Is it Oscar’s problem, or is it mine?
TCM concludes its monthlong countdown to the Academy Awards with a day of Best Picture nominees and winners, including the 1982 epic “Gandhi” (8 p.m. today), directed by Richard Attenborough and starring Ben Kingsley as the Indian leader whose philosophy of nonviolence united his people and frustrated the British Empire, leading to India’s independence.
To me, “Gandhi” all but symbolizes a Best Picture winner. It’s a well-made, good-intentioned, unassailably noble movie, as well as a film that I’ve never known anyone to watch twice. This stands in stark contrast to a movie like “Blade Runner,” also from 1982, a “genre” picture nominated only for Set Decoration and Visual Effects Oscars, which it did not win. It has emerged as one of the more influential and revered films of its time. But it just wasn’t “important” enough for Oscar.
Maybe I have to review too much television, and perhaps television is too defined by the ease of watching, rewatching and bingeing. But when I look over the films that have won Best Picture in this century, there is only one movie, “Gladiator” (2000), that I have ever sat down and screened for a second time. There’s more than a couple Best Picture winners that I’ve yet to see even once. And more than few that have been forgotten as soon as the Academy Award after-parties ended. Is that Oscar’s problem, or mine?
AWARDS NIGHT
Jimmy Kimmel hosts the Oscars (8 p.m. Sunday, ABC). For the first year, viewers can stream the pre-ceremony red-carpet parade via “The Oscars: All Access” (6:30 p.m.) on Facebook Watch.
SEA CHANGE
After spending hours showing the ocean’s immensity and majesty, “Planet Earth: Blue Planet II” (9 p.m. today, BBC America, TV-G) documents the work of activists trying to protect the seas from the ravages of human activity and indifference.
FAST CARS
“Top Gear” (10:30 p.m. today, BBC America, TV-14) returns for its 25th season. Hosts Matt LeBlanc, Chris Harris and Rory Reid alternate between genial shenanigans and driving muscle cars old and new as well as exotic vehicles like the world’s fastest tractor and a NASA research plane. The six-episode season unfolds in Japan, the United States, Italy and the United Kingdom.
“Friends” veteran LeBlanc has been busy of late, appearing recently in the excellent and much missed “Episodes” as well as the woefully uninspired CBS sitcom “Man With a Plan.” He basically brightens things here just by showing up with his usual whiff of boyish mischief laced with effortless affluence.
If he adds the star power, Harris and Reid bring the expertise. Harris has worked in both racing and automotive-related journalism. Reid has previously hosted “Gadget Geeks” and “Car Tech” on Sky and CNET and is a technology contributor to a BBC radio series.
ROUND TWO
Available for streaming on the CBS All Access platform, “The Good Wife” spinoff “The Good Fight” enters its second season on Sunday.
“Fight” makes a few stabs at topicality with clips of the current president in the title sequence and a minor storyline about efforts to broker the arrangements for the Obama Presidential Library in Chicago. But the real tension arrives after a client for a rival firm murders his attorney for overcharging, sparking a copycat crime and a feeling that all lawyers have a target on their backs.
Most of the intrigue involves the war for status. Diane (Christine Baranski) finds herself with a major rival, as Liz Reddick-Lawrence (Audra McDonald) joins the firm. Maia (Rose Leslie) remains in legal limbo, as a federal investigator (the always entertaining Jane Lynch) pursues her very Madoff-like father.
One gets the sense that “The Good Fight” team is trying to find ways to differentiate its streamed content from mere “broadcast” television. The season opener has a microsecond of female nudity. And for reasons entirely unknown, the buttoned-down, pearl-clutching Diane dabbles in hallucinogenic drugs.
The second season of “Fight” will stream 13 episodes, more than the 10 helpings in the first.
RETROSPECTIVES
Reelz counterprograms the Oscars ceremony with some ghoulish retrospectives: “Autopsy: The Last Hours of … Mary Tyler Moore” (8 p.m. Sunday) and “Carrie Fisher: The Price of Fame” (9 p.m. Sunday).
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHTS
› The Toronto Maple Leafs and Washington Capitals face off in NHL action (8 p.m., NBC).
› The Houston Rockets host the Boston Celtics in NBA action (8:30 p.m., ABC).
› Charles Barkley hosts “Saturday Night Live” (11:30 p.m., NBC, TV-14), featuring musical guest Migos.