Re: What we DO NOT want to see in Season 7
I just reread my last post and that did not come out they way I wanted it to. Ignore the part about the Buseys, it makes no sense
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I think the Buseys were originally put in for the sake of comedy, as replacement for the Krelboynes. But, as they became regular characters, the writers found that they had to, or maybe just wanted to, deal with the social issues surrounding them. As a result, the characters are caught somewhere in between.
Replacement for Krelboynes:
With the Krelboynes, the comedy revolved around their characters. We laughed at how weird they were. As replacements, the Buseys were made just as weird and were given strange problems. But, these problems are so outrageous that you (well, I) can't take them seriously or laugh at them. They're not regular psychological problems, but they are serious.
Social commentary:
In many eps, especially Busey's Take a Hostage and Dewey's Special Class, we see how the teachers and administrators disregard the Busey's needs and treat the class more as a way to keep them away from the general population than a way to help them.
(This may see off topic but I have a Busey related point coming...)
I have always been confused about the school district the children have been in. I think this is a flaw on the writers' part. We know that the family is poor. In fact, they moved into the home for budgetary reasons. But their neighbors are all well to do (doctors and lawyers: professionals as Hal calls them). How could they possibly afford a house in such an affluent district? This confusion spreads to the school as we get conflicting evidence of its quality. On one hand, it's able to offer courses that are challenging to Malcolm and the other geniouses. On the other, the school is filled with corruption and dissatisfactory teachers.
(And now for the Busey related point...)
In bad school districts, the Busey class would not exist. The emotionally disturbed students would either be rejected from the school or be left to fend for themselves. In good school districts, they would probably be put into the special school district affiliated with the school or at least given proper attention. The concept of caring enough to designate a special class but then illtreating them seems flawed and unreal to me. Its seems to be like a good school from the '60s or earlier, when mental illness was seen as punishment for sins or whatever.
Another flaw: the school has a psychologist, why aren't the Buseys seeing her?
Somewhere in between:
yardgames said:
What you guys are missing about the Buseys is that most of them have been inappropriately labelled by the school. Most are not "bad," or "emotionally disturbed;" they just have minor childhood problems. Like Hanson has an overactive imagination. Chad's disease is a bit more serious, but most of the rest of them simply suffer from being held down because no one believes they have potential.
I think this has to do with the 'making them as weird as the Krelboynes' thing. Whatever the school district is, I don't think they would put the children in based solely on the problems shown in the show. In fact, despite the fact that we've seen many of these problems in Malcolm, Reese and Dewey (Malcolm's outbursts, Reese's antics, "Dewey's been fighting (biting) again", the monster under the bed), they were never suspected to be emotionally disturbed. Dewey was put in because of his test results, not because of his behaviour.
I think the Buseys do have serious problems, but that those have been lost in an attempt to make them weird and funny. They are appropriately labelled, but not appropriately dealt with. No matter how serious the problems, I'm sure the school could have helped at least some of the Buseys (case in mind: Hanson) with therapy and teaching. They needed to be in the class but could have been helped out of it and weren't.