ESPN, 7:00 p.m. ET
The 2019 multi-part documentary about O.J. Simpson, and about the public’s reaction to his athletic feats, his stardom, his infamy and the verdict in his murder trial, is repeated this week in prime time on ESPN. It’s absolutely worth seeing, and says things about athletic stardom and race relations that definitely add something to the overall picture. Tonight, Parts 2 and 3 are shown back-to-back.
TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET
Last year, when this documentary was released, and streamed on Amazon, I reviewed it for Fresh Air – and was both excited and embarrassed to learn so much about a pioneering filmmaker of the silent era about whom I was virtually ignorant. It was a feeling amplified by the fact that this French film director, who was there in Paris to witness the very first public motion picture showing by the Lumiere brothers, ended up moving to America and making some of her later movies right in my current home state of New Jersey. (The two-word banner hung in her New Jersey movie studio was an ever-present reminder to her actors, and provides this documentary’s main title: “Be Natural.”) Jodie Foster narrates.
NBC, 9:00 p.m. ET
SEASON FINALE: And for another season, this is it for This Is Us. Tonight is the show’s Season 4 finale – and if you’re not expecting an emotional climax, you haven’t been watching.
TCM, 10:00 p.m. ET
Here’s precisely what makes TCM such a treasure. It’s not only devoting prime time to a documentary about an important yet largely forgotten female filmmaker of the silent era, but follows that inspiring documentary with a sampling of several of Alice Guy-Blache’s short films. The perfect pairing – and believe me, after you watch Be Natural, you’ll be thrilled by the opportunity to watch some of her films intact – begins at 10 p.m. ET with 1912’s Falling Leaves, based on a story by O. Henry. (It’s about a woman trying to save her ill sister from dying of the then-prevalent plague, so don’t settle in expecting total escapism.) After that, a mere 15 minutes later, comes 1916’s The Ocean Waif, about an abused woman in love with a famous writer. And after that, at 11 p.m. ET, comes 1906’s ambitious The Birth, The Life, and The Death of Christ (pictured) – a silent movie made a full 10 years before D.W. Griffith covered some of the same ground in his 1916 epic, Intolerance.
