What’s on TV
CHARLIE SAYS (2019) 9 p.m. on Showtime. Mary Harron vacillates between prison and movie ranch in “Charlie Says,” her drama about the Charles Manson cult. Though she is best known as the director of the satirical serial-killer study “American Psycho,” Harron here pays relatively little attention to Manson himself (played by Matt Smith), instead focusing on three of his female followers (played by Hannah Murray, Marianne Rendón and Sosie Bacon). That trio tells the story here. The movie shows them both during their time with Manson and after the fact, in prison, where they recount their story to a graduate student (Karlene Faith, played by Merritt Wever). “It’s a tough, difficult story that, anchored by Guinevere Turner’s script, Harron recounts with lucid calm, compassion and intelligent interpretive license,” Manohla Dargis wrote in her review for The New York Times. “She revisits some of the familiar locations, including the dusty California ranch where the Manson family set up house, and she carefully restages some of the murders. For those familiar with the horrific details of those crimes, the movie may seem wholly uninviting, but bear with Harron — she has something to say.”
THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT 11:35 p.m. on CBS. Last week, the Dixie Chicks released the title track of their latest record, “Gaslighter,” which will be the group’s first new album since 2006. They will be interviewed and perform on “The Late Show” on Thursday night in support of that album. Also in the lineup: the author Michael Pollan, who recently released an audiobook about caffeine.
What’s Streaming
CONTAGION (2011) Rent on Amazon, Google Play, iTunes, Vudu and YouTube. “I paid $12.99 to watch a 10-year-old movie,” the director Barry Jenkins told The Times earlier this month. “I’ve never done that before.” He was referring to this Steven Soderbergh thriller, and he’s not alone: As worry about the Covid-19 outbreak has mounted, “Contagion” has been climbing the streaming charts. Revisit it to see Matt Damon, Marion Cotillard, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law and others play characters contending with the global outbreak of a deadly, thankfully fictional virus.
SHOP CLASS Stream on Disney Plus. If you’d prefer good-natured rivalry to pandemic scares, consider turning instead to this new competition show, which pairs teams of young builders and shop teachers against each other in elaborate construction challenges. Justin Long hosts.
BEACH RATS (2017) Stream on Hulu; rent on Amazon, Google Play, iTunes, Vudu and YouTube. The filmmaker Eliza Hittman is back in theaters this weekend with “Never Rarely Sometimes Always,” a drama about a teenager who travels to New York City for an abortion. Her previous feature, “Beach Rats,” also centers on a teenager. This one, Frankie (Harris Dickinson), spends much of the movie grappling with his sexuality, his relationships and his family. Hittman’s portrait of Frankie, Ben Kenigsberg wrote in his review for The Times, “doubles as a portrait of Brooklyn’s southern-shore neighborhoods, lyrically photographed by Hélène Louvart.”
Source: Television - nytimes.com
