Malcolm in the Middle was one of my favorite shows when I was growing up. I always wanted to know what it was like to grow up with brothers, and watching the show was like a microdose of what that would be like. There are several memorable episodes, characters, and of course the theme song is iconic. Watching Malcolm’s bad luck in every episode made me feel better about my own life. I feel like a lot of family centered sitcoms take place in upper middle class settings, which is nice, but not necessarily the most relatable.
The family in Malcolm in the Middle has more kids than they can afford, they struggle to make ends meet, and at some point most of them wind up working jobs that they hate. It’s the real American way. Malcolm is a genius, but he’s also neurotic, depressed, and living with the intense burden of being the lone hope for his family to make it to a different situation. He feels the pressure to succeed and live up to his potential that a lot of people feel during their childhood, adolescence, and even well into early adulthood. The show perfectly encapsulates the bleak, inescapable misery that is reality, but in a way that’s self deprecating and entertaining.
On the surface, the show’s premise is simple and easy to grasp. A genius trying to make it in a family that has too many mouths to feed, and not enough resources to feed them. Malcolm’s the smartest kid in his class which is full of other geniuses, even his teachers are in awe of his intellect, and in the show it’s said that he has an IQ of 165. He even took a test that showed that he would effortlessly excel at literally every conceivable profession. Malcolm’s undoubtedly a genius…at least in the conventional way that we normally think of geniuses.
So what makes someone a genius? Usually when people think of a genius, they think of someone that’s conventionally smart, someone who probably has close to a perfect GPA, and goes to Harvard to be a doctor or something, but that’s not the only kind of genius there is.
Last year I worked at an elementary school, and got to know a lot of different kinds of kids. There were some that I think of as geniuses in the normal conventional, education based way, but there were other kids who I found to be geniuses in non traditional ways too. There was one kid in particular, a second grader who had severe ADHD. He physically could not sit still and getting him to pay attention in class and do any kind of school work was next to impossible. One day, I saw him looking through a folder of drawings that were some of the best drawings I’d ever seen. I was sure that he had traced them and just colored them in or something. Come to find out that his grandpa had taught him how to draw, and the drawings were his, all free hand. That kid may not be a genius when it comes to typical school subjects, but he’s definitely some kind of artistic genius.
I think of a genius as someone who displays exceptional talent in some aspect of life. Malcolm in the Middle highlights this. Obviously Malcolm’s a genius, but he’s not the only one. I believe the main cast of characters are all exceptional in some way.
Let’s start with the one that seems to be the furthest from any kind of genius, Reece. Reece at first glance is an idiot. He does terribly in school, he gets held back, and almost gets put in the remedial class. He doesn’t know how to process his feelings so he resorts to violence. His logic is usually non-existent. However, he’s a wizard in the kitchen. He was labeled a prodigy in his cooking class, and he won a cooking competition in the show. He also excelled working as a butcher. Few people are as naturally talented as Reece is when it comes to being a chef.
Saying Francis is a troublemaker is an understatement. Even though the family is pretty much broke, they still felt the need to send their oldest son to military school for being such a delinquent. I was going to say that he’s a genius at causing trouble, but really I feel like his genius is related to activism. Francis is a crusader, throughout the show he leads multiple strikes and rebellions. He’s naturally anti-establishment, his charisma, stubbornness, and idealistic nature make him a natural leader. He was known for sticking up for his fellow students at his military school when injustices occurred. If his character existed today, when there are so many different activist organizations and with social media providing a platform, he really could’ve shaken some shit up.
Lois, the mother, is like the anti Francis. She’s just as stubborn, strong willed, and idealistic, but she’s more logical and mature. She’s a genius commander. She runs the household with an iron fist, her unwavering righteousness is second to none. She’s a great manipulator. She’s wily, and cunning enough to know just the right way to influence people into doing what she wants. She’s great at reading people, which helps her manipulate them. She’s also great with organizing and managing things. If she was a coach, she’d be Bill Belichick.
Hal is the goofy dad of the family, often coming off like a 5th brother instead of the father. Similar to Reece, he comes off like an idiot at times, but there’s more to him. His genius is his emotional intelligence. He’s very in tune with his own emotions and the emotions of others. He always knows when Lois is feeling some type of way, and how to help her deal with it. He also shows empathy to the boys when he feels Lois is being unfair to them. He’s personable and is able to easily relate to people around him. He also showed flashes of artistic genius when he briefly left his job to create a breathtaking painting.
Dewey’s genius is more varied than the others. For starters he’s the most resilient of the characters, and the most resourceful (although Francis is a close second). I could see him having an IQ that’s lower than Malcolm’s but well above whatever the average is. Similar to Lois, he’s able to read and manipulate people easily. He’s shown the ability to communicate with and train wild animals with little effort. He also shows flashes of musical brilliance by building his own makeshift piano, and mastering it after only a few days with minimal practice. If Malcolm is at the higher end of the genius spectrum, Dewey is probably at the lower end of that spectrum, but still high relative to most people.
It’s easy to notice and appreciate the genius of people who excel at school, but there’s other forms of genius too. Maybe everyone’s exceptional in some way, maybe there’s only a select few that are, I don’t know. But I do know that it’s important to find what kids excel at while they’re young so they can nurture those skills as much as possible. Maybe you suck with numbers, but you have a poetic soul and a way with words. Maybe science isn’t your thing, but you have a keen ear for music and really know how to put songs together. Genius comes in all shapes and sizes.
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