sponge bath, mentioning that he must be in a lot of pain. Francis is shocked and calls her out for why she can't be like this all the time. It's revealed Lois draws the line at disciplining her children when they're deathly ill.
  • Parental Favoritism: Somewhat, towards Reese. She explains that this is because she knows Malcolm is smart enough to get out of difficult situations himself and Reese is the one who needs help. It is also implied that her ongoing grudge against Francis will never end, and she knows that no matter what, things will always work out for Dewey.
  • Parents as People: She has a parenting style that, if not abusive, is certainly very intense and can cause grief to her own kids. However, the boys are legitimately a handful to deal with, she has her own issues with an outright cruel mom, and she goes out of her way to defend her children from danger.
  • Pet the Dog:
    • "Shame" has her and Hal let Malcolm off the hook for beating up a seven-year-old. They admit that Kevin deserved it, and Lois comforts Malcolm when he says he feels like a monster.
    • In "Home Alone 4," Lois doesn't comment on Malcolm's forehead stitches and merely say "You boys." While she and Hal decide that Francis is still going to military school, they praise Francis for how responsible he's been.
  • Pitbull Dates Puppy: The "Pitbull" in her relationship with Hal.
  • Politically Incorrect Hero: Her hero status depends on the episode, but she has made more than her share of remarks that wouldn't go over well with some people.
    • Told Malcolm he would be able to "change the mind" of a girl who was a lesbian.
    • Was annoyed Hal's black friends weren't offended by a standee that she found racist.
  • Psychopathic Womanchild: While she thinks of herself as the moral center of the family, her melodramatic behavior, pathological need for control, and tendency to throw tantrums paint a picture of a person whose mental age lags far behind their physical age. She even implies after having her revenge on the girls that humiliated Reese that he likely gets his own psychotic tendencies from her.
  • Right for the Wrong Reasons: She's usually right about something but her line of reasoning for something being wrong is that things can't be that way because that would require her doing something wrong.
  • Sanity Slippage: Happens in the "Reese Joins the Army" trilogy, but gets over with it at the end of the second part.
  • Sociopathic Hero: Depending on the episode and how much she is being sociopathic at the moment.
  • Talking in Your Sleep: In "Smunday", her severe flu leaves her so delirious that she answers all of the boys' questions completely honestly, even things such as where she hides money or how she learned they were lying about giving away Dewey's bike.
  • Thicker Than Water: She considers loyalty to family to be one of the most important tenants in life, as she'll demand everyone attend the funeral for the aunt she despised simply because they're related.
  • Took a Level in Jerkass: In the earlier seasons she's still a hardass, but it's more of her doing whatever it takes to raise the boys (who aren't exactly angels themselves), as her flashbacks to raising Francis show that she was originally trying to be much less controlling and demanding, to no avail. However, as the series went on, she started to become more and more of a Jerkass for no reason. Especially when Malcolm started to work with her.
  • Tsundere: Type A. She's mostly aggressive with only some calm and friendly moments every now and then.
  • The Un-Favourite: Ida always liked Susan better, and Victor once told Hal he could do better than Lois.
  • The Unfettered: She will do anything to make sure the ones she loves will not be hurt, even if they will grow to utterly loathe her. In a rare case of ruthless prioritizing even among her own family, she on one occasion flatly explains that she'd abandon Malcolm to save Reese—her reasoning being that since Malcolm is a natural genius, he'd do fine without Lois' help, while Reese would be completely screwed without Lois' protection.
  • Verbal Tic: Tends to use the word "always" a lot. Susan calls her out on this.

    Hal 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/images_5_9107.jpg
Played by: Bryan Cranston

Malcolm's father and Lois' obsessive, slightly unstable husband. Easily distracted and prone to extremely vocal breakdowns, episodes frequently center around his fly-by-night obsessions, which are mostly attempts to break out of the mundanity and squalor of his day-to-day life. He is devoted to Lois, and delegates all of the running of the household to her.


  • Action Dad: He has his moments when the occasion calls for such.
  • Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Like Lois, he has embarrassed his children more than once by being naked or half-naked. He has also put his children in more than embarrassing situations, such as in "Houseboat" where he slaps a woman's rear due to have mistaken her for Lois and calls Malcolm for help while being arrested and that Malcolm is trying to impress a girl, causing Malcolm to pretend to not know him.
  • Angrish: Hal is reduced to furious incoherence on a few memorable occasions.
  • Babies Ever After: Confirmed in the finale, much to his and his wife’s annoyance.
  • Brilliant, but Lazy: Even more so than Malcolm, as Hal doesn't seem to realize how smart he is, saying he relates more to Francis and Reese. However, when Lois left for several days, he suddenly broke into a bout of insomnia-induced rebellion, topping it off with him building a highly impressive attack robot.
  • Bumbling Dad: Very much so, but it's made much more palatable by averting Foolish Husband, Responsible Wife, as his wife Lois is considerably flawed in her own right.
  • Butt-Monkey: Things never seem to work out for him.
  • Calling the Old Man Out: At his family reunion, he calls his father out for deflecting from ever having a real conversation with jokes and tickling. He wears multiple layers of sweaters in order to withstand his tickles as he does so.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: For example, when he and Craig Feldspar are obsessed with an arcade dance competition, Lois reminds him that can pursue this as far as he wants as long as he follows the rules he has agreed on with her in the past, such as that he has to continue to remain employed and she gets to freeze their joint checking account for the duration of his obsession.
  • Competition Freak: To go along with his manias, Hal will bust his ass and drive himself half-mad trying to be the best at them, whether it's jogging the fastest, winning a board game, or having nicer yard ornaments. And when he finally wins, he will rub it in and then some. He's particularly so obsessed with roller-skating that he puts each of his children through Training from Hell before he allows them to own a pair of blades.
  • Conspiracy Theorist: Hal appears to believe that there are hundreds of subtle ways governments are keeping the middle-class like him in check. His Kid Charlemagne radio persona takes this up a notch.
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: He may be dimwitted, inept and often times irresponsible but he has his moments.
  • Dark Secret: He has secretly given all of his boys their "One", a contract binding get out of jail free card only used when one of the boys have done something Lois would have lost her cool to a new level. Francis' strip joint visit, Reese killing a horse, Malcolm's chemist kit mishap (which burned off his and Hal's hair off) and Dewey's smoking habits.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: In "Billboard", a woman reveals to Lois that years ago, Hal faked his death and blew up a phone booth in order to get out of paying her some money he owed her.
  • Determinator: Even after having been injured in a car crash, strapped to a stretcher completely immobilized, and heavily sedated, he slinks out of the stretcher and runs back home (and even straps himself to the front of a truck to get home faster) because Lois was giving birth. Subverted when it turns out to simply be a hallucination, while he is really out cold in a hospital bed.
  • Distracted by the Sexy:
    • He and Lois have a very active sexual life. Deconstructed however as while it's a good thing that Lois and Hal are still so attracted to each other even after five kids, it turns out that they are 'so' attracted to each other that a big part of why they live close to the poverty line is because they prioritize sex over home maintenance, money, raising their children and virtually everything else. When forced to not have sex for a week their lives dramatically improve in every other way. Plus, there’s the fact that their constant love-making is how they end up with the sons who torture them in the first place.
    • At one point, Hal gives Dewey his wallet to drive him away because he was focused on having sex with Lois. He would later regret it when they find out that Dewey used all his cards and cash for supplies for a birthday party.
  • Everyone Has Standards: Hal normally tolerates the zany antics around the house. However, in the episode "Grandparents," he finds out that Lois's father brought a live grenade into the house and accidentally let Reese remove the pin; it's only by Malcolm's quick thinking to toss the grenade into the fridge that the boys aren't hurt. While Hal is angry since they just bought that fridge, he instead sits them down quietly when Ida shuts down Lois's understandable rage and tells him he wants $3000 in compensation, not as a loan. Not just for the damage to the fridge or the emotional abuse; he says that otherwise, he's reporting them to child services for nearly blowing up his sons.
  • Financial Abuse: Towards Malcolm.
    • Hal and Lois intercept a $10,000 college grant for Malcolm, and while thinking of ways to use the money for themselves, Lois blows it all on an antique dollhouse in a moment of temporary insanity. They both sell off and scrimp whatever they can to replace it, which ends up being nowhere near the original amount. True to his family roots, Malcolm blows it on fancy senior pictures, since he botched his school one.
    • At one point, Lois and Hal find out that since Malcolm tests so high on college aptitude tests, some credit card companies offer him free cards and accounts. Malcolm has enough sense to not use them immediately. Hal then steals the cards to pay for a family skiing trip, without Malcolm's knowledge or permission, which he clearly never intends to pay back. And he'll never be able to pay it off. Since the charges were fraudulent, Malcolm isn't liable. His father, however, could go to jail for that stunt.
  • Good Parents: Hal is this in the early seasons. He's shown to almost always be there for his sons, making sure to spend time with them both together and individually, and loves teaching them new skills or getting them involved in his hobbies. Starting around season 5, his Bumbling Dad tendencies get dialed up, and he becomes much more self-obsessed.
  • Happily Married: Despite the fact that he tends to be a Henpecked Husband and she's a Control Freak, Hal and Lois are this, genuinely supporting, loving, and respecting each other. Notably, in a media world that often sends up parents living in dead bedrooms, they're shown to openly have an (extremely) active sex life.
  • Henpecked Husband: Lois is pretty clearly the one in charge of their marriage. However, Lois doesn't boss him around for fun, just to make sure that nobody ends up in prison, the hospital, or the morgue. In episodes that have Lois going out of town without the family, he does things like tear down the outer wall of their bedroom, or build a killer robot with a laser-guided bee cannon. For his part, he seems to prefer having her in charge.
  • Jerkass Ball: Sometimes holds the ball by putting his own desires over everyone else.
  • Large Ham: Probably the hammiest member of the family, if not the entire show.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: He has been a victim of this at least twice. First was when his earlier claim that the nads were easy pickings when playing basketball with his sons resulted in him being hit in the crotch. The second time was in the episode, "Red Dress", where he ended up burning Lois's red dress that she intended to wear for their anniversary. As a consequence, he ended up having his anniversary dinner all by himself while waiting for Lois, and presumably burning the house while completely drunk in Lois and the boys' absence. It meant that presumably he'd be busted for both the fires and not telling Lois.
  • Life of the Party: In "Mono", despite having never been invited to their parties for years, the neighbors find Hal extremely fun to be around and start inviting him to all their parties since Lois, who they really hate, is out of commission for the episode.
  • Like Father, Like Son: Malcolm has inherited Hal's neurotic tendencies, Dewey has his eccentric nature, and Reese and Francis have inherited his recklessness.
  • Manchild: Will often pursue in certain hobbies and tends to get on easy with the boys due to his manic and energetic personality.
  • Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: He and Lois have this dynamic. She's the cruel and authoritative one while Hal is much more weak and sensitive.
  • Mistaken for Pedophile: When he winds up getting too invested in Dewey's love life, he tries to help out by driving alongside the girl Dewey likes and offering her chocolate. It looks as sketchy as it sounds and he ends up carted off by the police, although considering he took off and left Dewey to face the music when his first gift triggered the girl's allergic reaction, it's hard to say he didn't have it coming.
  • Naked People Are Funny: Quite frequently seen in his underwear or naked for this reason.
  • Nice Guy: While he can be short-sighted, impulsive, and childishly selfish, Hal is a well-meaning and loving family man and generally harbors no ill will towards anyone.
  • Nervous Wreck: He's easily stressed out to the point of panicking over the simplest things.
  • Obliquely Obfuscated Occupation: His exact job is somewhat vague though it is known that he works for a large horrible company and works out of a cubicle. He views it as unimportant and notes he could be replaced easily.
  • One-Hour Work Week: Mostly averted, though he is later revealed to have not worked on a Friday in fifteen years. Possibly justified by how horrible the company is and how unimportant Hal's contribution is. Justified even further when it turns out that the company Hal worked for purposefully scheduled all their illegal activities for the Fridays he was blowing off for the purpose of using him as a patsy.
  • Papa Wolf:
    • "Grandparents" shows what happens if you endanger his sons and have a Never My Fault attitude about it. Hal came home to see his father-in-law running outside with the boys in a hurry, only to see an explosion from inside the house. He has a Tranquil Fury expression when Reese confesses that his grandfather gave him a grenade and they accidentally removed the pin; Malcolm saved their lives by tossing the ammunition in the new fridge. When Lois's attempts to tell off her parents for bringing live weaponry near the boys fell flat because her mother yells back at her, Hal took the duo aside. He says that whatever issues they have with Lois is between her and them, but he wants three thousand dollars in compensation. Not a loan, as they ask, but to pay for the fridge and get some house repairs done. Hal then says, without raising his voice, that either they pay the money or he's calling the cops on them for child endangerment. "It's blackmail."
    • In the episode that’s about an alternate timeline where Lois had daughters instead of sons, Hal, although overweight, is also extremely protective of his daughters, although his daughters aren't appreciative of his efforts.
  • Parents as People: He's an easy-going guy, but often lacks the maturity needed in a father.
  • Pitbull Dates Puppy: The "Puppy" in his relationship with Lois.
  • Riches to Rags: Hal grew up in a filthy-rich WASP family, but now works what would be a middle-class job and lives even poorer because of his many kids and all their hospital bills. While it's not explored in-depth, this appears to be willful; his siblings and cousins are awful to Lois, and his father won't get involved or take anything seriously. It appears that even if he hates living in borderline poverty, he'd hate being in their debt even more.
  • Screams Like a Little Girl: Frequently bolts out a high-pitched scream when something goes wrong.
  • Token White: He's the token white friend to Abe and his poker buddies, as well as the token poor, but only the latter is directly addressed.

