Sundance, 7:45 p.m. ET
This 1988 Roman Polanski movie uses the city of Paris as a primary character, as the backdrop for a Hitchcockian thriller about an ordinary man caught by an underworld of deadly intrigue. Harrison Ford – an excellent equivalent of Hitchcock’s favorite leading man, Jimmy Stewart – plays a doctor attending an overseas medical convention with his wife. After the wife vanishes, the good doctor searches Paris to find her, teaming up with the most unlikely of Paris guides: a young hedonist played by Emmanuelle Seigner. Really taut drama, beautifully photographed.
TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET
This 1965 film was directed and co-written by Federico Fellini, and is one of the wildly imaginative visual narratives that solidified his reputation as a world-class pioneering film director. It stars Giulietta Masina as a woman haunted by, among other things, the infidelity of her husband, a problem that is solved with insights from, for starters, a friendly prostitute. Masina was Fellini’s wife, making her nakedness here – emotionally, that is – all the more intimate.
ESPN, 8:30 p.m. ET
If you’ve watched any or all of the dozens of college bowls this year, they’ve all been leading up to, and you’ve all been waiting for, this one. Notre Dame, ranked No. 1, plays Alabama, ranked No. 2, for bragging rights to the national championship title.
PBS, 10:00 p.m. ET
In Mexico, more than 50 journalists have been killed, or have vanished without a trace, in the past six years, while reporting on the Mexican drug trade. This new edition of P.O.V. follows some of the stubbornly brave and inquisitive reporters at Zeta, an independent newsweekly based in Tijuana. In the United States, it’s the newspapers that are dying. In Mexico, shockingly, it’s the reporters. Check local listings.
Sundance, 10:00 p.m. ET
Part 1 of 8. This 2004 documentary series has been updated, with two new installments to finish it off and update the story of Michael Peterson, who in 2001 called authorities to report that his wife had fallen down the stairs, to her death, in their lavish North Carolina home. It’s a call, and a case, that quickly uncovered, and unraveled, an entire different set of mysteries, accusations and surprises – all of which led to Peterson being charged with murder. Even without the update, this Staircase would be worth climbing all over again.