The 11th Democratic Presidential Debate
The two-man contest many observers were wait-
ing for arrives at a pivot point as Joe Biden and
Bernie Sanders face off in prime time. Sunday,
March 15, 8 p.m., CNN and Univision
My Brilliant Friend: The Story of a New Name
Elena Ferrante’s acclaimed Neapolitan novels
deserve a brilliant adaptation, and Season 1 of this
Italian-language TV series delivered the required
start. The new season takes up the second book,
which finds childhood best friends Elena and Lila,
now 16, with Lila already married. They will
spend a summer on the island of Ischia, compet-
ing for the affections of a handsome older boy.
Monday, March 16, at 10 p.m., HBO
Niall Ferguson’s Networld
The history of social networks didn’t began
with AOL chat rooms. In a one-night, three-
hour series based on his book The Square and
the Tower, historian Niall Ferguson shows why
today’s networked world can’t be understood
until you’ve studied the dynamics created by ear-
lier networking technologies, such as the printing
press. Tuesday, March 17, at 8 p.m., PBS; check
local listings
Little Fires Everywhere
Reese Witherspoon has found another juicy novel
to adapt. Following the grand success of Big
Little Lies, the Oscar winner and Scandal’s Kerry
Washington are teaming as co-producers and co-
stars of an eight-part gloss of Celeste Ng’s 2017
best-seller. Witherspoon plays a Shaker Heights
doyenne whose home is burned to the ground by
an arsonist, creating a mystery: Did her troubled
daughter do it, or was the crime an outgrowth of
the family’s recent engagement with a struggling
artist and her own teenager? Available for stream-
ing Wednesday, March 18, Hulu
Blow the Man Down
Murder mysteries set in seaside towns are to
streaming services what law dramas were to TV
in the 1980s. Few are as potent as this feature-
length bit of New Eng land noir, in which two
sisters in a Maine fishing town, played by Sophie
Lowe and Morgan Saylor, try to cover up a26 ARTS Television
The Week’s guide to what’s worth watching
Amazon, HBOMonday, March 16
At Eternity’s Gate
Willem Dafoe makes a
piercing Vincent van Gogh
in a biopic that presents the
artist as sliding into mad-
ness during his productive
final years. (2018) 6 p.m.,
the Movie Channel
Tue sday, Mar c h 17
Rocketman
A forgettable pianist from
the burbs transforms him-
self into rock star Elton
John in a biopic featuring a
Golden Globe–winning per-
formance by Taron Egerton.
(2019) 8 p.m., Epix
Wednesday, March 18
A Perfect World
Kevin Costner and Clint
East wood square off in an
East wood thriller about an
escaped convict who bonds
with his child hostage while
being chased by a Texas
Ranger. (1993) 8 p.m., the
Movie Channel
Thursday, March 19
Before You Know It
Two 30 - something sis ter s
discover that a veteran soap
opera star is their mother in
a comedy created by its co-
stars, Hannah Pearl Utt and
Jen Tullock. (2019) 5 p.m.,
Showtime
Friday, March 20
Steel Magnolias
Julia Roberts and Sally Field
lead an all-star ensemble in
a hit comedy-drama about a
tight-knit group of Southern
women who ride life’s ups
and downs together. (1989)
10 p.m., Ovation
Saturday, March 21
Dial M for Murder
Grace Kelly becomes the
target of a plot in Alfred
Hitchcock’s thriller about an
unfaithful socialite and the
husband who covets her
inheritance. (1954) 8 p.m.,
TCM
Sunday, March 22
The Descendants
A father works to keep his
daughters’ lives on keel
after an accident puts his
wife in a coma and he learns
she’d been having an affair.
George Clooney stars. (2011)
2:25 p.m., CinemaxMovies on TV
Long before Donald Trump ran on the phrase,
Charles Lindbergh was the face of “America
First.” Novelist Philip Roth used the hero avia-
tor’s presidential aspirations to imagine an alter-
nate history in which Lindbergh, an isolationist
and anti-Semite, defeats FDR in 1940 and steers
the U.S. into an alliance with Nazi Germany.
David Simon and Ed Burns, creators of The Wire,
have now adapted Roth’s novel into a six-part
series featuring Zoe Kazan, John Turturro, and
Winona Ryder. The Newark, N.J., family that pro-
vides our window on events is based on Roth’s
own. Monday, March 16, at 9 p.m., HBOShow of the week
Unlikely collaborators Turturro and RyderThe Plot Against Americaharpoon killing. From first-time directors Bridget
Savage Cole and Danielle Krudy. Available for
streaming Friday, March 20, Amazon Prime
Self-Made: Inspired by the Life of
Madam C.J. Walker
Her name is familiar to generations of black
women, but her story should be known by a
wider audience. Octavia Spencer stars in this
four-part series as “Madam Walker,” a daughter
of slaves who created and marketed a hair-care
product line that made her America’s first self-
made female millionaire. Tiffany Haddish and
Blair Underwood co-star. Available for streaming
Friday, March 20, Netflix
Other highlights
The Banker
Samuel L. Jackson and Anthony Mackie co-star
in a two-hour drama about two black business-
men in 1954 L.A. who enlisted a white man to
pose as the face of the banks they run. Available
for streaming Friday, March 20, Apple TV+
Big Time Adolescence
Saturday Night Live’s Pete Davidson stars in a
winning comedy feature about a drug-addled
dropout who becomes a mentor to a 16-year-old.
Available for streaming Friday, March 20, Hulu
The English Game
A six-part drama from Downton Abbey creator
Julian Fellowes revisits soccer’s origins in 19th-
century England. Available for streaming Friday,
March 20, Netflix- All listings are Eastern Time.
Blow the Man Down’s Saylor and Lowe