The Week’s guide to what’s worth watching

last updated 8 January 2015

Private Screenings: Walter Mirisch

Over six decades, producer Walter Mirisch shepherded some of Hollywood’s most admired movies to the screen, including West Side Story, Some Like It Hot, and In the Heat of the Night. Now he sits down with Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne for a relaxed and engaging overview of his distinguished career, generously peppered with clips from his many films. Monday, Sept. 29, at 8 p.m., TCM

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It was “the O.J. Simpson case of 1910”: the sensational story of Hawley Crippen, an American doctor convicted in England of poisoning and dismembering his flamboyant wife. Secrets of the Dead applies modern forensic techniques to reopen the notorious case—which ended with Crippen’s execution—and casts serious doubt upon its verdict. Wednesday, Oct. 1, at 8 p.m., PBS; check local listings

Sen. Joe Biden and Gov. Sarah Palin will face off at Washington University in St. Louis in the only scheduled meeting between the vice presidential candidates. Gwen Ifill of PBS’ Washington Week (who moderated the 2004 vice presidential debate between Dick Cheney and John Edwards) will preside over the event, intended to cover both foreign and domestic topics. Thursday, Oct. 2, at 9 p.m., various networks

In 2002, a young Afghan taxi driver named Dilawar had the misfortune of being detained by U.S. military authorities in Bagram. Within five days, after being subjected to brutal interrogation techniques that violated the Geneva Conventions, he was dead. Through remarkably frank interviews with guards and interrogators, as well as former government officials, New York Times reporters, and the families of tortured prisoners, filmmaker Alex Gibney connects Dilawar’s story to similarly inhumane tactics used in Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo Bay. His conclusion: Far from being the aberrant work of “a few bad apples,” torturing prisoners in the “war on terror” was policy dictated from the highest levels of the Bush administration. Gripping and disturbing, the film won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. Monday, Sept. 29, at 9 p.m., HBO

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