Malcolm In The Middle: Life's Still Unfair: Review

Malcolm In The Middle: Life's Still Unfair is an odd beast.

As Scrubs winds up the first season of its reboot, the 1990s sitcom about a smart kid and his scrappy family comes running out of the gate, saying it has a decent raison d'etre too.

But in truth, it's really only the last episode of the four-episode mini-series that truly brings the chaos of the original to mind, squandering the promise that it had.

Centring around Hal (a wonderfully game Bryan Cranston) and Lois (Jane Kaczmarek) and their 40th anniversary together, the scene is set for a solid family reunion. But there's one hitch - Malcolm (Frankie Muniz) who's decided for years to sideline his family in the belief that they make him a worse person, and bring out the neuroses in him that have been unchecked for years and has therefore thrived.

However, when Hal and Lois show up at his house to bring him back, it sparks an existential crisis in all of them - especially as Malcolm's now a single father to a daughter Leah. As if that wasn't enough, Lois is trying to plan the perfect party for her and Hal, a rampage that's got everyone in her sights and no time for any other drama whatsoever.

The opening and final episode of the four-part series are the best ones. With anarchy running through the anniversary do and the crashing of many storylines, Malcolm In The Middle: Life's Still Unfair clearly still has the edge it needs and channels a sadness that's inherent in many families.

Dealing with empty nest syndrome, parental pressures and sibling rivalries was what the show did best - and this latest pushes it to an extreme, despite keeping some of drama grounded amid a myriad of unnecessary fourth wall breaks.

Cranston's easily the MVP of the piece, sending his Hal on an insane trip (literally) and yet providing insight into the harsh reality of being a father. Picking up the intergenerational trauma some 20 years on was never going to be an easy task for creator Linwood Boomer and while parts of it work, the general unevenness of the tone throughout makes this reunion some what of a damp squib.

Guess after all this time, Life is still unfair.

Malcolm In The Middle: Life's Still Unfair is streaming now on Disney+