‘Taking my clothes off is my whole life!’ Bryan Cranston on the glorious gross-out return of Malcolm in the Middle | Television

The intro to the new Malcolm in the Middle is quite the thing. Kids punch police officers. Santa Claus gets kicked in the face. A barrel full of faeces detonates inside a family car. This recap of previous episodes is so full of gross-out comedy and family fights that a grandma grabs her teenage grandson and crushes his testicles until he squeals. “And,” intones a voiceover at its end, “someone actually asked for more of this.”

Did they? It’s been 20 years since the Emmy-winning sitcom about an outrageous working-class US family with the titular child genius went off air. It’s a show whose fans remember it fondly for never dipping in quality throughout its seven seasons. But were they really clamouring for more?

“It was in all the magazines,” says Frankie Muniz, AKA lead character Malcolm. In 2015, he casually tweeted that it would be “so cool” to catch up with the characters and “I couldn’t believe the response. I was shocked.” Although, really, he shouldn’t have been. After all, he’s spent decades getting first-hand experience of how much more loved the show is than he ever dreamed.

“One of the wildest was the first time I went overseas. I had no idea people knew the show there. I was in Geneva, walking with my girlfriend and people were looking. By the end of it, we were literally being chased down the street. When I’m in Europe or I’m in Mexico or in Central America, people love the show so much that … I’m not comparing myself to the Beatles at all, but it almost was that odd level of ‘What is happening?’”

Fans should be happy. The rebooted Malcolm in the Middle (subtitled Life’s Still Unfair, after the theme tune lyrics) is every bit the laugh-out-loud pleasure that the original was. The four half-hour episodes – which reunite the original cast for parents Lois and Hal’s 40th wedding anniversary celebration – are full of killer gags, surreal humour and OTT family showdowns ranging from siblings calling the tax office on each other to Malcolm attempting to win an argument about not being stuck up by keying his own car. It’s a comedic joy.

And it would never have been made without one man. The series really came to be following a conversation Muniz had shortly after that tweet. “I had dinner with Bryan and I remember him saying something like: ‘There’s no role I’d want to revisit more than Hal,’ so he took the lead. It’s thanks to Bryan that it really did happen.”

Bare essentials … Bryan Cranston (left) goes topless and more in the sitcom revival. Photograph: David Bukach/Disney

That, just to be clear, is Bryan Cranston. AKA the star of Breaking Bad, widely regarded as one of the greatest TV shows of all time. He won the Emmy for outstanding lead actor four times in five seasons, creating one of the finest performances ever committed to screen. Is it not surprising that the one role he’s keenest to reprise is a goofball dad with a penchant for stumbling into ludicrous slapstick scenarios?

“I think it’s because he’s been murdering so many people on other shows,” laughs Jane Kaczmarek, who plays Malcolm’s mother, Lois. “He’s like, wow, I can go back and be Hal again?”

The opportunity to have fun certainly isn’t one that Cranston wastes in the new episodes. He performs a full-on choreographed dance routine in a supermarket aisle. He attempts to microdose, accidentally takes enough hallucinogens for 15 elephants and ends up imagining himself as Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor, replete with thigh-high leather boots. He is repeatedly naked, including a callback to Hal’s habit of stripping down so Lois can shave off his excess body hair while his kids watch on in horror.

“Taking my clothes off seems to be my whole life,” laughs Cranston – who recently won an Emmy for appearing in an episode of Seth Rogen comedy The Studio, in which he wore a leopardskin thong. “I thought a nudity clause meant that it was circumspect as to when someone was going to be naked. I didn’t know my agent viewed a nudity clause as ‘nudity is essential’. So here I am, a 70-year-old man parading around in his skivvies – or less.”

Cranston’s all-or-nothing approach won’t exactly shock fans of the original Malcolm in the Middle. As far as he was concerned, the more extreme his commitment, the funnier the joke.

“I can’t even recall all the things that I’ve done, but all in the name of comedy, man. You gotta go for it,” he says. “I was covered in blue paint. I was tied to the front of a city bus. I had 60,000 honey bees all over me – I got stung in my crotch. In one episode I had to drink a concoction of raw meat and eggs.”

You had to?

“Yeah, of course I did. Because I wanted to. Because I know the audience would wonder if I really did it. So in the same shot that I’m cracking eggs, putting raw meat in, and blending, I start drinking it.”

And this is the role you were desperate to do over?

“It was seven great years of my life – in which I met the most wonderful people. There’s no better job than going to work and thinking of how to be funny.”

