Exploring memories and memorials

Are we shaped by our actions? Or our memories? Are identities forged by what we choose to remember? Or forget? A meditation on the nature of recollection and storytelling, “The Tale” (10 p.m. today, HBO, TV-MA) stars Laura Dern as the documentary filmmaker Jennifer Fox, who wrote and directed this movie, her story.

We begin as Jennifer returns from interviewing female activists around the world. She’s besieged by phone calls from her mother, Nettie (Ellen Burstyn), clearly upset by the discovery of a story Jennifer had written at 13, describing her infatuation with her riding instructor, Mrs. G (Elizabeth Debicki), and her running coach, Bill (Jason Ritter), while at summer camp. Nettie seems to believe that both adults had taken advantage of her young daughter and should face legal action. Jennifer seems less disturbed by rediscovering her adolescent descriptions and still holds both in high esteem.

At her mother’s insistence, she seeks out an interview with the aging Mrs. G (Frances Conroy), who has clearly declined from youthful beauty to alcoholic disenchantment. Jennifer also talks with fellow campers whose recollections are not as golden as hers.

Common portrays Jennifer’s supportive, if slightly distant fiance.

Unfortunately, “The Tale” takes a rather intriguing premise and muddies the narrative with any number of gimmicks. We see the young Mrs. G interacting with the young Jennifer, but she also submits to questions from the older Jennifer’s interior monologues. This blending of flashback and contemporary memory may be intentional (and perhaps the whole point of the film), but it doesn’t make for easy viewing.

Jennifer’s conversations with her mother and fiance have the perfunctory and chilly feel of narrative devices used to move the story along. “The Tale” left me feeling that no matter how personal the story, it can still seem forced and more than a little contrived.

1968 REVISITED

CNN dedicates Sunday and Monday night to “1968” (9 and 10 p.m.). History buffs and news junkies will certainly feast on this four-hour event, dividing the tumultuous year into four seasons.

Produced by Tom Hanks, Gary Goetzman and Mark Herzog, the docuseries explores events with a wealth of news footage. At the same time, the reliance on contemporary television journalism does not offer historical context or place events from a half-century ago in comprehensible perspective.

Early on, we stumble across inaccuracies. One expert talks about men facing the prospect of being drafted based on their birthdate. That reflects a draft system that didn’t begin until December 1969. Draftees in 1968 faced a far more capricious selective service process and one that inspired the “lottery” that replaced it.

While “1968” ticks off events, it doesn’t place them in context or explain how the year was similar or different than 2018.

It’s almost impossible to appreciate 1968 without realizing just how young society had become. The slogan “Don’t trust anyone over 30” only made sense when such a large percentage of the population was in their youth. Time Magazine’s Man of the Year in 1967 was the “25 and Under” generation.

Contrast that with our era. One thing is certain, television viewers in 1968 were not obsessing about 1918. It was a youthful, future-obsessed culture, ready to go to the moon, something that was achieved with the lunar orbit of Apollo 8 in December 1968, covered in the series’ “Winter” segment.

Attitudes toward television itself are important to understand when discussing 1968. While protesters in Chicago sought to disrupt the Democratic Convention, they chanted, “The whole world’s watching!” In some ways, they were right. They were quoting (at least unconsciously) the media theorist Marshall McLuhan, who had written that television had turned us all into residents of a “global village.” That village now has thousands of channels and millions of websites, making it difficult to comprehend how powerful television networks could be when there were only a handful.

NYT DOCUMENTARY

“The Fourth Estate” (8 p.m. Sunday, Showtime) takes a documentary look at the efforts of The New York Times to cover a president openly hostile to journalism — and the Times in particular.

“Fourth Estate” also examines efforts by the Times and other print papers to adjust to the digital age. Quite a few of the film’s interviews and observations emerge from the paper’s several podcasts.

MEMORIAL MUSIC

› Joe Mantegna and Gary Sinise host the National Memorial Day Concert (8 p.m. Sunday, PBS, TV-PG), honoring the U.S. armed forces. This year’s themes include a tribute to women in the military and marks the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Khe Sanh.