LORD OF THE ANTS
TUESDAY, AUGUST 10 @ 6;00PM & 9:00PM
At age 78, E.O. Wilson is still going through his “little savage” phase of boyhood exploration of the natural world. In “Lord of the Ants,” NOVA profiles this soft-spoken Southerner and Harvard professor, who is an acclaimed advocate for ants, biological diversity, and the controversial extension of Darwinian ideas to human society.
America’s First Architect
MONDAY, AUGUST 9 @ 8:00PM & 11:00PM
Benjamin Latrobe: America’s First Architect, a one-hour documentary, chronicles the life and work of early American architect Benjamin Latrobe and his lasting design impact on his country. His work ultimately defined the first uniquely “American” architecture. The special is hosted by noted architecture critic Paul Goldberger.
Latrobe, who lived from 1764 to 1820, is well-known for his work on the central portions of the United States Capitol building; the design of the Baltimore Basilica, the first Catholic Cathedral built in the United States; and his designs for the White House porticos.
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Inspector Lewis, Series II
Allegory of Love
FRIDAY, AUGUST 13 @ 7:30PM & 10:30PM
Young and handsome Oxford writer Dorian Crane is following in the noted fantasy footsteps of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien with his newest book. The day after Crane’s book launch party, reality shatters the celebratory mood when a young Czech barmaid is found dead by the river, savagely murdered with an antique Persian mirror. Some of the grisly circumstances seem to have been lifted from Crane’s fiction. But the celebrated author claims no knowledge of the crime, instead fawning over his bride-to-be and muse Alice Wishart. At the murder scene, Lewis and Hathaway find a one-word note scrawled in blood that references a place in Iraq. As a result, Lewis and Hathaway get pulled into the world of Oxford’s literary elite, only to find that it harbors resentment and jealousy and at its center, holds terrible secrets beyond all imagination.
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CARMEN
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 4 @ 6:00PM & 11:00PM
Richard Eyre, the renowned British director of theater and film, explores the passionate drama of Bizet’s Carmen and the power of her desires in his new production at the Metropolitan Opera, which premieres on THIRTEEN’S Great Performances at the Met series. “Her sexuality is a life force, it’s a defining force,” he explains. “Carmen is about sex, violence, and racism—and its corollary: freedom.” As for her portrayal of the free spirited gypsy, Elīna Garanča says, “You don’t get to develop productions of Carmen from scratch too often. Carmen is defined by her unwillingness to settle. She is constantly searching and never satisfied. It may be sex or, more broadly, approval by men. It could also just be a zest for life, and in that she is uncompromising.” Under the baton of acclaimed young Canadian conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Garanča is joined by Roberto Alagna as the obsessed soldier Don José, Barbara Frittoli as his devoted girlfriend Micaëla, and Teddy Tahu Rhodes as the toreador Escamillo. Hosted by celebrated American soprano Renée Fleming.
Ocean Animal Emergency
SATURDAY, AUGUST 7 @ 3:00PM & 11:00PM
Part emergency room, part rehab facility, and part research lab, the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, California means the difference between life and death for sick and injured ocean animals. NOVA takes you inside this very special ER to witness the efforts of a renowned team of wildlife veterinarians as they fight to save their animal patients as well as to uncover the cause of a mysterious neurological illness plaguing marine mammals like California sea lions and harbor seal pups.
POIROT – SERIES 10
CAT AMONG THE PIGEONS
FRIDAY, AUGUST 6 @ 7:30PM & 10:30PM
At the esteemed Meabowbank school for girls, Hercule Poirot is helping friend and headmistress Miss Bulstrode pick her successor. With his flawless sense of human nature, Poirot learns that the teachers have more on their mind than mentoring young girls. When a sadistic gym teacher is found dead with a javelin through her heart, the girls get a shocking education in murder, and Poirot is drawn deep into a compelling case involving international espionage, a revolution in a foreign land and a missing princess. As the girls become increasingly hysterical and the teachers more guarded, can Poirot uncover a ruthless killer, the cat among the pigeons? David Suchet reprises his role as the Belgian super sleuth in this adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Cat Among the Pigeons.
THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS GERSHWIN PRIZE
FRIDAY, JULY 30 @ 7:30PM & 10:30PM
The evening will include performances by McCartney himself and Stevie Wonder, Elvis Costello, Jonas Brothers, Herbie Hancock, Corinne Bailey Rae, Dave Grohl, Faith Hill, Emmylou Harris, Lang Lang and Jack White, with remarks by Jerry Seinfeld. (Program subject to change.) President Obama will confer the Gershwin Prize upon McCartney during the event. The ninety-minute music special, part of the PBS “In Performance at the White House” series, will feature the concert event, as well as behind-the-scenes footage and interviews.
Who Killed the Red Baron?
TUESDAY, JULY 27 @ 6:00PM & 9:00PM
Scores of Allied pilots during World War I surely muttered, “Curse you, Red Baron!” as the notorious Baron Manfred von Richthofen closed in with guns blazing from his distinctive bright-red German fighter. But then on April 21, 1918, the Baron took a bullet in the chest while in hot pursuit of his 81st downing. Was the fatal shot fired by another plane that briefly engaged him? Or did it come from the ground? With state-of-the-art animation and footage filmed at the actual locations, “Who Killed the Red Baron?” sheds new light on the most celebrated whodunit in aviation history.
POIROT SERIES 10
APPOINTMENT WITH DEATH
SUNDAY, JULY 25 @ 7:00PM & 11:00PM
Impassioned archaeologist Lord Greville Boynton, accompanied by his universally despised wealthy second wife Lady Boynton, is in zealous pursuit of a major artifact in Syria. A curious array of onlookers has also gathered in the unforgiving desert heat — among them the tormented Boynton children, a psychiatrist, a nun, a travel writer and a cerebral but not exactly rugged Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot. When most of the camp returns from an expedition, they find Lady Boynton has been stabbed to death. How can Poirot make sense of a murder when most of the suspects weren’t even present at the time of death? Poirot’s investigation exposes red herrings, broken personalities and a tragic back story buried deep. Will Poirot give up in frustration or will the voices of his little grey cells sing out and solve the case? David Suchet stars as Hercule Poirot in this adaptation of the novel by Agatha Christie, joined by Tim Curry (Return to Cranford).
Merle Haggard: Learning to Live With Myself
SATURDAY, JULY 24 @ 7:00PM
“I’m living proof that things go wrong in America and I’m also living proof that things can go right,” says Merle Haggard. In Merle Haggard: Learning to Live with Myself, American Masters’ candid documentary about the country music legend, who is often called “the poet of the common man,” tells it like it is. The film features interviews with comrades and fellow musicians including Robert Duvall, John Fogerty, Billy Gibbons, Kris Kristofferson, Keith Richards, Tanya Tucker, Don Was, and Dwight Yoakam, among others. The hardscrabble people with whom he was raised – his juvenile delinquency and incarcerations – still inform his creativity and perspective. Hailed as “country music’s Frank Sinatra” in a recent review of his latest release I AM WHAT I AM (Vanguard Records), American Masters celebrates this “Lonesome Fugitive” in Merle Haggard: Learning to Live with Myself
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