Making a meal of it … (From left) Justin Berfield, Emy Coligado, Frankie Muniz and Christopher Kennedy Masterson. Photograph: David Bukach/Disney

The intervening years have taken the cast in very different directions. Kaczmarek took a hiatus from acting, as “my life went topsy-turvy. I got divorced shortly after the show ended and had three kids that I really wanted to raise.” Erik Per Sullivan, who played Malcolm’s younger brother Dewey, is currently studying for a master’s degree at Harvard – and is the only member of the original family to be recast (Kaczmarek: “He’s studying Dickens and is an incredible student – they offered him buckets of money to come back, and he just said: ‘No thank you’.”) Muniz threw himself into alternative ventures, from becoming a professional racing driver to running an olive oil shop with his wife in which he “was personally filling 600 bottles a day – because I want to make sure everything’s perfect”. The latter came as no surprise to the cast.

“I remember him saying once in the makeup chair he was thinking about buying warehouses in Australia,” laughs Kaczmarek. “And I thought, what 16-year-old kid is thinking about buying a warehouse? He was a good kid. He didn’t drink. He didn’t do drugs. He was a real straight arrow.”

Given that some of them stepped away from acting, you can’t help but wonder whether it felt odd to be back on screen. Especially given that one of them became quite possibly the greatest actor of his generation.

“I think Bryan was more nervous to work with me again,” laughs Muniz. “I wasn’t intimidated to work with him, because he’s always just been such an amazing guy to me. Throughout all the success he’s had, he’s always been there to support whatever I’m doing. When I had the olive oil company, he bought the olive oil. I was in a band, and he came to the shows. When I was racing, he checked on me after a wreck. I was just excited to spend more time with him.”

This is a vibe that comes across pretty clearly in the show. To see the cast back together is to marvel at chemistry that is somehow every bit as vigorous after two decades apart. Second child Reese (Justin Berfield) steals scenes with his hilariously malevolent rivalry with Malcolm and non-binary sibling Kelly (the one new addition to the cast, as Lois was pregnant with them in the original run, played by Vaughan Murrae). Eldest son Francis’s (Christopher Kennedy Masterson) manic – and futile – determination to be the apple of his mother’s eye is still hilarious (“Mom … I’m senior management. I have 75 people under me.” “That’s 75 people plotting to replace you!”).

Up to scratch … Frankie Muniz happily steps back into the role of Malcolm. Photograph: David Bukach/Disney

It’s exactly the slice of joy the world needs right now. Did the team ever feel like helping to bring some laughter into people’s lives was a public service given how dark the world feels?

“Comedy is essential right now. It’s not even important. It’s essential,” says Cranston. “Because it’s a break from the bombardment of non-stop information. People who have the news on 24 hours a day in their homes, I don’t think they realise the damage they’re doing. You might as well make a house full of asbestos or just have radiation constantly emitting through your house.”

There is one thing about bringing the show back that doesn’t feel quite right, though. When the original run wanted to prove Lois’s unshakeable belief in Malcolm, it ended with her telling him he could be the greatest person on the planet – the US president.

“God, who would want to do that now?” says Kaczmarek. “Talk about unfair: look who we got as president. If only Lois had raised Donald Trump, she could have put a couple of good kicks up his backside.”

Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair is on Disney+ on 10 April.

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Big Mistakes review – Schitt’s Creek creator Dan Levy excels in new cringe comedy | Television

There are, broadly speaking, two types of television shows: the ones that make stars and the ones made by stars. The former includes the ensemble productions that turn unknowns into household names – Bridgerton, Euphoria, Industry – as well as the labour-of-love projects that make their camera-ready creators scalding-hot industry property (Fleabag, I May Destroy You, Baby Reindeer). Schitt’s Creek, Dan Levy’s sitcom about a once-wealthy family forced to slum it in a dingy motel in the arse end of nowhere, belongs firmly in this category. Levy, 42, did have something of a leg-up in the entertainment world – he co-created the show with his father, American Pie’s Eugene Levy, who also played the clan’s clueless patriarch – yet for all intents and purposes Schitt’s Creek was a grassroots success story, debuting in 2015 on Canadian network CBC before gradually becoming a global hit after it was picked up by Netflix a couple of years later.

And what about the second kind? Well, these are the ones that couldn’t exist without the first: they are the post-breakthrough, difficult-second-projects made by freshly minted stars such as Levy, who have been handsomely rewarded for the popularity of their dazzling brainchild with a very lucrative streaming contract. Historically, these deals haven’t always seemed like the wisest investment: Amazon has reportedly paid Fleabag Creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge $100m, but a similar blockbuster is yet to materialise. Netflix have had a fraction more luck with Levy, who made a film for them in 2023 called Good Grief – although you suspect a melancholic indie movie wasn’t exactly what the platform was hoping for when they signed up the maker of a rambunctious family comedy for an eight-figure sum.