    Francis 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/images__711.jpg
"My new roommate showed me how to kill mice with a hammer yesterday, so you know, between that and the general atmosphere of simmering homoeroticism, I think I'm really starting to turn around."

The oldest of Hal and Lois' sons, Francis is a conniving delinquent who spends almost all of the series away from home - first at military school, then in Alaska, then at a Midwestern ranch. Episodes frequently split between Malcolm and whatever Francis is up to, making him a kind of star of a show-within-the-show. Similarly to Malcolm, Francis is quite smart and warm when he wants to be and even honorable up to a point, but is quite self-destructive and obsessed with one-upping his mother.


  • Advertised Extra: In the last two seasons he's always credited as a main character, but only appears in 11 out of 44 episodes.
  • Aesop Amnesia: In season 6, after being fired from the Grotto, he's back to the way he was during the first few seasons. On the other hand, considering he eventually gets a legitimate job, which he admits to enjoying, it's likely enough of the lessons he learned stuck with him enough to make an honest life for himself.
  • Anti-Role Model: His brothers idolize him, despite him being a messed up (former) delinquent. Reese, who looks up to Francis, could have gotten his delinquent tendencies from him.
  • Arch-Enemy: While Francis is constantly antagonizing his mother, his grandmother is a very different story, to the point Francis was near to kill Ida multiple times.
  • Because You Were Nice to Me: A trouble-making antagonist to his mother, Spangler, and Lavernia; it's understandable because they were all asses to him. As Otto and Gretchen are sweet and well-meaning, Francis not only shapes up, but defends them from those who wish to take advantage.
  • Berserk Button:
    • Do not, under any circumstances or for any reason even hint that you think that Lois is anything except the absolute worst mother in the history of the world. He went from refusing to fight Lavernia to socking her in the face the moment she mockingly tells him to go back to his mom so she can make him hot cocoa.
    • Similarly, don't say or even imply that he's a sheltered kid who had it easy or isn't as tough as he thinks he is. He also really hates being called lazy, spending nearly a week trying to prove otherwise when Lois offhandedly does so.
  • Big Brother Instinct: In line with Hypocritical Heartwarming, he establishes in Season 1 that only he can mess with his siblings. When Lois busts him for "undermining my authority" to save his brothers from getting tortured in "Red Dress", he points out that she's spending her anniversary obsessing over a dress rather than going to the restaurant with Hal. This allows Lois to save the night and forgive her sons, especially when it turns out that they really didn't burn her dress.
  • Big Brother Bully: He admits to Dewey that he tortured Reese and Malcolm, stole their toys, locked them in a closet, and apparently cut Reese on the shoulder deep enough to leave a scar with a Bayonet.
  • Big Brother Mentor: He assumes this role more throughout the series, though he can still have his Big Brother Bully moments from time to time.
  • Brilliant, but Lazy: He's extremely savvy and clever but coasts by on school work, eventually dropping out altogether.
  • Calling the Old Man Out: Frequently rebels against and insults Lois, and it is heavily implied that it is for no other reason than just to spite her.
    • His female equivalent, Frances, is similar, although her hate is more directed towards her dad, blaming him for none of her marriages working out.
    • His obsession with doing this to Lois is well illustrated in the episode "Bowling", which follows two versions of the same night. One of the differences between the nights is that, when Francis calls and asks for some money, he gets a different parent in each. He asks the same question the same way for both, gets the same basic answer from both (though Lois' is a bit more polite about it), but only blows up at Lois.
  • Character Development: He becomes a lot more responsible as the series progress. A very notable example is in the season 4 premiere "Zoo". In the episode, his and Piama's road trip across America results in them meeting a German couple named Otto and Gretchen who offer Francis a job at their dude ranch. One of the hands reveals that they don't do any work but get still get paid handsomely and tries to get Francis to join in on taking advantage of Otto's kindness. However, instead of taking that offer, something he would've done back in season 1, Francis refuses to let Otto be played for a fool after he was kind in giving him a steady job and has the Ranch hand fired while he starts work at the Ranch. In fact, many later episodes deal with how he fights his insane impulses. By the end, he is married and in a stable office job that, unlike Hal, he likes. It's possible though that Hal did like his job when he was the same age as Francis, but grew to resent it.
  • The Chew Toy: Especially in earlier seasons, he gets some very humiliating and painful punishment in most episodes.
  • Childish Older Sibling: The oldest brother who is sent to military school due to his immature and irresponsible behavior, but unfortunately, all his younger brothers see him as a role model. He does become more mature in later seasons.
  • Cool Big Bro: He's seen this way by Malcolm, Reese, and Dewey, though Francis himself admits to Dewey he's not sure why the former two see him as such given that he was really a Big Brother Bully to them.
  • Delivery Guy: He ends up being the one to deliver Jamie despite his, extremely understandable discomfort with the situation. After the baby's safely delivered a grateful Lois tells him he can go throw up which he immediately does.
  • Demoted to Extra: Goes from being a main character and showing up in every episode of the first five seasons to only making a handful of appearances in the last two.
  • Earn Your Happy Ending: After all his mistakes and antics, he ends up with a stable office job that he loves, remains happily married to Piama and overall has a comfortable suburban life that he is very content with.
  • Enfant Terrible: In the episode "Lois Fights Jamie", in flashback form, we learn that Francis was absolutely horrible as a toddler (it probably wasn't helped by the fact that Lois kept feeding him chocolate all the time either). Probably the worst act he committed was using the last of the china to pour a flammable substance (lighter fluid) onto his teddy bear, and then set it on fire, which also resulted in Lois becoming the mother she currently is. It's also hinted that Lois' attempt at loving Francis (by placing the already burning teddy bear in the fireplace, burning her hand in the process) was a painful memory for him, given his reaction when he tells Lois this.
  • Everyone Has Standards: He refused to fight against his boss, Lavernia, because he wouldn’t hit a woman — until she ended up mocking his mother (or rather, insinuated he was a momma's boy). He then fights back and the fight ended with a draw.
  • For the Evulz: Francis committed his delinquent behavior either to spite his mother (who told him not to do them) or just for the heck of it. In one episode, Francis has Malcolm and Reese attempt to determine who is the "better brother" by having them do his chores and schoolwork. When they realize that getting the other brother grounded is a much more effective way to win than doing Francis' chores, Francis notices this and finds it equally as amusing. The kicker is that Francis reneges and takes a girl he just met instead.
  • Fourth-Date Marriage: He and Piama knew each other a very short time before getting married. Slightly deconstructed when there are several moments where they wonder whether their relationship can work out, but ultimately they remain together.
  • Freudian Excuse: While a good portion of what happens to him is his own fault and he overdoes it by blaming Lois for everything, he does have a legitimate claim to this trope as he and Lois had an adversarial relationship practically from birth and even Lois later admits she wasn't the mother he deserved and took out her frustrations on him and sincerely apologizes to him.
  • Gender Bender: In the episode where Lois imagines if the boys were girls. Notably, Christopher also plays girl Francis while his brothers all got different actresses to portray them.
  • Gender-Blender Name: The female version of him is still called Francis.
  • Generation Xerox:
  • Happily Married: The series finale shows that Francis remains this way with Piama.
  • Hates Their Parent: To say that Francis resents Lois would be a vast understatement. Any comment that's even remotely kind to her will get you chewed out, and he'll often bend logic to "prove" that she's responsible for anything and everything wrong in his life.
  • High-School Hustler: Used to be a scheming student who is rebellious towards authority figures, and is still this in military school.
  • Hypocritical Heartwarming: He may pick on his brothers, but he makes it clear that no one else, not even Lois, has the right to do so. In "Red Dress," he gives them advice on how to withstand their mother's torture and defuses the situation by pointing out that Lois is spending her anniversary obsessing over a dress.
  • Irrational Hatred: Lampshaded as such In-Universe. Lois is not exactly mother of the year material and the brothers are definitely not angels, and Francis has completely lost view of how much crap happens in his life that is not Lois' fault (no matter how much he tries to blame her) until a psychiatrist dares him to in one episode and Francis almost has a breakdown with the resulting logic loop.
  • Jerkass Has a Point: While it's no excuse for his behavior, about 80% of the time his criticism of the family's dysfunctional dynamic is correct. Which is more often than even the show gives him credit for. In one example, he called out Hal and Lois for allowing Reese to move out despite the fact that he was underage, believing that Reese was being kicked out like Francis. This argument actually caused Hal and Lois to go to therapy to reevaluate their parenting skills.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Even during his academy days he does some genuinely nice things despite his delinquent nature (such as sticking up for another student when Spangler comes down too hard on him for a minor dress code infraction, trying to win back the TV through an organized hunger strike, and even cheering up Spangler himself when he got too drunk to meet Oliver North). He eventually emancipated himself and became a generally nice person (although he seemed to go back on being a Jerkass after he got fired from the dude ranch).
  • I Just Want to Be Normal: In the finale, he's working a dead-end career as a wage slave in an office somewhere. And he loves it.
  • Lack of Empathy: As evidenced in the Big Brother Bully trope, he did several heinous things. Also, he does very terrible and destructive things during his fights against his parents and is implied to have absolutely no remorse for any people he hurts as a result, and he actually ends up in emotional pain when he has to tell Lois how much she actually shaped his life in a memory that should be a pretty heartwarming memory.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: Suffers the consequences of his actions regularly.
  • Never My Fault:
    • He tries to pin (almost) all of his faults on his mother. In fact, he was legitimately stumped when his C.O. told him to think of one thing that he did wrong that he doesn't blame on his mother. The only time he actually did admit to wrongdoing without blaming his mother or anyone else was when he admitted that it was his fault that his brothers turned out the way they did.
    • In the final season we discover that he's a recovering alcoholic and that he has been blaming Lois for his problems in his AA meetings. Then Piama accidentally reveals that Francis is not a drunk but that he's just using AA to vent and Lois gives him a rare form of a "The Reason You Suck" Speech. She tells him that he needs to grow up and stop blaming his mistakes on her or on the alcohol, and leaves him to take a look at himself in the mirror, which he does... Until he sees Piama in the reflection, then he starts blaming her.
    • This trope comes full circle in that the majority of at least Malcolm and Reese's personality problems are most likely copied from him, not necessarily because of anything Hal and Lois did.
  • Nice Mean And In Between: He and Dewey are the Mean to Malcolm's and Jamie's Nice and Reese's In-Between, being an obnoxious Big Brother Bully to Reese and Malcolm.
  • Only Sane Man: Shows shades of this in Alaska when he's the only one thinking there's more to life than drunken revelry... and stolen totem poles.
  • Out of Focus: In the last two seasons, only appearing in 7 episodes of season six and 4 episodes of season seven.
  • Rebellious Spirit: He has an utter disdain for authority and lives life solely by his rules, which puts him at extreme odds with Lois.
  • Ridiculous Procrastinator: Resorts to making bugs race each other and completely unraveling his shirt to put off having to do his share of a history project. His partner even has to take a soda can away from him because of how easily he is distracted.
  • Right for the Wrong Reasons: When he learns that Reese was kicked out, he immediately blames Hal and Lois since they are supposed to protect Reese and he's not ready to move out. While was wrong about Reese being in danger, he's revealed to be financially irresponsible and has no housekeeping skills. Seeing that Reese can't look after himself, Hal and Lois drag him home by the ear out of anger since he had spent 10 to 11 thousand dollars in 10 days to senselessly decorate his apartment and buy new clothes (he didn't know how to clean, and he just bought new clothes as a result).
  • Screams Like a Little Girl: Francis sounds pretty shrill and rattled when he's screaming.
  • Too Broken to Break: In the episode "Sleepover," when the "Brotherhood of the Apocalypse" threatens to drop Francis into a bottomless pit, flog him mercilessly, and even put his head inside a cage with some hungry rats, Francis replies that these tactics don't scare him at all. The leader asks why wouldn’t he be afraid of anything they throw at him, Francis responds, through a series of flashbacks, that being publicly humiliated by Lois has numbed him, and doesn't fear anything else.
  • Too Dumb to Live: Shown in a flashback throwing a knife up in the air then extending his hand out to catch it.
  • Too Kinky to Torture: While attending military school, he was forced into a hazing ritual by the other students. None of their humiliations or scare tactics had any effect on him. He cites that being on the receiving end of Lois' child raising-tactics is the reason for this. The students then decide to use Lois for inspiration.
  • Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: As a toddler, Francis attempted to douse his teddy bear with gasoline and then set it on fire before Lois intervened. Later, as a child, he had locked his parents out of the car while his mom was going into labor, and he also frequently tortured his brothers, stole their toys, locked them in a closet, and at one point scarred Reese with a bayonet.
  • Unconfessed Unemployment: Played straight when he gets fired from the dude ranch and tells Piama he's on vacation. Inverted in the finale where he reveals he has a job and just pretends to be unemployed to annoy Lois.
  • Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Played straight, then subverted. He refused to fight against his boss, Laverina, until she insulted his mother (or rather implied that he was a momma's boy), causing him to fight back.

