The Week’s guide to what’s worth watching

last updated 8 January 2015

Killer of Sheep

A long-lost masterwork, the 1977 debut by award-winning filmmaker Charles Burnett follows a young man who works in a Watts, Los Angeles, slaughterhouse. Unreleased for 30 years due to legal issues concerning its evocative soundtrack, the movie debuts in a restored version as part of a special Martin Luther King Jr. Day lineup. Monday, Jan. 21, at 8 p.m., Turner Classic Movies

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Ambitious neurologist Walter J. Freeman pioneered one of medicine’s most notorious missteps—the lobotomy—severing the frontal lobes of thousands of patients. Was he an inhuman monster, or sincerely trying to ease the suffering caused by mental illness? Through interviews with medical historians and former patients and their families, American Experience paints a nuanced portrait. Monday, Jan. 21, at 9 p.m., PBS

Short but richly textured, this documentary profiles a young New York Muslim coming to terms with his half Bangladeshi, half Puerto Rican heritage as he takes over his father’s business: a slaughterhouse catering to Islamic dietary laws. His opportunity to prove himself comes during the holiday of Eid al-Adha, which commemorates Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son. Tuesday, Jan. 22, at 10 p.m., PBS; check local listings

As young people flock to social networking Web sites such as MySpace and Facebook, the news media has sounded dire warnings about the threat of sexual predators online. But a greater danger, according to this sobering report, is the way technology amplifies adolescents’ emotional stresses and typical lack of impulse control. It tells of a lonely 14-year-old whose sexually provocative alter ego attracted an online following without her parents’ knowledge; of a girl who secretly networked with other bulimics; and of a victim of “cyberbullying” who committed suicide. Also interviewed are parents and teachers who struggle to engage media-saturated students who no longer read books or newspapers. Tuesday, Jan. 22, at 9 p.m., PBS; check local listings