Bowling (Malcolm in the Middle)

Infobox Television episode
Title=Bowling
Series=Malcolm in the Middle


Caption=
Season=2
Episode=36
Airdate= April 1, 2001
Production=06-99-103
Writer=Alex Reid
Director=Todd Holland
Episode list=List of Malcolm in the Middle episodes
Season list =
Prev =Tutoring Reese
Next =Malcolm vs. Reese"Bowling" is the 35th episode of "Malcolm in the Middle". The episode won two Emmy Awards -- one by Alex Reid for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series; the other by Todd Holland for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series. [ [http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/column?oid=oid%3A82974 The Austin Chronicle: Screens: TV Eye ] ] The episode is referenced in an cover story article in the New York Times about how TV sitcom fathers are becoming more childish, using the example of how Hal (Bryan Cranston) is involved in his bowling game enough to not notice the trouble his sons are getting into.cite web
url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9407E3DB1238F932A25752C1A9679C8B63
title=Exploring the Darker Side of Dr. Spock
publisher=New York Times
date=November 11, 2001
accessdate=2008-06-09]

Plot

The episode consists of two different scenarios over the course of the same event: Malcolm and Reese attend a bowling party, while Dewey stays home in trouble. In the first scenario, Hal takes them to the party, while Lois stays home with Dewey. The second scenario shows the events with Lois taking them to the party and Hal staying home. The alternate storylines are intercut.

While Lois takes the boys bowling, she finds that the party is unsupervised and so takes command. Lois keeps embarrassing Malcolm because he continually bowls gutterballs. During the night, Malcolm and Reese compete for a girl's affection. By the end of this scenario, Malcolm has become angered by his mother's constant annoyances that he tries one last time to get a strike. He misses again, embarrassing himself greatly. The girl, now sympathetic, gives Malcolm a kiss.

When Hal takes the boys bowling, he lets Malcolm and Reese play by themselves while he plays in another lane. Hal quickly scores a number of successive strikes and tries for a "perfect game" and have his name placed onto the plaque of the bowling alley. Malcolm is far more confident in this storyline, allowing him to score multiple times on his own. He also succeeds further with the girl, taking her behind the pin racks for a kiss. Before he is successful, his shirt gets caught in the mechanism and dumps him on the pins in his father's lane, ruining Hal's perfect game.

In the Dewey storylines, Hal falls asleep while reading Dewey a bedtime story. Dewey spends the night watching television, ordering pizza and drinking cola while he has the house, effectively, to himself. When Lois returns home, Dewey wakes Hal and moves him to the couch. In his sleepy, groggy state, Hal simply accepts that he ate the pizza then fell asleep on the couch. While Lois stays home, Dewey is sent to bed early as part of his punishment. Lois alternates between being stern and keeping him in bed and being lenient, letting him watch television. Her alternations result from considering if Dewey is tricking her into being allowed to stay up late and shirk his punishment. Eventually Lois concedes, allowing him to watch television, but only something Dewey wouldn't enjoy -- C-SPAN.

At the end of the episode, the storylines converge as the boys are brought home from the party. The parent who stayed home asks "So, how'd it go?", and the respective parent who went bowling replies: "Next time, "you" take them".

Awards

The episode was nominated for two Emmy awards and won both. One for Todd Holland for directing the episode and Alex Reid for writing. It also won a DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy Series. The episode was also nominated for a WGA Award.

Reception

USA Today critic, Robert Bianco considered the episode "very strong, and very clever". This is also one of the episodes of the second season to lead the show to its first and only Emmy nomination for Outstanding Comedy Series. This also the episode that some critics called the best episode of Malcolm in the Middle.cite web
url=http://www.usatoday.com/community/chat/2001-04-09-bianco.htm
title=Critic's Corner: Robert Bianco
publisher=USA Today
date=January 21, 2005
accessdate=2008-06-09]

References