    Reese 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/download_14_5332.jpg
Played by: Justin Berfield

Reese is the second oldest of Hal and Lois' sons. Easily the stupidest and most violent of the clan, he fills in as dumb muscle or a sucker for Malcolm and Dewey's schemes... or he bullies the hell out of them, as he sees fit. Although Reese always had an idiotic puppy kind of charm, as the series progressed he developed from being a moronic fall guy into a slightly more nuanced and likable character.


  • Allegedly Dateless: Like Malcolm, he is a "loser" who is not well liked by anyone, but manages to have several short-term girlfriends during later seasons.
  • Ambiguously Bi: Reese has many girlfriends and crushes, but also shows a certain... interest in boys.
  • Anti-Hero: Starts off as a Nominal Hero, being a vicious bully. Character Development sees him becoming more of an Unscrupulous Hero.
  • Big Brother Bully: He bullies Malcolm and especially Dewey for most of the show, although Malcolm gives as much as he receives and joins in with bullying Dewey.
  • Big Brother Instinct: He beats up anyone who insults or makes fun of Malcolm at school. See Hypocritical Heartwarming.
  • Big Brother Worship: For Francis. Reese, Malcolm, and Dewey all look up to their older brother Francis because he dared to rebel and stand up to their aggressive, domineering mother Lois, while the rest of them are still at home under her control.
  • Book Dumb:
    • He's shown, more often than not, to be an ingenious planner, and it's sometimes implied that he's much smarter than he looks, but just doesn't apply himself.
      Malcolm: It's weird. Reese is one of the worst students at the school, but he's invented like fifty games, and they're all fun.
    • He once intentionally got 0% on a 50 question True/False quiz. This is just as difficult as getting 100%. However, he did do it the hard way i.e. working out the right answer, then putting down the wrong answer, instead of just giving no answer.
    • Hal had this to say when he formed an elaborate plan of vengeance against a garbage truck driver who'd been at odds with Hal:
      Hal: Son, if you could just apply this kind of focus and determination to your schoolwork... oh, that ship has sailed.
    • Reese's academics and studies is well below-average but he quickly masters practical skills such as cooking and his job as a butcher. In fact, Reese even came up with his own recipes for Thanksgiving and they all turned out amazing if Hal's taste testing was any indication.
  • Break Them by Talking: Instantly turns sad when reminded that he has no friends.
  • Brilliant, but Lazy: He's good at cooking and as noted above on Book Dumb, he can have a sharp mind for planning out schemes and general creativity but doesn't want to do anything with school. He seems to be very content with being a janitor.
  • Bruiser with a Soft Center: His sensitive side was always there, but it becomes more obvious in later episodes.
  • The Bully: In early seasons, Reese often tortures his younger brothers and is a violent, feared bully even at school. It becomes a plot point in the episode "Bully" when he temporarily decides to become nicer, but without Reese as the "head bully", an Evil Power Vacuum ensues and the school descends into total anarchy with dozens of wannabe bullies jockeying for his position.
  • Bunny-Ears Lawyer: For all his quirks, he is a good chef.
  • Chaotic Stupid: But explicitly not Stupid Evil. He's generally an idiot with few inhibitions and sees no problem in doing something For the Evulz, but he's morally against doing anything that's just unjustifiably cruel. For example, when an ice cream truck refused to sell anything during a Heat Wave, Reese outright calls the owner evil:
    "You could be making people happy and making money right now! You are evil!"
  • Character Development: Early in the series, he's just a Dumb Muscle Jerkass with a rather excessive Lack of Empathy (he even has to be told he has that lack of empathy because he's so incapable of seeing it himself). Later on, while not exactly smarter, he gets a bit nicer and his bullying tendencies are actually toned down. He seems more socially adjusted and is able to carry on normal conversations without coming off as a sociopath. He also seems to get along with his brothers a little better later on and is somewhat more open-minded (for instance he attempts to embrace religion for a little while). In one of the later episodes he even says that the little voice in his head that tells him to do stupid things is getting quieter and a voice that tells him not to do things is getting louder.
  • Childish Older Sibling: He's a destructive, idiotic delinquent. Two of his younger brothers are brilliant and Wise Beyond Their Years.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Became this in later seasons after Character Development. One episode has Malcolm prepare a stunt for him as he's filmed to be featured on a website, and he's happy about it.
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: His battle strategy during his stint in the army is proof enough of that.
  • Disappointing Older Sibling: Unlike Francis (who is adored by all his younger brothers), Reese is not liked nor respected by anyone in the family, because of his stupidity and sociopathic tendencies. Dewey even called him the worst brother ever.
  • The Ditz: After Malcolm gives him a book report guaranteed to be an A, his (then) girlfriend, Alison, realizes that she forgot to do hers, lamenting on how she can't afford another F. Reese's solution? Tearing the report in half, ensuring that "now [they'll] both get Cs".
  • The Dreaded: Was this in his school. The only reason Malcolm's smart mouth hasn't gotten him beaten up yet was because everyone was scared of his violent Knight Templar Big Brother Reese. When Reese temporarily stops being violent, a lot of classmates turn against Malcolm.
  • Dumbass Teenage Son: To quote his own mother: "Some people have book smarts, some people have street smarts, you have neither."
  • Dumb Muscle: Despite his skinny appearance, he's violent and aggressive enough to be the most feared bully in his school, at least in the early seasons. Played even more straight as his actor grew; the guy clearly liked to work out.
  • Everyone Has Standards:
    • He's a bully, but, being the "alpha bully", he declared the disabled Stevie off-limits for bullies (including himself unless Stevie partakes in the abuse of his own volition). In fact, making sure the other bullies respected his standards eventually became his reason to retain his alpha-bully status.
    • Even when he finally snaps and decides to beat up Stevie because he keeps humiliating him, Reese completely numbs and weakens his own legs to make it a fair fight. Unfortunately, Stevie isn't above taking advantage of this.
    • While he makes other nerds do his homework for him, he doesn't want to interfere with their weekends and apparently protects the nerds who work for him from the other bullies.
    • When Richie (one of Francis' deadbeat friends) encourages him to embezzle, he does the right thing and sneaks the money right back into the register. Malcolm was surprised by this, he even asks Reese if he did take the money.
  • Flanderization: Reese at the start of the show was below average in intelligence when it came to his studies and had quite a few friends as he has been shown to play and get along with the neighborhood kids quite well (at least outside of school). His later appearances when he goes into high school depicts Reese as someone whose schoolwork is so poor that his writing was confused for something his toddler brother Jamie wrote. Reese's social circle went from being a feared but respected bully in school and an ordinary kid others played with out of it to being someone with no friends where it could be counted on one hand to name the people around Reese's age who does like him.
  • Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The Foolish to Malcolm's Responsible. He's a dimwitted bully while Malcolm is the more resourceful and considerate genius.
  • For the Evulz: He likes to cause chaos and destruction just for the fun of it.
  • Friendless Background: While everyone in the family is heavily disliked by most people, Reese is the only one with no friends at all throughout the show. The only exceptions are Abby, his former female army buddy who appears in an episode named "Army Buddy", a few girlfriends, and sometimes hanging out with Malcolm's buddies.
  • Friendly Enemy: Eventually develops this relationship with the Krelboynes he bullies, possibly because of Malcolm. When he goes to high school, the middle schoolers a grade younger greet him over the fence like an old friend and cheerfully introduce his replacement.
  • "Friends" Rent Control: Gets his own apartment in one episode but has to move back home at the end when it turns out he's been paying for it by racking up thousands of dollars of credit card debt.
