What's on TV

SHOWS WORTH NOTING FOR AUG. 24-30

Sunday 8/25

Just a Dream (Showtime, 8-9:40 p.m.): Danny Glover's directorial debut is a peach. A 12-year-old white boy (Jeremy Sumpter) befriends his town's only black citizen, a mechanic (Carl Lumbly). The child's bigoted parents are none too pleased, but eventually the child begins to define himself outside his parents parameters. Lovingly made and involving.

RFK (FX, 8-10 p.m.): Bobby comes off much better than big brother Jack in this absorbing – and troubling – dramatization of the last five years of Robert Kennedy's life. Dashing Linus Roache ("The Gathering Storm") stars as the staunch young attorney general who stood up to Hoffa and LBJ, but according to the movie, didn't stand up too well to his brother's memory. The acting and directing are first rate, but the internal dialogues Bobby has with Jack's ghost are presumptuous and melodramatic.

Monday 8/26

Gods and Goddesses (The History Channel, 9-11 p.m.): This engaging documentary takes us back to the origins of the myths of ancient Greeks and explains the development of Greek ethics. Best of all, it reveals an important source of the "hero's journey" – and however much our sense of heroism and the hero has evolved, the Greek ideal is still with us.

Wage Slaves: Nickel and Dimed in America (A&E, 9-11 p.m.): Drawing from Barbara Ehrenreich's "Nickel and Dimed," Investigative Reports introduces five low-wage earners and reveals the face of the working poor. In the past, companies have rewarded hard work and loyalty. But increasingly, businesses are looking at employees as expendable commodities. A once-prosperous single dad has much in common with a cafeteria worker and a receptionist at a woman's shelter.

Wednesday 8/28

Monarch of the Glen (BBC America, 8-11 p.m.): Three back-to-back episodes of the new season are a welcome relief to the summer TV blahs. The dramedy concerns a young Scottish laird – Scottish for "lord" – Archie MacDonald of Glenbogle castle, his aging parents who think it's still the 19th century, and an estate that is falling to ruin. Archie (Alastair Mackenzie) wants to turn his ancestral seat into a tourist attraction before the bank seizes it for the auction block. A hard-nosed businesswoman from the bank and Archie butt heads, but by the end, an interesting new pattern for business emerges.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
QR Code to What's on TV
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0823/p16s04-altv.html
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe