> 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.
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.
His mother is fucking abusive, that’s why.
And his dad is a meth dealer
Nah that was just a dream, remember?
And completely unhinged. One child joined the military to escape her. She tracked him down, charmed military personnel, and went to drag him home
That is TERRIFYING! And the family starts to dig themselves out of a hole when Hal can’t have sex, but oh no! That means he’s happy and she’s DENIED! She seduces him until he caves. She’d rather have power than stability for her and her family
There was an episode where Lois got orthotics for her shoes and became a whole new person, nicer, happier. Hal couldn’t stand that she didn’t need foot rubs anymore and sabotaged them, condemning her to a life of pain so his codependent ass could feel needed. That whole family was fucked up.
Cripes, doomed by foot fetish
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
you say that as if it were a good thing?
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.
A boring office job is an awful fate, we should bring that perception back!
There’s a fair few people who would straight up murder someone for a boring, stable office job.
After a few years in a boring job they’ll be ready to kill again.
For you. I miss it, it was calm, the schedule was never a surprise and I never had to do 4 other people’s jobs because half the building calls off every other day. There’s far worse than office jobs, and it’s called retail.
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”.
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