  • Gender Bender: The female counterpart of him that Lois imagined in one episode was a selfish Alpha Bitch who also was pregnant.
  • Genius Ditz: He's Book Dumb, but he's very creative and a great chef.
  • Good Feels Good: He genuinely enjoyed setting up a date between residents in a nursing home.
  • Happiness in Slavery: Downplayed since he wasn't conscripted. While he was in the military, he found purpose and happiness by simply switching off and following orders without question. He believed that if he questioned his orders then it would just complicate things and cause confusion.
  • Happiness in Minimum Wage: Not everyone would be happy at having to spend the rest of their lives as the janitor of their own high school... except for Reese, who is actually ecstatic about the job, and gets even more excited after being given the briefing on his first day about his daily tasks. He gets so attached to the job that he is willing to do anything to keep working there.
  • Hearing Voices: He has mentioned hearing voices on more than one occasion. One time, he told Dewey that the voices are not his friend, and another time he comments about how the voice in his head that tells him to do stupid things was getting quieter while the one that tells him not to do stupid and dangerous things is getting louder.
  • Hidden Depths:
    • He's secretly ashamed that he can't do math.
    • When Malcolm and Stevie are doing a difficult project and Reese asks if he can help, Malcolm puts him down as usual. Reese angrily questions why Malcolm always treats him like he can't do anything when he was just trying to be helpful — a rare insightful moment from Reese.
    • Reese turns out to be a Supreme Chef. Hal and Lois eventually discover that forbidding him to cook could also be used as leverage.
    • He's actually quite capable of applying himself academically when away from his family's influence, earning an A on a school assignment in "Reese's Apartment". Subverted when we find out Reese still doesn't know finance or how to do laundry.
  • Hypocritical Heartwarming: He mocks and beats up Malcolm and bullies Dewey all the time, but if anyone else calls them names or tries to pick on them, he takes it as his duty to kick the offender's ass in retaliation.
  • Insufferable Imbecile: Not only is Reese the dumbest of Malcolm's brothers, he's also the most violent, derives enjoyment from others' pain, and doesn't even know what "empathy" is.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While he started off as the biggest Jerkass in seasons 1 and 2 - citing physically assaulting Dewey as his favorite activity - he got better in the later seasons, as he even mentions a voice getting louder that's telling him not to do stupid things.
  • Karmic Butt-Monkey: He's even more of a Butt-Monkey than Malcolm. Although considering that he's a brainless, obnoxious bully and very mean to everyone, he deserves it most of the time.
  • Kiddie Kid: In the later seasons, especially with regard to school and authority figures in general. Despite being over a year older than Malcolm, a lot of the time, he seems more like he's Malcolm's younger brother.
  • Knight Templar Big Brother: He will attack any other student who dares to insult Malcolm at school. Malcolm finds this out in early season 1, and it later becomes a plot point in a season 2 episode, where Malcolm finds himself in trouble without his brother's protection.
  • Lack of Empathy: In a cooking contest, despite being the clear winner, he joyfully sabotages the other contestant's dishes For the Evulz.
    Lois: How would you feel if you were that woman whose quiche you salted?''
    Reese: ...Fat?
    Hal: Reese, do you know what empathy is? Empathy is putting yourself in other people's shoes so you can feel what they do. If you hurt someone, empathy makes you hurt as well.
    Reese: Then why would you want empathy?
  • Loving Bully: Reese tries this with a girl he has a crush on, and then doesn't understand why she hates him as a result. Unsurprising, since bullying is his go-to approach for practically everything.
  • Morality Pet: For Lois, at times. She explains that this is because she knows Malcolm is smart enough to get out of difficult situations and Reese is the one who needs help.
  • Nice Mean And In Between: The In-Between to Malcolm's and Jamie's Nice and Francis' and Dewey's Mean. Despite being the Token Evil Teammate of the family, he got better in later seasons, making him go from a Jerkass Big Brother Bully into a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
  • Pet the Dog: He helps Stevie flirt with a girl that he wanted to get with. It's implied he was doing it so he could watch them fool around.
  • Platonic Life-Partners: With his army buddy, Abby. He did briefly try to hook up with her but this was more because he thought she was into him than feeling romantic to her.
  • The Prankster: A lot of his bullying comes off as this.
  • Psychopathic Manchild: Or rather "Psychopathic Kiddie Kid"; he's basically an undisciplined five-year-old in the body of a teenager. He's short-sighted, doesn't care about the feelings of others, and reacts to any insult or inconvenience with violence.
  • Real Men Cook: He's quite good at it too.
  • Sitcom Archnemesis: With Stevie, as the series goes on; he's jealous of the fact that Stevie is Malcolm's (the closest thing he has to a friend) intellectual equal and gets into petty feuds with him. Comes to a head in "Reese Fights Stevie".
  • The Sociopath: Especially in the earlier seasons where he shows no remorse for his deeds.
  • Supreme Chef: Would have won the cook-off hands-down if he hadn't decided to cheat anyway. And let's not forget his Thanksgiving spread.
  • Token Evil Teammate: While the whole family does some bad things and acts amoral at times, Reese is the delinquent of the family and that trait makes him easily the worst (it's very possible he could have gotten this from his older brother, who is also a bit of a delinquent and who Reese looks up to).
  • Too Dumb to Live: His bread and butter. Dewey claims, "He almost killed himself with Bisquick once." The best example of it may be the time when he pulled the pin of a grenade in Victor's war kit.
  • Took a Level in Dumbass: He always had below-average intelligence, but as time went on, it went from failing school to his homework being mistaken for something Jamie made.
  • Took a Level in Kindness: He starts to be a more decent person in later seasons. He actually describes a voice that has been getting louder telling him not to do stupid or cruel things.
  • Troll: Tends to ruin people's lives just for kicks.
  • The Unfavorite:
    • Averted. Despite Reese being a delinquent, stupid, slacking D-student who causes more trouble than all his siblings combined (which is saying something), Lois doesn't treat him any worse than she treats Malcolm, the family prodigy. In fact, when a Sadist Teacher tries to blackmail her by claiming she'd never risk Malcolm's reputation to save Reese's, rather than dismiss Reese for being a failure, Lois claims she would throw Malcolm under the bus for Reese in a heartbeat because Malcolm is smart enough to take care of himself while Reese needs someone to keep him alive. The sadist teacher's skepticism is destroyed when Lois' firstborn Francis suddenly appears and begs her to be let back in.
    • Also averted with his maternal grandparents, Victor and Ida. They treat him far better than the rest of the family, due to him fitting their idea of manliness by being a strong and cruel bully, and not being intellectual at all.
  • Virginity Makes You Stupid: Unlike Malcolm, Reese ends the series as a virgin because of his non-existent social skills with girls or his inability to realize when girls are actually into him. The most glaring example is him believing there's a "waiting period", since he didn't get to consummate his marriage with Raduca because of this made-up rule. He is still a virgin because of his stupidity, or because he is too naïve about these topics since he hasn't experienced sex yet.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: With Malcolm, eventually. As much as they treat each other like crap very often, they can be genuinely loving towards each other.
  • We Want Our Jerk Back!: When he temporarily gives up bullying, the resultant Evil Power Vacuum makes everyone's lives ten times worse.
  • Would Hit a Girl:
    • His response to wrestling a girl for a tournament was "I get to beat up a girl. Cool." She hands him his ass.
    • Averted in one episode where he refuses to hit a little girl who continually bites him. He even points out that she is using this to her advantage.

    Dewey 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/download_15_2197.jpg

Dewey is the youngest of Hal and Lois' sons - at least until Jamie comes along. Dewey is a quiet, devious, and a rather spooky character who is frequently underestimated (or flat-out ignored) by the rest of his family. He became slightly less weird and more assertive as the series went on.


