HBO, 7:00 p.m. ET
This new documentary about dyslexia might just as well have premiered on the Sundance Channel, because Robert Redford’s son James is the director – and one of the subjects at which he aims his camera is his own son, Dylan, who was diagnosed with dyslexia relatively early, at age 9. Rethinking Dyslexia explores new concepts in how to diagnose the disease – and, after that, how best to approach it.
CBS, 8:00 p.m. ET
Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans will get a special kick out of tonight’s episode. Its guest star is Seth Green, who, back on that clever cult series, played werewolf Oz, the boyfriend of witchy Willow – played by Alyson Hannigan (seen, with Green, in her Buffy days), now co-starring on Mother as a new mother.
Encore, 8:00 p.m. ET
Part 1 of 3. This 1999 miniseries, starring Tim Daly, is not good, by any means. But this week’s telecast of this multi-part thriller, for which Stephen King wrote the screenplay, gets plenty of points for propitious timing. In these days of “Frankenstorm,” this miniseries tells the story of a ferocious winter storm that slams into the northeastern United States and hits a small village off the mainland – bringing a mysterious man with his own spooky agenda. And no, he’s not a reporter from the Weather Channel. Like "Frankenstorm," Storm of the Century is scheduled to continue through Wednesday.
TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET
Released in 1960, this movie could almost be classified as a horror film, because, more than 50 years later, it’s so timely, it’s scary. Based on the Broadway play, it dramatizes the Scopes “monkey trial” of 1925 – in which Spencer Tracy and Fredric March played opposing attorneys in a case about a biology teacher persecuted for teaching evolution in his classroom. Co-stars include Gene Kelly, Harry Morgan and Dick York – and please, please watch this film if you’ve never seen it. Few modern courtroom movies pack the impact of this one – and the science vs. religion argument hasn’t exactly faded in the interim.
ABC, 10:01 p.m. ET
A murder that looks like a ritualistic killing leads Beckett to an unusual, and unusually close, prime suspect: Castle. But as whodunits go, my guess is that someone else dunit. Otherwise, this series is dun, too.