Off Limits
This new series takes host Don Wildman to difficult-to-access locales across the country. It starts off in his native Los Angeles, where he (illicitly) kayaks the Los Angeles River, captures the first film inside the LA Aqueduct, climbs an active oil rig, follows miles of lost canals in Venice Beach, and explores Murphy Ranch, once a secret stronghold for Nazi sympathizers. Monday, May 16, at 9 p.m.,
Travel Channel Independent Lens: Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo
Subscribe to 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.
Insects are abhorred in most cultures, but in Japan they inspire popular toys and are brought into homes as pets. This quirky film roams from teeming Tokyo to nature preserves and Zen temples as it traces Japan’s fascination with insects in art, poetry, and popular culture, providing insight into the nation’s unique perspective on the world. Tuesday, May 17, at 10 p.m., PBS; check local listings
Burma Solider
When he was a 17-year-old soldier in the Burmese army, Myo Myint Cho supported that country’s military regime. But after losing a limb to a land mine and witnessing systematic brutality during Burma’s long civil war, he became a pro-democracy activist and was imprisoned for more than a decade. As it follows his odyssey, this documentary provides a rare glimpse inside one of the world’s most repressive dictatorships. Wednesday, May 18, at 8 p.m., HBO2
Children of Promise: The Legacy of Robert F. Kennedy
This documentary spotlights the work of the Robert F. Kennedy Children’s Action Corps in Massachusetts, focusing on three children whose lives were turned around despite backgrounds involving crime and neglect. Interviews with the late senator’s daughters Kerry Kennedy and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend detail how the program fulfills their father’s legacy—and may provide a model for the nation’s troubled child welfare system. Friday, May 20, at 8 p.m., Investigation Discovery
Jesse Stone: Innocents Lost
The seventh TV movie starring Tom Selleck as hard-drinking police chief Jesse Stone is filled with sharp dialogue, colorful characters, and brooding atmosphere. Stone, a character created by author Robert B. Parker, is now retired—but that doesn’t stop him from probing the supposed suicide of a teenage girl he befriended or the case of a convicted murderer he suspects is innocent. Sunday, May 22, at 9 p.m., CBS
Other highlights
Secrets of the Dead: The World’s Biggest Bomb
A look back at the race between U.S. and Soviet scientists of the 1950s to build and detonate the world’s largest bomb. Tuesday, May 17, at 8 p.m., PBS; check local listings
Swamp Brothers
This new docuseries follows two Florida brothers in an unusual line of work: running a breeding farm for dangerous reptiles. Friday, May 20, at 10 p.m., Discovery
Game of Thrones
The dwarf actor Peter Dinklage, playing a cunning captive demanding the right to trial by combat, steals all his scenes in the latest episode of this new Middle Ages epic. Sunday, May 22, at 9 p.m., HBO
