“Masterpiece” (10 p.m. Sunday, PBS, TV-14, check local listings) introduces “Alice & Jack,” a brooding romance that attempts nothing less than to try to reinvent the rom-com. We first meet Alice (Andrea Riseborough) and Jack (Domhnall Gleeson) on an uncomfortable first date and follow them through an awkward decade and a half of on-and-off passion, desperate texts and “ghosting.”
Gleeson has the slightly familiar presence of a character actor of long standing. He’s been in “Star Wars” movies and “Harry Potter” films and has a history of appearing in things like “Ex-Machina” and the Netflix “Black Mirror” episode “Be Right Back” that play upon physical and bodily discomfort and dislocation.
As Jack, he’s a shy medical researcher, passionate about his work in a quiet way. On their first date, Alice grills him as if she’s conducting a job interview, speaking in unbearable corporate jargon (“let’s concretize this”) and keeping him off balance because she works in finance and has built a shield around herself composed of personal wealth. She seems to find his intellectual curiosity and idealism both incomprehensible and slightly threatening.
But, for reasons, we never quite understand, he just can’t get her out of his head.
The first-date set-up for “Alice & Jack” offers an apt metaphor for the television experience. Jack may be besotted with Alice, but some may find it easier to “swipe left” with their remotes.
Or to put it in Alice’s cruel corporate calculus, six hours spent in the presence of these two uncomfortable and tentative duds just doesn’t add up.
Also on “Masterpiece,” the miniseries “Nolly” (9 p.m. Sunday, PBS, TV-14, check local listings) stars Helena Bonham Carter as Noele “Nolly” Gordon, the over-the-top star of a popular soap opera. A face familiar to millions who welcome her into their homes every day, she is unceremoniously fired (or sacked, as the British say) from the series when she crosses the TV establishment circa mid-1970s.
Rather than quietly fade away, Nolly turns herself into a campy populist icon and appeals to her audience of working-class viewers eager to fight back against “the man.”
After playing the frequently sozzled Princess Margaret in “The Crown” for two seasons, “Nolly” gives Bonham Carter another period character to play, a woman of a certain age who speaks her mind emphatically, even when she’s not always sure what she’s saying.
That said, “Nolly” is also another (after the recently completed “Funny Woman”) look at the inner workings of the 20th-century British media establishment and all the regional, class and caste snobbery that entails. Bonham Carter is a terrific actress, and Nolly is a formidable character, but I’m not sure her struggles quite translate to an American audience. Would “The Susan Lucci Story” play on London’s West End?
“Nolly” also arrives on a night that begins with the tea and crumpets comfort of the 13th season opener of “Call the Midwife” (8 p.m. Sunday, PBS, TV-14, check local listings) and ends with “Jack & Alice.” At what point does this all-British diet become too much? There’s only so much Marmite a viewer can swallow.
— The 2023 two-part documentary “In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon” (9 p.m. Sunday, MGM+) offers a profile of the singer/songwriter as well as interviews with Simon and his peers about his creative process.
SATURDAY’S HIGHLIGHTS
— College basketball action includes the Big East Championships (6:30 p.m., Fox) followed by the Pac-12 Tournament (9 p.m., Fox).
— Actor, producer and “Equalizer” star Queen Latifah hosts the 55th NAACP Image Awards (8 p.m., CBS, BET, Paramount, Comedy Central, CMT, MTV), honoring excellence in Black culture and creativity.
This year’s awards will celebrate Amanda Gorman, the young poet best known for her reading of “The Hill We Climb” at the 2021 presidential inauguration.
— A town is ripped apart when high school jocks post explicit pictures of their classmates in the 2023 shocker “Friday Night Sext Scandal” (8 p.m., Lifetime, TV-14).
— A jilted wife rebuilds her life with the help of her friends and a good dog in the 2023 romance “The More Love Grows” (8 p.m., Hallmark, TV-G).
— The Los Angeles Lakers host the Golden State Warriors (8:30 p.m., ABC).
— Former lovers (Meg Ryan and David Duchovny) find themselves stranded by a blizzard after bumping into each other at an airport in the 2023 romantic comedy “What Happens Later” (9 p.m., Showtime), directed by Ryan.
— Dakota Johnson hosts “Saturday Night Live” (11:30 p.m., NBC, r, TV-14), featuring musical guest Justin Timberlake.
SUNDAY’S HIGHLIGHTS
— Scheduled on “60 Minutes” (7 p.m., CBS): How Vilnius, Lithuania, became home to Russia’s exiled dissenters; an accuser, a wrongful conviction and an exoneration.
— Daniel Radcliffe stars in the 2004 adaptation “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” (8 p.m., NBC, TV-PG), the third film in the franchise, based on novels by J.K. Rowling.
— Anachronistic Easter gags drive the prehistoric antics in the 2016 special “Ice Age: The Great Egg-Scapade” (8 p.m., Fox, TV-PG).
— The new series “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV” (9 p.m., ID, TV-14) looks at accusations of toxic working conditions and child abuse during the makings of popular programming.
— Losing love lamenting on “The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live” (9 p.m., AMC, TV-MA).
— The Corporal may have made one enemy too many on “The Regime” (9 p.m., HBO, TV-MA).
CULT CHOICE
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, the 1968 musical fantasy “Finian’s Rainbow” (5:30 p.m. Sunday, TCM, TV-G) involves a bizarre tale of an Irishman (Fred Astaire) and his daughter (Petula Clark) who flee to the American South after stealing a leprechaun’s pot of gold. There, they take on a racist politician and rally exploited landowners. It’s based on a 1947 stage musical by Fred Saidy and E.Y. (Yip) Harburg, who was better known for his song “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” and the lyrics to all the songs in “The Wizard of Oz.” A proud atheist and socialist, Harburg saw to it that at least some of the Munchkins (the Lollipop Guild) were unionized. Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
SATURDAY SERIES
“The Wall” (8 p.m., NBC, r, TV-PG) … “NBA Countdown” (8 p.m., ABC) anticipates the big game … “Weakest Link” (9 p.m., NBC, r, TV-PG) … “48 Hours” (10 p.m., CBS) … A vintage helping of “Saturday Night Live” (10 p.m., NBC, r, TV-14).
SUNDAY SERIES
An old colleague is taken hostage in an illegal casino on “The Equalizer” (8 p.m., CBS, TV-14) … Blocking the sun on “Krapopolis” (8:30 p.m., Fox, TV-14).
A good witness is hard to find on “Tracker” (9 p.m., CBS, TV-14) … Black gold means real green on “The Great North” (9 p.m., Fox, TV-14) … The host of a murder mystery party is found slain on “Grimsburg” (9:30 p.m., Fox, TV-14) … An explosion rocks an abandoned hospital on “CSI: Vegas” (10 p.m., CBS, TV-14) … “What Would You Do?” (10 p.m., ABC, TV-PG).
