Malcolm in the Middle is an American television sitcom, it received critical acclaim and won a Peabody Award, seven Emmy Awards and was nominated for seven Golden Globes.

The second season of this inventive half-hour series as seen through the eyes of Malcolm (Frankie Muniz), a normal kid trying to navigate his way through life despite the various obstacles thrown in his way–a complete misunderstanding of girls, an eclectic group of classmates and the constant burden of masterminding plans to get himself and his brothers either into or out of trouble.

Although Malcolm has a genius IQ, he cannot seem to make any sense of the opposite sex, much less his embarrassing family. Lois (Jane Kaczmarek) is the outspoken, opinionated Mom, and her creative punishments and tough-as-nails approach always prevent the boys from slipping one past her. Hal (Bryan Cranston), a dad who is a certified legend in his own mind, is perfectly content to let Lois “wear the pants”, but often finds himself creating more chaos than his four boys combined. Reese (Justin Berfield) has mastered the art of a perfect blank stare, but has made up for his lack of intelligence with deviance.

Francis (Christopher Kennedy Masterson), Malcolm's oldest and favourite brother, has grown accustomed to life away from the family, whether it's at a military academy or a dude ranch. And then there's Dewey (Erik Per Sullivan), who just doesn't know any better than to look up to his brothers. Hopefully, he'll catch on before it's too late. Malcolm finds himself truly in the middle!

NTSC FORMAT.

Awards

• British Comedy Awards 2003 – Won British Comedy Award Best International Comedy TV Show
• Directors Guild of America 2002 – Won Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy Series'
• Family Television Awards 2001 – Won Family Television Award Comedy
• Golden Globes USA 2001 – Nominated Golden Globe Best TV-Series – Comedy/Musical
• Kids' Choice Awards, USA 2001 – Won Blimp Award Favorite Television Show
• Primetime Emmy Awards 2001 – Won Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series
• Television Critics Association Awards 2001 – Won Outstanding Achievement in Comedy
• Television Critics Association Awards 2000 – Won Outstanding Achievement in Comedy
• Writers Guild of America 2005 – Won Episodic Comedy

Malcolm in the Middle Season 2 Review

"Does it hold up against the quality of season 1? Quick answer is yes, however that should be expected, shows like this tend to peak through season 2–5 then begin the decline of fresh ideas and quality writing. Season 2 though is still a gem. Not much has changed from season 1; we still have our dysfunctional family of parents Lois (Jane Kaczmarek) and Hal (Bryan Cranston) and their four sons Francis (James Masterson), Reese (Justin Berfield), Malcolm (Frankie Muniz) and Dewy (Erik Per Sullivan). We follow the random and ridiculous events that happen in their lives accompanied by the side characters of friends.

So what is new in this season? Well it is the beginning of puberty for Malcolm and this is notably acknowledged with an increase in the interactions with girls that Malcolm has. One of these new interests for Malcolm is introduced as his odd non-girlfriend Cynthia, a nice addition to his geeky group of friends. For those who notice these things the actress is Alex from Lost. It is one of my oddities that I quite enjoy playing spot that actor when watching various American TV shows, season 2 of Malcolm in the Middle has a great Twilight actors episode with both a very tiny Dakota Fanning and Michael Welch featuring as brother and sister. This geek spot aside note this (New Neighbours) is a very funny episode.

We also get introduced to Lois’ parents in this season. I’m not overly impressed with these but thankfully they only stick around for one episode. Other than these characters we have no new re-occurring people to get to know but what does clearly shift in this season is the focus from Malcolm to other characters. Whilst I am yet to watch season 3–7 I would summarise this season as Lois and Hal centric whilst season 1 was more Malcolm. They are given not only more screen-time but more story focus. The last episode of the season will side sweep you with how touching it is and you’ll find you’ve become really fond of these two people.

Real stand out episodes is what makes this season very strong. There are some great ideas starting with the opening episode Traffic Jam. Following on from where season 1 left off we kind of find out what happens when Dewy is given freedom. The Bully and Traffic Ticket are two particular stand-outs which have the bizarre combination of character development and comedy down perfectly. Bowling uses the ingenious idea of following what happens with each parent in parallel worlds. Whilst in my previous review I mentioned that Malcolm in the Middle was a forerunner in addressing the camera, non-studio, no laughing track, dysfunctional family style we are more familiar with nowadays and it is this season I really started to spot how it has inspired other shows, notably Modern Family.

I really enjoyed season 2, more so than season 1.." Filmwerk