NOW ENTERTAINMENT
March 2026 Month2900- April - 00,4,2023
Your Weekly TV Entertainment Brought To You By Olean Times Herald & The Bradford Era
“Henry David Thoreau,” a three-part documentary chronicling the life, works and legacy of the eponymous naturalist and essayist, premieres Monday, March 30, on PBS. Henry David Thoreau is the subject of PBS’s “Henry David Thoreau”
Cover Story A Thoreau history: PBS, Burns release star-studded documentary By Dana Simpson In 1981, documentarian Ken Burns collaborated with PBS for the first time, creating what would become the Oscar-nominated film “Brooklyn Bridge” about the planning, development and construction of the titular landmark spanning the East River in New York City. Now, more than 45 years later, and with almost as many large-scale PBS projects to his name, Burns and his team of writers, cinematographers and editors (to name a few roles of many) are set to release a retrospective of one of America’s most engaging thinkers and activists. “Henry David Thoreau,” a three-hour, three-part documentary chronicling the life, works and legacy of the eponymous naturalist and essayist, premieres Monday, March 30, on PBS. Completing its first on-air run the following day (March 31), the series promises to draw “on a rich collection of archival materials, newly filmed cinematography ... and interviews with scholars, writers and environmentalists” (per PBS) to detail the lasting legacy of the “Walden” and “Civil Disobedience” author.
Narrated by two-time Academy Award winner George Clooney (“Good Night, and Good Luck,” 2005) and featuring the voice-acting talents of Oscar nominee Jeff Goldblum (“Wicked: For Good,” 2025) as Thoreau and three-time Oscar-winning actress Meryl Streep (“Only Murders in the Building”) in four separate roles, “Henry David Thoreau” also calls upon authors Pico Iyer, Kristen Case, J. Drew Lanham, Douglas Brinkley, Clay Jenkinson, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Bill McKibben and Rebecca Solnit, as well as Thoreau Society board member Lois Brown, Prof. Laura Dassow Walls and journalist Michael Pollan to round out the history and impact of the author on modern American society. “’Henry David Thoreau’ examines the life and work of the 19th-century writer in the context of antebellum New England and the larger United States, as well as through the universal themes he focused on in his writings: an individual’s relationship to the state, how to live an authentic life, our connection to nature and the impact of race on American life,” reads the film’s description, as provided by PBS.
In Focus “Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord” (Disney+ — April 6, Series Premiere) A new animated series set in the Star Wars universe, “Shadow Lord” is set after the events of “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” to find Maul plotting to rebuild his criminal syndicate on a planet untouched by the Empire. There, he crosses paths with a disillusioned young Jedi Padawan who could be the apprentice he is seeking to aid him in his relentless pursuit for revenge.
“Set against the political and social tensions of the mid-19th century,” the description continues, “the film traces Thoreau’s journey from his early days in Concord, Massachusetts, to his deep engagement with the moral crises of his time, including industrialization, slavery, war and environmental degradation. Through his essays, journals and landmark works such as ‘Walden’ and ‘Civil Disobedience,’ he became an inspiration for generations of writers, thinkers and activists.” And although much of Thoreau’s focus in life — and subsequently, in Burns’ PBS documentary — was placed on sociopolitical activism and the fair treatment of human beings regardless of one’s race or societal status, the essayist also went to great pains to protect the natural world and raise awareness for regarding its impact on human life. “Thoreau famously retreated into nature not to escape the world but to better understand it,” director Erik Ewers said in a PBS press release. “His writing about the wild and nature remains so vibrant because he was acutely aware of how the surrounding countryside was
teetering on the edge of industrialization. He believed strongly that we have a connection to the landscape and nature and must remain grounded to fully experience what it means to be human.” This connection between man and nature is also further explored in the documentary by way of Thoreau’s involvement in the creation of Transcendentalism, which gained popularity in the United States during the 1820s and ‘30s thanks to his works and that of his good friend and fellow writer Ralph Waldo Emerson, voiced by Ted Danson (“The Good Place”) in the series. The philosophical and social movement served as a reaction to Rationalism and was based in the pantheistic sentiment that divinity is found all around us in nature; a nature to which we, as human beings, are essential. “I do not prefer one religion or philosophy to another,” Thoreau wrote in his journal circa 1850. “I have no sympathy with the bigotry and ignorance which make transient and partial and puerile distinctions between one man’s faith or form of faith and another’s ... to the philosopher, all sects, all nations, are alike.”
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“The Testaments” - Season 1 (Hulu — April 8, Series Premiere) An evolution of “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “The Testaments” is based on Margaret Atwood’s novel of the same name and is a dramatic coming-of-age story set in Gilead. The series follows young teens Agnes (Chase Infiniti), dutiful and pious, and Daisy (Lucy Halliday), a new arrival and convert from beyond Gilead’s borders.