David Bianculli

All but one of the former child actors are back for this sequel.

There's a new actor playing Dewey.

And other characters are added, including Malcolm's high school-aged daughter, Leah, played by Keely Carston, who's as humorously anxious and observant in this show as Malcolm was in the original.

And Munez, as the grown-up Malcolm, is terrific.

So is Kaczmarek as Lois.

And Cranston as Hal goes through so many broad comedy pitfalls and pratfalls that he's like a Tex Avery cartoon character.

Put it this way, what he did as the Hollywood executive in HBO's The Studio, that's nothing compared to what happens to him here.

And in both cases, coincidentally, massive amounts of pharmaceuticals are involved.

Ken Coapas, a director on the original Malcolm, directed all four episodes of Malcolm in the Middle, Life's Still Unfair.

And the final result is a show that's ultimately about family and tolerance and love.

But most of all, it's about evoking laughter, which it does constantly.

But author and Harvard professor Namwali Serpell has spent 30 years within Morrison's prose and says, what if we've been missing the point of her work all along?

Hope you can join us.

Fresh Air's executive producer is Sam Brigger.

Our senior producer today is Roberta Shorrock.

Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham, with additional engineering support by Joyce Lieberman, Julian Hertzfeld, and Deanna Martinez.

Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Phyllis Myers, Anne-Marie Baldonado, Lauren Prenzel, Teresa Madden, Monique Nazareth, Thea Chaloner, Susan Yakundi, Anna Bauman, and Nico Gonzalez-Whistler.

Our digital media producer is Molly C.V.

Nesper.

For Terry Gross and Tanya Mosley, I'm David Biancuri.