‘Mama Bears’ and family nightmares
“Independent Lens” (10 p.m., PBS, TV-14, check local listings) presents a 90-minute documentary that challenges common assumptions and cliches. “Mama Bears” follows a number of mothers raised in deeply Christian and conservative environments who had to wrestle with their own deep faith and the peer pressure of the communities and congregations when their children came out as gay and/or trans.
To a woman, they recall being raised with a deeply held belief that gay people were sinners who had fallen away from faith and needed to be set “straight” in both a figurative and literal sense. But emotional ties to their own children made them question everything they knew and believed about homosexuality. The film profiles each mother and her family as well as the community and culture that shaped them.
The film will also be available to stream on the PBS app. › Seen recently at the Tribeca Film Festival, the documentary “Take Care of Maya” streams on Netflix. When 10-yearold Maya Kowalski complained of extreme abdominal pain, her parents took her to the emergency room of Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital. Parents Jack and Beata had already received a diagnosis for Maya of complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) and assumed that the latest bout of agony was related to her neurological disorder.
Instead, a series of overlapping nightmares ensued. After days of tests, Maya was suddenly declared a ward of the state and her mother accused of abuse. The Kowalskis suddenly found themselves prevented from communicating with Maya as their daughter was hospitalized for three months without their consent.
Filled with intimate interviews as well as investigative touches, “Maya” explores one of the most horrific stories of a child-welfare bureaucracy run amok. Directed by Henry Roosevelt (“Native Boy”). ›
Netflix also streams the comedy standup special “85 South: Ghetto Legends,” featuring the trio DC Young Fly, Karlous Miller and Chico Bean. Inspired by a podcast of the same name.
› If the three different versions of “FBI” airing on CBS tonight and every Tuesday don’t offer enough “G-men” for you, there’s “FBI True,” streaming its third season on Paramount+.
Episodes of “True” interview real FBI agents discussing both obscure and notorious cases, from the siege of Waco to the East African embassy bombings of 1998, the terror attack that first put al-Qaida and Osama Bin Laden on many people’s radar.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
› Efforts to contain a dangerous weapon may already be too late on “FBI” (8 p.m., CBS, repeat, TV-14).
› A closed port creates a race against time for a ship filled with fish on “Deadliest Catch” (8 p.m., Discovery, TV-14).
› Sparks fly when the proprietor of a humble bookstore challenges an ambitious developer in the 2019 romance “The Story of Us” (8 p.m., Hallmark, TV-G).
› Artist, musician and eccentric former Downtown New York fixture John Lurie discusses the ravages and indignities of age on “Painting With John” (8:35 p.m., HBO Signature, TV-MA).
› Ballet can be murder on “FBI: International” (9 p.m., CBS, repeat, TV-14).
› “Contraband: Seized at the Border” (9 p.m., Discovery, TV-14) follows the sketchy and curious characters who try to smuggle items north from Mexico.