Year: 2019

1) “David Makes Man” debut, 10 p.m., Oprah Winfrey Network. In books and movies, Winfrey leans toward complex people in depressing circumstances. So it’s logical that she linked with Tarell Alvin McCraney, whose play was the basis for the Oscar-winning “Moonlight.” With his own boyhood as an example, McCraney gives us a brainy 14-year-old (shown here), commuting from a tough housing project to a magnet school. One mentor (Phylicia Rashad) is a teacher, another is imaginary. It’s not an easy story. Read more…

1) “Family Pictures,” 8 and 9 p.m., PBS. This wraps up a two-night, three-hour series, taking a genial look at contrasting places. In Detroit, we range from a long-time hat store (shown here) to the daughter of a music-shop owner who recorded the sermons of C.L. Franklin and two spirituals by his teen daughter Aretha. Then Florida ranges from a cowboy to a former migrant kid who’s principal of a migrant school. Read more…

1) “The Terror: Infamy” debut, 9 p.m., AMC. Two horrors – one supernatural, the other real and historical — blend. The backdrop is the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. On an island and at the camp, the terror begins – ill winds, ominous predictions, sudden blindness or death. This clearly isn’t for everyone, but it’s well-crafted. Despite his surname and his past credits (“Narcos”), Josef Kubota Wladyka has family roots in Japan; he directed this beautifully. Read more…

1) U.S. Gymnastics Championships, 8-10 p.m., NBC. After three nights on cable, the event jumps to NBC for its finish; this is the women’s championship, the key part for American viewers. This often showcases future Olympic stars; past winners include Simone Biles, five times; Shawn Johnson and Jordyn Wieber (shown here) twice each; Dominique Dawes; and Mary Lou Retton. Now we’ll see another champion — a year before the Olympics. Read more…

1) “Fallen Hearts,” 8-10 p.m., Lifetime. We’re at the mid-point of the five-part saga based on V.C. Andrews’ Casteel Family novels. This film is the last one to center on Heaven Casteel, played by Annalise Basso, 20 (shown here). In “Heaven” (rerunning at 4 p.m.), she was dirt-poor; her mom fled and her dad sold the five kids separately – in her case, to a cruel family. In “Dark Angel” (6 p.m.), she moved to a Philadelphia mansion. In “Fallen Hearts,” she’s happy and married … and lured back to the mansion. Read more…