HBO, 9:00 p.m. ET
This is Episode 6 out of 8 in this miniseries prequel to the Perry Mason canon – and it’s taken this long for Perry (played so well, and so noir-ishly, by Matthew Rhys) to finally enter what will become his home environment: the courtroom. But after arriving with all deliberate speed, Perry is at the point of defending an accused murderer, a woman suspected of complicity in the kidnapping and death of her own baby. To this point, Perry Mason has been engrossing. Tonight, it becomes increasingly familiar…
Epix, 10:00 p.m. ET
DOCUMENTARY MINISERIES PREMIERE: This new documentary series goes over a lot of familiar ground – but also goes deeper in some spots, providing home movies and photos of the people drawn into Charles Manson’s gravity field, and sampling some from Manson himself. It also uses enough of his studio and home recordings to establish his level of talent as a singer and composer, which was one of his driving ambitions. Most interesting in this study, though, is how it punctures popular myths about other driving ambitions attributed to Manson. Namely, that he wanted to incite a race war, and had grand schemes as a sort of hippie criminal mastermind. Apparently, far from it…
HBO, 10:00 p.m. ET
At the end of last week’s installment, Michelle McNamara, the woman struggling to meet a deadline on her first book while solving the murder and rape cases at its center, died suddenly. At the time, her book wasn’t finished – and neither is this documentary miniseries, which continues to tell her story posthumously, and no less rivetingly.
HBO, 11:00 p.m. ET
So Jacksonville is out as the relocated site for the Republican National Convention, and President Donald Trump is now encouraging the use of masks during the pandemic, and paramilitary forces similar to the ones occupying Portland are being dispatched to other cities, and there’s a vital American debate about whether to open schools in the fall. Anything you want to say about any of this, John? Please?