Each August, TV has a black hole. And each time, PBS helps fill it.
That’s happening now. There are three new Sunday dramas (“Marlow Murder Club” is shown here), some Friday specials and the best smog show you’ll ever see. All arrive just as the other networks are taking a late-summer snooze.
Broadcast networks keep airing promos for shows that are “coming soon” … or not-so-soon. CBS boasts of a “premiere week” in mid-October.
Cable helps a little. There were the recent arrivals of “Alien: Earth” (FX, Tuesdays), “The Rainmaker” (USA, Fridays) and an “Outlander” prequel (Fridays, Starz), plus the return of “Peacemaker” (Thursdays, Max).
But they’re holding back the big stuff until next month. On Sept. 4, we get spin-offs of “The Office” (“The Paper,” Peacock) and “NCIS” (“Tony & Ziva, Paramount+). “The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon” returns Sept. 7 on AMC.
We’re left with an August gap … and PBS to fill it. Here are key examples, many of which are also on PBS Passport.
SUNDAY DRAMAS
Mystery shows can take ifferent forms, it seems. These three — each starting a six-week season Aug. 24 — indicate that.
“The Marlow Murder Club” (9 p.m.) is called a “cozy mystery,” gentle and pleasant. In a gorgeous village (a staple of British shows) three mismatched women help the mostly reluctant police solve crimes.
“Professor T” (8) and “The Unforgotten” (10) are definitely not cozy. Both have crimesolvers with deep traumas.
The professor is a master of criminal psychology, but can’t master his own obsessive-compulsive agony. Adding to that was the death of a police detective who was liked by everyone and loved by her colleague.
And on “Unforgiven,” both stars are downbeat. Sunny is a divorced dad with an empty dating life; Jess rages at her cheating husband and sister.
Now they face mysteries of different shapes. “Professor T” has six one-hour stories … “Marlow” has three two-parters … “Unforgiven” has one six-parter.
“Professor T” has modestly satisfying ones during the first couple weeks, while spending more time on its personal stories. The others, however, have richly crafted tales, filled with twists, cozy or somber.
FRIDAY SPECIALS
The Aug. 22 show (9-11 p.m.) is uneven, but wonderfully ambitious.
A Harvard grad student, devastated by her father’s death, looks into classic stories involving her faith. “Islam’s Greatest Stories of Love” is splendid visually, albeit a tad frustrating.
Her method — traveling the country to get parts of each story — has a stop-and-go effect. And the stories often take dark, even brutal twists.
(The same, of course, is true of many biblical stories. There were dark times.)
Still, this keeps us watching, especially during the fourth story, involving Malcolm X’s sister. And a week later, there’s the casual pleasure of a Viennese Philharmonic concert on gorgeous palace grounds.
This one (9-10:30 p.m. Aug. 29) has a mournful, 12-minute start, reflecting a recent Austrian school shooting. After that, we get a dozen feel-good (mostly) pieces, ending — as always — with a Strauss waltz.
AND SMOG
The documentaries are mostly into reruns now, with a couple exceptions.
“POV” continues at 10 p.m. Mondays, with strong stories from filmmakers’ point-of-view. And at 9 p.m. Tuesday (Aug. 26), “American Experience” debuts the terrific “Clearing the Air: The War on Smog.”
This takes us to a past time — a golden era? — when politicians accepted problems and combined for solutions.
Air-pollution was wretched, especially in Los Angeles, where geography keeps gasses from drifting away. People had trouble breathing, seeing, living.
Some people said it would be too inconvenient to change. They couldn’t lose their incinerators, their charcoal grills, their gas-powered mowers; the auto-industry would collapse if required to change.
But politicians — Republicans (Reagan, Nixon) and Democrats — refused to cave. They followed the science; they created the Environmental Protection Agency and solved parts of the problem.
Yes, that seems like something from a few millennia ago. But it gives us one more pleasant moment, filling TV’s black hole.