I’ve recently started re-watching Malcolm in the Middle. I wasn’t a huge fan when it came out, but I remember enjoying it. Bryan Cranston was the stand-out, obviously. Anyways, when the reboot was greenlit, I decided to rewatch the original.

It was just as I remembered it.

However, there is one episode in the first season that, today, reads…a bit odd.

Season 1: Episode 5; Dewey left food in a crawlspace, and Hal had the house fumigated.

Malcolm gets a babysitting gig. It starts off great. They treat him like family, they give him plenty of food and respect, and pay him handsomely for simply holding down the fort…

However, a few things that stuck out to me.

1. When he shows up to babysit, the kids are sent to bed (and they’re excited).
2. They paid him more than his mother’s grocery clerk wages. (circa 2000).
3. They let him come over any time. ANY TIME.
4. In the end, Malcolm finds a NannyCam (from the TV’s POV) and some VHS tapes with some questionable actions as titles.
5. Malcolm does some sleuthing and discovers a napkin with red lipstick and a phone number attached to the name “MELISSA.” The punchline is…the husband asks his wife, “Who’s Melissa?”

Now…if it were just those moments, I wouldn’t think much of it…however, there are two other moments in the episode that make me go…

WAIT, WHAT?

Two weird moments that stuck out to me.

• Before the parents find out Malcolm found the NannyCam, the husband takes the remote and says “Let’s see what our little friend did today?”
  • So… they are looking forward to these after-shift NannyCam moments.
• At the start of the episode, the parents tell Malcolm… “you can’t watch TV unless you turn on the satellite.” Why? Because without the satellite it is just pornography.

I’m sorry, what?

Why is this in the story?

Why did they tell Malcolm, a child, that adult entertainment was within his grasp? Were there parental controls not available?

Also…why are the “adult options” the default setting?

Why give Malcolm all of the remotes…or tell him he has access in the first place?

Was it an “odd Garden of Eden” thing where a Tree of Dirty Movies is left in the middle of the living room as a test against temptation?

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Am I saying “Malcolm in the Middle” was secretly evil?

Not at all. It was a pretty clean show by today’s standards, BUT…it was used, I’d argue, to quietly normalize certain adult themes within family-friendly settings. And I get it, those suggestive jokes weren’t for kids, they were for the parents, but…as a 40-year-old who watched it originally at 15, it’s a little jarring.

So, here’s my question…what was the point of these rich neighbors? Was it an idea that spiraled into something darker? Or was it intentional?

OR…Maybe the neighbors were simply a mirror, opposing the values of his own family?

Malcolm’s family was poor, chaotic, and overbearing, but overall…genuine, moral, and true.

Yeah, that’s how I’m gonna see it.

Malcolm’s neighbors are wealthy, gentle, and soft-spoken, but…secretly divisive and rotten. Malcolm’s family are underpaid, undervalued, intense, and cartoonish, but…very moral and genuine and, most importantly, a team.

Still…that was a bold choice by the writers.