'Breaking Bad' Star's 151-Episode Near-Perfect Sitcom Is Officially a Global Streaming Hit

Aug 28, 2026 - 01:14

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'Breaking Bad' Star's 151-Episode Near-Perfect Sitcom Is Officially a Global Streaming Hit

Published Aug 27, 2026, 4:00 PM EDT

Bryan Cranston’s beloved early-2000s family comedy is currently one of Disney’s most-watched shows worldwide.

Bryan Cranston plays Hal in Malcolm in the Middle.

Bryan Cranston will forever be associated with Walter White, the mild-mannered chemistry teacher whose transformation into a brutal drug kingpin made Breaking Bad one of television’s defining dramas. But Cranston’s career since then has been anything but predictable. He has performed on London’s West End, starred opposite Kevin Hart in The Upside, and voiced animated animals in Kung Fu Panda 4 and the mystery comedy The Sheep Detectives. He even made a brief appearance on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia alongside Breaking Bad co-star Aaron Paul to promote their real-life mezcal brand, Dos Hombres.

No matter how many different roles Cranston explores, though, plenty of viewers will always remember him as the well-meaning, wildly immature father at the center of one of TV’s most chaotic family sitcoms. And that show has been a massive hit on streaming recently.

With its dysfunctional-family chaos, Malcolm in the Middle remains a perfect showcase for Cranston’s goofier talents. And according to FlixPatrol, the sitcom still has a massive pull on streaming — it's in the worldwide top ten list for TV shows on Disney Plus worldwide.

What is Malcolm in the Middle about?

Malcolm in the Middle follows Malcolm (Frankie Muniz), a smart, perpetually frustrated kid navigating school and the daily disasters created by his brothers. Much of the show’s comedy comes from Malcolm trying — and usually failing — to escape the chaos surrounding his working-class suburban family.

At the center of it all are his parents: the fearsome and practical Lois (Jane Kaczmarek) and Hal (Bryan Cranston), the loving but easily distracted dad who is often just as much of a problem as his children.

Jane Kaczmarek and Bryan Cranston as Lois and Hal Wilkerson in Malcolm in the Middle.

Cranston made Hal an all-time sitcom dad by committing fully to the character’s increasingly unhinged antics, whether he was roller-skating in a sequined bodysuit, becoming obsessed with a new hobby or turning an ordinary household task into a full-scale crisis.

Malcolm returned this year

Disney Plus brought the family back in April with Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair, a four-episode revival that reunites Cranston, Kaczmarek, Muniz, Justin Berfield and Christopher Masterson. The new story finds an adult Malcolm pulled back into the family’s familiar chaos when Hal and Lois demand he attend their 40th wedding anniversary party.

With both the revival and the original series finding room on the Disney Plus global charts, it appears Malcolm's family is still as hard to escape as ever.