Mystery ‘ Temple’ debuts on Spectrum
Available exclusively to Spectrum subscribers, the U.K. import “Temple” is a gripping medical mystery. Mark Strong (“Zero Dark Thirty,” “Sherlock Holmes”) stars as Dr. Daniel Milton, a highly respected surgeon haunted by the apparent suicide of his wife. Most of his friends and family attribute his distracted air to grief. But he’s actually established a secret surgical laboratory under the Temple Underground station.
It’s unfair to reveal much more, but some of this curious double life involves work as a go-to doctor for the criminal underworld. Just how long he can maintain this secret practice is the mystery of this eight-episode series.
› Good titles say so much. As do bad ones. “Generation Nation: A PBS American Portrait Story” (9:30 p.m., TV-PG, check local listings) is as unfocused and “all-overthe-place” as it sounds. It purports to relate stories from people from all stages of life. So we hear from a 15-year-old high school girl worried that learning and life are passing her by as she flounders through COVID-induced video classrooms. We hear from elderly people who are strong and strident, and from middle-aged folk who are just fine where they are in life. All jammed into a half-hour. This “story telling” might work better with a more tightly defined theme. As it is, it’s basically “hooray for everybody.”
› Speaking of uplift painted with a rather broad brush, “Essential Heroes: A Momento Latino Event” (9 p.m., CBS) celebrates the strengths that Latinx culture brings to the American tapestry with a special focus on the community’s role on the front line of caring for those affected by the pandemic.
› “Independent Lens” (10 p.m., PBS, TV-PG, check local listings) presents the documentary “Represent,” about three young female candidates out to shake up the political system in 2018. Far from the media centers of New York and Los Angeles, Myya Jones, 22 and not yet out of college, decided to run for mayor of Detroit; a 33-yearold Bryn Bird decided to shake up the “old boy network” of her rural Ohio town and conservative Julie Cho challenged the prevailing Democratic politics of her Chicago suburb.
This film would make a good companion to the documentary “Knock Down the House” streaming on Netflix, which followed the attempts of four women to run for Congress in 2018: Amy Vilela, Cori Bush, Paula Jean Swearengin and Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez.
› Shudder, the premium streaming service dedicated to horror, presents a cartoon “Creepshow Halloween Special” animating scary tales by Stephen King and Joe Hill. Listen for the voices of Kiefer Sutherland (“The Lost Boys,” “24”) and Joey King (“The Act,” “Fargo”).
Not to be outdone, StarzEncore unspools two Stephen King adaptations: “Carrie” (8 p.m.), from 1976, and the 1983 film version of “Christine” (9:40 p.m.).
Elisabeth Moss stars in the 2020 adaptation of H.G. Wells’ “The Invisible Man” (7:50 p.m., HBO).
“Mad Science: Nazi Killer Bugs” (9 p.m., American Heroes Channel, TV-PG) only sounds like a horror movie from the ’70s. It’s a documentary about biological warfare.