> live in a big house
> three teenage boys crammed into one small bedroom
Nah I think they were definitely struggling a bit.
There's a few episodes that actively showed gow much they struggle. Like one of their biggest vacations is going to a waterpark in a car that has the heater on full blast so it doesn't cook the engine. They only eat super cheap food and mystery meat. They lived in a camper because they could barely afford to get termites removed. Hal has no money to go to a dentist. As soon as hal lost his job they are cooked. They lived paycheck to absolute paycheck. They never pay all their bills. I would say they struggled a lot. They struggled more than al bundy.
In the Flashback episode it is noted their house is smaller then their previous apartment. It also shows how they went from comfortable/upscale living to cheaper conditions with each additional child, specifically stating they had less money with each birth.
I distinctly remember an episode where Lois was watering down their orange juice, and realising that it was becoming more water than juice. They were definitely poor, and decidedly trashy for their neighbourhood.
Anon is such a sperglord that they dont understand that all experiences are subjective. Also that its a prime time sitcom.
Also that its a prime time sitcom.
That just reminded me of the reoccurring joke "because you can't say handjobs at 7:00 on a Friday on ABC" from A Very Special Episode
Also that its a prime time sitcom
you say that as if it were a good thing?
The "Reece gets groomed by a predator" and "Deweys leukaemia diagnosis" story arcs werent appropriate for 7:00pm.
A lot of those shows have aged pretty badly in terms of what "struggling" looks like. The idea of a boring office job being some awful fate is also kinda dated.
At least shows like the Simpsons were self aware about this.
Someone who’s life is really not that bad whining because they think it’s terrible? That sounds pretty common to me, especially for suburban teenagers
I'd complain too if i had to share my bedroom with two other boys.
And even a bed
The show treated his attitude as a huge flaw. I interpreted his character in earlier seasons as despite being a genius in many ways, he was still an immature child. He was often ungrateful for his parents' sacrifices and unempathetic to those around him, like a lot of kids his age. He even had trouble making friends because others found him difficult to be around. As annoying as he could be, I think it also made him a more realistic character and set him up for later character development.
Life is unfair 🎶
Few things for the family
- Malcolm gets called out by EVERYONE of the main characters and major side characters at one point or another in the series for his crappy attitude... It's a running joke by the end of it...
- This is one of those fox "see! the poor don't have to be poor, they just need gumption and having less kids" shows... (Bones is another ex.)
- Malcolm's always whining and it causes him to lose out on many major opportunities (both relationship-wise and career-wise)
- Hal says they have sex several times a day, even when they're camping with another family. Thus he's always tired and can't concentrate
- In one episode, Lois and Hal have to stop having sex for a week because of some medical issues, the grass gets attention and turns green, hal gets a promotion, and they stop being so trashy. All in one week. Once the issue is gone and they can have sex, everything goes back the way it was, grass looks like shit, house is a wreck.
- In one episode they show how each time they have a kid, the parents lives get progressively worse.
One of the running themes on the show is basically "work sucks but there's nothing you can do about it".
There's an episode where Francis has to work at Lois' job to help with inventory and Craig is in charge and is being extra incompetent. You'd figure with all of the opposition Francis organizes at military school that he'd be able to easily handle Craig and start a union or something. Instead, when everyone else decides to just give up and go home after they lose the competition to get it done before another store in the area, Francis is fighting to get everyone to finish what they started.
I don't think any of the times when the show has a "character vs their employer" conflict works out in a way where the character wins. The closest I can think of is when Lois has a conflict with a manager that fired her wrongly, but even that one isn't resolved in a great way because his downfall comes from Lois telling him she has dirt on him but would never tell anyone about it and the rest of the staff overhears and does tell. So it's got a bit of "Lois is good because she keeps her boss' secrets" mixed in with the messaging.
It sucks because it's otherwise such a well made show. Every character on the show sucks for some reason, but it doesn't just let them get away with it. Unless it's an employer or cop, at which point the message pivots to "it sucks but there's nothing anyone can do about it other than bitch".
I'm not sure if this is supposed to support or counter my point.
It sounds like you're supporting it because it's brainwashing you to think, "meh. Work sucks. Just deal with it and don't try to improve it"
It reminded me of another point that in one episode when Hals company is trying to frame him for something the big wigs did.. you find out that he's never worked a friday in years. So him lacking commitment to try his hardest actually works in his favor. .... As well as the fact that he matters so little that nobody noticed.
Wait really Bones did this? I thought I remember an episode where Bones says "you just need to work hard, my life was hard too but I didn't end up like that" and learned by the end that wasn't a fair judgment. Maybe I'm misremembering?
Bones had a lot of subtle things ... Each character has some weird quirks that almost always has the future conservatives would tell them.
(Spoilers for a 10 year show)
If the top of my head ...
- Both of the women (bones and the hot girl intern) who were proud of having a lot of premarital sex end up accidentally getting preggo and don't even think of not keeping it
- The super duper rich guy, although he loses all his money due to outside circumstances, he works his ass off all the time, and becomes super duper rich again
- The only "poor" later season intern is a southern guy (ya know, from "real America") who works hard and gets rich by capitalizing on his family stuff
- The sexy "free spirit" artsy girl is an airhead in most areas of life.
- Forgets she was actually married, (and secretly wants the black guy more than the rich white guy)
- She's a programming genius, but her program gets hacked in the stupidest way possible
- Of course she has an out of control hard rocking dad, who ends up getting drunk with her fiance and getting him tattooed (because you can't trust drifter dads)
- The og intern is also poor, also works hard, but is not rich for two reasons >!He's obviously on the autism spectrum and also turns into one of the multi-episode killers also showing to not trust people with mental issues!<
I liked it:)
genius IQ
Many studies show that having a higher intellect correlates with higher unhappiness. In many cases, the text of the show itself is explicitly about how Malcolm's intellect either makes him a target or itself causes problems.
omg * THEY'RE ffs
Not OPs fault this dumbass language has 3 words with the same pronunciation and different spellings
I couldn't connect at all with those series because of this.
