HALLOWEEN

Malcolm in the Middle

Season 7 (2005)

It’s always a fine line in crafting anti-heroes.  They need to be just rascally enough to still be lovable and it’s so easy to go a bit too far and end up with an unlikeable punk.  That was always my problem with Malcolm in the Middle: the brothers just seem like bullies and assholes and I end up just feeling bad for everyone who has to deal with them.  It doesn’t help that “Halloween” is from the 7^th and last season of the show, so they’re not young anymore but rather gangly teens whose “antics” are less of the zany variety and more just mean-spirited.

Yeah, I want to punch them in the face too.

In this episode brothers Reece and Dewey take their youngest sibling trick-or-treating only to egg an old man and then be pursued by him (very, very slowly) for the rest of episode. Eventually he catches up with them (it involves a sticky mattress that traps them in place—don’t ask).  The old man is rather terrifying in his relentless pursuit of the brothers, with his walker and his creepy eyes.  But even more terror is in store.

Insert obligatory Bryan Cranston Breaking Bad reference here.

An under-the-weather Malcolm (and really, Frankie Muniz already looks sickly so Frankie Muniz made up to look sick is even worse) and his dad are stuck home, a home that they recently discovered was the site of a multiple murder.  But the weird sounds and eerie happenings are really being caused by the aforementioned youngest brother, who has crawled into a vent and is attempting to devour all of his Halloween candy.  Bryan Cranston plays scared with aplomb but their scenes are intercut with really disgusting shots of the youngest brother stuffing his face with candy.  It’s torture for the eyeballs to watch saliva and melted chocolate dripping from the mouth of a toddler, replete with disgusting stomach-rumbling sound effects.  And we get more than one scene of this.  Bleh.

Would you accept candy from this man-child?

The strongest scenes revolve around mom Lois and her frustrations with her partying co-workers at the drug store as they drink, make lewd announcements on the PA system and rifle through the customer’s photos.  It made me wish that this show was entirely set in a drug store and was about its wacky employees throwing a Halloween party.  I could so do without the jerky brothers, the creepy old man and the gross candy guzzling.

Recurring Themes: We’ve got the all-time favorite, a Haunting with a Logical Explanation.  Reese and Dewey engage in an Egging Gone Wrong.

Halloween Quotient: It’s pretty holiday-centric but I have a hard time getting over some of the ick factor, so it leverages out to a 3.

See It, Skip It, Own It?

You can skip this one with a clear conscience.  Time is precious and we’ve got bigger and better episodes to watch!