Two new offerings use the power of the image to explore unsettling issues and events. And point to the necessity of “footage” in the making of any powerful documentary.
— “Great Photo, Lovely Life” (10 p.m., HBO, TV-MA), directed by Amanda Mustard and Rachel Beth Anderson, uses the intimacy and even banality of family snapshots, home movies and videos to meditate on a family secret that erupted into a community tragedy.
Some eight years in the making, “Photo” explores Mustard’s painful relationship with her family after it was revealed that her grandfather, a local chiropractor, was also a serial abuser of young women.
Mustard uses vintage media to recall a “touchy-feely” man at the center of her home growing up. Over the course of making the film, she compiles original interviews with her mother and other family members who beg her to let her bitterness “go,” an act of forgiveness that, Mustard believes, will only continue the silence that contributed to her grandfather’s furtive behavior.
She interviews victims of her grandfather’s actions as well as the man himself, now well along in years and cocooned in a world of religious piety. He has convinced himself that God has forgiven him, even if his granddaughter will not.
— “Frontline” (10 p.m., PBS) uses all the resources required of a surveillance state to present “Inside the Uvalde Response.”
Employing police body cameras, school monitors, 911 calls and cell phone footage, it offers a moment-by-moment account of the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that claimed the lives of 19 students and two teachers on May 24, 2022.
Police and authorities, documented here, have been subject to second-guessing and considerable criticism for waiting more than an hour to confront the active shooter.
— Want a break from the Christmas “Rush”? Paramount+ streams the docuseries “Geddy Lee Asks: Are Bass Players Human Too?” a profile of the Canadian rock legend.
— Now streaming on the Shout! Factory app, the 2022 documentary “Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer” offers a profile of the prolific German-born director of such feature films as “Aguirre, the Wrath of God” (1972), “Nosferatu the Vampyre” (1979) and “Fitzcarraldo” (1982), and documentaries including “Grizzly Man” (2005).
In one of his early films, “Heart of Glass” (1976), set in 18th century Bavaria, Herzog put the entire cast under hypnosis to inspire performances that suggested a state of trance.
More recently, Herzog was cast as a villain in director Jon Favreau’s Disney+ series “The Mandalorian.” This despite Herzog’s contention that he has never seen a “Star Wars” movie.
TONIGHT’S OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
— A corpse in the harbor on “NCIS: Sydney” (8 p.m., CBS, TV-14).
— After votes are tabulated, eight contestants move forward after a double episode of “The Voice” (8 p.m. and 9 p.m., NBC, TV-PG).
— “Dancing With the Stars” (8 p.m., ABC, TV-PG) wraps up its 32nd season with a new winner.
— “American Experience” (8 p.m., PBS, TV-PG, check local listings) repeats a profile of Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to serve on the high court. “Sandra Day O’Connor: The First” puts great emphasis on her Arizona ranch upbringing and the impact of being a Westerner on her legal philosophy.
— A single mother returns to her small hometown and joins forces with the school’s art department to express her inner feelings in the 2023 romance “Our Christmas Mural” (8 p.m., Hallmark, TV-G).
— “TMZ’s Merry Elfin’ Christmas” (9 p.m., Fox, TV-14) glances back at some of the more salacious tabloid tales of 2023, with the help of celebrity guests including Shaq, Tiffany Haddish, Bill Maher, Kyle Richards, Mark Cuban and Gavin DeGraw.
— A camera helps catch a killer in Albany, New York, on “Real Time Crime” (9 p.m., ID).
— An investigation into child trafficking has surprising results on “Found” (10 p.m., NBC, TV-14).
— A small town is invaded by a motorcycle gang with a rebellious leader (Marlon Brando) in the 1954 drama “The Wild Ones” (10 p.m., TCM, TV-14).
CULT CHOICE
A naive American (Jean Seberg) falls in with a petty thug (Jean-Paul Belmondo) obsessed by American gangster movies in director Jean-Luc Goddard’s 1959 New Wave drama “Breathless” (11:30 p.m., TCM).
SERIES NOTES
“Name That Tune” (8 p.m., Fox, r, TV-PG) … A bioweapon attack on “FBI” (9 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14) … Chasing the Olympic bomber in “FBI: True” (10 p.m., CBS, TV-14).
LATE NIGHT
Jimmy Fallon welcomes Julia Roberts and Hasan Minhaj on “The Tonight Show” (11:35 p.m., NBC) … Elizabeth Banks, Jesse David Fox and Stephen Sanchez visit “Late Night With Seth Meyers” (12:35 a.m., NBC).
