Showtime, 8:00 p.m. ET
The first full week of the Biden administration is chronicled on this week’s new edition of The Circus – and part of that week included the increasing reluctance by Senate Republicans to entertain seriously the impeachment charge about to be brought before them. It also included an increasing concern, by congressional Democrats, that their lives were in danger not just from domestic terrorists, but potentially from some of their own elected colleagues. How is that playing out offstage, behind the scenes? Watch and see…
HBO, 9:00 p.m. ET
DOCUMENTARY MINISERIES PREMIERE: This four-part miniseries actually is several documentaries in one: a mystery series, the story of a con artist, the tale of a promising fuel-efficient three-wheel automobile in the midst of the 1970s oil crisis, and a detailed biographical study of an elusive and mercurial subject. Watch the first hour, and I defy you to walk away from the remaining installments. The first two installments are televised tonight on HBO, with the remainder coming on successive Sundays. For my full review on NPR’s
Fresh Air with Terry Gross, visit the Fresh Air website.
Showtime, 9:00 p.m. ET
The pandemic has forced everyone to be inventive, and to do things differently. Mostly, it’s been terrible to experience and endure – but on television, every once in a while, you witness something that clearly ought to be continued once the pandemic is over. The democratic National Convention roll call vote of states, recorded in all 50 different states so that we could see the nation as a true United States, was one such example. It ought to be required from now on, rather than just have delegates speak up from the crowded convention floor. And another impressive innovation has been seen this season on Showtime’s Shameless, which had padded its pandemic-shortened production schedule by concocting highlight reels of sorts, showcasing specific characters and actors and showing their adventures, and their growth (or lack of it), over the show’s 11 years. It’s been wild to watch these. Not only does it demonstrate the talent of this superb cast, but gets to recycle some killer moments that beg to be sought out and seen again. Tonight’s installment of Shameless is a new episode, continuing the season’s main narrative of this show’s final season – but the “filler” installments have been so entertaining, I’m almost a tad disappointed.
Showtime, 10:00 p.m. ET
Last week, Your Honor was in recess, but tonight Bryan Cranston’s New Orleans judge returns to the courtroom – and to his increasingly complex, closing-in circle of murderers and blackmailers. But who is he to judge?
Showtime, 11:00 p.m. ET
SEASON PREMIERE: This is the Season 3 premiere of the late-night talk show hosted by Desus Nice and The Kid Mero, which went from “Who are those guys?” to “Who are those guys?” in fairly short order. By the end of last month, to cap Season 2, Desus & Mero featured an extended interview with Barack Obama, who began the proceedings by entering the room and saying casually, “Congratulations, gentlemen. Y’all blew up.” Yes, they did. And tonight, to start Season 3, their guest is Stacey Abrams – who, earlier this month, had a big, big hand in helping the Democrats blow up the Georgia senatorial runoff elections, and the Senate, and maybe even the presidency.
TCM, 12:00 a.m. ET
It’s not very often that this 1925 silent movie by Sergei Eisenstein is televised. That’s putting it mildly. But as tonight’s centerpiece offering in TCM’s Silent Movie Sundays, Battleship Potemkin is especially resonant, and worth seeking out. It’s set mostly aboard a battleship at the start of the Russian Revolution of 1905, and ends with a street demonstration that turns into a violent, bloody clash with police on the Odessa steps. It’s such a famous film sequence that it's been alluded to by other films and filmmakers, in such varied movies as Brian De Palma’s The Untouchables and Woody Allen’s Bananas. In both cases brilliantly, by the way…