Iconic series : "Malcolm in the Middle"

Dear Charlie,

I hope you all are doing well! This is my first article on the blog and I am going to speak about my favourite series (I mean the only one I have ever watched, shame on me) :

Sorry, this one is not for the “My Wife and Kids” fans lol ! “Malcolm in the middle” is one of the most iconic series in the 00’s (already twenty years old !!), but I was way too young (or not even born yet) at the time, so I never watched it until … quarantine ! It was available on “6ter”, in French unfortunately, and I watched the seven seasons with my family.

The series was created by Lindwood Boomer and as you may already know, the story is about an American stereotypical family of six (the parents and their four sons). It is quite realistic and I love the silly humor it has. Here is a little description of the characters :

 

Malcolm is obviously the main character. He is played by Frankie Muniz and is eleven years old at the beginning of the series. He is very smart and egocentric.

Reese, a bit older than Malcolm, is the "silly bully", and according to me, the funniest ! He is good at cooking too. He is played by Justin Berfield.

Then there is Dewey, the youngest. Malcolm and Reese are jealous because he is Lois’ favourite and they often hit him. But he is also smart and, later, we discover he is a great pianist.

Their parents really love each other. The mother, Lois, runs the house, and she terrifies everyone when she is angry. She sometimes feels lonely as the only woman in the family. The father, Hal, is immature and really close to his sons. He often does stupidities with them. They are played by the famous actress and actor Jane Kaczmarek and Bryan Cranston.

(The latter also played in “Breaking Bad” (don’t spoil me I haven’t watched it yet !), and a lot of people say both of the series are related. I love this theory lol)

 

And finally, Christopher Masterson played the role of Francis, the oldest and extremely turbulent brother who was sent to a military school by his parents.

There are a lot of other characters but I let you (re)discover them 😉

My favourite episode is the fifth of the sixth season (titled “Kitty’s Back”).

Here is the music of the generic if you are nostalgic : https://youtube.com/watch?v=J8y8Ziwswe0www.

I hope I made you want to (re)watch the series, and if you already saw it, then tell me what you thought about it !

Finally, I would add : Reese graduated high school, so can we !

Bye Charlie !

Hi,

Today I want to talk to you about a series that I am watching currently called “13 reasons why”. You might have heard of it but I strongly recommend it to you if you haven't. I know it's a teenage series and that not everyone is going to like it because it's too kitschy but I find it good.

It's about a teenage girl in high school that kills herself because of what people have done to her at her school. And this girl before dying she has recorded herself talking about why she chose to kill herself. So through out the series, that is composed of 13 episodes, we see each reason why she chose to end her life. And of course I won't spoil it for you so I'll let you watch it for you to learn by yourself what happened. But as I watched this series it brought to me a lot of emotions.

It makes me think of how crazy our world is and how rude people can be. Sometimes one little action or word can destroy someones life. With internet information gets passed on quickly and we all need to be careful about it. People who don't feel well in their skin often don't show it and pretend that everything is okay and that's why we rarely notice it.

High school can be pleasant years but it can also be horrible ones for others. Bullying and mocking is still present even though sometimes we deny it. Maybe one small reflection can hurt someone, so before speaking or acting think of the consequences.

It also brings up the subject of homophobia. Gays are often the target of all this bullying. And I learnt a couple days ago that homophobia in France has gone up 20%. Do you find this normal? Don't people have the right to love who they want? Some people find it not natural but what is natural? Who put up this general idea that men should love women and women should love men. It's absurd. Maybe there are more straight people in the world but we don't need to impose it to everyone. What if it was the opposite and being gay was normal. Society has maybe evolved but some ideologies have just not gone away.

Here is a commercial where we see a world where being gay is normal and being straight isn't normal.

I find this commercial very interesting. And I think it touches people and makes people think. We need to be tolerant because being narrow minded will lead us nowhere.

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”

― Ralph Waldo Emerson