Last spring, members of the Jackson family decided to create a reality series. Jermaine, Tito, Jackie and Marlon would reunite the Jackson 5, even though an important member – actually, the only important member, Michael – had opted out. This was garden-variety Jackson tackiness, but they outdid themselves by continuing the project after Michael’s sudden death in June. They simply folded the plot point right into their inane story arc – hey, you take your publicity boosts where you find them, right?
“The Jacksons: A Family Dynasty” (Sunday, 8 p.m., A&E) allows us to watch these four overgrown children bicker, flounder in the studio, and work out 40-year-old issues important to no one but themselves. And how important are these issues even to them if they’re willing to air the family’s dirty laundry for cable-TV consumption?
The most stunning moment to date is the brothers’ whitewashing of father Joe, the tyrant whom Michael blamed for making his life a living hell. “Everything he did for his family turned out to be a success,” says Tito, apparently forgetting about several decades’ worth of Jackson problems. “So how wrong could it be?”
One wishes Michael were around to provide an honest answer to that question.
“SNL Christmas 2009”
Friday, 7 p.m. (NBC)
We’ve opened the presents, drunk the eggnog, sung carols around the tree, and felt the warm glow of Christmas cheer.
Okay, enough of that. Here comes “Saturday Night Live” to give Santa a sharp punch to the solar plexus.
“Augustus Saint-Gaudens”
Sunday, 9 p.m. (PBS)
Never heard of Augustus Saint-Gaudens? I predict you will be a diehard fan in precisely one hour. This profile of the late 19th and early 20th-century American sculptor is so passionate about its subject that you can’t help getting worked up yourself. And that’s quite a feat, given Saint-Gaudens’ preoccupation: memorial sculpture, often with a military theme. This isn’t the kind of thing that tends to get our blood racing nowadays.
But director Paul Sanderson brings the man and his era to life, helping us understand Saint-Gaudens’ work in context. In a young country, these sculptures gave Americans a sense of their nobility. Saint-Gaudens captured the character of Civil War heroes like Admiral Farragut and General Sherman, and he crafted spaces that allowed viewers themselves to participate in the memorials.
Sanderson explicates these works with the help of perceptive commentators, ranging from art experts to military man Colin Powell. They penetrate the mysteries of the sculpture – and, at times, the mysteries of life itself. “You feel they are dedicated to death,” art historian Vincent Scully says of the African-American Civil War soldiers depicted in Saint-Gaudens’ stunning Shaw memorial. “So you feel awe. I think you are lifted out of yourself and you wonder about human life.”
Indeed you do. I suspect that won’t happen in many other prime-time TV shows this week.
“American Masters”
Monday, 8 p.m. (PBS)
We tend to think of Louisa May Alcott as a harmless children’s writer, partly because of Little Women and partly because of a sanitized biography written after her death in 1888. This portrait presents a deeper, darker picture. Along with scholarly commentary, it employs Alcott’s own words, delivered by a talented actress in period clothing and real locations. This approach draws us close to a wry, troubled, passionate woman – so close that, at times, it hurts.
Alcott spent the first part of her life in poverty, supporting her family through manual labor. She saw a way to make money by writing tales for magazines and threw herself into the project while working as a seamstress. “I sew like a steam engine and plan my works of art,” the actress says. Through sheer grit, Alcott eked out a living as a writer, finally becoming rich and famous for Little Women.
But respectability did not change her unconventional nature. She scoffed at the idea that women were suited only for marriage: “I’d rather be a spinster and paddle my own canoe.”
Alcott challenged 19th century ideas of women and inspired the likes of Gloria Steinem, Gertrude Stein and Simone de Beauvoir. Let’s hear it for a writer who paddled her own canoe.
“Men of a Certain Age”
Monday, 9 p.m. (TNT)
Have you checked out Ray Romano’s comic drama, like I told you to? I expected the quality to dip after the brilliant pilot, but the series just gets better and better. We’re watching a TV classic in the making, my friends, provided the public tunes in. (Hint, hint.)
“Men of a Certain Age” is about three friends sagging in middle age. In this week’s episode, each has a shot at that most elusive of goals – happiness. Joe (Romano) makes progress in his awkward relationship with his young son. Car salesman Owen (Andre Braugher) is determined to satisfy his customers so that they feel like saying “thanks.” And bachelor Terry (Scott Bakula) takes an acting gig as a married man and starts to get comfortable in the role.
In each case the glow fades, but it doesn’t disappear completely. The episode gives you the sense that happiness is possible, in spite of adult cares and responsibilities.
How rare is that? Like Owen, “Men of a Certain Age” deserves our thanks.
“The 32nd Annual Kennedy Center Honors”
Tuesday, 8 p.m. (CBS)
Another batch of performing artists gets the official lifetime-achievement stamp of approval. In the past I’ve complained about the Kennedy Center’s decades-long snub of Jerry Lewis, whose quintessentially American humor appears to be too silly for an American institution. But this year’s honorees include the equally silly (though less important) Mel Brooks, so now I’m thoroughly confused.
This year’s other recipients are rocker Bruce Springsteen, jazz pianist Dave Brubeck, actor Robert De Niro and opera singer Grace Bumbry. If Brooks fails to come out in a horned hat and breastplate to lampoon Bumbry, the Kennedy Center should immediately revoke his award.