  • Annoying Younger Sibling: To Malcolm and Reese, mostly in early seasons. They both hate spending time with him and see Dewey as a nuisance.
  • Anti-Hero: Depending on the episode, he shifts between being a Knight in Sour Armor or a Pragmatic Hero.
  • Apple of Discord: Spends an entire episode asking seemingly innocuous questions to Hal and the other buddies in his acapella group (e.g. "How come you're always in the back?") that immediately breed anger and resentment to the point that they temporarily disband. He also does the same thing to a pair of dancers, who are later seen arguing in the background.
  • Big Brother Instinct: Dewey will do everything in his power to protect and nurture the kids in the special classroom because no one else is willing to. Also to his younger brother, even tricking his own parents to ensure that the younger brother gets the attention from his parents that he himself never got because they were always too busy dealing with their more troublesome kids.
  • Big Brother Worship: For Francis (well, sort of; they barely interacted before he was sent to Military School, so he doesn't have as much personal worship as Malcolm and Reese) and he generally likes him more because he never bullied him as much as Malcolm and Reese did.
  • Big Eater: Especially if it’s about candy.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He's possibly the most devious family member.
  • Butt-Monkey: In early seasons, he gets bullied a lot by Reese (and sometimes Malcolm joins in with bullying Dewey). Averted in later seasons where he's probably the only character who is not a Butt-Monkey.
  • Calling the Old Man Out: He frequently manages to get revenge against Hal and Lois whenever they neglect him or treat him unfairly. Hal forgot his birthday, which led to Dewey publicly shaming him in front of every single attendee at a Bridal Expo. Lois saying she couldn't get a vital component to a science experiment (which led to Dewey failing) resulted in Dewey Gaslighting her. And for the most part, he actually gets away with it.
  • Character Development: Undergoes this more than any other character (with the possible exception of Francis). Over the course of the series, he evolves from a ditzy Cloudcuckoolander with an overactive imagination into a Wise Beyond His Years child prodigy who is just as smart as (if not more than) Malcolm. Justified, given that he ages through the most critical period of child development during the time course of the series (going from a pre-adolescent child in the pilot to a young teenager in the finale).
  • The Chessmaster: He shows shades of this in later seasons.
  • Child Prodigy: He's a musical genius, and was able to build a functioning pipe organ out of random household stuff when Hal wouldn't buy him one. He also is shown to have a talent for magic, even performing his own magic show in front of a shopping mall which raked him over a thousand dollars.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Early in the series. Comes back a couple of times in later seasons when he loses himself in his own fantasies while telling stories to Jamie. Also, when Hal opens up a hair boutique in the kitchen, he arranges to keep the hair.
  • Creepy Child: He always has shades of this throughout the show, due to his slightly manipulative ways. Justified when you look at his older brothers.
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Not a moron, per se, but certainly weird. And he can definitely bring his A-Game when needed.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Even for a child, he's pretty sarcastic. It increases more as he grows older.
  • Deliberately Cute Child: Malcolm and his brothers often accuse Dewey of being this.
  • Ditzy Genius: Dewey is known for his quirky Cloudcuckoolander behavior, but he's later revealed to be almost as intelligent as Malcolm.
  • Dumbass No More: While never really dumb, in early seasons he was a naïve Cloudcuckoolander and never implied to be a genius. In later seasons, he's as smart as Malcolm.
  • Evil Twin: The B-Plot of "Forbidden Girlfriend" had Reese get mad at a guy with a muscle car that was speeding through the neighborhood, and being jealous that people randomly gave Dewey money for no reason. When Reese discovers that Dewey had been getting the credit, and money, for another kid's good deeds, he conjures a plan to exploit the fact that Dewey looks almost identical to the other kid. For their first act of vandalism, Dewey fills up the guy's muscle car with cement and Reese blames it on the other kid. Wanting to replicate the success of that prank, Reese comes up with a list of things they could do to blame the other kid for while getting none of the blame. Dewey reveals the scam to his "twin" and the guy in the muscle car, who promptly gets some payback on Reese.
  • Fatal Flaw: His inability to think about the consequences of his schemes. For example, he never considered that, even though it was for Jamie’s sake, that his parents would still punish him for pretty much stealing their money and spending it without regard. Sometimes it’s not even an inability; he once chose to outright ignore the fact that once he inevitably lost his Right-Hand Attack Dog, his brothers would come down on him like a pile of bricks for the night of humiliation he put them through. Sure enough, once Marshmallow was gone, his brothers waste no time in making him pay.
  • Foil: As he grows up and begins showing more intelligence, he becomes a counterpart to Malcolm.
    • While Malcolm is an intellectual genius who aces Science and Literature, Dewey has a better social and emotional intelligence. Malcolm becomes envious of Dewey being better than him at Music and Arts.
    • Despite their more rational personalities, Malcolm keeps bullying Dewey along with Reese, while Dewey decides to break the pattern with his relationship with Jamie, who he treats with respect. Reese and Malcolm are incapable of understanding this.
    • Both Malcolm and Dewey get to have moments with Lois when they can talk openly without screaming at each other, sometimes learning that Lois only reacts badly whenever they misbehave. Malcolm often ends up forgetting this and goes back to getting in trouble and antagonizing Lois. Dewey seems to learn from this and avoid trouble for the most part.
    • Lois and Hal’s plans for both also divert at some point. Lois admits that Malcolm needs to have the hard way to build character, while the easy way up full of wealth and immediate success is for Dewey. This shows that both their parents are already aware on both their personality qualities and flaws.
  • For the Evulz: One episode has him use mind games to tear apart two different bands before they perform in a concert because he was bored.
  • Guile Hero: He doesn't need strength to win, just simple mind games and manipulation.
  • Hidden Depths: He demonstrates a surprising talent at the game of table skittles (swinging a little ball on a chain to knock down a set of nine pins), but only at home. As soon as Hal takes him to a convention to show him off, he can't play worth squat.
  • Ignored Epiphany: Tried to explain one to Reese and Malcolm in "Buseys Run Away". After finally being put in a normal classroom, Dewey lacks the drive to commit heinous pranks with his brothers like he used to. Therefore, he starts bonding with Lois while Malcolm and Reese keep getting punished. They don't understand what's going on, and Dewey tries to explain that the reason Lois is acting so nice to him, is that he hasn't done anything stupid or destructive, so she hasn't needed to punish him. "It's not her, it's us." His brothers didn't get what he was saying and automatically assumed he's become Lois' spy (although considering Lois once said that she sometimes treats one son better to make them turn on each other, they're right to be suspicious). The epiphany turns out to be wrong when it turns out Lois is treating him differently only because he managed to move back to the regular class.
  • Karmic Trickster: He's good at getting revenge, especially on his brothers.
  • Manipulative Bastard: Is a master at playing head games; even manages to drive Lois of all people insane in one episode. His favorite victims are his father and Reese though.
  • Mouthy Kid: In earlier seasons, he was a loudmouthed kid who got on everyone else's nerves.
  • Mr. Imagination: When his brothers are each imagining what they'd do with a motorbike they found, Dewey is meanwhile imagining having six arms to eat six cookies at once. Just to name one of many Imagine Spots he's had. It's revealed in one episode that whatever his mom is really saying in earshot of him, he just hears her calling his name and ONLY his name.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: He seems to play down his genius in order not to be forced into things as Malcolm is. Even the viewers didn't know he was a genius until season 4.
  • Only Sane Man: Later in the series, he becomes more responsible and sane, compared to his crazy family.
  • Parental Neglect: Despite being the youngest child, he is often neglected by his family and receives the least amount of attention from his parents. This comes to "MORP", when he finds out that they don't have a single picture of him as a baby, and Lois and Hal are completely unfazed by it.
  • The Stoic: In the last season he's good at hiding his emotions and acting calm or indifferent, especially as part of his schemes.
  • Too Dumb to Live: In a flashback: while one of his brothers is cranking the pedal of an overturned bicycle, he takes a bite out of the spinning wheel. He grows out of this much quicker than his brothers and starts to take pleasure in hurting and manipulating others instead.
  • Took a Level in Jerkass: He becomes as much of a Jerkass as the rest of his family as the series goes on, but given how he was always the punching bag of the brothers, it's at least somewhat justified.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Dewey is willing to do anything to ensure Jamie has a decent childhood, even if it means tricking or humiliating his parents in the process.
  • Wicked Cultured: Dewey is the most cultured, sophisticated and artistically inclined member of his family (and clearly the second most intelligent), and arguably the most devious. Lois realizes it's likely Dewey that was Gaslighting her because she knew Reese couldn't possibly have kept it a secret for so long and Malcolm didn't have the patience he did.
  • Wise Beyond Their Years: As he grows up, he becomes almost as bright as Malcolm and much more mature.
  • Youngest Child Wins: Turns out to be a firm believer of this and is thus the most immediately devastated of the brothers when Lois becomes pregnant with Jamie. That said, he is apparently the one kid his parents picture growing up enjoying an easy life of wealth.

    Jamie 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jamie_wilkerson.jpg
Played by: James and Lukas Rodriguez

Lois and Hal's youngest son, born halfway through the series. Although obviously extremely young, he seems destined to follow in his brothers' chaotic footsteps.


  • Ambiguous Gender: He was born halfway through season 4 but his gender wasn't revealed until the opening of the fifth season.
  • The Baby of the Bunch: As of season 4, Dewey's role as the youngest child has been given to Jamie.
  • The Cutie: He's incredibly adorable. Granted, he's just a little kid.
  • Cute Mute: He can be really cute despite all the horrible things he does. And he hardly talks at all, aside from his first words (telling Lois to shut up).
  • Enfant Terrible: He's so bad that he actually manages to break his mother's spirit. Subverted as this behavior was because of Reese giving him energy drinks.
  • Token Good Teammate: Downplayed. While he has had a few Enfant Terrible moments here and there, Jamie seems to be the least bad of the kids.
  • Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: From stealing from the neighbors to nearly killing his mother, he's proven himself to be as big as a threat as his brothers. Subverted with nearly killing Lois, as that was because Reese was giving him energy drinks.

Friends And Classmates

    Stevie Kenarban 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/steviek.jpg
"Crying on... command... got me... a cable modem!"

Malcolm's best friend and classmate.


  • Beware the Nice Ones:
    • When Reese abuses him with the Circle Game too many times, Stevie begins to finally get revenge.
    • In another episode, Stevie uses a robotic exoskeleton (which he controls with his tongue) to beat up Reese. Now keep in mind, Reese temporarily paralyzed his legs because he thought Stevie would fight fair. He instantly knew he was in trouble when Stevie used the exoskeleton to break down the garage door.
  • Black and Nerdy: He's Malcolm's black friend from his class of geeks.
  • Corrupt the Cutie: Starts off the series as a rather innocent kid (thanks to overprotective parents), but then he started hanging out with Malcolm and his family. Downplayed somewhat, however—from his first appearance, he's willing to use his disabled status for a Wounded Gazelle Gambit.
  • Disabled Snarker: Despite speaking slowly and using a wheelchair, he has no problem showing his snarky side.
  • Genius Cripple: Along with being in a wheelchair, having one lung, and asthma, he's one of Malcolm's classmates in his gifted class.
  • Handicapped Badass: He started out as quite innocent and helpless but as the series progresses he becomes much more confident. He joined the school's wheelchair basketball team, uses his wheelchair as a weapon against bullies (by running them over), and was revealed as a mystery badass street racer in one episode. Interestingly, a lot of this takes place after his Mom leaves, suggesting it was her over-protectiveness that made him underconfident.
  • How's Your British Accent?: Stevie's prerecorded speech during "Kitty's Back" (which in-universe is edited to be faster) is the only time actor Craig Lamar Taylor gets to say more than one or two words between breaths on the show.
  • Only Sane Man: Sometimes when he's hanging out with Malcolm and his brothers.
  • Speech Impediment: Due to having asthma and just one lung, he can only say a couple of words per breath.
  • Teen Genius: Along with Malcolm and the rest of the Krelboynes.
  • Took a Level in Jerkass: He becomes kind of a jerk in the later seasons, particularly after Kitty leaves. He actually realizes this in "Reese vs. Stevie" and in his final 2 appearances, he's a lot nicer.
  • Twofer Token Minority: He Lampshades this, noting that as a black, asthmatic man with one lung in a wheelchair, he can get pretty much any job he wants with his "tokenism".
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: With Malcolm. They're best friends but will snark at each other, with Stevie not being afraid to call Malcolm out when he does something crazy or stupid.

    Dabney Hooper and Lloyd Jensen 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/llyoddabney.jpg

  • Ambiguously Gay: Both are effeminate (Lloyd moreso) and are hinted at being attracted to men on a few occasions.
  • Alcoholic Parent: Dabney mentions that his mom will drink to the point of passing out.
  • Abusive Parents: Lloyd comments that his mother calls him a failure in one episode. Dabney's mother insults him for not being as smart as Malcolm, only buys him birthday presents that he can use on her and nonsensically rants about how she knew letting him have friends was a bad idea at one point.
  • Break the Cutie: In "Emancipation". They start the episode trying to impress their new teacher, but as the episode progresses, they become so broken by Herkabe's ranking system that being outsmarted by Malcolm is enough to send them on a massive meltdown.
  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Both disappeared after season 4, although it's possible they have some off-screen interactions with Malcom or just drifted apart. Lloyd does get a brief mention in the season 5 episode "Goodbye Kitty".
  • Ditzy Genius: Lloyd can be easily distracted or fooled but he's a Krelyborne for a reason.
  • Drama Queen: Lloyd's often purposed solution is group suicide.
  • It's All About Me: In "Baby. Part Two", Lloyd arrives in the middle of the chaos just focused on getting Malcolm's notes for an assignment. Just as Lois is going into labor, he only goes to the room to request silence so he can finish the essay.
  • Incredibly Lame Pun: Lloyd loves these. He even offered to e-mail Malcolm a whole list of them.
  • In Touch with His Feminine Side: Both of them enjoy somewhat girly accessories.
  • Large Ham: Both of them, but especially Lloyd.
  • Poke the Poodle: When they attempted to haze Malcolm, which consisted of not saying "bless you" when he sneezed. Naturally, Malcolm didn't even notice.
  • Momma's Boy: Dabney. As Malcolm puts it "Mama's boys are laughing at you with their mothers!"
  • Nerd Glasses: Along with Stevie, Dabney is the only one in the group of nerds who wears glasses.
  • Perky Goth: Lloyd briefly becomes one in "Cliques".
  • Prone to Tears: Lloyd, who can burst into tears for almost any reason.
  • Teen Genius: They are gifted students like Malcolm and Stevie.
  • Theme Naming: Dabney and Lloyd are the names of two dormitories at Caltech University in Pasadena, CA.
  • Those Two Guys: Usually appear together and are usually minor characters who hang out with Malcolm from time to time.
  • TV Genius: In contrast to Malcolm, who subverts the trope, they are stereotypically nerdy and uncool.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Dabney, after venting out his Mommy Issues with paintball.

