TV: Totally twisted, in a normal kind of way

FIONA RAE hails reality's answer to The Simpsons.

It seems appropriate that indie outfit They Might Be Giants perform the theme song and music for Malcolm In the Middle (TV3, 7.30 pm). Their quirkiness is a perfect match for the show.

Remember Birdhouse In Your Soul? It's what Malcolm's creator, Linwood Boomer, wants to show us when Malcolm turns and speaks directly to the camera.

It may be an old dramatic device but it's a great way of getting us on Malcolm's side and explaining the characters. In last week's pilot, Malcolm even slowed down the action.

"Okay, this is where something good happens - finally - so we're going to slow down and make it last as long as possible," he said, just before the final confrontation with the school bully.

Malcolm in the Middle has been a critical and ratings success in the United States. Its first episode was the Fox network's most successful debut since The Simpsons 10 years ago.

The show's twisted logic with a heart certainly has a Simpsons feel. Malcolm is the very bright child of a chaotic family consisting of three brothers, and parents who, in between dealing with the daily chaos, don't mind if their kids see them naked.

Dad baulks at any real confrontation and mum's lectures are well-meaning if twisted.

"Every day is a lottery," she says when giving the boys a you-take-your-legs-for-granted talk. "And first prize is that you don't have to scoot yourself around town on a skateboard with your hands."

When Malcolm needs persuading to move into a class for gifted children, it's: "There's nothing wrong with being cut from the herd. It means you're not there when the Indians drive the others off the cliff."

And: "Any kid who makes fun of you is a creepy little loser who'll end up working in a car wash."

Boomer based Malcolm In the Middle on his own weird childhood.

He had a dad who shaved his body hair (last week opened with Malcolm's mum shaving his dad's naked body. In the kitchen. At breakfast).

He had a mum who walked around the house topless (Malcolm's mum's boobs were hidden by various laundry items).

And he had a best friend in a wheelchair.

Boomer himself was a child actor in Little House On the Prairie for five years, and then wrote for sitcoms including Night Court and 3rd Rock From the Sun.

If those aliens struggled to comprehend human behaviour, in Malcolm in the Middle it is laid bare, so to speak.

"Around here, being smart is exactly like being radioactive," says Malcolm, when no one will sit with him at lunch.

When she suspects oldest son Francis is smoking, mum remonstrates with him like this: "After seeing the anguish your father and I went through to quit, didn't any of that register with you?"

With the cleverness of the script and the accompanying camera-work it's no wonder this is shaping up as The Simpsons of the new millennium.

But there will be one factor that may stop Malcolm in the Middle going as long as the unchanging cartoon Simpsons. Star Frankie Muniz is already a 14-year-old playing a 12-year-old. And as Malcolm says about childhood, "at some point it stops."