These 4 episodes don't know what they want to be - nostalgia? A one-off grand bang finale? Or what? Clearly Linwood Boomer and whoever else are angling for a series and trying to use these 4 episodes as a 'test' - which makes everything everywhere and nowhere. Here's my offhand list of what's wrong: 1. No clear target audience, so let's target everyone and no one - fans of the old series left disappointed, new viewers left, middle or right don't really care. 2. Wrt above - lets throw in 'new' characters in the way of older children who were barely there in the old series, and now spend a huge amount of 4 episodes on these bland unknown 'them' - maybe one will stick . 3. "Modernized" for no good reason - not only in the they/them thingy, but in the 'realization' and 'reconciliation' forced drama. Oh and yes to please the old fans, let's jumble in some chaotic antics - which are now misplaced and neither here nor there. 4. Miscasting - the original 'gang' were so perfectly casted they clicked and boomed from the first 10 minutes of that first episode 26 years ago. Malcolm breaking the fourth wall flowed in naturally to good effect. The two new 'daughters' are just unmemorable and bland - and breaking that fourth wall with Leah is just total cringy misfiring. 5. While the original writers were supposedly still used, either they've become jaded or they were put under some form of studio confines or duress. The scripting of the 4 episodes just come off as forced - both too much and too little at the same time. 6. Adult Malcolm and Reese behaving exactly like they did as young boys and teens - just badly weird and caricatured. 7. Lois so obsessed w an anniversary - totally out of character of the get-it-done no-fuss Lois we knew. 8. Hal suddenly feeling unwanted and spending many unnecessary minutes going ''deep' bout it - also totally out of character of the come-what-may Hal we knew. 9. Malcolm totally hiding his daughter's existence from Hal & Lois - just extremely psychotic and unnecessary. Not a funny setup in any way. 10. The original brothers spending such little scene time together - a total let down which also made this short series disjointed and lacking the chemistry that allowed them to play off each other so well before. 11. And why is Hal & Lois house suddenly so suburban clean and new and bland? And why do they seem to be financially much better off? The 'realness' of the family is gone. If Boomer et al wanted to do a new series, they should have just done that with a new 'gang' and leave Malcom in the Middke alone. OR just do a real confirmed short series for the old fans with only the excellent original cast who are thrown together in some escapade or other - exclude the daughters, Jamie, Dewey (since Erik rightly declined) and any wives and girlfriends. As is, this 'reboot' now join the string of failed re-boots of a pantheon of excellent series of the past. I, like so many others, had hoped this would be a success but alas ... 😢Wrong Tone, Underwhelming, Misfired.

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