Show of the week: The Sunset Limited

This production of a 2006 Cormac McCarthy play is proof that two actors on a spare set can rivet attention simply by debating whether life is worth living. Samuel L. Jackson is captivating as a preacher and ex-convict who has just stopped a professor from throwing himself in front of a train. Tommy Lee Jones effectively underplays the forlorn academic as the men fall into a deep discussion in the preacher’s shabby apartment about hope, despair, and whether another suicide attempt is justified. Saturday, Feb. 12, at 9 p.m., HBO

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