    Cynthia Sanders 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cynthia_4.jpg
Played by: Tania Raymonde

  • Badass Israeli: She has been trained in IDF defensive combat at some point in the past and is able to beat up Reese with little effort.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: She's a very sweet person but is highly trained in Krav Maga and not afraid to use it.
  • Beware the Silly Ones: Has a very goofy and spacey personality and can effortlessly beat up Reese.
  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Like Dabney and Lloyd, she disappears after Season 4. For that matter, she disappears several episodes earlier than them.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: She can be a bit spacey, even by Krelboyne standards.
  • D-Cup Distress: In the episode "Cynthia's Back", she develops large breasts, which she immensely dislikes and tries to hide by wearing large sweaters.
  • Ditzy Genius: A Teen Genius who just happens to have a goofy and awkward personality.
  • Genki Girl: In her early appearances, she's incredibly cheerful and perky.
  • I Just Want to Have Friends: She constantly tries to fit in with her peers, even going so far as to plan a party for socializing. To Malcom's surprise, it's a success.
  • Informed Judaism: Cynthia is referred to as Jewish, given her time with the IDF, but doesn't display any religious leanings.
  • Manic Pixie Dream Girl: She is this to Malcolm in her original appearance.
  • Missing Mom: She lives with her dad and her dialogue implies that her mom is dead or divorced from her dad.
  • Nice Girl: She's overall a very friendly, outgoing and good-natured person.
  • She Is All Grown Up: In "Cynthia's Back", Malcolm discovers it's because she was hiding more developed figure, in particular, her big breasts.
  • Teen Genius: She is in Malcolm's gifted class.
  • Took a Level in Jerkass: In "Cynthia's Back" she became noticeably more sardonic and jerkish, particularly towards Malcolm. It is later implied that her personality change may be caused by mood swings due to her undergoing puberty. She Took a Level in Kindness by her next appearance.

    Jessica 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jessiva.jpg

  • Babysitter from Hell: Introduced as this in "Stereo Store".
  • The Chessmaster: Jessica is good with complex plans that manipulate Malcom and Reese into doing things that will benefit her.
  • Deadpan Snarker: She can outsnark even Malcolm.
  • Karma Houdini: For the most part, she likes to mess with people and never gets punishments.
  • Manipulative Bitch: Her defining trait, at least to Malcolm and his brothers. Lois, who is herself a Manipulative Bitch, is often able to see right through her. However, she likes her anyways because she is one of the few people who can effectively force (or at least trick) the boys to get along with each other.
  • Messy Hair: Her hair is always extremely dissheveled.
  • Parental Neglect: Her parents divorced, and her father is a drunk who regularly gets into trouble with the law.
  • Ship Tease: With Malcolm, although it is often made ambiguous whether her feelings are genuine or simply more manipulations.
  • Wise Beyond Their Years: Much more wise and cunning than Malcolm.
  • Wounded Gazelle Gambit: One of her favorite techniques is to pretend to be wronged and upset to throw off Malcom and Reese.

    Eric Hanson 
Played by: Eric Nenninger

  • Butt-Monkey: Somewhat, but not nearly as much as Francis until his final appearance where he's left with nothing but the clothes on his back and is trying to hitchhike while Francis and Piama leave Alaska behind in a sports car with the money they got selling Piama's childhood home.
  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: After Lavernia fires both of them, Francis eventually gets a job at the ranch, but we don't know what happened to Eric. He's last seen trying to hitchhike when Francis and Piama drive by in their new car, with the implication Francis deliberately ignored him as payback for Eric convincing him Alaska was great in the first place.
  • Know-Nothing Know-It-All: He got legally emancipated so he could leave school early and made his way out to Alaska, telling Francis about lucrative job opportunities that made the place seem like paradise. By the time Francis reaches the state and the logging camp Eric works in, Eric breaks down in tears revealing Alaska is far worse than military academy ever was due to what a horrible boss Lavernia is.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: After everything Francis suffered through while working for Lavernia, he basically ditches Eric to rot as payback since Eric convinced him getting emancipated and moving to Alaska was a great idea.
  • One-Steve Limit: Averted. He shares the same surname with one of Dewey’s friends, David Hanson.
  • Only Sane Man: Much more level-headed than Francis, and he often has to put up with his antics and irrational behavior. That said, his decision to get emancipated and move to Alaska turns out to be an incredibly stupid and shortsighted idea that ruins his life.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: The reasonable Blue Oni to Francis' rebellious Red.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: He often argues with Francis but they are still good friends, somewhat.

    Stanley 
Played by: Karim Prince

    Richie 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_malcolminthemiddles01e151080pamznweb_dldd_51h264_visionmkv_snapshot_1407233.png

Played by: Todd Giebenhain

Francis: Which part of "No hurting my brothers" didn't you understand?
Richie: I gotta tell you, man; you're not allowing me a single creative thought here.


  • Basement-Dweller: He mooches off his mother, and lives in her barely habitable basement. It is implied that the place wouldn't be such a pigsty in the first place if not for Richie's general lack of hygiene.
  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Disappears after season 3, though he's mentioned once in season 6.
  • Delinquents: One of Francis' hoodlum friends before military school.
  • The Slacker: To put it mildly; he can't even hold down a Burger Fool job. When he was sent to Marlin Academy, Commandant Spangler used this against Richie by allowing him to get away with everything until the cadets beat him up for it.
  • Too Dumb to Live: He's even dumber than Reese, and so are his friends.
  • Toxic Friend Influence: To Francis, according to Lois. Lois isn't always the most reliable source but with his sleazy laziness, Richie certainly seems like any behavior or morals he would have imparted on his friends would be negative.

    The Buseys 
Kids from the "Disturbed Children" class who befriend Dewey.
Played by: Cameron Monaghan (Chad), Danny Mc Carthy (Hanson), Amy Bruckner (Zoe)

  • Character Tics: Hanson goes around in an invisible motorcycle.
  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: They disappear without trace or explanation in Season 7. "Malcolm Defends Reese" features the appearance of a girl in Dewey's class who is clearly not a Busey, implying he simply moved to a different class.
  • Evil Redhead: Chad, even thought he is not evil, just very crazy. He is always wearing a paper sign with warnings to not get closer to him, and his parents have to restrain him before bed time.
  • Living Emotional Crutch: The entire class made Dewey this, since not even the teachers care for them. When Dewey takes a day off or is close to transferring to the normal class, the kids go berserk.
  • Wild Child: When Dewey gets transferred to a normal classroom, the kids scape their homes and start living in the trees of Dewey's block. Some of them even start behaving like monkeys.

Relatives

    Ida 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/324bcee46f533c7d7811d813055a9cdc.jpg
Played by: Cloris Leachman
Lois's mother, the reason why she is the way she is.
  • Abusive Parent: To Lois. In "Grandma Sues", she attempts to sue her. Even after Lois and Hal found out Lois was pregnant again, she simply blamed them and continued her lawsuit. She was only prevented from doing so when her lawyer refused to help her after he realized he would get nothing out of it.
  • Arch-Enemy: While most of the family hates her in the way one would a difficult relative, she and Francis are comic-book-level rivals; in the finale, Francis nearly kills her and she goads him into the fight. It's implied this happens often.
  • Baby Trap: Done hilariously when Mr. Li leaves her at the altar in "Grandma's Boyfriend" after the opioids she was drugging him with wear off, and Ida tries to claim to be pregnant to keep him from leaving, despite her extreme age.
  • Big Bad Ensemble: With Herkabe, since they are the two most recurring antagonists on the show.
  • Doting Grandparent: Towards Reese, who is the only one of her grandsons she treats nicely.
  • Evil Matriarch: To Lois, so very, very much. While Lois at least has a somewhat reasonable justification in that her sons are admittedly incredibly rambunctious and would've probably either gotten themselves killed or at least crippled with their antics, Ida is just a petty and horrible person.
  • Evil Old Folks: Ida is a sinister old grandmother willing to sue her own family or to drug a man into marrying her. Her own daughter and grandchildren call her a monster.
  • For the Evulz: Most of her cruel and petty actions are done just for the sake of being cruel and spiteful, whenever it's belittling, suing, or getting her family or others hurt.
  • Gold Digger: She tries to marry Mr. Li, a man she met on a cruise for his money. She even keeps a list of his bank accounts hidden under her wig.
  • Gruesome Grandparent: She acts contemptuously to Francis for his criminal record and looks down on Malcolm.
  • Hated by All: Literally nobody in her family likes her even a little bit, except for Reese (and even that's only sometimes).
  • Hate Sink: She's a selfish, whiny, manipulative, bigoted jerk who everybody hates to have around.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: She does do one thing that's selfless and awesome - when she pushes Dewey out of the way of an incoming truck and loses her leg in the process.
  • Jerkass: Easily the meanest character on the show, as she's an even more abusive mother than Lois.
  • Make It Look Like an Accident: In the episode she gets engaged Mr. Li comments that the previous woman at his dinner table fell overboard and was hospitalized. Everyone then looks at Ida.
  • Might Makes Right: Holds physical strength over intelligence every time, hence why she favors Reese.
  • Nice to the Waiter: Totally averted.
    • She mistakes Piama for a maid in one episode and when Piama says that she's a member of the family, Ida didn't hear her due to ignoring when the "help" speak.
    • In the episode where she almost gets remarried, after the opioids she was dosing her fiancée with wear off, he remembers her as "that awful woman at my table to kept spitting at the busboys."
  • The Old Country: Ida and Victor apparently immigrated to the US from an unspecified Ruritania country in Eastern Europe, possibly Poland.
  • Parental Favoritism: Towards Susan. Until Susan calls her ungrateful and she decides that Lois is her favorite child (or at least, the one she hates less).
    • From her grandsons, she only seems to favor Reese, because his violent personality seems to be considered a big quality in her country. In comparison, she treats Francis, Malcolm and Dewey with disdain, to the point Francis has been tempted to murder her in many occasions. Though, her saving Dewey's life proves she does love them enough to die for them.
  • Pet the Dog:
    • She had some sociopathic examples of esteem and self-sacrifice which help explain why Lois still cares more than she should about her. Her biggest moment however came when she saved Dewey from being run over.
    • She gives her friends and relatives pretty nice gifts for Christmas. True, she takes them back for petty reasons, but for her to even show that amount of care for them in the first place is surprisingly compassionate for her.
    • In the series finale, she and Reese work very well together on their plan to make a huge mess to ensure Reese keeps his job as a high school janitor, with both having kind words to say to each other.
  • Racist Grandma: To the point where Lois and Francis make a plan with their (African-American) friends to get Ida out of their house so Lois could not have her there when she gives birth. It works too, until her waters break. This trope seems to be subverted when Ida reveals she's engaged to a man from Hong Kong, but it turns out she just wanted his money.
  • Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!: Ida is rude and spiteful at every opportunity and often uses her age as a justification for it.
  • Wounded Gazelle Gambit: When Lois calls the cops to get Ida out of her house, she cries to the cops that Lois' house is hers, and Francis (whom she claims is Lois' boyfriend) is beating her up. Understandably enraged, Francis yells at her and grabs onto a cop, pleading with him not to believe Ida, which leads to him getting tackled and threatened if he ever lays a finger on Ida.

