Dream Stream: Stranger Things, Malcolm In The Middle, and Grown-ish
All hail to the kids – our picks of the best streamable shows where the young guns are the stars:
Stranger Things
Seasons 1-4 – Netflix
Some TV shows are just cooler. It’s as simple as that.
It can be a cracking cast, superb story arcs, a killer soundtrack, or a brilliant balance of tension and tone that makes a television offering worthy of your perseverance.
A TV series that genuinely featured two of these could probably be described as ‘good’. To tick all four boxes is nothing short of ‘great’.
Welcome to Hawkins, Indiana. Welcome to 1983. Welcome to Stranger Things...
Created by Matt and Ross Duffer, and starring Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard and Millie Bobby Brown, Stranger Things is a sci-fi delight that hearkens back to a golden age of the genre.
Set in the fictional American town of Hawkins during the early 1980s, Stranger things follows a group of youngsters led by Mike (Wolfhard), who along with his friends is a radio enthusiast and a keen Dungeons & Dragons player.
Nothing much happens in the sleepy town of Hawkins. That is until Mike’s friend Will (Noah Schnapp) vanishes without a trace after an evening with his friends.
Will’s disappearance panics both his mother, Joyce (Ryder), and his friends, who all begin searching for him.
While Joyce enlists the services of brooding alcoholic police chief Jim Hopper (Harbour), Mike and the rest of Will’s pals run into a very mysterious little girl who proves that Hawkins is not so sleepy after all, and may have supernatural secrets aplenty. Will’s disappearance is just the beginning...
With a superb cast of stellar young talent, Stranger Things is as gripping as it is nostalgic. Ryder and Harbour are fantastic, and provide the steadying hand for the show’s young stars to be guided by. While we all eagerly await season five, the first four outings are crying out for a binge recap.
Malcolm In The Middle
Seasons 1-7 – Disney+
Life really is unfair, especially if you’re the kid caught in the middle...
Created by Linwood Boomer, Malcolm In The Middle was a noughties sitcom delight that premiered just after the turn of the millennium in January 2000. Running for a magnificent six years, seven seasons and 151 episodes, Malcolm In The Middle received great critical acclaim including seven Emmy Awards, and the fine folks at Disney+ have made it possible for us all to enjoy every exquisite episode once more.
The series follows a dysfunctional working class American family and stars Frankie Muniz in the lead role as Malcolm, an adolescent who tests at a genius level. While he enjoys his intelligence, he greatly resents having to take special classes for gifted children, which are mocked by the rest of the kids at his school.
Jane Kaczmarek plays Malcolm’s overbearing, hotheaded and stubborn mother, Lois, and Bryan Cranston plays his immature, manic, but loving father, Hal. Christopher Kennedy Masterson plays eldest brother, Francis, the trouble-making son who has been sent to military school, while Justin Berfield plays dimwitted second child Reese and Erik Per Sullivan stars as Malcolm’s younger brother, Dewey.
As the brothers’ endless discard for the rules continues to drive their parents mad, Malcolm In The Middle shows laugh-out-loud family situations many of us can relate to, and some beautiful prank work that just has to be admired.
A perfect treat for the big kid in you, Malcolm In The Middle is binge-worthy to the last.
Grown-ish
Seasons 1-5 – Disney+
It’s true what they say, not everything always goes your way...
Created by Kenya Barris and Larry Wilmore, Grown-ish is an American sitcom and a spin-off of the ABC series Black-ish.
This single-camera comedy follows Zoey Johnson (Yara Shahidi) as she goes to college, begins her journey to adulthood but quickly discovers that not everything goes her way once she leaves the nest.
Deon Cole (whose own role also originated on Black-ish), Trevor Jackson, Francia Raisa, Emily Arlook, Jordan Buhat, Chloe Bailey, Halle Bailey, Luka Sabbat, and Chris Parnell also star.
Dealing with plenty of contemporary issues faced by the young, Grown-ish has received plenty of praise for the way it tackles social topics and delivers engaging viewing.
With a fantastic performance from Shahidi, Grown-ish is compelling to the last and will delight many who may naturally have dismissed it.
If you’re looking for something new to get into and give a good old binge, Grown-ish may be just what the doctor ordered.
The sixth and final season only premiered last week, but thanks to the wonderful world of streaming, the first five are available in full at the touch of a button.
