MONDAY VIEWING
It's the side story of the dirty thirties, one told in John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath and retold tonight in documentarian Ken Burns's stirring account of the dust bowl. The droughts, dust storms and dry pneumonia that swept the southeastern U.S. grain belt from 1934 to 1936 prompted the largest mass migration in the continent's history, as countless farming families, reeling from the twin catastrophes of the Great Depression and the dust bowl, sought new homes elsewhere.
They were not welcome, for the most part, wherever they went. These were hard times for everyone, and charity was in short supply. Reaping the Whirlwind, Monday's chapter in Burns's epic The Dust Bowl, tells the very human story of families who lost everything but the hope of finding safety and a new place to settle down. It's not so much a story about climate change or weather patterns as it is a story about human frailty and an almost iron resolve to survive, as recounted in vivid eyewitness detail by many of those who were there. The witnesses were children at the time, but their testimony is poignant and profound. There's something particularly heartbreaking about a family succumbing to circumstances when it's viewed through the eyes of a child.
There are altogether too many programs on TV today masquerading as documentaries, made on the cheap to fill a predetermined quota. The Dust Bowl is a reminder of what truly great documentary filmmaking can be. There are no tacky dramatized recreations here, no ersatz music prompting the viewer when to laugh or cry. The Dust Bowl tells a simple story of human dignity and survival. Despite its seemingly grim subject, The Dust Bowl is oddly inspirational and life-affirming.
8 p.m., PBS
THREE TO SEE
? If you're watching The Voice, it may be time to remember the name Trevin Hunte. It's hard, seeing this 18-year-old R&B bluesman and listening to that voice, to believe he's not in his 40s, at least where chops are involved.
8 p.m., CTV2, NBC
? Speaking of TV singing competitions, and answering the timeless trivia question, "Whatever happened to that guy who won American Idol, anyway?" you'll get your answer Monday, when Phillip Phillips performs on The Late Show With David Letterman.
11: 35 p.m., Omni, CBS
? Mankind: The Story of All of Us is a six-part documentary series about the story of humankind, full of the sound and fury of dramatized re-enactments. If you're expecting the full-on David Attenborough, though, you'll be disappointed: It's from the U.S. History Channel, not BBC or Discovery, and is narrated by Josh Brolin.
9 p.m., History
