Malcolm in the Middle: Season 2 [DVD]

Malcolm in the Middle is a classic show, and when I found that the the show was going to be released on DVD in the UK, I thought, brilliant!

However for the £20+ price tag, Im not sure it's worth it.

The show was filmed in 16mm film therefore a HD master should in theory be possible providing they haven't destroyed the original film stock due to being unable to release on DVD for 10 years in America. The DVD presented here first doesn't seem to go back to any form of original sources, and several times seems to recycle syndicated content. On the very first episode, we see an American PG warning in the top left of the screen and "fox widescreen" show up, which were clearly added for broadcast.

The program is also interlaced, which is curious for a filmed program, but may have been mastered on video.

But the DVD is also presented in NTSC at 60fps (well 30fps but 60fields). So not only have Fabulous Films not gone back to original film masters, forgiveable, they've also not converted to PAL for the UK market which is quite an odd thing to do.

All things considered, quite a poor transfer. Seems like they just slapped the AMERICAN syndicated content onto a DVD without any conversation, added a couple of base menus and done.

Of course, I'll buy the rest. But just a warning for those who think they may be buying something that has actually been mastered properly.

I haven't actually bought this yet, I'm waiting for the boxset of all seven seasons, but I've seen people's complaints about picture quality and lack of special features and felt it only right to make any potential buyers appreciate the fact this item exists at all.

Everyone knows the story of why Malcolm in the Middle has never had a successful home release after the first series. The music licensing would be so unbelievably expensive that releasing it would lose more money than it would make. Now read that sentence back and realise what that implies. At a time when the show was still on the air and its fanbase was still strong, releasing it on DVD wouldn't be profitable, so what chance would there be of anyone managing to achieve this now, years later? When only a certain amount of people still care?

Think about how much money it would have cost to put this out. It's always been a daunting task and many DVD production companies have approached this idea but the issue has always been hanging there of expense vs demand.

Look at Fabulous films' website and back catalogue, its all nostalgic cult TV shows with a limited following. The fact they managed to scrape together the money to get the music rights and organise production and distribution for such a costly series that's always had the moniker of "too expensive to release" attached to it is impressive. It was one thing to announce it, it was another thing to go ahead and actually do it. Alright they haven't kept to their release schedule and the DVDs may be poor quality but they did it, its out, its available now. Alright if the picture quality's variable and there are no special features what's to stop you watching it when its repeated on TV or online? Well you could say that of anything, the point is they achieved what no one's been able to do before, now Malcolm in the Middle is out on DVD.

Who cares if the picture quality varies and there are no special features? The point is, releasing this took balls. I urge everyone out there to buy these, we live in a world where a small independent company dedicated to nostalgic TV could achieve something where 20th Fox failed, its a pretty encouraging thought.

It's one of the beast season of the show.
The boxset is very basic, but all the episodes are in widescreen.
What is really unacceptable is the lack of any subtitles track.