UK’s ‘Sound of Music’ comes to America
How do you hold a moonbeam in your hand? Among many viewers’ favorite things, “The Sound of Music” returns in a new incarnation on “Great Performances” (9 p.m., PBS, check local listings).
This British production remains truer to the original Broadway version than the popular 1965 movie. Viewers who know the work only through that adaptation will be surprised at some of the numbers and the order of their performance.
Like Carrie Underwood in NBC’s 2013 live performance of the musical, Kara Tointon has the distinct disadvantage of not being Julie Andrews. This version was performed live on British TV in 2015. Similar to the Underwood production, it received mixed reviews from those who viewed any new adaptation as sacrilege.
Those who aren’t so fussy may enjoy the delightful score, a mid-20th-century masterpiece that never ages. And it’s as good a time as any for a sing-along about standing up to Nazis.
› Netflix begins streaming “Outlaw King,” an epic 2018 movie about a Scottish royal (Chris Pine, “Star Trek”) and his rebellion against the English. After its Toronto Film Festival debut, critics compared it unfavorably to Mel Gibson’s rousing 1995 gore-fest “Braveheart.”
› Also on Netflix, the docuseries “Medal of Honor” (TV-MA) combines interviews, period footage, photos and dramatic re-enactments to recall some of the bravest of the brave, the fewer than 3,600 war heroes who have received the medal since it was first awarded during the Civil War.
› Another new multipart Netflix series, “Dogs” celebrates the unique bond between animal and human. Six different directors, most of them Oscar-nominated, tell moving stories involving man’s best friend: a service dog assigned to a young girl plagued with seizures; two immigrants who struggle to be reunited with the dog they left in Syria; an Italian fisherman’s devoted Lab; obsessive
Japanese dog groomers; rescue dogs in Costa Rica and New York’s teeming dog population. It is said that there are more dogs in New York City than there are people in Oakland, California.
› A struggling journalist’s efforts to expose a sham health clinic in Mexico City lead to a bittersweet romantic encounter on a new episode of “The Romanoffs,” streaming on Amazon Prime.
› Amazon Prime also begins streaming the German series “Beat,” a
crime drama set in the Berlin club scene.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
› Epidermal evidence points to ecoterrorists on “Blindspot” (8 p.m., NBC, TV-14).
› The United States takes on Italy as “Curling Night in America” (8 p.m., NBCSN) features mixed doubles matches from August that were held in Chaska, Minnesota.
Contact Kevin McDonough at kevin .tvguy@gmail.com.