Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel
A boxing-themed episode takes Gumbel to Atlanta, where he reports on the murder of welterweight champion Vernon Forrest, who was shot last year after a stop at a gas station with his 11-year-old godson. Also profiled are two other fighters who died in 2009: Canadian boxer Arturo “Thunder” Gatti and Nicaraguan champion-turned-politician Alexis Arguello. Tuesday, April 27, at 7:30 p.m., HBO
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Independent Lens: Garbage Dreams
With an 80 percent recycling rate, Cairo has one of the world’s most efficient waste systems, thanks to the Zabaleen (“garbage people”), low-paid workers who for generations have picked through the city’s trash for salable material. This documentary follows two teenage Zabaleen facing a new competitor—a multinational corporation. Tuesday, April 27, at 10 p.m., PBS; check local listings
Happy Town
Macabre secrets haunt a quaint Minnesota town in this ironically titled new series, a slice of American Gothic that echoes David Lynch’s Twin Peaks. The debut episode struggles to find a balance between oddball character comedy and ominous mystery, but the ensemble features several standout performers, including M.C. Gainey as a sheriff who’s not quite right, and a debonair yet menacing Sam Neill. Wednesday, April 28, at 10 p.m., ABC
Other highlights
NOVA: Mind Over Money
Many economists failed to foresee the recent financial crisis. NOVA explores insights into incentives and decision-making from the new field of “behavioral economics,” which may improve economic forecasting. Tuesday, April 27, at 8 p.m., PBS; check local listings
The Lazy Environmentalist
Host Josh Dorfman tries to help a fashion designer and two car-customizers make their businesses more environmentally efficient. Tuesday, April 27, at 8 p.m., Sundance Channel
Freezing
An Oscar-nominated actress and her husband are reduced to scrounging for work in this satirical miniseries, starring Elizabeth McGovern and Hugh Bonneville. Sunday and Tuesday, May 2 and 4, at 9:30 p.m., Sundance Channel
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Political cartoons for November 16Cartoons Sunday's political cartoons include presidential pardons, the Lincoln penny, and more
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The vast horizons of the Puna de AtacamaThe Week Recommends The ‘dramatic and surreal’ landscape features volcanoes, fumaroles and salt flats
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Asylum hotels: everything you need to knowThe Explainer Using hotels to house asylum seekers has proved extremely unpopular. Why, and what can the government do about it?