    Victor 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/victor_2.jpg
Played by: Robert Loggia
Lois's father, who is just as bad as his wife.
  • Abusive Parent: To Lois. She reveals to Reese that when teaching her how to ride a bike, he just tied her to one and shoved her down a hill.
  • Evil Oldfolks: Just like his wife Victor is a very nasty, cruel and spiteful individual who treats everyone save his wife and Reese like crap.
  • Gruesome Grandparent: Just like his wife, he's a cruel old dick to Francis and Malcolm. Technically they aren't his grandchildren.
  • I Am Not Your Father: In the episode "Victor's Other Family", Ida confesses to Lois that she had cheated on Victor numerous times and that Lois' biological father was a man named Radu Gogorsky.
  • Jerkass: He was just as bad as his wife.
  • Killed Offscreen: By Ida's second appearance, it was mentioned that he had died of unknown causes.
  • Obnoxious In-Laws: Towards Hal whom he frequently trash-talks and humiliates, though this treatment isn't different from how he treats others.
  • The Old Country: Where he had fought in "the war".
  • Parental Favoritism:
    • Towards Susan. And towards his second family over the one he had with Ida.
    • While Victor showed great disdain for Malcolm, considering him to be a "sissy", he took a liking towards Reese, largely because Reese shared his jerkish and violent sociopathic tendencies.
  • Secret Other Family: In "Victor's Other Family", it was revealed that he had married a Canadian woman (played by Betty White) and started a second family with her.
  • Too Dumb to Live: Show Reese his war kit, with a real grenade inside it without any caution or security, guess what happens next.
  • Wicked Stepmother: To Lois as it turned out, although it is left ambiguous whether or not he was aware of this fact.

    Walter 
Hal's rich father who emotionally neglected his son.
  • Abusive Parent: Not in the physical or verbal way, but the fact that he never accommodated to Hal's emotional needs, instead dodging any uncomfortable topics with humor and tickling.
  • Bus Crash: In "Hal Grieves." He dies offscreen and his death becomes the kickstarter for the plot.
  • Calling the Old Man Out: Hal eventually does this while wearing a thick layer of coats so that Walter could not simply stop him by tickling him.

    Piama Tananahaakna 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/piamma.jpg
Played by: Emy Coligado
Francis's wife whom he married off-screen.
  • Berserk Button: Do NOT try to evict her from her home, or treat Francis badly.
  • Child Hater: A couple of episodes display that Piama is against the idea of having kids. Subverted later in the finale, as she claims to have gotten over it.
  • Eskimo Land: Averted. Her native Alaskan heritage plays no particular part in her characterization, beyond the exotic surname.
    • The main reason she doesn't want to leave Alaska, despite hating her town and having no connection to her roots, is because she is afraid of not knowing what is outside. She and Francis decide to leave when she accepts a huge settlement for her house.
  • Foil: To Lois. They share the same strong temper, their troublesome family backgrounds and their no-nonsense attitudes at their husbands' antics. Unlike Lois, who got knocked up and hurried to marry Hal before giving birth to Francis, Piama and Francis just married after dating for a month just because they felt like it, and Piama spent a while against the idea of having children.
  • Fourth-Date Marriage: Francis married her in a little under one month of meeting each other. Neither the audience or his family had any idea that she existed before he brings her home to meet his family in her first episode.
  • Happily Married: To Francis. They're very much in love with each other despite their fast whirlwind courtship.
  • Hair-Trigger Temper: Just like Lois, she can be pretty scary when she is pissed off. Lavernia finds out when Piama kidnaps her parakeet and threats to not return it until she treats Francis better.
  • Hilariously Abusive Childhood: Her mother left the family when she was only 3 years old, and her father kicked her out when she was 14 for throwing away his liquor.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She's a stern and feisty woman but she and Francis genuinely love one another.
  • Like Parent, Like Spouse: She shares many similarities to Lois personality-wise, which made them clash at first. When Francis and Hal go on their motorcycle trip, both start destroying their stuff while bonding over the horrible things they're going to do in revenge.
  • Mistaken for Cheating: In one episode, Francis becomes suspicious that she has been meeting with her ex-husband while he was at work. It turns out the man was her father, whom she was meeting to chastise for his past Parental Neglect.
  • Obnoxious In-Laws: She and Lois initially don't get along with each other due to her sudden marriage with Francis, and Lois would treat Piama as an outsider. After Lois's horrible experience of Hal's siblings bullying her out of the family photo, Lois changes her attitude and shows Piama her respect and accepts her into the family.
  • Violently Protective Girlfriend: At one point, she suggests (half-jokingly/half-seriously) she'll stab Lavernia to death for being a Bad Boss to Francis and steals Lavernia's beloved pet parakeet as revenge.

Other Adults

    Craig Feldspar 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/craig.jpg

  • Abhorrent Admirer: To Lois. When he confesses his love to her, she makes it very clear she's not interested. His characterization eventually shifts from this to just being a sort of friend to the family and he even begins dating other women with varying degrees of success.
  • Acrofatic: He plays softball, and is shown to be very good at it. Until he gets a phone call mid-game, that is.
  • All Love Is Unrequited: He's got a very obvious crush on Lois and resents Hal for marrying her. Lois is completely oblivious to it.
  • Butt-Monkey: Arguably the biggest one in the series. There are certain times where he honestly deserves the crap he goes through. Some of it, anyways.
  • Cannot Spit It Out: Until he finally confesses his love for Lois when the store is being robbed. She’s replies she’s not interested.
  • The Chew Toy: Suffers various injuries throughout the series, usually caused by the boys' antics.
  • Fanboy: Of comic books and various sci-fi works.
  • Foil: He and Abe have a lot of things in common, which causes a misunderstanding when both Hal and Lois try to set them up with Polly. Both are chubby, nerdy and both recently "lost their Kitty" (Craig had a cat, Kitty left Abe and Stevie).
  • Friendless Background: No one likes him, since his childhood days. Dewey feels sorry for him when Craig tells him that nobody found him when playing Hide and Seek. And he is finally happy when Reese moves in with him and become roommates.
  • The Friend Nobody Likes: He thinks himself a close friend of the family, the truth is they really can't stand Craig. This eventually changes as the seasons go on and the family legitimately warms up to him, particularly after he gets over his unrequited crush and, as a consequence, becomes far less antagonistic towards Hal.
  • Geek: Craig is a socially awkward, unathletic, bespectacled man with a lot of knowledge about comic books and the like.
  • Generation Xerox: After meeting a kid that looks and acts exactly like him, it's revealed that he's the son of a woman he's been having an affair with.
  • Identical Grandson: His mother looks like him in drag.
  • Jerkass Ball: When in a position of power, Craig can be a gigantic dick. See his actions in "Watching The Baby", where he's forced people who couldn't afford purchases into slave labor.
  • Just Friends: With Lois. In "Cattle Court", Craig finally has it when he realizes that Lois takes him for granted and he is never getting a chance to be with her. Lois only convinces him to not leave by stating a possible scenario where she is old, has dementia, her family isn't around, and only then he would have a chance.
  • Lovable Coward: Became this in later seasons.
  • Stalker with a Crush: Displays shades of this towards Lois. Although this was eventually decreased over the series in favor of increasing his "annoying co-worker" characterization.
  • Tyrant Takes the Helm: When he gets put in charge of the Lucky Aide during the night shift.

    Abe and Kitty Kenarban 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/abeandkitty.jpg

  • Beware the Nice Ones: Kitty is initially extremely meek and mild-mannered. After spending a night at dinner with Malcolm's family, she begins to emulate Lois' personality and becomes more vocal and confrontational. After the third season, she snaps and abandons Abe and Stevie to become a porn star.
  • Black and Nerdy: Abe. Like father, like son. When Hal isn't capable of grieving his father's death, Abe can only think to have Leonard Nimoy or other members of the Star Trek: The Original Series cast to talk to Hal.
  • The Bus Came Back: Kitty returns in Season 6 after being absent for two years.
  • Easily Forgiven: Kitty, when she returns to the fold after having left two seasons prior. Lois, and to a lesser extent, Malcolm are the only ones disgusted by the idea that someone could simply abandon their disabled child then return two years later as if nothing happened.
  • Extreme Doormat: Kitty before meeting and being influenced by Lois.
  • Fat Best Friend: Hal later admits to Abe that he considers them to be best friends.
  • Foil: He and Craig have a lot of things in common, which causes a misunderstanding when both Hal and Lois try to set them up with Polly. Both are chubby, nerdy and both recently "lost their Kitty" (Craig had a cat, Kitty left Abe and Stevie).
  • Henpecked Husband: Abe was one to Kitty before she Took a Level in Badass.
  • My Beloved Smother: Kitty was this to Stevie initially, putting him to bed at absurdly early hours and sheltering him. That is until she leaves him and Abe.
  • Parental Abandonment: When she divorced Abe and abruptly left the family after the third season. She eventually returns.
  • Put on a Bus: Kitty leaves before the beginning of Season 4, which leaves Stevie nearly catatonic with depression.
  • Scary Black Man: Invoked. To scare Ida away from the house, Abe does a Bad "Bad Acting" impression of a ghetto gangsta. Fortunately Ida is freaked out enough to not notice.
  • Stacy's Mom: Kitty. Lampshaded by Malcolm and Reese in one episode after they accidentally walk in on her naked.

    Caroline Miller 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/caroline.jpg

  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: After the Krelboynes accidentally make her go into labor in the parking lot, she stops appearing in the show.
  • Cool Teacher: Especially to Malcolm, she tries very hard to be one. She genuinely cares about him.
  • Demoted to Extra: Main character in season 1, special guest star in season 2. Later replaced by Herkabe.
  • Hot Teacher: She's very good-looking.
  • Who's Your Daddy?: It's implied her pregnancy was the result of an affair with the school janitor.

