MARK TWAIN
PBS, 8:00 p.m. ET
Part 2 of 2. This outstanding 2002 artistic biography of Samuel L. Clemens concludes tonight, and it’s so easy to understand, and appreciate, why filmmaker Ken Burns chose as the subject of this four-hour study author, humorist and American celebrity Mark Twain. Both Burns and Twain approach targets and topics in evocative and original ways, both developed styles that are still being imitated (though less successfully) – and both are obsessed with the two twin topics of their best works, race and place. The second half of this biography covers from Adventures of Huckleberry Finn on, and there’s an awful lot left, including some very, very sad personal tragedies in Twain’s final years. (Pictured is the amazing outdoor study Twain built as a writing retreat, working on such classics as Huckleberry Finn while enjoying the valley view from his Elmira, NY summer home.) Check local listings.