Malcolm In The Middle

This US import wants to be The Wonder Years for the new millennium. The family aren't just post-Sixties dysfunctional, they're post-Nineties knowing-ironic.

The director appears to be New New Wave, and the writer (who also did 3rd Rock - oh dear) has got the Wacky textbook out. Hence the mother shaves the hirsute father at the breakfast table while he reads his paper and she argues with the kids.

The main child and narrator - Malcolm (Frankie Muniz) - is the same as every other American TV kid: a shrinkydink Woody Allen, so witty it's actually freaky, and displaying all the signs of a severe drug psychosis without actually taking drugs. Must be something they put in the diet cola over there.

There are some sharp moments but, ultimately, this is not as classic as The Wonder Years. It does, however, share its precursor's penchant for brazen sentimentality which undermines its pretension to be something more.

One scene ends with the mother telling the youngest son to 'stop playing with yourself.' The next scene is a Hey, Aren't Kids In Wheelchairs Great? straight out of Disney.

In the States, on series two already, it's huge. In the parlance of that infuriating place: go figure.

Most watched News videos