    Lionel Herkabe 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/herkabe.jpg
Played by: Chris Eigeman

  • The Alleged Car: Drives an extremely crappy car that looks like it could literally fall apart at any moment.
  • All for Nothing: In his final appearance, he blackmails Malcolm to lower the grade in his class (from an +A to borderline A/-A since simply failing him would be deemed suspicious) as a way to keep his long standing high academic record that he took from another, much older student. When Malcolm gets tired of Herkabe humiliating Reese, and blackmailing him, he reveals to the school district that Herkabe made up a class to avoid gym and get the academic record, and the award is given back to the original student since she completed all the graduation criteria, which included Physical Education. When Herkabe enrolls in P.E. class to fulfill the graduation criteria and win his award back, Reese, who's in the same class, picks on Herkabe like he would any other student since they're on an even playing field, and it's heavily suggested that Malcolm will most likely end up with the award since Herkabe no longer has any advantage over him, and Malcolm has bounced back from worse.
  • Big Bad Ensemble: He and Ida are the closest things to main antagonists in the show.
  • Contrasting Replacement Character: When Herkabe is hired as the new teacher for the Krelboynes, the kids are shocked when he turns out to be a cynical jackass, in contrast to Caroline's nurturing personality.
  • Dean Bitterman: He gets promoted to Dean of Discipline at the high school.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Despite Herkabe's draconian methods to push the Krelboyne class to their mental limits, even he became concerned when they were clearly suffering from burnout thanks to Malcolm constantly upping the standard to break Herkabe's system. Herkabe suggesting that the students should take it easy and rest for his class after seeing their very poor condition is a far cry compared to how he acts later in the series as a high school teacher.
  • Evil Counterpart: As a former Krelboyne with the highest GPA of his generation, Herkabe is what Malcolm would be in the future if he indulges into his own worst traits.
  • Evil Is Petty: His only satisfaction in life is humiliating his students, proving he is smarter than everyone, and blackmail Malcolm into doing evil stuff for him (like filming Reese for later pubic humiliation, using Malcolm as a messenger to have an affair with a married woman, or using Reese as bargain chip to make him tank his own grades), and all that only because he doesn't want Malcolm to beat his record as the highest GPA in the school.
  • Insufferable Genius: Herkabe is admittedly more educated than most teachers at Malcolm's school, but he's still not as smart as he thinks he is. According to the records Malcolm's class dug up, he used to be a Krelboyne like them.
  • Jerkass: Herkabe is a truly unbearable piece of work. Incredibly egotistical, insulting, rude and generally awful to be around. No one on the show can tolerate him and with good reason.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: In his final appearance, after blackmailing Malcolm into tanking his courses to lower his GPA by humiliating Reese, he lets the fact that he didn't take physical education during his senior year slip, causing his academic trophy to be revoked. He then tries to re-take the class, leading to Reese, who was getting picked on by Herkabe constantly and the way Herkabe blackmailed Malcolm, to pelt him with dodgeballs as revenge.
  • Pet the Dog: He was genuinely happy at the picture the class made for him after the Child Prodigy he was going to make his apprentice left.
  • Riches to Rags: The Krelboynes have researched Herkabe's background as soon as they heard he was going to be their teacher, finding out that the guy has attended Princeton and earned a double doctorate in business at Harvard. He lost all his fortune after investing in a dotcom, and his ex-wife took half of his remaining money after the divorce, forcing him to get a teaching job.
  • Sadist Teacher: Herkabe is an absolute Jerkass who only cares about using his students' intelligence and talents for his own benefits. In his debut, he set up a dehumanizing ranking system that forced Krelboynes to push their limits to be number one. The end result was a collective nervous breakdown.
  • Self-Made Man: He made himself a fortune, which he invested in dotcom.
  • Small Name, Big Ego: As mentioned above he's not nearly as smart as he claims to be. He boasts about being smarter than Malcolm when all the times he's supposedly outsmarted Malcolm was nothing more than blackmail. He also ignores the numerous times Malcolm has genuinely outsmarted him such as "Academic Octathlon" and "Emancipation".
  • Smug Snake: Hardly a scene goes by where Herkabe isn't unbearably smug and displaying his high opinion of himself.
  • Took a Level in Jerkass: His first appearance he was more of a Well-Intentioned Extremist as it was implied he was pushing the students so hard as to ensure they don't make the same mistakes he did in getting too comfortable with their status as gifted students. He did seem somewhat concerned when the students broke down. After that, any sense of humanity was dropped from him and he became entirely self serving and malicious.
  • Tyrant Takes the Helm: Unlike most examples of the trope, he sticks around for the long run.

    Hal's Poker Buddies 

Hal's Poker Buddies

Abe's friends who welcome Hal into their circle.
Played by: Alex Morris (Trey), Dan Martin (Malik), Edward James Gage (Brian), Jonathan Craig Williams (Steve)

  • Actually Pretty Funny:
    • When Lois is in her crusade against the mascot of a beer label, who is a black janitor named "Slappy", for being too racist, all of them actually find it very funny, especially when Abe himself inadvertently stands next to the cardboard standee while holding a mop and a six-pack.
    • Lois is hesitant to ask them to scare racist Ida away by acting like they're next-door neighbors, but they think playing up racist stereotypes sounds fun.
  • Barbershop Quartets Are Funny: One of the subplots involve the gang forming a Barbershop group. Dewey momentarly makes them fight by asking some "innocent questions" about their roles.
  • Black and Nerdy: Not to the extent of Abe and Stevie, but they're all very smart and somewhat dorky.
  • Both Sides Have a Point: In "Hal's Dentist", half the group are divided on whether Hal or Trey are in the right. Hal is right because when Trey said "I'll take care of it", it could be interpreted as he would help him for free, while Trey is right too because his services must be compensated. In the end, since Hal didn't want to admit his part of the fault, despite Trey himself offering to not charge him to shut him up, the guys have to tie him up and force him to get treated.
  • Chewing the Scenery: When playing playing stereotypical Black men to scare off Ida, most of them do this with the exception of Abe.
  • Nice Guy: All of them are very good friends of Hal despite all their differences. They sometimes look down on him due to their class differences, but it normally gets resolved.
  • Not That Kind of Doctor: The others constantly make fun of Trey for being a dentist instead of "a real doctor". When Lois is going into labor, despite his medical training he can't help her deliver the baby because he can't look at lady parts without giggling, resorting in verbally coaching Francis to do it for him.
  • One-Steve Limit: One of them is named "Steve", like Abe's son "Stevie". He may have been named after him, if they've been close friends for a while.
  • Scary Black Man: Invoked. They actually avert the trope since all of them are polite men and earn more money than Hal. When Lois wants to dispose of Ida, she asks the guys to pretend to be Ghetto stereotypes to scare her off.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Steve delivers one to Ida when he had enough of her bigotry.
    Steve: Ok, you know what? See, here's the thing, "Lady". We're better than you. Every one of us in every way. I'm smarter than you, more educated, and I contribute more to society. I have a family that loves me, I live in a big house, drive a nice car, and make more money in a year than you've probably made your whole lifetime.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: They're all friendly in general, but being a group of middle-aged men there's a lot of ribbing going on between them.
  • Where da White Women At?: Not really but (much like the Trope Namer), they invoke this to get a rise out of a racist.

Francis' Bosses

    Commandant Edwin Spangler 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/spangler.jpg

  • All Psychology Is Freudian: He comes to accept while speaking with Francis that his hatred towards his own mother resulted in several of his failings in life, including his missing eye.
  • The Bus Came Back: He returns one last time in "Dewey's Dog." After Francis left the academy, apparently the place tanked and he was left with no purpose, so he travels all the way to Alaska to find Francis and figure out what to do next.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Later on in "Dewey's Dog," it is revealed that he is actually an extremely depressed and broken man and that tormenting the cadets at military school was the only joy and purpose he had in life. Francis runs with this and gets him a job at a retirement home in Alaska, giving him free rein to torment the elderly in the same way he used to torment the military school cadets, complete with a Call-Back to when he punished everyone for something one person did.
  • Hook Hand: He ends up with two thanks to Francis.
  • Jerkass: He later becomes a Jerk with a Heart of Gold in the episode when Francis leaves the academy, acknowledging that he has developed a level of respect for his adversity.
  • Jerkass Has a Point: Stanley mentions that Spangler wouldn't be so hard on Francis if Francis just behaved himself. There are several points where he says that Spangler's punishment towards Francis were fair.
  • The Neidermeyer: He's Francis' cruel dean from military school.
  • Never My Fault: When he shows up in Alaska in "Dewey's Dog," he's a drunken shell of his former self and blames Francis for his unhappiness. Spangler alludes to several horrible things that happened after Francis left school, such as a lawsuit and a fire he can't remember, before he eventually got fired. He tracks Francis all the way to Alaska to take out of his unhappiness.
  • Old Soldier: Subverted. Despite his numerous amputations and scars, he has never actually served in a war (all of his injuries were non-combat related).
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: He displays this several times to balance with him being a hardass. His reasons for punishing all the cadets for Francis's misdeeds are to encourage them to shape up and know how to not tolerate such pettiness. (He's not wrong since Stanley explicitly points out Francis could avoid getting beaten up if he just behaved.) When he anticipates that Francis will replace the slides in his Sex Ed class, he makes another set that has embarrassing photos of Francis as a lesson to "always check the chamber" since he labeled them as Spangler's embarrassing moments and knew Francis wouldn't see the ruse. When Francis throws a pool match at him, where Spangler told him expressly to win, Spangler starts throwing the match in turn and has fun doing it.
  • Unrequited Love: Ends up falling for Lois after she snaps at him for giving Francis homework after surgery.
  • Worthy Opponent: He eventually comes to see Francis as this.

    Lavernia 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lavernia.jpg
Played by: Brenda Wehle

  • Bad Boss: She not only works all of her employees like dogs but also charges them high fees for rent and other basic amenities (such as bedding and hot water) and will deduct money from their paychecks when they fail to keep up with it. She does this on purpose so they have to stay and work for her until they pay her off, which she makes sure they can't do until the logging is finished.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: When Piama holds her parakeet hostage in order to get her to treat Francis better, it works very well until the parakeet dies anyways.
  • Hair-Trigger Temper: She's always in a foul mood and it takes pretty much nothing to set her off.
  • Jerkass: She's incredibly mocking and unsympathetic around people as well as a horrible boss to those under her employment.
  • Only One Name: Her last name is never revealed.

    Otto and Gretchen Mankusser 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ottogretchen.jpg
Played by: Kenneth Mars and Meagen Fay

  • Benevolent Boss: Otto is extremely accommodating to his workers. Francis once refers to him as "the best boss he's ever had."
  • Consulting Mister Puppet: When their estranged son was a child, Otto would discipline him with "Schlupi," a sock puppet. In Gretchen's words, "Schlupi could say all the things that Otto couldn't." Francis eventually gets Otto to reconnect with said son using Schlupi, and later uses it himself to call Lois and tell her that he realizes that she always had his best interests in mind.
  • Europeans Are Kinky: Francis rewrites a scene from a porno he mistakenly allowed to be filmed at The Grotto to keep it clean for their sake, only to find out they were disappointed that the scene contained no sex.
  • Gratuitous German: Both are prone to this from time to time.
  • Happily Married: They are in a happy marriage.
  • Horrible Judge of Character: A Running Gag was Otto's painful gullibility and naiveté. He would likely have fallen for numerous cons if not for Francis intervening and stopping him. Ironically, Francis was eventually fired from The Grotto after being duped by one of these cons himself and losing the ranch's deposits.
  • Nice Guy: They're both very helpful to Francis, and Otto is a Benevolent Boss.
  • Pet Heir: Otto included a cow at his will.
  • Put on a Bus: Even more egregiously than most characters, as they don't even appear in the last episode where they're mentioned. Francis simply admits that Otto is suing him for losing the Grotto's finances to a con scheme.
  • Rage Breaking Point: Otto considered Francis the best employee he ever had, and even when they had their disagreements, they quickly patch things up, and Francis continues as if nothing happened. However, in the episode where Hal takes the family on a ski trip to make up for the crappy gifts he gave them (with money he didn't have), Francis admits to Hal that Otto became furious at him for losing his money on a scam, and is now suing him for lost revenue.

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