Gates guides us throught the past, bright and grim

As other shows bounce in and out of the PBS line-up, there’s one we can count on:
“Finding Your Roots” is usually there, With new episodes or reruns, it anchors most Tuesdays at 8 p.m., with Henry Louis Gages (shown here) finding deep insights into stars’ pasts.
The show has already done 11 seasons and 116 episodes, profiling about 232 people. Now a new season starts Jan. 6, adding 10 more hours.
It begin with a sometimes-cheery hour, focusing on actors America Ferrera and Darren Criss. Then things turn serious.
Three of the next four hours deal with slavery (in the U.S. and the Caribbean). They also view the post-slavery cruelty in the South (share-cropping was almost slavery extended) and the North: After a year of veterinary school in Grand Rapids, Mich., two Black men were told they couldn’t come back; other students refused to be in class with them.
During those segments, we’re especially glad Gates is in charge. A Black-history professor at Harvard, he guides people gently through the toughest times.
Gates does have a flaws. He keeps asking the same question (“How does that make you feel?”), even though it almost never gets a solid response.
(We could blame that on the editing. Rambiing responses are included, rven though they amount to nothing more than variations on “Wow, man.”)
But mostly, Gates wisely takes people through complicated histories. He overpraises his guests, but brings out their humanity. Britney Griner, the 6-foot-9 basketball star, might merely seem imposing; here, she’s warm and vulnerable.
The episodes available in advance (the first five) vary widely. One ancestral track can only be traced for one generation — the shortest in the show’s history; others go back to the U.S.’s earliest days, and sometimes further.
There’s a lot of pain, plus some fun. Criss, a Broadway star, learns that an ancestor arrived with a land grant on (yes) Broadway Street. Hasan Minhaj, who grew up without any pets, learned that an ancestor had three elephants.
Subject to change, the new episodes (at 8 p.m. Tuesdays) are:
— Jan. 6, Ferrera and Criss; Jan. 13, Sanaa Lathan and Wiz Khalifa; Jan. 20, Delroy Lindo and Liza Colon-Zayas; Jan. 27, Minhaj and Lizzie Caplan.
— Feb. 3, Griner and Chris Paul; Feb. 10, Sara Haines and Tracy Letts; Feb. 17, Flea and Lizzo; Feb. 24, Spike Lee and Kristen Chenoweth.
–April 7, Danielle Deadwyler and Rhiannon Giddens; April 14, Kate Burton and Barry Diller.