For Better or Werts : TV Worth Watching

SMART STUFF: Economic Collapse 101

Hard as I try, I still don't think I really understand how the economy cratered. But in the coming days I've got two good shots at smartening up about it.

First comes House of Cards (Thursday at 8 p.m. and midnight ET, CNBC), a two-hour chronicle of how our current financial quagmire took shape. David Faber puts together "first-hand accounts from key participants, from home buyers to investment bankers and investors, to an interview with Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan," who CNBC says "admits that even he didn't understand the details of the more complex securities on the market." Like you and I had a chance? See slideshow outline here. (CNBC repeats House of Cards Saturday at 7 and 10 p.m. ET, and Sunday at 9 p.m. ET.)

Frontline gets into the game Tuesday with Inside the Meltdown (Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET on many PBS stations; check local listings). This hour examines not just the financial shenanigans but crucially how the government responded to trouble at Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and AIG. Watch program excerpts here. (Entire program online starting Tuesday.)

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Diane Werts has been glued to the tube since she can remember, growing up in a household where the TV came on first thing in the morning and stayed on till bedtime and beyond. She worked for the USA Film Festival, then for The Dallas Morning News writing about everything from Shakespeare to macrame art to rock music (and has the hearing loss to prove it). She moved to New York's Newsday to edit their glossy TV magazine, then returned to writing about television, specializing in its stranger permutations. She's a past president of the Television Critics Association.

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