Author Archives: Roger Catlin

The stressful college application for high-achieving Asian-American students at a San Francisco high school is examined on the documentary “Try Harder!” making its debut on “Independent Lens” (PBS, 10 p.m.).  Emilia Fox stars in the three-part detective drama “Signora Volpe” (AcornTV, streaming), playing a British spy who arrives for the destination wedding of her niece […]

“SNL” vet Vanessa Bayer stars in her own new show, “I Love That for You” (Showtime, 8:30 p.m.), about a woman bent on getting a hosting slot on a home shopping network. Molly Shannon and Jennifer Lewis also star. The new “Ridley Road” (PBS, 9 p.m., check local listings) is about a Jewish woman who […]

Trevor Noah hosts the first live White House Correspondents’ Dinner (CSPAN, CNN, 7 p.m.) live from the Washington Hilton in D.C. The bigger news is that a president will once again take part (and do his own monologue). Joe Biden, like every president since the event started in 1924 except one, will take part in […]

The latest series starring Elisabeth Moss, “Shining Girl” (Apple TV+, streaming) is based on a 2013 novel about a reporter assaulted by what turns out to be a time-traveling serial killer. Jamie Bell, Wagner Moura and Amy Brenneman also star.  There would seem little reason to remake a perfect little comedy like “Call Your Agent!” […]

Jon Krakauer’s Mormon crime classic “Under the Banner of Heaven” (Hulu, streaming) can’t be easy to adapt into a new series. But with Andrew Garfield on board as a detective torn between his religion and a bloody polygamist murder, and Daisy Edgar-Jones as an alluring victim, It has a lot going for it. The 50th […]

HBO marks Holocaust Day of Remembrance with a powerful new Barry Levinson film about a Polish man who survived Auschwitz by participating in cruel boxing matches held for the enjoyment of Nazi jailers and is haunted by the past each time he returns to the ring after the war, his only hope being to use […]

A group of singer songwriters met up with Holocaust survivors in the Hudson Valley to help share their stories and possibly help their healing through song, culminating in an emotional concert. It’s captured in the documentary special “We Remember: Songs of Survivors” (PBS, 8 p.m., check local listings). It may provide a feel good moment […]

The legacy of “The Wire” only seems to have grown in the 12 years since its final episode. Its excellence in depicting the police and dealers in Baltimore’s never-ending war on drugs continues in the new six-episode “We Own This City” (HBO, 9 p.m.) from David Simon and George Pelacanos, based on Justin Fenton’s book […]