Malcolm in the Middle - Season 1 [DVD]

Almost ten whole years ago now the US got their hands on Malcolm in the Middle: Season 1 on DVD. The set sold so well that FOX immediately announced plans for a Season 2 set to be released in 2003. Those plans fell through. Why? All because of music clearances. Due to FOX being... not entirely forward thinking it would have cost a fortune to be able to acquire the rights for the music used in the show to release on DVD and thus the show became suspended in limbo for years and years and years.

For many years I've been keeping a close eye on TVShowsonDVD.com for Malcolm to appear. The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air seasons 5 and 6 were announced on there after a 4-year gap for the same reason of music costs and when the news broke I was overjoyed, however this website does not report the Region 2 (UK) releases. Today, I was flicking through the ratings for my favorite TV shows, making sure they were 'okay'. I was a bit curious about how 'Supernatural's ratings had decreased over the last season or two which led me to learn all about the 'Friday night death slot', that wiki article lead me to Malcolm in the Middle, which was shunted to this death slot in it's final season resulting in it's cancellation and upon scrolling down the page I saw the news. The news that Fabulous Films would be releasing all 7 seasons in the UK this year.

I let out a squeel of joy, what I had been waiting for for so many years was finally a reality. Anyway, every month now, culminating in a 'Complete Collection' before Christmas a new season of Malcolm in the Middle will be released on DVD. It's been a long and tumultuous wait but that is finally over now. If you're a fan of 'Malcolm' please make sure you go out and buy it, the last thing we need is poor sales resulting in only half the seasons getting the released or something. Also there's (hopefully) the possibility of a Blu-ray release soon.

Anyway, it's a fantastic show and definitely deserves a 10/10. If you've never seen it before watch it, you wont be disappointed!!!

As others have said, it took long enough, but it is still a joy to have Malcolm in the Middle on DVD in region 2. One of the best sitcoms of the last 20 years and loving every minute of every episode on the disc. Price is perhaps a bit steep, but on the whole worth it. Criticisms only that the 16:9 aspect ratio that this set is presented in, while nice that it fits a widescreen tv, reveals a number of issues that were clearly not intended to be in shot.

Looking forward to more Malcolm in the Middle dvd releases if we're lucky enough to get them.

I've just acquired the R2 Release and given Disk 1 an initial playing. I've owned the R1 Release for some time, and I think it goes without saying that Malcolm in the Middle is a superb series from start to finish and much loved by many. I therefore submit this review for those interested in the technical quality of this Release compared to the previous R1 "NTSC" set sold in the US.

Firstly, I discovered that the picture format on the R2 disks is actually 720 x 480 at 30fps. R2 is normally formatted for PAL compatibility, which would require 720 x 576 at 25fps (576i 50Hz). What we have here is the same picture format as the R1 release, which is intended for the NTSC standard. Both Releases are interlaced (480i 60hz). The menus and navigation are almost identical to the R1 Release.

I quickly noticed a problem with a juddering effect on panning scenes, where the motion appears to be rather jerky. On investigation, this looks to be due to the source material having been de-interlaced and then re-interlaced. This results in a bigger, so less fluid movement between each frame, as well as every fourth frame being shown twice in a five-frame set; all contributing to the effect, which personally, I find quite distracting. The R1 Release does not suffer this problem. It also suggests this R2 transfer is from another video source rather than from the original film.

Also to note are the average bit rates on the R2 Release Disk 1, which are significantly lower than the R1 set. I thought this might be to make space on the dual-layer disk for the Original Pilot, which is not on the R1 set, but curiously, less than 7Gb of the available 8.5Gb is actually used.

The early episodes do seem to exhibit quite a bit of grain and noise. This was also apparent on the R1 Release so I suspect the source material is to blame, but in my view, it is made worse by higher compression here. Things do improve, however, once past the first few episodes.

There is another, more serious flaw with this R2 transfer. An example can be seen on Disk 3, in episode "Smunday", where there are several low-light scenes in Lois' bedroom. Sadly, shadow detail is crushed to oblivion and blacks are rendered as purple and blue! This is tehnically pretty poor. The R1 Release is streets ahead in comparison with decent solid blacks and good shadow detail.

On the positive side, this R2 Release (excluding the Extended Pilot) does indeed have the 16:9 aspect ratio, whereas the R1 Release is all 4:3, as originally shown on TV. I have compared the picture areas and can confirm that the 16:9 framing has been achieved without cropping the top and bottom of the original picture. I did read somewhere that the original format was 16:9 on 35mm film, so this is a definite plus for widescreen viewing.

Overall, a little disappointing. Even though the 16:9 aspect looks great, the technical flaws are, in my opinion, unforgivable.

Sadly, I think we will have to wait a long time for a decent 1080p Blu ray transfer from the original film at 24fps; now that would be something...