The single-camera series is a comedy that follows a dysfunctional working-class family and stars Frankie Muniz in the lead role as Malcolm, a child prodigy.

Christopher Kennedy Masterson, Justin Berfield, and Erik Per Sullivan appear as Malcolm's brothers, Francis, Reese, and Dewey, respectively.

Typical plots revolve around the family's dysfunctional relationships and inability to fit into society, with Malcolm regularly making asides to the camera to comment on their failures.

The series revolves around Malcolm (Frankie Muniz), who's revealed in the first episode to be a genius with an IQ of 165, which places him in a class for gifted students (also known as "Krelboynes"), originally taught by Caroline Miller (Catherine Lloyd Burns).

He is the third-born child in a comically dysfunctional family of four (later five) boys,[3][4] of Lois (Jane Kaczmarek) and Hal (Bryan Cranston).

As of the first season, their delinquent oldest child Francis (Christopher Kennedy Masterson) has been sent away to military school; while his brothers Reese (Justin Berfield) and Dewey (Erik Per Sullivan) remain at home with Malcolm and their parents.

The show's early seasons centered on Malcolm dealing with the rigors of being an intellectual and enduring the eccentricities of family life.

Later seasons expanded the show's scope by exploring the family's interactions with their extended family, friends and colleagues in more depth, including Lois' tyrannical mother Ida (Cloris Leachman); Lois' hapless coworker at the Lucky Aide drugstore Craig Feldspar (David Anthony Higgins); Malcolm's best friend Stevie Kenarban (Craig Lamar Traylor), who is both a wheelchair user and highly asthmatic; and Stevie's dad Abe (Gary Anthony Williams), as well as a series of continuing subplots detailing Francis' misadventures at the military academy, from which he subsequently disenrolls to work in an Alaskan logging camp, before finally landing a job on a dude ranch run by an eccentric German couple.

The distinctive look and sound of the series relied heavily on elaborate post-production, including fast-cut editing, sound effects, musical inserts, the extensive use of locations, and the unusual camera styles, compositions and effects (e.g. overhead, tracking, hand-held and crane shots, and the frequent use of a wide-angle lens for both close-ups and ensemble scenes) that would be generally impractical or impossible to achieve in a standard studio-based video multi-camera sitcom production.

Linwood Boomer's script for the pilot episode originally included the surname Wilkerson, but it was later removed because he did not want to put "any specific ethnic label on the characters".

A privately owned home, located in Studio City, California, was rented for upwards of $3,000 a day to film as the exterior of Malcolm's house.

In Season 6 Episode 6 Hal's Christmas gift reveals a license plate showing it to be the "Cherokee state" or Oklahoma, during Lois' demo derby).

[32] The middle school play yard was at the northern point of the CBS studio property at the end of Radford Avenue.

Hallmarks of the series' filming and structure, many of which heavily influenced later programs, included the following: During the final two seasons, Christopher Masterson reduced his on-screen time in favor of writing and directing some episodes.

[36] Mood-setting music is sprinkled throughout the series, in lieu of audience laughter, in a way that resembles feature film more than other TV sitcoms.

Some examples of this highly varied music include ABBA, Basement Jaxx, Sum 41, Kenny Rogers, Lemon Jelly, Lords of Acid, The Getaway People, En Vogue, Electric Light Orchestra, Fatboy Slim, Phil Collins, Claude Debussy, Tears for Fears, Slade, Quiet Riot, Queen, and Citizen King, whose song "Better Days" is played at the end of both the pilot episode and the series finale.

[44] In March 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Disney sent a survey out to Disney+ consumers asking if they would like content on the site such as Malcolm in the Middle and other "mature" shows such as Firefly, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Modern Family.

[67] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, gave the show's first season a score of 88 out of 100 based on 26 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".

[68] Despite the critical acclaim, its success was not assured with audiences generally rejecting single-camera, live action comedies at the time.

[72] Jane Kaczmarek and Cloris Leachman were nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award every year they appeared on the show, as leading and guest actress, respectively.

[84][12][85][86] In the 2017 film The Disaster Artist, Bryan Cranston appeared as himself, offering one of the protagonists a guest role on an episode of Malcolm in the Middle.

The series is referenced heavily in the fifth episode of the sixteenth season of the sitcom It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia — "Celebrity Booze: The Ultimate Cash Grab" — which features Cranston guest-starring as himself.

Russian channel STS made a shot-for-shot adaptation called Супер Макс (Super Max) that comprises 1 season so far.

[92] In 2021, Frankie Muniz, while speaking on Steve-O's podcast, revealed that Cranston was writing a script for a movie reunion and that the entire cast was ready to return except for one hold out, though he kept the identity confidential.

In December 2023 it was suggested that the hold out was the creator of the show, Linwood Boomer, during Muniz's appearance on Mayim Bialik's[93] podcast and that he would only give his blessing if two specific previous writers were on board.