The Week’s guide to what’s worth watching

The 2014 Winter Olympics

The Olympic drama continues. Prime-time highlights this week will include world-class hurdler Lolo Jones trying Wednesday to silence skeptics who say she was named to the women’s bobsled team for her fame rather than her game. That same night, America’s best skier, Ted Ligety, will aim for gold in the giant slalom, while Friday will bring the women’s slalom and teen phenom Mikaela Shiffrin’s own best chance to medal.Closing ceremonies air Sunday. Nightly from 8 p.m. on NBC; check listings

Breath of Freedom

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Black soldiers who fought in Germany during World War II returned to America eager to launch a new fight. Combat had made many of them heroes; postwar Germany had introduced them to liberties they’d never known at home. In this illuminating look at how the conflict helped ignite the civil rights movement, former Tuskegee Airman Roscoe Brown and former Cold War infantry commander Colin Powell are among the veterans who recall how European tours of duty opened up their eyes. Monday, Feb. 17, at 8 p.m., Smithsonian Channel

American Experience:The Rise and Fall of Penn Station

For longtime New Yorkers, the loss of the old Pennsylvania Station still stings. This elegiac documentary lets viewers revisit the grand 1910 hub, which was built to be admired for centuries but fell to developers’ wrecking balls in 1963. Our compensation? The station’s fate gave birth to a potent historic preservation movement. Tuesday, Feb. 18, at 9 p.m., PBS; check local listings

Frontline: Generation Like

Whether they know it or not, today’s teens are marketing machines. In this snapshot of contemporary consumer culture, author and media theorist Douglas Rushkoff explores how corporations move product by exploiting young people’s penchant for online sharing. But does the exploitation run only one way, or are teens using corporate muscle for savvy self-promotion? Tuesday, Feb. 18, at 10 p.m., PBS; check local listings

About a Boy

Nick Hornby’s comic novel about a cynical cad who befriends the nerdy kid next door turns out to be as charming on TV as it was on the big screen, but series creator Jason Katims, formerly of Friday Night Lights, will have to find ways to expand the story after a strong start.Benjamin Stockham plays the boy and Minnie Driver his uptight mother; David Walton takes on the Hugh Grant role. Saturday, Feb. 22, following the Olympics, NBC

Other highlights

Olympics Ice Dancing Final

The expected showdown: world champions Meryl Davis and Charlie White of the U.S. versus Canada’s Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, the defending Olympic gold medalists.Monday, Feb. 17, at 10 a.m.

Ripper Street

With Jack the Ripper’s spree over, the police detectives of H Division turn to new dangers in season two, beginning with an East London opium invasion. Saturday, Feb. 22, at 9 p.m., BBC America

The Amazing Race All-Stars

Eleven teams from seasons past will race through nine countries, including Malaysia and Sri Lanka, in the latest edition of this long-running reality competition. Sunday, Feb. 23, at 8 p.m., CBS