Thursday, March 12, 2015

 

Malcolm in the Middle-- Meg

Shot No. Image Lyric
1 Open to wide shot of Reese, Dewey, and Malcolm sitting on an old red and green plaid couch couch in their pajamas, watching television with blank looks on their faces. The house is a mess. The coffee table is covered in a stack of VHS tapes, an empty bag of chips, a box of Kleenex, an empty bowl, a remote-control toy car, and a red bin full of action figures. Reese eats cereal from a bowl with no milk and is wearing a white t-shirt with the sleeves rolled up, his underwear, his lap is covered by Dewey’s leg, and his feet are on the coffee table. Dewey, wearing a set of pajamas with cartoon characters on them, lays spread out between Malcom and Reese. Malcolm also eats cereal from a bowl without milk. His feet are on the coffee table. He’s wearing a white t-shirt, white underwear, and no socks. There is a foam baseball bat behind Dewey on the couch, and a soccer ball behind Malcolm’s head. There’s an ironing board strewn with clothes in the background, as well as a kitchen table with all of the chairs pulled out. As the image remains on screen, the colors become fuzzy/slightly off like on an old television set. Yes, no
2 Wide shot of a large, purple mutant turtle trying to eat three blonde cavemen, all wearing brown, one-shoulder loincloths. The three cavemen all poke various parts of the turtle with large sticks. It’s clearly a scene from a cheap old sci-fi movie.  Maybe
3 Quick cut to a shot from a Japanese anime show. A teenage boy stands in the pouring rain. He has long strands of black hair framing his face. He is wearing what looks like a long black cape with a hood pulled over his head. He smiles, but his eyes are quite wide, so he looks a little mischievous. There is a diagonal purple stripe in the corner of the screen. It’s hard to tell if it’s part of the anime program, or if it’s a bad cable connection. The image slowly moves to the left of the screen, zooming in on the boy’s face.  
4 Quick cut to a blue-tinted wide shot of a police officer escorting older teenager Francis to his front porch. He looks indignant. He then opens his mouth, presumably to explain what happened to his parents. The image is tinted in different shades of blue, and there are visible lines on the screen.  I don't
5 Quick cut to Dewey covered from head to toe in rope, and tied to a hook hanging from the back of a bedroom door. His face looks calm, but he is writhing, slightly. The door is surrounded by a child’s paintings. As the camera zooms in on Dewey’s face, the colors become yellow and streaky. Know
6 Quick cut to Hal and Lois dancing in their kitchen. Lois is eating toast and holding an electric razor. She is standing next to her husband, who is wearing glasses and reading a large newspaper strategically placed in front of his naked body. They are standing behind a mostly clear kitchen table. The kitchen is cluttered, but clean. The image turns green and streaky.  Can you repeat the
7 Quick Smash cut to a very zoomed in image that just looks like several rows of orange lights. The camera zooms out to reveal Malcolm’s disgusted face. His mother is sitting next to him, mostly out of frame. The color corrects itself.  Question
8 Quick cut to an orange-tinted image of Malcolm and Reese in a shoving fight in their pajamas. The color corrects, then turns green. Jane Kaczmarek’s name appears in the bottom right corner in messy font that appears handwritten. You’re not the 
9 Quick cut to a badly colored image of the Creature from the Black Lagoon’s head rising from a body of water.  Boss of Me
10 Quick cut to a streaky image of Jane Kaczmarek, who is holding boys’ clothing in front of her chest to hide the fact that she isn’t wearing a shirt while she searches through a dresser drawer, yelling at someone off camera. The dresser drawer is covered in a baseball mitt, boys’ clothing, and jars. She walks across the room yelling, as the camera zooms in on her neck. Her name disappears.  Now
11 Quick cut to a miscolored image from an old film. Two giant baby birds waits in a large nest, pecking at the long blonde hair of a young woman in a bathingsuit, who is screaming, and being carried over the ocean by a large pair of talons. The woman screams and waves her free arm at the baby birds. Bryan Cranston’s name appears.  You’re not the boss
12 Quick cut to Malcolm and Reese fighting on the same red plaid couch from earlier. Malcolm dives head first into Reese’s chest, while Reese yells and hits Malcolm’s back with a red foam baseball bat. Dewey is sitting next to his fighting brothers.  Of me
13 Quick cut to an anime show. A blonde teenage boy on a skateboard zooms toward the camera. He’s wearing a blue tank top and khakis. He is skating away from fire. The camera zooms in on his face Now
14 Cut to Francis in a military school uniform, talking into a phone. A boy in the background lifts weights while another boy stands over him, spotting him. A third boy lifts weights alone while facing a wall in the background. Francis pulls the phone away from his ear and stares at it in disbelief. Christopher Kennedy Masterson’s name appears. You’re not the 
15 Cut to Dewey strapped to Reese’s back, pulling his nose up. The camera zooms out from the boys’ faces to reveal they are standing in the kitchen. Reese waves his body around.  Boss of me
16 Cut to a green-tinted old film. A man wearing a beret and dark sunglasses leans in to kiss a pretty blonde woman in a bathingsuit in front of the ocean. Some large green creature with giant yellow eyes is right of frame, sneaking up on the couple. He pulls back his large claws, and pulls the woman’s away from the man by her chin. She creams.  Now and you're
17  Cut to Malcolm looking exasperated while sitting alone at the center of a lunch table. Several similarly aged students stand behind him, talking with friends. Justin Berfield’s name appears. The color goes out as the camera zooms in on Malcolm’s annoyed face.  Not so
18 Cut to a skier jumping over a slope while his red ski suit is on fire. He crashes into the snow. The camera zooms in as the color goes out. Big
19 Cut to two professional wrestlers fighting. One is on his back in the center of the ring and using his bent legs to hold off his opponent. Erik Per Sullivan’s name appears.  You’re not the boss of me
20 Cut to Hal at the dinner table. The color is green-tinted. He is putting salt and pepper on his food. Now
21  Cut to Malcolm and Reese, sitting next to each other at the dinner table with disgusted looks on their faces. Malcolm turns away, while Reese covers his eyes with his hand. Catherine Lloyd Burns’ name appears.  You’re not the boss
22 Cut to Francis looking confused. Behind him, a car is on fire. He shakes his head at the camera, as if he does not know where the fire came from. The color goes out, then turns yellow Of me now
23 Cut to yellow Malcolm’s incredulous face, super zoomed in. He makes eye contact with the camera. And Frankie Muniz’s name appears. You’re not the
24 Cut to what looks like a pizza cutter in black and white. Two sides of a head appear on either side of the device, and two gloved hands join the halves together around the device. The creature is bald, with black eyes, and a deep line bisecting its face.  The camera zooms out slightly, to reveal a surgeon in the background, presumably putting this creature together. Boss of
25 Cut to another old sci fi film. A woman screams and cowers in the left corner, while a large purple brain with tentacles thrashes. A scientist stands behind the brain, hitting it with an axe.  Me now
26 Cut to the entire Malcolm (their last name is never given) family in a van. Everyone is yelling together (victoriously?). Lois is in the passenger seat. Hal drives and triumphantly raises his fist in the air. Malcolm, Reese, and Francis sit in the next row of seats, smiling and raising their arms. Reese is in the third row of seats (perhaps the hatchback trunk?) with his arms in the air. Created by Linwood Boomer appears. And you're 
27 Cut to a boxing match.  A referee stands between two boxers. The boxer on the far right misses his opponent and punches the referee in the face. The referee slowly falls onto the man who punched him.  Not so big
28 Fade to yellow/orange. The camera adjusts to reveal “Malcolm in the Middle,” written in large font over a shot of Malcolm covering his face with his hands. He opens his eyes. The color corrects, then fades to green/purple as the camera zooms into his left eye.  Life is unfair

