Screens: TV the week of August 26

The Anti-Americans (A Hate/Love Relationship) (11 p.m. Monday, WPBT-PBS 2) -- Sometimes irritating but mostly hilarious, this documentary -- airing as part of the occasional PBS series America At A Crossroads -- examines European attitudes toward the United States. Attitudes, for the most part, being a euphemism for snotty bigotry. As one Brit says at a dinner party, after the ritual dismissal of President Bush as a drooling idiot, "Why should an idiot society have intelligent politicians?" How can you do anything but giggle when you consider that the remark comes from a citizen of the country that was transfixed by Benny Hill? And the giggle turns to a guffaw when a Frenchwoman who must have learned her World War II history at the University of The Outer Rings Of Saturn boasts that "we threw out the Germans, we'll throw out the Americans, too." Even Jerry Lewis, mademoiselle?

Spies, Lies And The Superbomb (8 p.m. Thursday, National Geographic Channel) -- A three-hour documentary about the role of espionage in the Cold War arms race. It tells the stories of spies on
both sides, from the Rosenbergs and Klaus Fuchs helping the Soviets copy the American A-bomb to Oleg Penkovsky helping the United States back down to the Russians during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

World's Funniest Commercials (9 p.m. Thursday, TBS) -- Remember back in the days before TiVo, when television shows were embedded with these little advertisements we called commercials? Did you know they're still making those things? And this collection is almost enough to make you wonder why we hated them so much. For instance, the better-driving ad from Australia with an instructor telling his student to "take one hand off the wheel, look away from the road, while you dig through your bag for the phone. Now veer onto the sidewalk -- '' she hits a mailbox as he exclaims ‘‘Good!'' -- "and over-correct into coming traffic . . ."

NOTE: Days and times for PBS programs are for the Miami area and may differ elsewhere.

Comments

[Verticus]

Great review. Thanks for all of the one-liners. Hell, if the docu is as funny as your review, it will be worth staying up that late to see it.

[Lance]

Good thing the love/hate thing isn't reciprocal (I mean, who doesn't love the French?)