TCM, 2:00 p.m. ET
Great movie #1: This is “dead week” for TV, when even the premium cable networks, such as HBO and Showtime, basically kick back and take it easy. So with virtually no new Sunday night TV series shown tonight, in the quiet period between Christmas and New Year’s Day, the TV offerings to gravitate towards are movies. And here’s an excellent one: 1965’s Dr. Zhivago, directed by David Lean, and starring Omar Sharif and, at her most luminous, Julie Christie.
NBC, 8:20 p.m. ET
There’s another flex-time game presented tonight, and NBC has opted to televise the New York Giants, battling the Minnesota Vikings. There are playoff implications at stake here, but nothing seems more meaningful than what’s not happening – because Odell Beckham Jr., after his blatantly unsportsmanlike play last week, has been suspended for one game, and is ineligible to suit up tonight for the Giants.
Sundance, 6:00 p.m. ET
Great movie #2: This movie, directed by Milos Forman, is 40 years old – and next week, it will be 41. But it’s still as fresh as can be, and the antagonistic chemistry between Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher, as patient and nurse, made stars of them both. The supporting cast is deep, and so is the story. If you’ve never seen it, please do.
Showtime 2, 8:00 p.m. ET
Great movie #3: Steven Spielberg’s WWII masterpiece – well, one of two of them, because there’s also Saving Private Ryan – is presented tonight, unedited and uninterrupted, on Showtime 2. And this 1993 biography of Oskar Schindler is a black-and-white triumph. Mostly black-and-white, that is, and when the color red makes an appearance, it’s haunting. Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley star.
Sundance, 9:00 p.m. ET
Great movie #4: Stanley Kubrick took Stephen King’s novel and changed parts of it significantly – some for the better, some not. But overall, this 1980 movie is among the best horror movies ever made. Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall star.