Big Mistakes, however, probably is. Co-created with I Love LA’s Rachel Sennott (who doesn’t appear in the show), it stars Levy as Nicky, a nervy pastor who is keeping his boyfriend a secret from his family and his flock. He has a cool school teacher sister, Morgan (Taylor Ortega), to spar with, and a highly strung, emotionally incontinent mother (Roseanne’s Laurie Metcalf) to make constant, guilt-trip-tinged demands on him. In episode one, these include procuring a fake diamond necklace for his dying “nonna”. Miraculously, Nicky and Morgan find the perfect item in a gift shop, yet the cashier mysteriously refuses to sell it to them. Because, yep, you guessed it: the necklace is actually real. Morgan doesn’t guess, steals the thing, and her and Nicky are duly hunted down by the criminal gang who are meant to be guarding it.

Why such a valuable asset was on public display in the first place is never properly explained. In fact, much of Big Mistakes doesn’t really stand up to scrutiny; there are too many clunky and implausible developments that exist solely to prolong Nicky and Morgan’s presence in the gangland underworld they’ve stumbled into. The idea of anxious civilians becoming embroiled in organised crime is not a particularly original one (see: Fargo, Ozark, Only Murders in the Building) and here the conceit is rendered in disappointingly vague and generic terms: these bad guys are more tedious than terrifying. The blindsiding final twist – a blatant setup for season two – does provide a momentary thrill, yet even that quickly dissipates when you realise how little sense it makes for the story as a whole.

In other words, this is less a great premise than a passable excuse for Levy to create another bickering, boundary-decimating on-screen family. As Schitt’s Creek proved, it’s where he excels, and the dynamic between the repressed and dutiful Nicky and the thrill-seeking, acid-tongued Morgan is a joy to witness. Levy nails the instant psychological regression that occurs upon reuniting with your adult siblings – the parent-based in-jokes, the petulant squabbling, the opportunity to be wholly honest with and slightly horrible to another person without it affecting your social life – and the pair’s relationship with their other sister, infuriating goody-two-shoes Natalie, is also gleefully well drawn. Meanwhile, the stress radiating from the trio’s overbearing mother amid her disaster-beset mayoral campaign dovetails nicely with the jerky camerawork and abrasive score; needless to say, this knife-edge familial drama is far easier to buy into than the organised crime caper.

The cast are all brilliant. Metcalf swings masterfully between steely authority and papery fragility, Levy is predictably charming and Ortega is downright hilarious (the duo also have enviable personal style: Nicky dresses like an Instagram-friendly Seinfeld; Morgan has a great line in gothic boho chic). The domestic cringe comedy at its heart means Big Mistakes is far from a major error, but it isn’t quite a triumph either. Perhaps that’s inevitable. They may seem like a safer bet for a risk-averse TV industry, but shows made by stars can rarely compete with the ones that make them.

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Spurs rule out injured Victor Wembanyama, Stephon Castle

SAN ANTONIO — Victor Wembanyama and Stephon Castle were ruled out for the Spurs‘ game against the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday night.

Wembanyama is out after suffering a rib contusion on Monday and Castle is out with right knee soreness, the team announced.

Wembanyama needs to play at least 20 minutes in one more game to reach the league-required minimum of 65 games for award eligibility.

The Spurs have two games left in the regular season after Wednesday night: Friday against the Dallas Mavericks and Sunday against the Denver Nuggets.

The Spurs said they are hopeful Wembanyama and Castle will play Friday.

They both participated in shootaround Wednesday.

“I can’t tell you too much of how [Wembanyama] looked, but he heals fast,” Spurs veteran Harrison Barnes said.

Wembanyama suffered the injury in the first half of a 115-102 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers. Castle had 17 points, 13 assists and 10 rebounds in that game.

Wembanyama had 17 points, five rebounds and three blocks in just under 16 minutes. That time constituted an official game per the NBA guidelines, which allow two exceptions of 15 to 19:59 minutes to count toward the league-required minimum.

San Antonio (60-19) has clinched the Southwest Division and is assured of finishing no worse than second in the Western Conference. It trails the conference-leading Oklahoma City Thunder (63-16) by three games.

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‘Euphoria’ made her a star. Now she’s diving into the internet’s darkest corners.

Barbie Ferreira is no stranger to dark subject matter (Euphoria, anyone?). But now, she’s stepping into her horror era — and it feels eerily well-timed.

In Faces of Death, in theaters nationwide on April 10, Ferreira plays Margot, a content moderator for a major video platform tasked with reviewing the internet’s most graphic videos. It’s a premise that sounds extreme until you consider how much of that content already exists at our fingertips. The film, which leans into the 1978 original’s infamous “Is it real or not?” conceit, taps into a larger cultural shift: the growing blur between what’s real, what’s staged and what we’ve simply learned to scroll past.