 Fade to green/purple


Malcolm in the Middle
Clearly, Malcolm in the Middle aims to subvert the traditional family sitcom in different ways. The opening titles present warped versions of traditional family images. For example, several shots of the family take place in the kitchen. In one particularly subversive shot, Lois stands in the kitchen dancing as she shaves her naked husband with an electric razor. This is clearly a violation of shared family space, and it presents a clear break with traditional family sitcoms, which present the kitchen as an idyllic shared space where family members gather to eat nutritious, home-cooked meals and discuss their days. Furthermore, other shots in the opening credits show the kitchen as perpetually cluttered and messy, challenging the stereotype of the perpetually spotless family kitchen, and implying that no one (most notably Lois, the matriarch) takes time to clean the space. Perhaps the most obvious theme running through the credits is chaos. Francis is escorted home by the police. Malcolm and Reese fight. Someone ties Dewey to the back of the bedroom door. A topless Lois screams at someone off camera while sorting through laundry. Even the mediated shots suggest chaos, as they all center on monsters, violence, and people/objects on fire. This family runs on chaos. The opening titles make clear that this show will not focus on a loving, supportive family, as traditional family sitcoms do. In fact, when characters on the show appear in the credits, they almost always appear angry, disgusted, annoyed, or in trouble. This is not a smiling, happy family. The only happy shot in the entire sequence comes toward the end, when the boys sit in the car and all raise their arms triumphantly, suggesting that this family still operates as a unit, albeit an untraditional one.
In addition to chaos, adolescence reigns in the opening credits. The images throughout the titles mimic the emotions and  traditional fears associated with being a teenager. For example, Francis' character back story plays out over the opening credits, as we see him escorted home by the police, and later images show him in military school. Clearly, he has been punished for acting out.  Additionally, toward the end of the sequence, we see Malcolm sitting alone at a lunch table, while the other students in the background interact with friends, playing to adolescents' fears of being unpopular.  Additionally, all of the cartoon characters in the opening credits are teenagers, and the lyrics of the theme song suggest the fighting of authority typically associated with adolescence. In fact, the repetition of, "You're not the boss of me now," could symbolize the power struggles and shifts associated with parents and children as they become teenagers. Teenagers typically become more defiant and wish to strike out on their own. The credits imply that the show will deal with the messiness, aggravation, and difficulty of being a teenager (or the parent of one).
The opening also seems to comment on contemporary television (at least contemporary television when the show premiered in 2000). When the credits open, the theme song says, “Yes, no, maybe? I don’t know. Can you repeat the question?,” as we see Reese, Dewey, and Malcolm watching television in their underwear. The lyrics and the image work together to suggest that television is empty and mindless. Furthermore, by splicing poorly regarded programming like science fiction films and cartoons into the opening titles, the series seems to present television as a vast wasteland of crap, implicitly suggesting that this series will be different. Additionally, the credits mimic a traditional television set. The mediated Images during the credits mirror this idea, as the images come from programs one would expect to find on broadcast television, perhaps indicating that the family cannot afford cable. That is, all of the mediated scenes come from old, late-night science fiction movies, Saturday morning cartoons, and news footage—staples of broadcast programming. Finally, the color washing throughout the opening titles mimic the messed up coloring of an old television set. At times, the images even appear streaky, almost dissolving into the traditional Technicolor lines. This suggests that the credits take place through the family’s television set, suggesting that an old, outdated television is all they can afford. All of these elements combine to suggest that Malcolm in the Middle is dissatisfied with traditional television shows, and therefore seems to promise that their series will be different and more modern, as it intends to mock and challenge television tropes.
Finally, the opening seems classed in a particular way. All of the shots in the family’s house show chaos—the kitchen is constantly cluttered; Lois screams at her children as she tries to find their clothes. Lois shaves Hal in the middle of the family kitchen. These signifiers alert the audience that Malcolm’s family belongs to the lower-middle class. They cannot afford nice things. The boys appear to share a bedroom and watch a single, communal television, and the consistent level of clutter in the background indicate that his parents are working members of the lower class. Moreover, the activities the family engages in throughout the credits (fighting, being escorted by the police, and watching television in their underwear) are all associated with lower classes. They are improper, and therefore classed behaviors. Similar to Roseanne and The Middle, it becomes clear that Malcolm in the Middle will center the family’s class position throughout the series. 
  

# posted by Meg @ 11:18 AM
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