Netflix, 3:00 a.m. ET
DOCUMENTARY PREMIERE: Maybe there’s no way to approach this new Netflix documentary, which profiles and shadows former First Lady Michelle Obama as she embarks on her nationwide book tour for her 2018 memoir Becoming, without being political. But frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn. This special has impressive shades of scale: It includes not only the giant arena tour venues, with the author interviewed by the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Gayle King and Stephen Colbert, but private meals with her mother and brother and friends, and intimate book-club chats, and lots and lots of small sessions with young people – sessions which, like the scene of her reacting to people waiting on line for her to sign the copy of Becoming they’ve just purchased, are wonderful to witness. So are the C-SPAN clips of the Obamas on the campaign trail, introducing themselves to potential voters in 2008. There’s a lot of history here, but there’s a real person, too, and this Becoming documentary, the first project generated by the Obamas under their lucrative Netflix deal, reveals some impressively unvarnished glimpses of her. If that sounds partisan, it’s only because I’m always voting for quality television.
Hulu, 3:00 a.m. ET
In today’s Episode 6 of Mrs. America, anti-ERA activist Phyllis Schlafly (played so shrewdly by Cate Blachett) comes up against a new opponent. With only a few years to go in which the proponents of the Equal Rights Amendment must get an additional handful of states to ratify the amendment, they enlist a Republican voice of support: Jill Ruckelhaus, played by Elizabeth Banks (pictured). But Schlafly remains a force to be reckoned with – and here comes the reckoning.
AXS TV, 8:00 p.m. ET
In tonight’s new edition of his one-hour one-on-one interview show, Dan Rather talks with Robbie Robertson – who is very comfortable talking to Rather not only about his years with The Band, but all those years, with and without The Band, with Bob Dylan. And that includes the day Dylan went electric, which makes this an electrifying TV interview indeed.
TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET
Tonight’s lineup of film rarities, presented under the TCM banner “Asian Americans in Classic Hollywood,” serves up two silent films, then one from the sound era. First up, at 8 p.m. ET, is 1919’s The Dragon Painter, an allegory about a man who believes a beautiful woman has metamorphosed into a dragon. Then come two movies starring Anna May Wong: At 9 p.m. ET, it’s 1929’s Piccadilly, a silent film (with dance numbers!) in which she stars as a sensual scullery maid turned dancer (pictured) – followed at 11 p.m. ET by 1937’s Daughter of Shanghai, a sound movie in which she plays a woman hunting for her father’s murderers. Anna May Wong is vibrant and memorable in both films, one each from the silent and sound movie eras – which only goes to prove, in this instance and on this particular TCM evening, that two Wongs do make a right. Sorry.
FX, 10:00 p.m. ET
On last week’s show, a neighboring vampire clan was discovered – right there in the Staten Island neighborhood – and many of them were dispatched by a very familiar familiar. This week, the rivalry is more immediate. It’s at work, where Colin usually is overlooked – but this week, he’s up for a promotion.
IFC, 10:00 p.m. ET
SERIES FINALE: It’s the last time at bat for Hank Azaria as Brockmire. This season, the fourth and final, finds him eight years in the future – in 2030 – and fighting for the survival of baseball itself. Brockmire, for this final year, dared to dream a dystopian dream, in which the country and its national pastime were a very different place. And this was before the pandemic…