Ferreira doesn’t see the idea as far-fetched. If anything, she thinks the culture has already caught up.

“I grew up on the internet. I like to call myself a guinea pig of my generation,” she tells Yahoo. “I’m a very old Gen Z — you could even call me a cusp millennial — so I was really part of the first batch of children who had access to it.”

That outlook comes with a kind of double vision, one in which the shock factor that once defined online culture has slowly worn off. “It was a very different world back then, and I can’t tell if it’s better or worse — I actually can’t,” she says. “What used to feel shocking is now so normalized.”

The role arrives at a moment of transition for Ferreira, who was catapulted into the spotlight when Euphoria premiered in 2019. She broke out as Kat Hernandez, a fan-favorite character whose arc explored identity, confidence and internet infamy in real time.

Now, a few years removed from the show — which she exited after its second season in 2023 — Ferreira is moving into a different phase. The projects are darker, the choices more deliberate, and her relationship with visibility, especially online, is shifting too.

“There’s this feeling that we’re all under surveillance,” she says. “When actors are a little too personal and people know you too much, it’s hard to suspend disbelief.”

Ahead, Ferreira opens up about unwinding with Nickelodeon, navigating fame in the internet age and what it’s like to watch Euphoria from the outside — just like the rest of us.

You’re playing someone who has to watch disturbing content for a living. What was the hardest part of stepping into that headspace?

During the filming of it, I really wanted to be in more of a darker headspace. [Ferreira’s character] Margot not only had this incredible trauma that was very viral and very public, but also her job involves her watching kind of the worst of the worst on the internet at all times in rapid succession — almost like you’re going through TikTok.

I just thought about how incredibly affecting that can be. So what I did was I listened to a lot of really dark material. I was listening to Hunting Warhead, which is a podcast about taking down a huge child abuse ring on the black market. It was just very, very dark — extremely dark true crime about the internet and how pervasive that can be.

I’d watch old internet videos of accidents and really horrifying things that I typically wouldn’t be watching at 7 a.m. on a Tuesday. But because I’m an actor and that’s what I love to do, I was really going through all of that.

What did you do to unwind and shake that off at the end of the day?

After the movie, I had to do the exact opposite. I came back to L.A. and I only had a little bit of time before my next movie, so I watched a lot of SpongeBob, That’s So Raven — everything that could possibly make me feel the exact opposite.

I would honestly fall asleep to Hotel Transylvania every night just to clear my head of the disturbing parts of filming a horror movie. Because even though it’s fake, your body doesn’t really register that when you’re covered in blood. So it was a lot of children’s television to decompress.

While we’re on the subject of boundary-pushing content, Euphoria was so shocking when it first came out. Season 3 is about to premiere. Do you think it still hits the same way now?

I think when it first came out, I really remember how shocked people were that there was this level of sex and violence and abuse being portrayed. I haven’t watched Season 1 in so long because it is very effective — it hurts me to watch at times. But I’m sure it’ll still find ways to rustle feathers like it always has.

Are you going to be watching this season?

Oh, I’ll definitely be watching. I’m curious because I have no idea what’s going on.

Even when I see the girls out and about, I don’t think they know what’s going on either. They kept it very secretive from the scripts, so I’m really curious to see what’s going to happen.

You also get to follow the characters years later, so I’m really interested. It’s going to be fun.

Faces of Death taps into something really unsettling — the idea that we don’t know what’s real online anymore. Did it change the way you personally think about what you consume or even what you share?

What I really loved about the script was that even in 2023, when we shot this, it was so relevant — and it’s only grown in relevance since then.

It feels like every year we’re desensitized to more and more real-life violence that we’re constantly being shown and that’s being pumped into us.

A 5-year-old could see a video of someone being murdered on their iPad, and it’s something they’re used to.

So for me, it really aligned with the movie. It’s more of a question than a message. How do we participate in all of this?

What’s your relationship with social media right now? Has it shifted as your career — and your visibility — has grown?

As soon as I started acting professionally and really dedicated my life to it, I took a step back from the internet. I feel like when actors are a little too personal and you know them too much, it’s kind of hard to suspend disbelief.

But I also think a lot of actors are trying to figure out their own way because this is completely new — not just for actors, but for everyone.

There’s this feeling that we’re all under surveillance at all times.

Actors have never had this kind of access to every single opinion of them anonymously like [they do] now. Imagine if Joan Crawford had an Instagram Live?

It’s a completely new landscape to navigate, and I don’t think there’s a concrete answer yet. I don’t even know if there ever will be. But yeah, it’s pretty hard to be a public figure in the age of the internet. At the same time, I think everyone feels that way now — we’re all in it together.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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