>Nothing against the writers, of course, but a lot in their demographic(s)
>may have just grown up thinking that underage drinking is "no big deal".
>And, getting to the root of the problem (peer pressure? stress?
>curiosity?) may be a little bit more tolling on the emotions (or, perish
the
>thought, "preachy") than they or the audience feel comfortable with.
I don't like preachy so much, this show has never been preachy, but I
think they could get away tolling on the emotions of the audience way
more than they might think.
I went underage drinking, probably for all the reasons listed. When I
have kids and have to deal with this, for me this issue will be one of
the toughest, 'cause I don't know how to tackle it without getting
dragged down by sounding preachy AND hypocritical.
I guess the writers are very likely facing that same problem in the
script. I am seriously curious how they deal with it. But if they drop
the ball and just avoid it, that would suck.
>
>You're on to something. If we are to assume that Lois's treatment of the
>boys is a mere extension of the way Ida treated her as a kid, then that
>gives us more insight into Lois as a person - are the kids that way
because
>of the way the parents treat them, or are the parents so evil because the
>kids willfully are? We heard Lois say that her parents liked her sister
>Susan best. Well, is that because they just didn't like Lois, or was
Lois
>honestly the worse child?
They said the show was going to deal with underage ***. They like
their twists. What if the twist in this case is that actually they
****tray Lois as the one who had underage ***, went underage
drinking...
Lois doesn't see herself as having been a badly behaved child, but for
the most part, her kids don't see themselves that way either much.
As to whether Lois created the monsters that are the kids, or their
behavior that created the monster in her... I have to be fair and say
both.
Despite her blaming Francis, I figure she started it. But the whole
'Forwards, Backwards' episode dealt with the concept of escalation
brilliantly. Reese and Malcolm putting each other in hospital for
what?... Malcolm stealing the last blueberry; "What's the worst that
could happen?".
Lois is at war with the kids, and neither side is about to see that it
probably started pretty small.
>What she should have realized, though, is that is that she was giving him
>her go-ahead to do it if/since he wasn't already. Sometimes it's just
>easier for parents to assume their kids will do the bad thing at every
>turn - keeps them from having to have faith.
I think Lois gave her speech on parenting back in season 1. It really
was the 'assume the worst' attitude.
"They are able to think - maybe - three minutes into the future and
it's our job to make sure that future comes cra****ng down on them
within the time limit, otherwise they never learn a thing."
But then I think of the advice Malcolm got from Francis on girls.
"Whatever mom tells you, don't do it, and don't do the opposite
either." Lois has to figure if she told him not to do it, she is
setting the stage for him to defy her. In this case I think her tactic
was kind of like the Spangler *** education lessons at Marlin. She
didn't tell him not to, but she spent three hours telling him every
extreme detail, to the point she made him throw up. The kid is
traumatized and will think of mom every time he thinks of ***... at
least I think that was her plan.
>Or...after the hangover wears, Craig decides to toy with him a little -
>saying, doing, and showing him all kinds of stupid things making Malcolm
>think he is still wasted. That alone turns him off drinking forever.
>
Craig finally displays his psychotic side. Somehow, I don't ever want
to go there... :-)
Craig is a nice guy, I don't know he has enough cruelty in him to pull
that off, at least and teach Malcolm a lesson. Now Reese on the other
hand... or Dewey. They have the necessary sadism to humiliate him in
ways that would make him never dare drink again.
Oddly enough that kind of happened to my best bud. Cured him of
drinking. Cured both of us of giving in to 'peer pressure'.
Yeah, I think I would favor that approach to teaching Malcolm (or I
guess it could equally be Reese the one they ****tray underage
drinking) a lesson.
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