‘Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair’ Review: A Delightful Family Comedy Revival

Malcolm in the Middle ran right while I was in the midst of my baby-having years. I had four kids from 1998-2003 (no twins!), and watching Hal and Lois navigate their life helped me feel a little less crazy with my own household. Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair takes the energy of the original series and harnesses it into a delightful revival that will thrill fans of the show.

Hal (Bryan Cranston) and Lois (Jane Kaczmarek) are about to celebrate their 40th anniversary. Lois has decided that, because Hal has always been the one to make the grand gestures, she will have complete control over what happens at this event. Hal can do whatever he wants to celebrate prior to the anniversary and following it, but Lois is in charge on the day of.

To help celebrate, Lois has invited the boys back home for the party. Reese (Justin Berfield) still lives nearby and loves spending time with Hal, so he will naturally be there. Dewey (Caleb Ellsworth-Clark) is unable to attend, since he’s on the road performing. Francis (Christopher Masterson) and Piama (Emy Coligado) are coming in with some exciting news of their own. Jamie (Anthony Timpano), who is in the military, has taken some time to attend. The baby we didn’t see at the end of the show, Kelly (Vaughan Murrae), is there, hoping to figure out how to position themself as the good kid.

Malcolm (Frankie Muniz) doesn’t keep in contact with his family. He has a daughter, Leah (Keeley Karsten), and he realized that when he’s with his family, he is less good for her, so he has largely stayed away from them, but keeps in touch with various emails and rushed phone calls, so they don’t feel bad. He sees his relationship with his family as toxic and doesn’t want to pass that on to her, so he has limited contact with them. But as the big day approaches, Lois tracks him down in person and demands that he and Leah attend.

If you’re looking for some highbrow comedy, Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair is not where you’re going to find it. But if you’re looking for a return to some early 2000s comedy (without some of the problematic elements from the early 2000s), then this show will hit the spot. Linwood Boomer is still well acquainted with the voices of these characters and doesn’t miss a beat bringing them back. The characters all feel familiar without feeling stale, and their onscreen chemistry is truly fantastic.

This is no doubt due to the phenomenal cast this show assembled back in 2000. Obviously, Erik Per Sullivan has been replaced with Caleb Ellsworth-Clark as Dewey, but he is a great substitute. Jamie has been replaced by a different adult actor, who is fine. Jamie was barely on the original show and was a baby, so we didn’t really have much to compare with. The final new family member is Kelly, the non-binary child of Hal and Lois, played by Vaughan Murrae. They are a great addition to the cast, as the child we only heard about in the closing moments of the original show.

The other significant new characters are Leah, Malcolm’s daughter, and Tristan (Kiana Madeira), Malcolm’s girlfriend. The two of them serve an interesting purpose of allowing us to see how much Malcolm is like his mother. Since so much of the time we only got to see high-alert-Malcolm, it is nice to see him interact with his own daughter in Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair.

But of course, we are tuning into this revival in order to see the characters who we know and love, and everyone filling that space is fantastic. The interactions between the three boys (now decidedly men) are entertaining and a reminder that even when you’re an adult with your own family, you can still get pulled into the same dynamics of your youth when you’re with your family of origin. Seeing how that plays out in different ways with Reese, Francis, and Malcolm is funny and informative.

Hal and Lois have always been one of my favorite television couples, and that doesn’t stop in Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair. Lois has a fun ongoing interaction with Francis through the four episodes, which is one of my favorite parts of the series. We see some mellowing with her, but she is still the same person that we know from the show. Hal has had almost no mellowing, which means that it is an absolute joy to watch him. In one of the early scenes of the show, he puts on a full a cappella performance for Lois in a Costco-type store that is so perfectly Hal that it made me tear up.

Part of what made the original show work was the cast of characters beyond the main family. Fear not, because so many of them are back. Stevie (Craig Lamar Traylor) is back and manages to make every sentence last achingly long. Abe (Gary Anthony Williams) and the rest of the poker group are also back, participating right out of the gate with Hal’s song for Lois. There are also tons of other incredible cameos during the anniversary party. Why are some of these folks there? Don’t think about it! But genuinely, even if it doesn’t make sense for everyone who shows up to be at the anniversary party to be there, it is still incredibly fun to see so many faces we have loved over the years on screen again.

For those who are looking to reconnect with the TV family with no last name, Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair is a delightful epilogue to one of the truly great family comedies of the early 2000s. I’m not the boss of you, but if I were, I’d probably make you watch this revival. Life isn’t always fair, but sometimes it’s pretty funny.