Sigh. The mid-January doldrums are upon me. The movie industry is dumping the stuff not deemed fit for the Oscars though they thought at one point it might be. The folks on the broadcast networks are trying to get me back into their good graces by finally airing new programs and begging me to forgive them for the endless weeks of repeats they’ve inflicted upon me. Thank goodness for PBS. They’re always out there and ready, willing, and able to provide me with great drama and oodles and oodles of non-pandering reality and documentary goodness.  

Sunday, January 14:

8:00 - 9:30PM

Nature - “The Best of Nature - 25 Years”. My perverse reading of this seems to indicate that this means that nature has only around for 25 years, instead of Nature having been around for 25 years. There are many jokes on this theme, some of them involving Al Gore being not-so-correct. Some of those jokes are actually funny. I like those jokes. I don’t know any of them in order to be able to tell them here, but I like them.

9:00PM - 11:30PM

Masterpiece Theatre - “The Virgin Queen”.  This is part two of two in a mini-series exploring the 40-year reign of Elizabeth I. Last week we all learned how Elizabeth I came to power. This week we learn how she held onto it with an iron grasp and thwarted all of those that came to challenge her. Thwart, Elizabeth, thwart! 

Monday, January 15:

8:00 - 9:00PM

Antiques Roadshow “Honolulu (Hour Three)”. Here in hour three we get to see all those folks that didn’t arrive early enough at the show for them to be in hour one or hour two. That doesn’t mean they’re not as good as the other people, just that they’re slow. 

9:00 - 10:00PM

American Experience - “Eyes on the Prize: Awakenings 1954-1956”. Imagine that Robin Williams is able to go back in time, to 1954, and to administer that drug years earlier to Robert DeNiro. How cool would that have been? Yeah, that’s not this, that doesn’t mean that this is bad, just that it’s about various acts of courage that helped spark the civil rights movement. 

10:00 - 11:30PM

The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords. This documentary focuses on the various African-American newspapers that have existed in the country as early as the 19th century. I’m sure the title has something to do with pens being mightier than swords, or ink presses being mightier than swords, and the latter is probably true. I’d imagine you could smash many a sword if you could toss an ink press hard enough.