1) “American Masters,” 9-10:30 p.m., PBS. The first half-hour is compelling and deeply moving. Using his words (plus photos and stylish art), it tells of the Holocaust experience of Elie Wiesel (shown here) and the dark years after he was freed at 16. The final minutes are also moving. Some middle portions (a modern classroom, a Reagan controversy) run too long. Read more…
(This is the second of two stories; the first was an overview of TV mysteries, “cozy” and not.)
These days, mystery shows reach our TV sets from all sides — streaming, cable, broadcast and beyond. They range from “cozy mysteries” (including “Miss Scarlet,” shown here) to their opposite.
A generation ago, however, PBS virtually had a mystery monopoly.
The British, after all, were the mystery masters. And “until the late 1980s, there hadn’t been much competition for British drama,” Rebecca Eaton wrote in “Making Masterpiece” (Viking, 2013). Read more…
