The Week's guide to what's worth watching
Runnin’ Down a Dream: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Peter Bogdanovich directed this four-hour homage to one of rock ’n’ roll’s most quintessentially American bands. Interviews with such music luminaries as Stevie Nicks, Jackson Browne, and the late George Harrison supplement concert footage to chronicle the group’s three-decade history, as well as Petty’s side and solo projects. Monday, Oct. 29, at 7 p.m., Sundance Channel
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American Masters: Good Ol’ Charles Schulz
This American Masters profile captures the melancholy at the core of the classic comic strip Peanuts and its creator, Charles Schulz. Panels from the comic strip blend artfully with personal photos and footage as well as interviews with contemporaries and biographers. À la Citizen Kane (which Schulz reportedly viewed 40 times), the film tracks down key players in Schulz’s life to explain the experiences that shaped him. Monday, Oct. 29, at 9 p.m., PBS; check local listings
Frontline: The Undertaking
Thomas Lynch is an acclaimed poet, essayist—and undertaker. A change-of-pace edition of Frontline goes inside the doors of Lynch’s funeral home in central Michigan to show how he and his family care for the living as well as the dead. It also captures Lynch’s ruminations on how Americans’ changing funeral rituals reflect an alienation from the dead that bodes ill for the culture. Tuesday, Oct. 30, at 9 p.m., PBS; check local listings
Independent Lens: Storm of Emotions
In 2005, the Israeli government ordered the evacuation of the Gaza Strip. The delicate and thankless task of uprooting Israeli citizens from their homes fell to the Israeli police. Independent Lens chronicles how planning and resourcefulness helped them meet the challenge with compassion and restraint. Tuesday, Oct. 30, at 10 p.m., PBS; check local listings
Nature: In the Valley of the Wolves
Nature chronicles the shifting fortunes of a wolf pack as they fight to regain dominance in the Lamar Valley of Yellowstone National Park. The saga reflects the larger story of the successful reintroduction of wolves into the wild in Yellowstone since the mid-1990s. Photographed in high-definition. Sunday, Nov. 4, at 8 p.m., PBS; check local listings
Other highlights
Marathon Challenge
Over nine months, NOVA prepares 13 sedentary people for the grueling challenge of the Boston Marathon. Tuesday, Oct. 30, at 8 p.m., PBS; check local listings
Mars Rising
This new, six-part series looks ahead to the challenges of a manned expedition to Mars. Tuesday, Oct. 30, at 9 p.m., Science Channel
Break It Down: Bridge
Cameras chronicle the dismantling of 24,000 tons of steel and concrete from the San Francisco Bay Area’s Carquinez Bridge. Thursday, Nov. 1, at 9 p.m., National Geographic Channel
All listings are Eastern time.
Show of the week
To Die in Jerusalem
In March 2002, 18-year-old Palestinian Ayat al-Akhras detonated a suicide bomb in a Jerusalem market, killing 17-year-old Israeli student Rachel Levy as well as herself. That two such promising young women could die together so tragically attracted international attention. This powerful documentary follows the determined effort of Rachel’s heartbroken mother to meet Ayat’s mother face to face. Even though the two women lived only a few miles apart, that quest took more than four years and culminated in a deeply emotional confrontation via satellite video linkup. The tale bears eloquent testimony to the ocean of pain that divides Israelis and Palestinians, as well as to the hope of someday bridging it. Thursday, Nov. 1, at 9 p.m., HBO
Movies on TV this week
Monday, Oct. 29
Mystic River (2003)
The brooding film version of Dennis Lehane’s novel about murder and childhood secrets won Oscars for Sean Penn and Tim Robbins. 9 p.m.,
HBO Signature
Tuesday
Love’s Labour’s Lost (2000)
Star/director Kenneth Branagh reimagines Shakespeare’s comedy about four friends who renounce love as a 1930s-style musical. 10:45 p.m., IFC
Wednesday
Pretty Poison (1968)
No good comes of the friendship between a strange young man and a seductive teenager in this offbeat cult drama starring Anthony Perkins and Tuesday Weld. 6 p.m., FMC
Thursday
Funny Girl (1968)
Barbra Streisand won a Best Actress Oscar (tied with Katharine Hepburn for The Lion in Winter) for her portrayal of comedienne Fanny Brice.
10 p.m., TCM
Friday
The Milagro Beanfield War (1988)
Robert Redford directed this populist fantasy about a small New Mexico town’s resistance to developers who want to turn it into an exclusive resort. 10 p.m., Sundance
Sunday
Capote (2005)
Philip Seymour Hoffman won a Best Actor Oscar for his uncanny portrayal of Truman Capote during the writing of In Cold Blood. 1:05 p.m., TMC
New on DVD
Talk to Me (2007)
Don Cheadle earned critical acclaim as “Petey” Greene in this bio-drama about an ex-convict who overcame drug addiction to become a prominent radio and television personality in Washington, D.C. (R, $30)
